Composing Jazz and other genres?

[JoshCollins]

I've always been curious how composition works in other genre's outside of the contemporary scope, so to speak. Could anyone perhaps provide some insight into how it'd go, perhaps?

[chip withrow]

Interesting question, one I've been thinking about a bit myself as I try to keep myself interested in writing and playing music.
My songwriting tends to be folk, blues, and old-timey acoustic. When I learn new cover songs, I'm a bit more adventurous. I've tackled some fairly complex Grateful Dead songs, for example. But that is still within my comfort zone, because I've listened to those songs for years.
I've taught myself banjo over the last two and a half years, and I'm trying to stretch myself musically beyond what most people normally think of as banjo music. Right now, I'm just experimenting with new chord structures and dissonant sounds, but I'd like to begin incorporating those into songs soon.
I don't have much music theory training - I wish I had paid more attention to that when I was a young piano player! So I look for unusual chord voicings in books and on guitar tab websites, and I practice those. Sometimes I work through them on piano first, since I know what the notes are on a piano but not really on guitar or banjo.
Some of the chord voicings are not pleasing to my ear at first, since I'm so used to traditional old-time music. But they work in the context of jazz, gypsy, African, and Middle Eastern - all genres I'd like to do more with.
I could go on and on about this - to sum it up, I'd say I'm learning some new tricks and then hoping to incorporate them later into songs outside my normal style.

[Farmjazz]

I would start by simply listening to the genres in question first. Familiarize yourself with the colors and rhythms used. Some genres take time to get used to - perhaps Gypsy swing chord voicings, Afro-Cuban tumbao bass lines, or bebop solos for instance. Then buy some music books of the genres of interest and start (slowly at first) to make sense of what your are seeing and hearing. Dedicate yourself to learning different music styles and be okay with chords and rhythms that you've never played before.

Of course, it helps to find some other people in your area that are playing and/or teaching in the style(s) you want to learn - must faster that way. 

I've recently started playing bass in a Salsa/Latin jazz project and it took a good couple of months to get my brain around the syncopation used in that kind of music. Hey, I didn't grow up listening to and playing that kind of music, so I went out and bought several CDs in that genre and immersed myself in that sound for awhile. I'm still working at it, but I'm pretty solid on the basic montuno (clave pulse) now. We even have a gig later today so we must be doing something right.

In my opinion, becoming proficient at any kind of music takes a steady discipline and patience. Its not drudgery if you love it!

Let me know if you would like some recommendations for jazz recordings or others to help you start to play and compose the music you're interested in. I'll do what I can.   

[Bluesberry]

In my opinion, becoming proficient at any kind of music takes a steady discipline and patience. Its not drudgery if you love it!

That is the best advice you'll get right there................steady discipline and patience.....yes sir. 

[kc2ine]

I've always been curious how composition works in other genre's outside of the contemporary scope, so to speak. Could anyone perhaps provide some insight into how it'd go, perhaps?

I happened to play jazz as it's my favorite genre and I can tell that composing in jazz is mostly based on improvisation, sometimes similar like in e.g. progressive rock. You simply take a short musical idea when got inspired by your muse and after improvising on this theme for number of hours  sometimes you get something good (or not  )  Important difference in jazz is you performance of a piece is never the same.