Writing what's in your head

Practice, Practice, and more Practice.

See also: Practice.

About the comment that "is it so much of an absolute truth that 'writing what's in your head' is the best way of composing?" I'd say that no, hell no. There is no "best way" to compose, and there are tons of styles and techniques which are precisely geared at doing the opposite of writing "What's in your head." Aleatory music, process music, etc, and serialism (Nono, Stockhausen) are designed to kind of let other parameters and variables decide how things sound like, rather than the composer's intuition.

Though, ultimately, the intuition is what holds it all together, you can abstract from it as much as you want.

I think the only way to really be able to create decent orchestration is to work on it. It's just like notating melodies. You know what the relative notes are and such because you've worked on it, or you know from playing or whatever. I think the same applies with orchestration - you don't know what produces certain sounds until you've created them, or at least observed how they are created. I would suggest score study, as well as writing for different instruments and their combinations. And definitely get your music performed. I think someone on here said they don't need their music to get performed, and that person is an idiot.

Well that's what you get with all this computer nonsense. Thanks to Finale/Sibelius and the internet, you get 15 year olds who think they know everything

That's really true, gms. You just can't trust what you hear on Finale or Sibelius, it won't give you an accurate picture of what an orchestra really sounds like in a real performance. As for writing what is in your head. Ear training, lots and lots of ear training. It's something I lack, but practice somewhat frequently. Sightsinging and Ear training is one of the most important skills you need to learn.

Ear training, lots and lots of ear training. It's something I lack, but practice somewhat frequently. Sightsinging and Ear training is one of the most important skills you need to learn.

Haha, I'm extremely HORRIBLE at ear training, and in no way can I sing at first sight at all... But none of this has mattered at all when I compose. So, uh.

It's never been the case I'm stuck in a composition and thinkin' "Oh scraggy, I wish I had better ear training(!?)" ..so I don't know how you (or anyone who's mentioned anything along these lines) draw the parallels.

(I guess is because ear training and singing are only related to traditional music. It's pretty much useless if you're going to work with something atonal, pure-sound based, aleatory, etc etc.)

Haha, I'm extremely HORRIBLE at ear training, and in no way can I sing at first sight at all... But none of this has mattered at all when I compose. So, uh.

It's never been the case I'm stuck in a composition and thinkin' "Oh scraggy, I wish I had better ear training(!?)" ..so I don't know how you (or anyone who's mentioned anything along these lines) draw the parallels.

(I guess is because ear training and singing are only related to traditional music. It's pretty much useless if you're going to work with something atonal, pure-sound based, aleatory, etc etc.)

I agree, I don't know where the ear training thing came from

I'll just say it again, you need to know what you want when you're writing, and you really only get that with "practice"

For me going from "inspiration" to actual audible music is a process proceeding various stages.

I start with having a feeling i'd like to convey. This is a mental process, being finding the chords to that specific feeling. I don't readily know the name of the chords, just the sound. Then i develop the feeling i have into a bigger picture. In what part of the eventual piece does this feeling/sound belong. It might be the finale, the beginning, a modulation, in other words what is the function of this particular part.

From here on i develop/get inspired for other parts. What should the beginning feel, and therefor sound like, when i already have this particular finale. So i end up eventualy with a soundscape in my head. Transversed from a series of in my stomach felt feelings.

From here on i gradualy try to find the chords on my keyboard. This then is my first sketch. Then i need fitting melodies, accompagments and soforth. This i try to achieve by improvisation. If something fits the feeling i have of the for example beginning part, using the thought out chord(s), i write it down. So this way the sketch grown into more detail. For this theory, singing, interval and pitch hearing abilties and everthing in between helps the process. So i'd say nothing is absolutely a must, i just helps a lot.

These stages aren't definite. I return to what i have in my head often to get the soundscape a close as intented to what i want to convey.

It's a bit like making a puzzle. The pieces in my head are gradualy turn into a more complete sketch. The sketch of course being the metaphorical complete puzzle.

I just resently started to steer away form improvising solely. I'm devolping a style to go from, in my view, inmature writing to realy expressing my inspirations into music. The word is indeed practise for me.

I hope this helps you.