Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Composer's Lounge What writiing untensil do you use to compose music?

Pens, Fountain Pens, Calligraphy Pens, Pencils, etc?
Anything you may use to write music when you are not using a computer to do so?

Pencil. I used to use plain old pencils, but now I have a little assortment of mechanical ones, and I love trying out new ones. In the Olden Days, before computers, I used to write all my scores out in pen and ink. Those scores still look pretty good to me, though it's wonderful now, with Finale, to be near the bottom of a page and not to have to redo a whole page when you make a mistake!

The pen I used to use, by the way, was a bit like a calligraphy pen, except that it had a straight (not slanted) edge. I also worked as a copyist for some composers when I was a poor student - learnt a lot!

ONLY PENCIL! How dare you propose anything else? I actually don't think I remember how to use a fountain pen or a plain pen anymore... But, God, I love my pencils!

I use a specific brand (Q-Connect) that has a couple of great features: Doesn't break when sharpen (strong lead inside?), has a rubber that works quite well on the back (which actually can be extended if you cut off a small part of the metalic thing that holds it together), is HB but of great quality.

I'm a maniac...

can't write notes.. .so i play using a keyboard...*hides*

Soft lead pencil and a pile of erasers. But I rarely write music on anything but a computer these days.

Pencil when composing, of course. For score production you're welcome to file down a nib or two and get out the Indian Ink if you fancy it as a recreational craft. But, as you say, practically speaking it's now a computer job.

Spend a few hours laying out a fairly complex score in Sibelius or Finale, THEN tell me there's no skill or judgement required :-)

+1

Either a pencil or Sibelius (depending on where I am)...

Mechanical pencil with extra erasers at the ready. I only put stuff in the 'puter when it's ready.

Keyboard, fingers, and ears.

A black felt tip pen; thick enough to make clear notes and beams with a little pressure but fine enough to write stems and accidentals. I never write anything out until it is fully formed so errors and changes are rare. I white out the odd writing mistake.

Just pencil. Sometimes, I'm stuck with a pen, but not being able to erase is an incredible pain! For me, pencil-and-paper composing is for drafting ideas. Final editions always go into Finale, and often a lot of my composing happens with Finale at hand.

Pencil or Sibelius.

PENCILS PENICLS PENCILS!!!! What is the best computer software for composing? and where do you get it?

I don't know any that will do the composing for you! But if you compose something, Sibelius and Finale are the main programs for getting it written down neatly. Available at the usual suppliers of software (and read into that whatever you like :-)

Pencils, a sharpener, and part of the brain remembering where I keep the sharpener. I don't trust refillables.

Thank-You. lol I didnt mean that would compose for me, hehe that would be uncreative. I am not a neat and tidy composer. I will have to call the local software suppliers. Thank-You again.

Pencil, but I almost always use Sibelius. I love fountain pens for writing words, but I feel like it would be a nightmare with music--it would dry up all the time, because there's a lot of writing a little then stopping and writing a little more. If I wrote more by hand, I feel like a nice felt-tip calligraphy marker would be best, although scribbling is a lot messier than erasing.

I use whatever is handy I prefer to use a normal ballpoint pen, as that's what is lying around, but they usually end up dying on me, and I have to switch to pencil. Although for works for more than just a piano, I use Sibelius. xD

I would make a beautiful print out of this.. just for prosperity. it's very pretty