Is there anyone here who can't read music?

I did something like that, with my "Nightingale's Theme" --- I improvised something, liked the sound, improved it for a little while, until I was totally satisfied (which was about a month later.)

...Then I wrote it down (three months later).

Do you mean that in the kind of composition y'all are talking about-you don't do much improvising? How do you do it? Do you think a melody up in your head? I am amazed at people who can do that.

When I compose, I just sit at the piano and let my hands mess around until I find something there that I like. I don't really think any of my melodies came from MY mind-I feel as if I recieve them by chance, though I am the one who develops them. There has been one song that came completely finished, note by note, chord by chord, and all "it" needed me to do was bring it out of the piano. Also- since I keep all the finished and unfinished songs in my memory (probably about 30-50 total) I have no way to check if they are exactly the way I first played them or decided I wanted them played-this means every time I play a song there will be slight variations, which I like. Not huge differences-nothing other people listening would be able to tell but I mean tempo, dynamic, rhythm, etc, and sometimes this leads me to a completely new melody.

I feel that if I wrote everything down, I would be limited in thinking I could make too many changes to the songs. Written music has too many rules for me, and I think if I wrote things down, I would be tempted to analyze them too much, and end up hating them.

That's pretty much the opposite of how I compose... I find that if I use a piano, I end up getting too repetitive (constantly going back to the same things over and over), spending too much time working out minute details, and stuff like that. I don't know how anyone comes up with a piece on the first go-around. As it is, I only have about one new musical idea every 2-3 weeks, so it's a lot easier to work from a planned structure where I can think about each idea when it comes and see if I can put it somewhere.

This is also probably why I've spent 4 years composing and I'm still working on my 3rd piece... but I don't see how I could go any faster, seeing as when I write music I usually hit writer's block after writing out about 5 seconds' worth of music.

I can't. Seems like everyone can. Does anyone play by ear, and compose?

I really don't think being able to read music is necessary, though I do understand basic music theory.

I couldn't read music untill i started lessons a few weeks ago, i still can't read it much, but i compose, and do everything by ear. I think if you do do it by ear, it helps you tremendously, and makes everything so much easier. But still, i can see how reading music really well, and to sight read, would help you a lot as well.

I can read music for guitar and violin equally well. Although I lack perfect pitch so I can't really right down exactly what I hear in my head, which is slightly annoying. I believe that reading music can give you a boost in alot of ways, too many to name one by one.

So, my take on it. Reading music is good