What do you compose with?

sheet, paper and keyboard my friend

the only way

I can never use sheet music. I can barely read music so for me to write it down on paper would be nerve racking since I do everything by ear. At least on the computer I can find the notes and that I am thinking of and I always know what it is going to sound like when I am done.

How do you know what it sounds like if you dont use a program? I dont think my mind is smart enough to just use pencil and paper

You answered your own question.

I suggest to everyone of you to use pen(cil) and paper

hard word hard work hard work! only hard work will get you far.

what javileru said

I use all that. I wrote my cello and baryton piece completly in color ink... great results... but expensive in copies ! ehehe Otherwise, I use Finale 2007 and other more specialised programs to work the materials that I don't work by hand. Of course, every electroacoustic stuff cannot be written by hand and paper ! ;)

I've always seen that amateur and young composers think it is not 'professional' to write music directly from brain to the computer (via Finale or Sibelius). They think it is only acceptable to write it with manuscript first. But I just met my new teacher this year, Kevin Puts, who is a professional composer. He has won many awards and is constantly being commissioned to write pieces. He doesn't use manuscript, however. He writes directly into Sibelius, which I was shocked to hear. He likes how easy it is to edit, and how easily you can hear the timeline of your piece as you go along, rather than trying to imagine it all in your head. But I have not yet asked him whether he thinks his music is affected by it.

There's no particular reason why I'm saying this, I just thought someone might think it interesting.

As I said before, my reason for not composing directly to Sibelius is not a question of professionalism. I prefer not to hear what I'm composing, because it ends up only distracting me; and I also like to spread the entire score out and see the big picture, which can't be done on a computer.

Notes