bairdmusic: The Process of Composing

Composing piano songs requires a balance of art and science, theory and practice. Every composer's approach is a little different, and songs come in different ways. Some songs come all at once, and it's hard to explain the feelings that accompany that kind of inspiration. But most of the time songs require extensive work over a period of weeks or months. Sometimes I write songs entirely by ear, and other times I employ music theory techniques such as moving from one key to another via a circle of fifths progression. In this article I'm going to give an overview of the steps I typically take when writing a new song.

When I began composing several years ago I purchased an electronic keyboard with a midi interface and hooked it up to my computer. I wanted to be able to play sections of music and have them "automatically" notated. However, I quickly discovered that, for me, the most difficult part of transcribing music composed "by ear" into standard notation is capturing the correct rhythm. Midi software can record the right notes, but I found it difficult to play smoothly enough to allow the midi software to record the correct rhythms. So I decided to purchase a program called "Sibelius" to help me write music. It was expensive (around $400), but of all the software programs I tried it was the easiest and most powerful. (There is a program called Finale that was my second choice.)

At first I attempted to compose in Sibelius by sitting at the computer and arranging notes, but I quickly discovered that I produce higher quality music when I'm sitting at a piano than when I'm sitting at a computer. So I started writing songs with a pencil and music paper, then used Sibelius to notate and create the final arrangement.

I'm currently working on a song called "Surrounded." I started writing it about two months ago, and have only written 17 measures so far. Normally I would finish writing the song on paper before transcribing it into Sibelius, but I decided to use the measures I've written so far to illustrate the process I use for composing. Here is a scan of the music I wrote while sitting at my piano:

In the initial writing stages, for purposes of speed, I typically focus on the melody and just use chord symbols for the left hand. (In a future blog entry I'll address the question of which should come first, melody or harmony.) Occasionally I write down a specific harmony part that uniquely identifies the song, but most of the time I wait until later in the process to develop a more complete harmony.

Here's a screen shot of Sibelius in the initial writing stage: