Yes, flamingboi, I assume you fell out of your momma blowing into a harmonica then?

If you're short on cash and a total n00b i suggest Fruityloops.
easy to use, easy to learn tutorial and the keyboard can be used as a virtual
piano wich is good for playing around with simples melodies.
demos are available at their homepage, if you wanna buy it later on it wont ruin you either.

As a beginner this program is usable, after gaining some basics move on to reason. Quite harder than FL, but worth it in the long run. Better instruments etc.

Other than that just search for demos out there of various programs and see what you like.

Quote:

Original post by DragonXXIV More clarification is needed! I am actually gonna be writing quite a few different types of music. In the game the character may travel through 'technology' or 'magic' paths. Magic will have traditional symphony music and that kind of stuff. Technology will have be darker with more futuristic stuff. Can't really describe it well.

You need to forget about that to begin with. You see, it's like a two year old saying "I want to write science fiction screenplays" - they need to learn how to write letters and words first, then sentences, then stories, then screenplays, and then science fiction.

The same goes for you: before you concern yourself with musical genres and how they relate to the gameplay, you need to learn about music in general. You will need an appreciation of the big three - rhythm, melody, and harmony. This is the vocabulary that, once you are familiar with it, will allow you to listen to a piece in the genre that you require, understand how it is made, and reproduce the same effects in your own original piece.

I would recommend getting a book like the one Trapper Zoid mentioned. Others have already recommended some software - personally I used to like ModPlug Tracker but now I use FruityLoops. A good way of learning might be to take simple tunes - either in a theory book, or ones you know already - and recreate them in the program. That'll start to give you an appreciation of rhythm and pitch.