# What's the most difficult/challenging part of composing for you?



## NekujaK (Feb 22, 2021)

Just curious about what things you find most daunting or challenging about the composition process. I know I have my areas of strengths and weaknesses, as I'm sure everyone does.

And for the sake of definition, by "composition" I'm referring to any musical activity that creates something new from scratch, which includes songwriting and even improvisation.

Have fun!


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## chillbot (Feb 22, 2021)

Composing something that doesn't sound like the last 3* things you composed​
*300

Sometimes I am pretty sure I only know how to write one track.


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## CT (Feb 23, 2021)

I also have the "everything is the same exact thing" problem.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Feb 23, 2021)

To all struggling with turning 8 bars into a full piece, I would humbly suggest working on theme and variations exercises.


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## Andreas Moisa (Feb 23, 2021)

To be honest, after the "blank page" is filled with an idea I spend too much time finding a sample or sound that has the right amount of intensity/character/expression for the piece. This process drains a lot of energy. Of course that's producing and not composing but I can't really separate both parts from each other.


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## Leandro Gardini (Feb 23, 2021)

None of these are as hard as getting people to enjoy your music.


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## mikeh-375 (Feb 23, 2021)

honestly...finding the energy to start. Once I do it's fine.


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## Illico (Feb 23, 2021)

For me writing in a specific style that I'm not be completely familiar with.

But one point missed: To not have enough TIME.


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## b_elliott (Feb 23, 2021)

My biggest issue is handling the vi distractions. Answering surveys fits in there too.


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## JonS (Feb 23, 2021)

leogardini said:


> None of these are as hard as getting people to enjoy your music.


Though the question was about composing music, the hardest part in this biz is getting the gig and getting people to listen to your music.


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## AllanH (Feb 23, 2021)

One of my challenges is to develop and orchestrate to keep the track interesting as it evolves. One of the subtle but impressive aspects of e.g. JW is his ability to develop his idea with (smaller) modulations and orchestration changes without affecting the overall character and melody. Thomas Bergersen is also very good at this.


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## dgburns (Feb 23, 2021)

chillbot said:


> Composing something that doesn't sound like the last 3* things you composed​
> *300
> 
> Sometimes I am pretty sure I only know how to write one track.



In good company bro -

Stravinsky ‘Vivaldi didn’t write 500 concertos, he wrote the same concerto 500 times!’

My achilles heel is having Too Much Time! Having deadlines removes the temptation to never finish a piece. Now after many years of bulldozing through many cues that never had enough time, one starts to see a pattern. And inevitably, one wonders ‘what if I was given more time?’ The silly thing is I sometimes go back and listen to stuff, and get the urge to rework them like I would if I was doing say, an album or something. Thankfully, something else comes along that distracts me from going down that rabbit hole...I’m fairly convinced they would just end up sounding different, no better.

You know that one great thing to speed composing is that things never end up sounding ‘over worked’. I think in my case, that’s turned out to be a good thing.


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## Tim_Wells (Feb 23, 2021)

FINISHING!! (i.e., completing the project)


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## MauroPantin (Feb 23, 2021)

That is an interesting result so far, I'd say. Like many others, development is what always seems tricky to me. You want to deviate from the original idea or motif, but not jump into something completely alien after 8 bars, whilst at the same time maintaining interest. To me, it's difficult to gauge how interesting a small development or change to the motif is when I've been toying around with the same one for 5 hours. The loss of perspective is a huge incentive to work fast and sketch as quickly as possible IMO.


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## Germain B (Feb 23, 2021)

Developing effectively a simple idea instead of piling up many different ones and then being overwhelm by decisions' making.


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## mopsiflopsi (Feb 23, 2021)

For me it's not just figuring out a certain style, but also sticking to that style once I start the process. Sometimes (often) if I let the music lead me, I'll end up in places that are way different than the style I started with. Which is not a problem if I'm just writing for my own enjoyment, but there's this piece I'm working on for a multi-media project of mine that has to hit the right theme throughout, and I'm really struggling with it for this reason.


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## NoamL (Feb 23, 2021)

"Keeping an objective ear to arrangement & mix" should be on the list.

I've written so many things that had obvious mix & arrangement problems when I looked at them the next day. If only there was a "wipe & reset your hearing" button.


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## NekujaK (Feb 23, 2021)

chillbot said:


> Composing something that doesn't sound like the last 3* things you composed​
> *300


Unless I consciously fight it, I'll easily succumb to this as well. Over the years I've developed a couple of strategies to help avoid this:

1. Use another composition for inspiration
I'll often watch a TV show or movie and hear an interesting cue that I'll set about trying to emulate - not note for note, but stylistically, and perhaps sonically. Usually it's something that's completely foreign to my inherent composing inclinations, so just analyzing and emulating the cue stretches me and adds to my creative range.

2. Use different instruments when composing
If I'm really stuck for ideas, I'll load up several instances of Omnisphere, set each instance to a randomly selected patch, then try to make compositional sense from it. This forces me to work with combinations of sounds I'd never choose normally, and really pushes me out of my comfort zone. Once I've come up with something, I may replace the sounds with conventional instruments, as needed, but the important thing is during the actual composition process, I was working with a completely unfamiliar landscape. It's very similar to writing a song on a guitar with alternate tuning - all your normal patterns and habits completely go out the window.

These approaches have proven useful for me, and I'm sure others can contribute their own techniques for staying out of compositional ruts.


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## [email protected] (Mar 14, 2021)

Finishing the mockup/recording. At the moment I am composing only for my personal pleasure so there are no deadlines and no restrictions. I write what I want to hear. So when I finished a piece I need to "mock it up" because no one is performing my music. It has to be as good as possible so that I can enjoy listening to it afterwards.

Today I finished a 7-minute-piece for orchestra and choir and just had a look at the "timeline": The Finale Sketch was created on January 30th and the Cubase session I created on February 12th. So it took my two weeks to compose 5 minutes (two additional minutes were composed in parallel to recording the piece).
Recording the parts was done in some days (everything happens only in my sparetime) but tweaking every controller, adding all the continous-controller-data, matching the volume etc. took nearly one month!

Finding ideas, developing them, sketching and orchestrating the piece is the fun part (mostly) because you explore a piece which in you imagination is already there - and that's exciting. But recording it? That's the hard part and for me it takes some discipline to discard the recording and just composing the next piece.


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## Saxer (Mar 14, 2021)

Getting over the point of finding something "good enough" to continue after 8 bars.


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## JPQ (Mar 14, 2021)

Writing percussion parts and simpe bass parts. and even staring of song is hard i mean i need smooth start where plays for example only solo instruments and then slowly add others.


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## Loïc D (Mar 14, 2021)

Staying away from Vi-C


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## chibear (Mar 14, 2021)

Finishing......anything. I have so many sketches and partially completed tunes.....


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## Altauria (Mar 14, 2021)

1. Interruptions.

2. Fighting VIs. (We also need a term similar to what film editors have for "frame [email protected]#*ing")


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## FrankieD (Mar 14, 2021)

I've recently realized I don't know counterpoint, and it's essential. So definitely adding a second part with counterpoint and then taking an idea and developing it. 

But the main thing is finding time in the day to just sit down and compose . After practicing my instruments, trying to learn the craft of composing, and the work of trying to get work...it's taking up my entire day.


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## GNP (Mar 14, 2021)

Not having any footage to write to.


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## marclawsonmusic (Mar 14, 2021)

More than anything, I dislike MIDI programming.


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## Paul Cardon (Mar 14, 2021)

Keeping perspective broad. The longer you work on something, the easier it is to lose perspective, to know if what you're doing feels good, feels right.

Part of overcoming that is working fast, being experienced with your tools, setting up your sessions and templates in a smart way that lets you just get to it.

But that's never all of it. Being able to pull back and see a piece of work from a further distance. I can't really speak specifics because the ways you find to distance can come from tons of places, like stepping away for a bit, hearing it from another room surrounded by other pieces of music, listening to references that show you how far you still are or even how close you're getting, etc. etc.


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## Rodney Money (Mar 14, 2021)

The hardest thing about composing is liking what I wrote.


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## Gerbil (Mar 14, 2021)

Putting the score into Sibelius. I love pen and paper and find inputting data a complete bore chore. I just want to get on with writing the next piece.


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## jbuhler (Mar 14, 2021)

1. Throwing a passage out and starting over when I’ve composed myself into a corner.

2. Declaring the piece done when there’s no deadline.

3. Compiling the first continuity draft out a series of sketches. (When working for myself, I often work in very large forms.)

4. Any percussion outside of what was standard orchestral percussion, c. 1985.


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## JohnG (Mar 14, 2021)

chillbot said:


> Sometimes I am pretty sure I only know how to write one track.


You mean, you can write more than one track?


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## brandowalk (Mar 14, 2021)

Not sticking to the form and going down the wrong path.


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## Trash Panda (Mar 14, 2021)

Finishing an idea all the way through before moving to the next idea.


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## jononotbono (Mar 15, 2021)

Whenever I write a part and work on that until I love it, I have a real problem not listening to that section of the track on loop, over and over, and waste so much time instead of just getting on with the next or previous section.

I also need to stop listening from the start of the track so much. Wastes so much time.

I also need to learn how to write good music 😂


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## mikeh-375 (Mar 15, 2021)

brandowalk said:


> Not sticking to the form and going down the wrong path.


...sometimes though, have you ever found that a moment of serendipity or sudden revelation will take a piece in a different direction to the one planned. The hard part I've found, is to be flexible and open enough to follow the new trail and see what's what.

In my experience of such moments, heading off in a new direction on a hunch has sometimes lead to better solutions to problems and better music.


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## LudovicVDP (Mar 15, 2021)

Starting...
And having it sound good.
Not be good (Ahum...there is actually way more work to be done there, to be honest), but sound good.
I hate reference tracks... Because they make me want to stop making music and start a new hobby...


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## TomislavEP (Mar 15, 2021)

Very interesting question. For me, technical details are always the most difficult phase. Things like choosing a sound palette, MIDI editing, and especially drawing the precise CC lanes, which I tend to do by mouse rather than keeping those recorded in real-time.

Musically speaking, I sometimes don't know where to start and what to start with, but there are also times when new ideas appear with ease - most often while I'm a bit distracted with something that pleases me.


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## Uncle Peter (Mar 15, 2021)

It's very easy to go down rabbit holes - exploring modulations and harmonic ideas that sound cool but don't necessarily fit in with the overall structure of the piece.
So, turning 8 bars into a full formed piece definitely has my vote


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## borisb2 (Mar 17, 2021)

jononotbono said:


> I also need to stop listening from the start of the track so much. Wastes so much time.


thats a big thing for me as well .. maybe one should set a limit: only play from the beginning once per hour or something


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