Writing music in your head

Hello everyone. I'm 15 and been interested in classical music always... As some people do, I can hear music in my head too... And I find them quite in quality... The problem is, I have no idea how to exactly write it. I can't even read sheet fast. I've been playing piano but I never continue... Is there a way to write them? Quickly if possible. Is finale program suitable? Or do I certainly need someone to help me? If yes, how? There's a piano in the house.

Thank you.

I hear/think piano concertos, symphonies, overtures, opera pieces(not with a story)

Yeah, well, very complicated thing each instrument separately tune written for cello and bass C key, a violin G clef, piano playing is both a G and F clef on the grass lot where F where G was so not an easy thing it. Write a symphonic work is simply inhuman task. Exactly pay attention to everything, write it down and try to strive for harmony between the instruments. If there is no harmony, then everything goes wrong. Ö9sszeállított melody in my head very, very, very difficult to carry both voice and on paper. I do know ... This is nothing to be ashamed of.

mostly #3 happens for me. Things are just swirling in my head, fully orchestrated and harmonized, and I have to figure out what the hell they are. Dictation and ear training are important skills for me because of this.

I'm the same way. I usually hear a finished piece in my head... which isn't very helpful. So, most of my ACTUAL compositions come from ideas that I hear and I end up developing in a slightly less epic way. But, it's whatevs... haha.

Well, I write music in my head ALL the time. The thing is, in my head, the music never stops: See, it can be a piece of someone else's, a well known piece I'm thinking about, but about 50% of the time it's a piece of my own. When it is, I always think about some rhythms that I randomly tap out, then the melody, harmony, etc all come to me at the same time, all bunched in there. It's so natural for me, I never even thought about it being unusual. I mean, I also can get the idea anywhere, so I guess that's just me!

Heckel

This this this this this this this. Entirely in my head. Man I wish that ensemble actually existed/worked for me..

To the original poster: One instrument at a time? You're kidding, right? 140 person apocalyptic choir, full orchestra, synths, ethnic instruments, all at my disposal. Constantly. It's a burden sometimes...

So yes, I write music in my head. That's why I'm a composer. I want to hum for a living (:

I always have music in my head but 90% of the time it's another composer's. The 10% that the music is my own, it's almost 80% generic garbage.

All of my stuff that I consider good comes through experimenting on the piano. Under the right circumstances (I have yet to discover), my voice starts playing really good stuff and I just play along. I have really good relative pitch and can figure out a lot of chords very easily.

The problem is I never transcribe my pieces so I can play them all and record them all track by track, but I never even know what key/tempo/time signature I'm playing in.

Huh? I didn't say anything about one instrument at a time...

Huh? I didn't say anything about one instrument at a time...

No, the person who started the topic was wondering if people think of one part a time, I was just affirming that it's more a full symphonic thing.

Have people really convinced themselves they write music in their head? Do you think to yourself "oh wait: the clarinet is going over the break here, that won't work. This viola double stop is too large, that won't work. Hmmm, this texture here is too thick for the soloist to be heard" ect, ect?

There is a difference between conceiving ideas in your head, and writing music in your head.

I work out the kinks in melodies and harmonies, as well as a muddy sketch of orchestration. (can seperate it into strings/brass/woodwinds/percussion in my head)

It's somewhere between conception and "writing."

No, the person who started the topic was wondering if people think of one part a time, I was just affirming that it's more a full symphonic thing.

Ahhhh. Okay thank you for clarifying.

There's an orchestra, wind ensemble, opera singers, percussion ensemble, etc, etc, etc, all in my head. They're really freaking good. This is one reason I actually don't like it a lot when people play music around me. Usually it's popular music, which mostly bores me because I can often hear all the details, harmonies and textures in it, it's that simple (I, iv, IV, V, in half notes, repeat, anyone?). And it interrupts what was going on in my head, which was usually better (although, I can now sustain one musical line in my head even while other music is going on, and I'm working on more).

I have the same annoying problem, but sometimes it could be helpful to! Sometimes I hear a few notes and I make a whole piece from that. The only sad thing is that I can't remember it eventually.

At first when I saw this I was confused, but it's true. Sometimes I can develop something from hitting a wrong note on the piano... it's true. :P

I'm doing that to sometimes. One time I had a boring piece of music which my teacher wanted me to play and somewhere I hit a wrong note from which I started composing.

1) Do you write for one instrument then start coming up with other instruments that go with it?

2) Do you come up with the musical ideas and then try to assign them to different instruments?

3) Do you hear everything happening at once and then try to figure out exactly what it is/what instruments you are hearing so you can get it down?

For me it's a mixture of 2 and 3. The aural skills mentioned by Dev are indeed important to figure out what is happening, but it is not that I need to work hard to figure it out, it is sort of obvious what instrument is doing what. It is hard to describe though how I am conscious of such an unconscious process.

My head is the place where the ideas come from. A tutor of mine said that sitting behind the piano was a bad place for getting ideas. I think its because the music tends to become too much of the same. Like Simon said being in your head frees you from limitations. And in the end composing all comes down to your imagination. (ie not improv-skills, because imagination is needed for improv...)

Recently the sound of my Finale was broken. So I was forced to stop relying on its playback-capacity. That was a good thing, because I had gotten lazy... It reminded me that much of my development is being created on the spot: while I am sitting behind my computer, composing, listening: Where does the music wants to go to?

But now that it wasn't working properly I was forced to do that in my head. It is hard to listen objectively to what is in your head, not as its writer but as its listener. But I think that is a good thing to train. I try to do that by writing more by hand, read scores without the audio, etc...

I second jcramer - reliance on the piano is a bad place ... unless you are writing for piano. And even that doesn't always work. Anyway as for the questions presented:

1) Call me insecure, but I usually need an instrument and performer to be given to me. It helps me with my research and preparation as well as increases my confidence.

2) I will after awhile hear an idea --- or work it on the piano a harmonic progression, if a melody I want to start with actually prefer to work with pencil and paper to see what I come up with. Sometimes it is simply a concept - for example, I had one piece which I thought fascinating the contrast of one tuned in 4ths, the other in 5th and the final instrument all white keys with alteration to make it chromatic. Also , three types of stringed instruments. So the nature of the instrument bring about ideas for concepts - in the case aforementioned, the contrast and clash of quintile and quartal harmony, the various distortions possible for each instrument. I wouldn't call it transcription but more relaying contour and dramatic arch. This may done by directly entering notes into a computer notation program.

3) When I was very very young I used to hear electronic music - original electronic music. I love the stuff from the 60's and early 70's the analog stuff. I do hear complete original pieces only once in a great while, right before I go to bed is a great time for that. But more often it is as if someone is dropping a needle at various sections of a piece and it is up to me to figure out the missing music.

Overall, I lean toward 1) as once I get going I start to hear where the music is going pretty easily - again it is not transcription - but more a series of sounds I want and rearrange to the point of satisfaction over time. Also, the willingness to change what you are imagining as you write.

Ok, you're thinking about this too much. You don't make yourself play music in your head, it just comes to you. All you need is inspiration, and music will just naturally come. it doesn't really matter what instruments they are (that's something you sort out later) the only thing you really get is mostly the rhythm and some of the chords, but not necessarily all the notes. So then, you just write down what you can recall from your head, and use that as a starting point for what would build into a piece. That's all there is to it, it's not like Jimmy Neutron where you just concentrate and say "think, think, think", just look for some inspiration. Which could be the meaning of life, or the color of your shoe. (I just finished writing a piece about a dream I had where I was fighting Voldemort)