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Composing - what does your process look like?

Me after every attempt at writing music...

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ein fisch said:
In terms of the composition - chords, arrangement, melody, percussion, sound choice - what do you do first? Do you have a fixed routine or is it different on every project you're working on?

I personally found out that its way easier (and faster) for me to sketch everything out with my piano and record it with my phone before i even touch my DAW and think about instrumentation. However it can be a frustrating process, sitting on the piano for like 10 days (like right now :grin:) and not coming up with something where i could say "thats it!"

Any routines, tools which help you in the composition process are more than welcome
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I'm new to using a DAW but now that I do my process is:

Create the main melodic and harmonic content (melodies and chords) using my Synthogy American D Piano loaded on my iMAC and played via MIDI from my Montage.

Then breakdown the work into sections that will be played by different instruments.

Determine what those instruments will be.

Record those tracks.

Next determine what counter or harmony lines are to be played under each section and what instruments will play them.

Record those tracks.

I spend lots of time selecting the instruments adding effects etc.. and constantly listening and changing everything I noted above. Many times!

It's a lot of fun with so many choices. Sometimes too many.
 
This is a fun thread! Thanks. For me the process of composing starts with why? Why pick up a pencil (always a mechanical one), why go sit at the piano, why find a quiet place to dream up music? For me composing is an arduous process so it takes a very good reason to commit to it. Sometimes, it's a request (yay!), sometimes it's musical inspiration, sometimes it's emotional inspiration. Whatever the reason it has to be a good one to sustain my efforts until the project attains critical mass. For me the very beginning is the hardest, the possibilities are unbounded, the paper is blank. Once I've written the first note the question becomes, what comes next? At some point there is a critical evaluation, is this good or crap? At a later point things seem to gain momentum and you're working within the ever decreasing confines of what you've already created to flesh out the map out the dramatic arc of the work. That doesn't mean the ending gets composed last, although the beginning is almost always composed first. What it means is that what was composed before will influence what gets composed through the process in order to create music that will (hopefully) sustain my interest (and hopefully that of others) throughout.

If it's vocal music the text (lyrics) come first. For whatever reason I can't hear a melody and then find words for it, but it's easy for me to hear words and come up with rhythm and melody. In fact most words have an inherent rhythm and while you don't have to stay with that, it's a good place to start.

One thing I've noticed is that the actual process is different for each piece and periodically I have to remind myself to exercise creativity. It's very easy to get a process ingrained and that limits your creativity to what you've already done. Sometimes it helps to get out of the comfort zone and seek the danger of doing something you've never done before or to make a significant effort to do something very different. I discovered this when first trying to compose a set of variations. The first five were obvious (walking bass, embellishment, dotted rhythm, etc). It's only when you challenge yourself to get past the easy and obvious that you become truly creative. Composing more than ten takes real effort, but is a very worthwhile exercise.
 
Rodney Money said:
Although my close friends think I do, I honestly don’t believe I have perfect pitch, but I do believe instead I have an overhyped relative pitch. Because I always tuned to concert F when playing brass instruments I hear that pitch clearly then can relate all the others to that note. In college the discussion came up twice where a theory instructor tested me if I could hear F or Bb because I was a trumpet player, and once even my own trumpet professor put me on the spot in front of the entire studio to see if I could sing F in tune “tuning it green” without looking at it. I was the only one who could at the time.

Even now all of my brass instruments’ tuning slides are pushed all the way in where normally they would be pushed half an inch out to be at 440. When I’m working with other musicians such as piano players I need to tell myself to be nice and say yes if they ask me if I need a tuning note even though I don’t need one. The only time I need one is when I play with organs, because they are “out of tune” from 443-442, and I need to tune to them.

If I am working on a composition or melody, let’s say in G, Bb, or even set theory, then the key or tonal center never wavers in my mind. Sometimes I will check the piano just to make sure because of my perfectionism and musical ocd. I can hear the different blended colors of the orchestra in my mind also like a clarinet with a marimba, tuba with a bassoon, or a cello and a euphonium. It’s very common for me to also quickly jot down a line for a soloist or section 15 minutes before rehearsal and not need to change a thing afterwards save an ornament here or there.

My mind only has enough space to only remember music and stories from the Bible. I am awful at math, horrible with directions driving to locations I should know, I don’t even know my own cellphone number, and I cannot remember names. The only way I can remember my social security number or address is to practice it like an instrument. But concerning music my mind never fells me remembering themes even over 20 years old, and right now I have a completed 45 minute symphony in my head that constantly plays.

What gives me trouble in music is trying to convey through sheet music and DAW what is in my head. My 40 minute trumpet concerto is being premiered this April, but sadly only 6 out of the 7 movements are complete with the finale remaining unfinished. The reasoning is because there is a constant struggle among what is in my head vs what is playable vs what is only playable naturally by me where others may greatly struggle. When I sent in 1-6 of the movements the 1st thing the soloist said was this looks hard, and in a fascinating curiosity I asked, “Which parts?” Because I truly could not tell! For me it felt almost sight readable with some polishing.

The problem with the finale is that it is running too long and is way too hard with what I hear inside my head. It might “kill” a performer being unplayable, so in my mind all weekend I have been trying to rework an entire section while having to do things like taxes, go to Best Buy, and to a Sweet 16 birthday. I think I have it almost worked out but I would still have to make sure it works, engrave the score, and finish the DAW electronic fixed media. That is my constant stress right now.
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How long does it take you to go from having composed a piece in your head to writing it on paper? How detailed is the composition in your mind before it's written out?

I try to compose in such a way that I first imagine the music in my head and have a rough orchestration in mind before I start writing it out. However, it is impossible for me to figure out reliably how the sounds in my head translate to notes or intervals and need to use the piano to find the right notes. As soon as I start messing with the piano, I quickly start forgetting how the music sounded in my head and end up with something much worse sounding and lose track of how I was supposed to orchestrate it.

Any tips on how to go from hearing the music to writing it out? I'm trying to develop a better relative pitch and getting better at it, but I feel like that alone isn't enough.
 
Move notes around till they sound good... seriously. And then try to see a potential light beyond what we can hear or imagine in the piece.
 
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