Don't even touch it!!

How big of a part of your composing is your computer? If you had no computer, how do you think you'd feel about the level of your compositions? My new teacher told me I need to become "connected" to my compositions and the only way to do that was to eliminate the computer completely until the end, kind of like typing up the final draft of a term paper you've written and edited by hand.

I agree with him, but admittedly I have gotten comfortable with Sibelius and love the quickness with which I can write compared to by hand, when I constantly have to erase or get pissed when I want to change a section or add entire bars in between. uggggggggggggg. Plus nobody ever makes staff paper that leaves enough room for all the leger lines and the dynamics so it's hard to read. And it's expensive to boot if you don't want to make photocopies.

Oh, and sorry I left the "r" off of "your" in my subtitle. :laugh:

umm... I only use the computer to move my written pieces in Midi form so I can post them, All except one of my pieces was hand written

So the computer does not play a massive role in my composing, I could easily live with out

Likewise. I haven't got any notation software. Just a sequencer/integral sampler to go one better than a piano try-out on instrumental things.

I've had demos but nothing has yet proved as swift and flexible as handwriting. I usually rough out on 10 stave, leaving about 4 staves to add in extras as needed. As I leave a couple of months before a final tart-up/revision, I don't go into neat full- or short-score until then.

Pencil and paper don't crash and I don't have to wait for the computer to start up to get to my notes. .Also I like to have all my intermediate notes and ideas there for reference without keep loading up masses of saved computer files. I'd need a huge screen to get the same from a computer!

I agree with both of you.

I just browsed the sticky topic "Is Professional Notation Output Important to you?" not realizing it was a similar discussion (I didn't see it that way just from the topic title, but it led to that).

I pose the topic because although I am aware of the importance of knowing how to write by hand without the assistance of computers, I have some questions that maybe I'd also like some of you to answer.

Let's say you are writing a 10+ minute piece, which would be many pages long. Especially for a full orchestra. Over time, do you feel like you've lost touch with your original idea and are not sure where you are going with it? In the past I've gotten so involved in a composition for many instruments and found myself suddenly flustered. I have sort of a writer's block, so I give it a rest for a day or two. When I come back to it, I just feel lost in a sea of notes. Where I have found the computer useful is for a quick playback just to see where I was when I cut off. I just don't have the capacity to play back a full orchestral piece in my head after I've just written it. I am relatively inexperienced, but how can I combat this problem? It just gets so crazy sometimes in my head. I think too much.

However, I have to admit that finale or sibelius is a good idea for the polished version of an orchestral score in that it can rip parts which (I'm told) can be edited to add smaller cue staves above the main stave.

After all, if it looks presentable, fine.

I still think there's something about doing a neat handwritten orchestral copy. At least you can have the entire page before you and have some measure of control over things like e.g. solo and tutti lines on the same stave with different dynamics, and breaking out into more staves if you need to. Or different articulations on the same stave.

All assuming the software can cope. I've just finished an orchestral movement that starts "recitative" style so has no time signature, just a tempo marking. I have to be certain it can handle such stuff - not wanting to put a time signature of something like 39/4 !

I'll come back re your last point(s). It used to happen, less now as I gain experience. I do try to develop a good "inner ear" composing as much in my head as I can then trying it at the piano/sequencer.

:happy:

"Then..."

I started composing at the computer, using Sibelius way back when it was available for Acorn computers. When at university, though, I took the decision to write exclusively by hand - and the output increased in quantity and quality.

"Now..."

I rely on computers. Not because I use Sibelius or similar - I still notate on paper. I compose music that has the computer (or computers) as the instrument(s). I write electroacoustic music. Much fun, it is, manipulating live and recorded sounds.

I learnt to compose the old-fashioned way - on paper - and I agree with your teacher, Giselle, that you would do well to get the kind of connection to your music that you can only get by writing it on paper. Writing by hand also engages a different part of the brain, an area that is more closely associated with creative thought processes.

Once I had become proficient in composition by hand, I welcomed the advent of computers and notation software. I enjoy the speed and efficiency. There are still many times where I sketch pieces by hand, however, for the reason I already cited; there are times when I want to get back in touch with that different part of my brain and let it work on what I'm trying to do.

These days I tend to write directly into Sibelius more than I used to. I started out writing exclusively by hand and using Sibelius only for typesetting; now I think my increased use of computers comes from the fact that I bought a laptop a year ago and can now actually carry the computer around with me a decent amount.

That said, I still frequently sketch by hand when I don't have my laptop with me, and I can definitely live without it.

I noticed one of you said that the 'Quantity and Quality increased' when you did it only by hand

I have a hypothesis

Do you think you write better music when you do it by hand because you do it slower? I mean, with the computer it's point and click, you don't have to think about where or what the note is at all hardly. and when doing it by hand, your forced to concentrate more on what you're doing, making it better because it has more thought involved?

Just a Hypothesis

I guess it all depends on what I'm writing. Certainly, when it comes to orchestral writing, I have to admit that more and more I find myself composing on Finale - sometimes running from the piano keyboard to the computer keyboard.

When it comes to popular music - almost never at the puter - although If I'm orchestrating the tune after it's been written, then all bets are off. With the GPO instruments in Finale, you get instant gratification errr... I mean, feedback

I noticed one of you said that the 'Quantity and Quality increased' when you did it only by hand

I have a hypothesis

Do you think you write better music when you do it by hand because you do it slower? I mean, with the computer it's point and click, you don't have to think about where or what the note is at all hardly. and when doing it by hand, your forced to concentrate more on what you're doing, making it better because it has more thought involved?

Just a Hypothesis

Certainly. I see it constantly with other people - especially students of mine. They can do some interesting things on the computer, but generally their better stuff is by hand. This isn't always the case though.

Do you think you write better music when you do it by hand because you do it slower? I mean, with the computer it's point and click, you don't have to think about where or what the note is at all hardly. and when doing it by hand, your forced to concentrate more on what you're doing, making it better because it has more thought involved?

I was just thinking about that earlier today when I was writing, and I'd say it's a pretty good hypothesis. I suppose it also avoids unnecessary, monotonous repetition when the human equivalent of "cut and pasting' " is like "time a wasting " and encourages, rather, taking the time to write more interesting variants on a theme.

I'm glad you understand my theory

In the old days ALL music had to written by hand, I mean, how long do you reckon it took Bach to write the Bradenburg Concerto? whewee, man that would be alot on the hand. Maybe that was the old composers secret?

*yeah right*

I wish!

I use the computer for harmonies. Most of my song ideas come from my random key pressings on the piano when I get bored. I get something that I like, I put it on the computer, and start writing a harmony to go with it.

That's usually how I write a song. I mean, I'm sure it can be done, but making a full concert band song is kinda hard without a computer IMO, 'cause I have this pet peeve that I HAVE to hear what I have written to see if there are mistakes. So, doing a triplet run with the flutes, straight quarter note tuba/bari sax, harmony with baritones/tenor sax, major 3rd/perfect fourth harmonies which go with the melody of the trumpet/clarinet can't possibly be done with two hands, lol.

Not to mention, I occasinally write an oboe part, which has a mind all of it's own usually.

I could probably never compose without my computer. My ears can hear a single passage at a time, but I automatically edit chords in my ear so I end up with terrible progressions everywhere.