Composers Out There: How Do You Compose?

[Basti 0]

Hi there,

I wonder how you personally compose your music. As for myself, I sometimes make a few sketches by hand in my free time - sometimes even in school - without using and instrument (I could upload some pics if you're interested), and they sound mostly as I intended. The actual complete score I write on the computer, with the keyboard on my side. I actually can write without an instrument, but it's much more safe to really listen to it at once, fully orchestrated. I'm currently composing the score for 'Abicalypse', and I have made the sketches and themes by hand, but the final writing will be on the computer. How do you handle it (whether you're composing for film or not)?

[ComposerEthan 8]

My school has a laptop system, and I usually mess on the piano first then those ideas come back to me randomly at school, and I use Finale and write them in for the instrument I feel like in the moment. I have horrible hand writing, so my sketches don't work, so I always carry my laptop with me so I can write what I remember or randomly comes into my head. Themes and musical ideas alwaysstart in my head, it just depends where I get them; home: piano first, school: straight to computer. My teachers get mad, because I always compose in class. My fellow classmates hear me tap to get the right tempo and note duration.

And I've never composed for film, but all my music is theme and story based (the film plays in my head).

[MrJosh 892]

For some reason when I sit at the computer to compose, it's like I get writers block or something (maybe a personal problem lol). So somehow I find that I'm most inspired if I just sit somewhere quiet with a scorepad and just start to write. Sometimes I'll map a piece out in an outline form, just with descriptions of the various sections of the piece. After I write the score out on paper, I'll take it to the computer and see if it sounds like I thought it did in my head. Most of the time it does, but sometimes I will have moments like "ohhh, that's not the chord I wanted" or "what was I thinking there??" etc.

I suppose it's more time consuming to do all on paper first but somehow the old fashioned approach gets me to let the music flow out of the brain better.

[wanner251 17]

For me, it sort of depends on what I'm given. Certain things inspire certain approaches. I did a short a while back that just made me think up a very un-unified score. The last cue was a passacaglia bass idea, so I decided to go with a DAW approach. I keyed in the repeating bass and went from there. The rest of the score kind of followed a bit, but not much. It's really kind of quirky. The film is on YouTube, and is quite funny.

[wanner251 17]

Oh hey, I just did this yesterday and remembered this thread. A friend of mine challenged me to take his lame video (and yes it IS lame) and put music to it. It is supposed to be a video of the first-person perspective of a bee in flight (and it is really awful). He gave me the idea of what it's supposed to be. So I spent about an hour or so in Finale and came up with this. In this case I decided to use Finale because I needed to keep better track of what the strings were doing.

Anyway, let me know if you think it's horrible. Hehe

[A24 4,331]

Stylistically, it's not very interesting (it's not you) but one can easily hear that you are not without musical training. The video is bad in a very negative way.

[Jilal 569]

Totally agreed.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Your work is puerile and under-dramatized. You lack any sense of structure, character and the Aristotelian unities.

[PIANOMUSICIAN1991 0]

One of two ways really. I compose my initial ideas at the piano with a pencil and manuscript paper, I make the score a detailed as possible. Then I go to my laptop and re-write and orchestrate straight onto Sibelius. I find this is the easiest and most effect way for me.

[wanner251 17]

You guys are absolutely right. I think it's pretty horrible too.