The elements of music include rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, dynamics, texture and musical form or structure. For those needing more explanation, searching for each of these terms in Wikipedia will provide basic knowledge about each. Music itself is an important partner of many larger scale compositions, including special events, movies, presentations, podcasts, television, stage and radio broadcasts and plays, opera, games and Web designs.
Like all composition knowledge, the more you compose, the more you'll look for and recognize the structure of the work of others. The more patterns recognized when listening to music, the better those ideas can be used in future compositions. It is one kind of mental symbiotic relationship; composing fosters understanding which fosters composing.
Patterns are an important element of music. Much of what we compose and listen to has surprisingly basic patterns: AB, ABA, ABCBA. Next, listen to some different patterns.