Writing what's in your head

I try to avoid musical instruments until I get everything from my head into some kind of symbols on paper. While still avoiding a musical instrument, I'll come back to the paper the next day and see if it still clearly represents my idea. My feeling is that if I too quickly try it out on a musical instrument when not really having a vivid image in my head what I wanted to do, the musical instrument's voice might confuse my original source idea.

Learn to sing. When you can sing what's in your head, then you can actually hear it.
Then buy an electronic tuner.

is it so much of an absolute truth that 'writing what's in your head' is the best way of composing? could it be that music may be born not in your head, but in your dialogue with instrument you have at hand, somewhere in between your head and the one outside it? is it so important to write 'what's in your head'? and can there be "ideas" but not melodies in your head that you want to compose from/with/out of? may music come to you out of the blue? without any head-stuck melody preceding it? like - starting from the scratch? why would one be engaged in writing what he has already heard , done in his head? like in all good books - the writer comes to be written by the language ideas, unknown to him before.
so, my point is, it might be so much more fun and creation when you don't know how it will turn out in the end.

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.

I agree. I'd also say that you don't know a sound until you've heard it enough to commit it to long term memory.

We all 'know' what a violin sounds like, but how many of us really know the sound of a violin?

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.

Originally Posted by Jamie Whitmarsh

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.

Originally Posted by Morgri

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 shit, 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.)

Originally Posted by SSC

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 shit, 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"