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Ever wondered why everyone likes music? Music is a language that everyone understands, regardless of geographical area. The meaning of it depends on which person is listening. It forms a sensation, an experience that is hard to describe, within our minds. The musician in all of us is a man stranded in a wasteland of notes, searching around trying to harvest the sounds to put them in meaningful combinations. Only then can he be set free from his meaningless environment, as the beauty of his creation transports him to a much better place. It's just like a recipe; you have to combine the right ingredients to make the perfect stew. Manipulating our state of mind, it is a natural, effective and healthy drug, assuming you don't get addicted. ;)

Playing music is pushing buttons, arranging notes in time, hacking into our brain and experimenting with all the pre-programmed emotions in there. The perception of music is highly subjective, making music not only an amazing sound experience, but a highly personal and individualized one too.

Music brings people together. Every musician in a band must play in harmony with the other musicians. Together they make music that they all like, each of them makes a pivotal contribution to the finished piece; it is an art form that brings people together into a tight group, each member an essential pillar that supports the whole. An earless alien would be baffled as he observes a group of humans repeatedly hitting things and vibrating strings for hours on end for no apparent reason, but the human mind is highly sensitive to these vibrations, it cannot tolerate to be out of sync with them.

What makes music a truly unique art form is the fact that time plays a fundamental role in it. Time is the paper that sound is painted on, just as when we observe art we see the ink at different points in space but perceive it as a single entity, with music we know the sounds are at different points in time but we perceive them as a whole. Without time, musical tones would hold no meaning and give us no pleasure. However, when a note is heard in the context of another note heard before it, such as the rapid of succession of electronic notes heard in VII's victory fanfare (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YCN-a0N sNk) - the note is perceived in a completely different way than if it was heard on its own.
In this way we can liken to it a language that communicates in a very different and more powerful way. The voice box is our musical instrument, we use it to communicate ideas to other people. What the musician sets out to do when he composes a piece is communicate his inner, indescribable emotions to other people, sometimes maybe even his indescribable ideas.

A single letter in the English language represents only a sound, but in the context of other letters, it can represent sounds which are connected to concepts and ideas in the brains of other human beings. In this way, it becomes a primary communication tool for human beings. Our minds must be fundamentally connected to the Universe, to think that vibrations in it evoke nothing but human emotion and human connectedness!

Therefore, musical composition, like writing, involves organising single elements (notes, or in the case of writing, letters) in specific ways so that meaning can be taken from it. The word 'Tall' denotes someone of relatively large height. Similarly, the group of notes 'CEGA', when heard a single entity (a melody), could mean anger or excitement. So once you have figured out what you want your music to communicate, you must arrange your notes in such a way that these emotions can be communicated in the most perfect, efficient and exciting way. This can only be described as a masterpiece, and perhaps you will be labelled a musical genius. This is probably, however, an unrealistic expectation, but with your standards set that high you're bound to produce something of surpassing excellence.

When writing in English, you express yourself by presenting your thoughts on paper, or whatever medium you are using, for others to process themselves. It is a large scale form of human communication, a way to have your thoughts validated and evaluated by people who could be living at the other side of the globe. (Such is the ingenuity of Internet forums!) Writing is an excellent way not only to communicate your thought processes and ideas to a large scale number of people, but also to permanently record ideas you deem to be valuable. But we all know the voice box isn't the only instrument of communication at our humans' disposal. Millions of musical masterpieces lay undiscovered within your imagination, and your musical instrument is the tool to bring your inner mind and emotions out into the physical environment, on a globular scale, for all to see.

There are so many different ways in which a piece of music could stand out. It could hold an exceptional emotional power. The listener might be able to identify well with the lyrics on a personal level. Since it is impossible to please everyone, and impossible to make a so called 'masterpiece' that is objectively superior to others, the only thing you can do is make music that you like the most. The only thing you can do is "be your own favorite band" (Charlie Simpson, Fightstar), you can after all only judge with your ear. Select your favorite element or elements of music, and maximize them in your piece. With a high standard of equipment and a lot of thinking and effort on your part, you could make your favorite piece of music. And therefore, in your eyes, you have composed a masterpiece. The quality of a piece of music also depends on the purpose of it. If it is a score for a film, you should judge your music in the context of the film it is played for. Does it give the film an appropriate atmosphere? Or do the melodies fit the lyrics? Creativity is an expression of the uniqueness of each human being. Your masterpiece is waiting in your imagination to be found.