For composers: Share how *you* work. Process, Habits, Quirks

[starkaudio]

Don't be self conscious, most people like to talk about themselves.

Given a perfect day, picture yourself composing. What's the setting? What's your mood? How do you like to work? Share your personal process. What are your weird quirks? What helps you get it done and stay focused?

I'm not looking for the info, I have my process...I just thought people might like a different topic to share on.

You go first.

[Ogg Vorbis]

Don't be self conscious, most people like to talk about themselves.

Given a perfect day, picture yourself composing. What's the setting? What's your mood? How do you like to work? Share your personal process. What are your weird quirks? What helps you get it done and stay focused?

I'm not looking for the info, I have my process...I just thought people might like a different topic to share on.

You go first.

I cannot sit down to write without chewing gum and without my favorite canvas shoes on.

The only thing keeps me focused and lets me complete something is an external deadline. Otherwise I just sit there with my shoes and my gum and wank off.

[llatham]

Don't be self conscious, most people like to talk about themselves.

Given a perfect day, picture yourself composing. What's the setting? What's your mood? How do you like to work? Share your personal process. What are your weird quirks? What helps you get it done and stay focused?

I'm not looking for the info, I have my process...I just thought people might like a different topic to share on.

You go first.

I've noticed a lot of people around here use "composing" for the creation of music that's more like "songwriting".

While obviously there's a lot of crossover between the processes, most people consider composing as distinct form songwriting.

I think a lot of modern "composition is actually "assembly". Much music is merely an assembly of cliches.

Now, don't get me wrong, there certainly are "compositions" of the past that are surely "assembly" pieces too, but in general, "composition" is distinct from "songwriting" (which means with or without lyrics, but meant to be a "pop song" format) and from "improvising".

And of course any act of creating music can be considered "composing" in the braoder sense of the term.

So without qualification, your responses will likely run the gamut.

I approach "songwriting" and "composing" in two highly different manners. For songwriting, I typically go in with an idea of what style the piece is going to be, and use the understood stylistic guidelines within which to create the piece (though in "composerly" fashion, I try to stretch those confines).

When I "compose" for real, I typically have an idea come in my head like, "hey wouldn't it be cool to exploit this rhythmic motive", or I'll sit at an instrument and say "hey this is a cool-sounding chord" or "this is a cool melodic pattern".

And then I'll try to expand that.

Usually I work from outside in - I start with the type of form I want it to be, and come up with a general outline (or timeline, or, "storyboard" if you like). Then I start filling in the details.

I can't "compose" by coming up with a chord progression and writing a melody to fit over it - as many popsters (and jazzsters) do. I don't even harmonize melodies I've written - but that's largely because I don't write traditional tonal compositions.

Steve

[VicDiesel]

No serious replies? (EDIT: Steve & I must have been typing at the same time)

After dicking around for a number of years doing whatever sort of music I please, I've started to get serious about 2 projects. One is my native american flute music, the other is to write some music with published scored for recorders in various combinations.

The compositional process for the latter category may be interesting. I like music with a good melody, so I take my intended melody instrument, and start playing away for an open microphone. Maybe a click track if I have some rhythm in mind, but definitely no chords, so I'm free to come up with whatever melody. After playing away like that for 20 minutes, I go back and listen to what I've recorded, keeping the good bits. After that, I may redo certain passages, or add bits here and there.

When I've assembled the whole melody, I try to figure out what chords will fit it. This can be tough. Sometimes a melody played without chords will implicitly linger for a long time on a single chord. That's where I have to be creative, and sometimes really strange chords happen this way.

I've even used the "open mike" method successfully for polyphonic material: play one voice, play the next one while listening to the first. It helps if you already have a melody line up, but it also works "writing" the voices in leapfrog manner.

I imagine that this is more or less the reverse of how most other people work, but so far I like the results I'm getting from it.

Victor.

[bluelife]

The songs just come like ghosts of the past.

[standalone]

I open the score editor in Cubase and begin writing a canon . If it goes well , I continue . If not , I choose another method at random .

[starkaudio]

And of course any act of creating music can be considered "composing" in the braoder sense of the term.

Given the site we're on and nature of most posts I've read in this forum, let's assume I mean a very broad sense. The point of the thread is to let people express whatever process they use for making music that pleases them. Forgive me the ambiguity.

I'd imagine we'd even get posts from people who simply (or complex-ly depending on your point of view) remix music by other people and refer to that as making music, production or composition (though I've never actually seen the latter in print online...I suppose it might happen.)

People usually like to talk about themselves, and posting a topic where they get to do so and share their lessons-learned is a good community exercise. Some are silly, some serious and I enjoy reading them all.

An aside for Steve:

Can you give me some examples of "Much music is merely an assembly of cliches"? I'm not sure what you mean by a musical cliche, but they sound bad and I might as well know if I'm committing any down to my tracks/tunes/songs/compositions. (Or whatever.)

~~~~

My process.

I usually start with a melody or rhythmic phrase that has an interesting timbre/patch and build out a few variations of that, usually starting simple and getting more complex. Somewhere along the line the music will suggest an emotion for me and I'll play the bits over and over as I build a story in my head about what happens during the music to fit the emotion(s) I've felt. Think of it like envisioning a little movie in my head, inspired by the loose pieces I have so far.

Once I have a story in my head, I'll usually sketch out (with more simple melody's or even chord progressions) the remaining body of the story-music. I'll then go back and start fleshing things out with harmonies, rhythmic ideas and new additional phrases meant to accent bits of the story in my head.

This all takes at least a few days and everything is subject to the occasional "it sounded good last night, but this morning it sucks ass" effect, which can lead to dramatic shifts in the story/music.

Eventually I reach a point where I want to share it, at which point I either declare it "done" (though nothing is ever really done for me) and post an mp3 or (if it just isn't quite there) I shelve it for a while and come back to it in a month or three.

That's about it. It's not always like that, but more often that not.

[whyterabbyt]

I've noticed a lot of people around here use "composing" for the creation of music that's more like "songwriting".

While obviously there's a lot of crossover between the processes, most people consider composing as distinct form songwriting.

I disagree. And, to be honest, I think the fact that you're aware that 'a lot of people' do it kind of negates your claim that 'most people' actually consider it distinct.

I actually think the primary difference is that some people consider 'composing' to be a more academic, 'trained', more elitist thing; in other words, a relatively arbitrary difference is being recast as something more substantial, and 'loftier'. I dont see that myself; the process of composition is a workflow, and both the strains you describe have the same potential to embrace that workflow.

When I "compose" for real, I typically have an idea come in my head like, "hey wouldn't it be cool to exploit this rhythmic motive", or I'll sit at an instrument and say "hey this is a cool-sounding chord" or "this is a cool melodic pattern".

To me, that actually sounds more like iterative improvisation; you're starting from an essentially improvised musical figure or motif and extrapolating outwards from that. I personally make a distinction between that and the planning process inherent to composition, even if elements of the actual performance of a composition rely on a degree of improvisation. The essential difference is that this kind of iterative improvisation is a response to itself, and 'construction' continues in that context. A 'pure' composition starts from an external context, and the 'construction' process is driven by that . In that sense, even the most naive 'songwriting' you talk about is actually more of a composition than the process you use yourself, in that the planning (lyrically, structurally, musically) is essential, since the constraints expected by the audience are much much narrower.
(Just to be clear, I dont envision 'performance' as having to be a real-time process.)

Composition, as I see it, is the process of planning; the result of that process is a plan, or more traditionally a score, but it is not, at that point, a piece of music. The performance is the stage of transforming that plan, or score, into a musical work. Improvisation, on the other hand, is a self-reactive exploratory process.
If elements of improvisation or performance inform the process of composition, or even if improvisations are used as source material at the 'performance' stage, then I still see that as being consistent with the way I see composition, but when improvisation drives the process of construction, then I do consider it an important distinction between that and composition... composition is the preparation of the plan, or score, or map, or whatever, of the performance, not the extrapolation (or even assemblage) of unplanned improvisation into a larger body.
I would state for the record, that up until recently Ive always tended to work from that improvisational basis myself, and dont see it as any less valid.

[jancivil]

I like to begin with an idea.

[debra1rlo]

I like to begin with an idea.

That's what I've been doing wrong.

[jancivil]

I'm sure I sounded flip, but...


It surprises me sometimes not that one would start without an idea, but that one might continue on without any.

Nevermind.




Anyway, a 'composition' merely means one has put a frame around her idea of something. It's a declaration of intent, it doesn't denote what the content is, like "this is a 'composition', yours is just a 'song'". If she said, 'this song is my composition, because I SAY SO', that is right.



"Cliche", does not really connote a desirable or undesirable quality. It's neutral. Any content, is just material. You decide to do something, according to some idea of something, with some material.

You're in 'C major'. If you come up on some kind of G7 chord, and that little F-B action, you make it go to E-C. You may be guilty of having done 'cliche'. So what. Artful things can be done. According to 'taste', which is according to 'experience'. You might even have some 'talent'.


Like: You might be the best muffin froster in the business.
People know from muffins, they know what to expect from a muffin. You make a tasty mufffin following time-honored rules of decorating muffins with sugar frosting, you didn't stray from the cliche, it might still be way more tasty than the person who figures, screw it, screw cliche, 'I'm putting taco sauce on the hoo hoo'.

Which is harder to do and get away with.

[starkaudio]

In that case, I'm about as cliche as it gets.

[Max Headroom]

I usually sit down at the computer thinking, "Today, I am going to make a fast and aggressive metal song." I open up Acid, start with a drum beat, add some chords, then put in a melody and bass. Although I almost always aim for metal, I invariably end up with something that sounds like 80's pop or a lullaby. And so my spirit dies a little more.

[himalaya]

Composition, as I see it, is the process of planning; the result of that process is a plan, or more traditionally a score, but it is not, at that point, a piece of music. The performance is the stage of transforming that plan, or score, into a musical work. Improvisation, on the other hand, is a self-reactive exploratory process.
If elements of improvisation or performance inform the process of composition, or even if improvisations are used as source material at the 'performance' stage, then I still see that as being consistent with the way I see composition, but when improvisation drives the process of construction, then I do consider it an important distinction between that and composition... composition is the preparation of the plan, or score, or map, or whatever, of the performance, not the extrapolation (or even assemblage) of unplanned improvisation into a larger body.
I would state for the record, that up until recently Ive always tended to work from that improvisational basis myself, and dont see it as any less valid.

Yeah, nicely put. However...
Myself, I don't draw a line between a composition that starts from an external context (what is it anyway ?) and one that is driven fully by improvisation, since once my improvised material is finished, the composition itself is finished. The music is there, ready, perhaps to be printed as notation for others to perform. The "plan", that you mention, in this instance, is my intention to play and arrive at a structured music piece.

I would state for the record, that up until recently Ive always tended to work from that improvisational basis myself, and dont see it as any less valid.

Infact, personally I see improvisation as a very effective way to compose, dare I say, a more effective way.

I think the bottom line is that improvisation, ahem, noodling is so much fun.

[yellowfever]

Although I almost always aim for metal, I invariably end up with something that sounds like 80's pop or a lullaby.

Classic quote

As for me - copy and paste a kick wav file to a 4/4 beat, open up a synth, select arp, hold down a note, compress and limit to buggery, whack it on a cd. Done. MTV here I come. No?