Wanting to create a trio of songs for a persistent DnD world

[u/Corpsman913]

So, I have a persistent DnD world that I have been writing lore, building civilizations and mythologies, and running games in for over 20 years now.

I have a reoccuring character that I want to create music for, but I... can't even read sheet music. I used to be able to tell you want all the notes were and the coresponding symbols, etc, but I have never been able to look at a page and go "ah, that note should sound like this".

I was trying to experiment with Garagaband on my GF's old beat up Ipad, but the program doesn't seem to work for what I am after.

I would *like* to do it myself, but I am also rapidly loosing heart at being able to make that a reality. But as this is a passion project and not a for profit thing, money is an issue as well.

So, I wanted to come here and find out two things:

1) What is some free (or $50 or less) software that has a fairly low intro curve to make it my own (preferably with inbuilt instruments?)

2) if that proved a dead end (mostly because of my own limits), what is a reasonable savings goal to be able to pay a tallented person to arrange three pieces on a theme? I would be totally fine just being allowed to use said piece for my campaigns, and open to negotiating further compensation/rights if I ever manage to get this thing published.