Gabe Huff

This reminds me of Alan Belkin's A Practical Guide to Musical Composition:http://www.dolmetsch.com/form.pdf I recommend giving it a look over. Its a short read. It's sure helped me stay on track in terms of form. If you think about your music in terms of what the listener is hearing, remembering, and expecting, you'll have a lot easier time writing engaging music.

"Reworking" to me seems to be a necessary part of the composition process for me. I compose the same way an artist would sketch a drawing or a painting. Start with very basic melodic lines and chords, then I go back and refine it by making rhythms and harmonies more complicated and interesting. I rarely ever make huge changes such as removing or changing whole sections unless I'm in the process of writing a section and I decide it simply doesn't fit the piece as a whole. Many times, though, I might rewrite certain melodies, but I rarely go back and change them once they're "set in stone" and I like their role in the piece. Once I become more experienced with composing and educated in music theory, I may never have to rework anything, because I'll know exactly how to express what I want to write. Who knows!

I can't say exactly why I write music. In general, I'm a creative person. I could be sketching, painting, sculpting, or writing novels. But it just so happened that the events in my life have so far led me into music. And I'm quite enjoying it!

Is training necessary? I don't think so. If you have an idea in your head and you know how to notate it, I think you could be a fairly effective composer. After all, we all know what good music sounds to us. Still, I believe having at least basic knowledge in theory would speed up the process of writing down music, coming up with ideas and getting past writer's blocks, harmonization, etc. Honestly, though, I barely have any knowledge or training myself, but we all start somewhere and I'm self-studying to be a better composer.