First(ish) Composition - for newgrass quintet, any advice?

Being as obsessive as I am over newgrass and the overwhelmingly incredible musicians of the band "the Punch Brothers," whose music ranges from old school bluegrass to classical to what can only be described as rocking out on bluegrass instruments, and everything inbetween, and sometimes in the same song even (!), I've recently decided I want to compose a piece.

Chris Thile of the Punch Bros., the man most responsible for all these fanatical ambitions of mine, wrote a 45-minute work of music in 4 parts for bluegrass quintet (guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, and upright bass) which is one of the most groundbreaking musical compositions in recent history.

What *I* want to do, is to compose a mere 8-minutes of music for the same medium, and yet I'm growing ever more conscious of just how ambitious a project this is. I've never written anything for any instrument other than guitar, which I have now played for 11 years, and my only training is a fast-track music theory I & II course I took over a single semester of college.

However, if you would be so gracious as to allow me to toot my own horn but for a moment, I will say that I have an ear for harmony, and that music has been in my soul for as long as I can remember. I've collected what I call a series of "preliminary sketches" for this piece, melodic ideas plucked out on the guitar, and I intend to expand and build upon these for all 5 instruments, with as many edits and revisions as it takes. I'll be writing in Sibelius (a professional composition software package for the PC), just as soon as I can secure a copy.

Now, if I close my eyes and think very hard, I can hear all of the parts and write them in my head, I can even hear them interact in complex harmonies in my mind. The trouble is getting that on paper before I forget it.

So is my A in Theory II enough to send me on my merry way, or do you think that my ambitions are bordering on insanity at this point? Perhaps it's true that I'll never know until I try, but I was just wondering if any experienced composers around this forum had any advice in this matter, even if that advice is "you're in over your head."

I know that all instruments have their limitations, and it's fair to say I'm reasonably ignorant of them on the fiddle and double-bass especially, though I have played guitar, banjo, and mandolin some, and should at least have some idea of their respective limitations, although I'm not sure I'll be able to remember them while composing.

I'm planning on writing in the key of D, as it's my most familiar key on the guitar, and I've been amassing a playlist of musical influences and inspirations to set the correct mood and hopefully nudge me in the right direction, and jamming them on my iPod everywhere I go.

Any advice on anything at all would be greatly appreciated... such as where to start, how to work around the limitations on each of these instruments, how to keep my ambitions in check, what to put on my scrambled egg sandwich with toast, what have you. Gracias por adelantedo to all.

Well, you said you could hear the music in your head so I'm going to go straight to that. If you can hear the parts and even single them out then all you have to do is identify the intervals and since u want to play it in D just relate them to that and locate them. What you really need is ear training and you'll be successful in this task, unless you already know of something to help with that I would recommend looking for a book called Hearing and Writing music by Ron Gorow, it's helped me a lot with getting music from head to paper.

Oh and the egg sandwhich, I would recommend bacon, cheese, ham and some smoked Tabasco sauce.

While it's natural to feel daunted, your musical background and ear for harmony are valuable. Starting with preliminary sketches is a good move, but be prepared for a learning curve as you begin writing for multiple instruments.