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Hi Everyone,

Maybe someone here has a position on if it is worthwhile to compose while not inspired. Temporarily I am in an absence of being in such a state as a composer of music, which happens from time to time over the years, during which any results of composing would not be particularly inviting even to myself. Yet I do get some ideas of less urgent interest, maybe suitable as Diversions nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, et c. - I can always hear such music in my mind. Maybe it is best to continue to not compose at all? This lull has been a long one, since May 28 of 2013. I don't doubt that I will intersect with the forces of inspiration compositionally again, perhaps I am just impatient though there is concern that one's compositional equipment may became less able to properly hear and transcribe the music during too long a period of disuse.

I realize that this is not a normal method of composition with which there is much familiarity, yet maybe some composers here will have a viewpoint on this.

To write out reams of diversions doesn't seem that it would be a productive use of time.

Hi Michael,

For me composing is an arduous process. It's not that I have any difficulty stringing notes together, it's that I want those notes to mean something. For example I posted a nocturne for the summer composition competition. It's fairly derivative of Chopin, but that now has in my mind the idea to compose a nocturne that goes in a different direction. That may be my next piece.

The challenge is to find a purpose for the music you would make the effort to compose. It can be a musical challenge, it can be an emotional expression, and the best music has aspects of both. I often find the emotional expressions more compelling. In another message you shared some of your frustrations with a governmental process. How does that make you feel? Might that fear, frustration and anger serve as catalyst to new musical expression?

If you want to take composing seriously, then the answer is yes, it is worthwhile to compose even if you are not feeling inspired. As someone whose income comes only from writing music, I can say that a lot of the time I am not feeling very inspired at the start of the day, but that doesn't mean I can just skip work that day. Deadlines are not set by inspiration, deadlines are set by performance/recording dates and the piece has to be ready by then, regardless of my state of inspiration.

However, most of the time inspiration will come through hard work. Quite a few times I've found myself in the situation where early on in the process I feel that it's hopeless, all ideas are rubbish and I will never have the piece finished in time. But the ideas feel boring mostly because they are still at a very early stage of development. Once I take one of those ideas, put some work into it and develop it further, I usually become inspired, because through hard work the idea has developed into music that inspires me. When this stage is reached, the remainder of the process is often a lot easier.

If you are not feeling inspired, but want to write music, set a goal for yourself. For example to write one minute of music every day. Then you write it, no matter if it is good or it is bad. If it's bad you can forget about it and write something else the next day. Some days you might stumble onto something that inspires you to work on it further, then you can continue with that the next day (or the same day if inspiration pushes you forward). But most importantly, you will be writing music and learning by doing so. Composition, like any other subject, requires practice. And who knows, maybe something that starts out as a diversion could develop into something much bigger in the end.

A very quick hello to RogerW. It's been so long since I last saw you. Hope you stick around!

Hmm... no wave smiley available... But hello to you too Nikolas! Yes, haven't been around in a few years. I'll try to check in more often.

Unless it is your source (or one of your sources) of income, then I don't see why you have to. It's not like you're going to forget how to write music if you're not doing it constantly. I started composing again about two months ago after a four year hiatus and if anything, I came back better than I was before. Music is a way of sharing complex ideas and emotions that can't otherwise be expressed, and if at the current time you don't have anything in particular you feel worth expressing, then there's nothing wrong with taking a break.


Personally, I can't say that I agree with this entirely. Of course if you don't feel there is any inspiration behind them, then yes I completely understand what you mean. However, I think if there is some inspiration or expression behind them, then that's a good enough reason to write them down. Whether you merely just write down melodies or lines or even just chords that convey certain musical textures, there is some value in keeping these and playing through them in the future.

I feel, as a composer, if a musical thought or idea conveys some sort of emotion, image or musical feeling, there is nothing more gratifying than seeing it written on a piece of staff paper, even if I know from the start that I will never turn it into a full piece of music. I think as long as there is some inspiration behind such work, then it is never unproductive, and recording such diversions can only benefit you.

Don't force yourself to compose if you don't feel it is worthwhile at the moment, because then it may become a chore. However, don't let yourself be discouraged from composing because you don't feel like certain ideas are important enough.

Best of luck! I'd be interested in hearing some of your works in the future.

-William

Composition is a trade, and as such is mainly treated similarly to cabinet-making. If you're doing it for a living, you turn out cabinets whether you feel like it or not. If it's your avocation, you can noodle around at it as you feel like it.

The "art" part of composition is moot. We could debate about this forever and not resolve it, but I personally don't believe that art exists, while others can be rather touchy on the subject. In many ways it can be compared to the belief/non-belief schism, with a good many faith-types falling into the "art" camp.

Composition is such a personal thing that I often wonder if it's a good thing trying to give advice. For myself it's a matter of work and work-habits, but I know many people, many of whom are very good musicians, for whom this doesn't work at all.

If one is capable one should be able to compose when not inspired. The compositions produced may not be particularly strong, but it is possible to compose competently and even well.

The answer for me is a resounding yes. I am relatively new to piano, but have been writing songs for some time. There was a long time period when I wrote maybe one song a year, only writing when inspired. What changed was participating in an immersion group where everyone wrote constantly, and that jump started my writing.

If I only wrote when strongly inspired, I would likely be doing one song or composition a year or less. During my 2+ years learning piano, only one short phrase from one composition felt inspired. The rest, I see as creations of working at the craft and dedicating time to the task.

Most responding here are not beginners, but many beginners are reading along. For beginners, I strongly suggest writing music as a habit. Writing music every day, like many successful prose writers write prose every day. As with many things in music, there is no right or wrong answer.

A loose analogy is the musician that only practices when they feel like it. A few super passionate musicians might get away with that because of their deep love of music. Most of the rest would be absolute hacks because most days they don't feel like practicing.

Stravinsky wrote his Symphony in C when things were going very badly for him. If I'm remembering rightly, he had lost a daughter to illness. But you'd never know the circumstances of his life from the music.

Hi Steve,

The primary catalyst is awareness of the passage of time. Though rare, even men my age have heart attacks and significant unexpected illnesses, and just being aware that for all I know I could be "gone" tomorrow is a fairly incisive spurn to frenetically notate when the force is strong.

It is difficult to explain but there is an area which is music outside of any conceptualization and that is where inspiration can intersect to produce music. Focus on specific emotions take one away from that area, it is more about inner quiet and stillness to achieve a certain type of listening for the music . . . the music might be funereal, etheric, or what not, but oneself isn't feeling any of those emotions except in response to the music being heard and notated (not the other way around). It is a total reversal of the normal cause and effect.

Thanks for the encouragement, I might have a look at using a normal emotional impetus to compose, the issue might be that I don't experience much strong emotion anymore and have become a bit of a stoic. As with the frustration involving that governmental process, who knows how I would have reacted ten years ago, but now it is relatively subdued though persistently distracting. I don't think any government owns me but sometimes a government's processes and decisions seem ignorant of this cause and effect: in Europe and the U.S. we own the governments, not the other way around, the ultimate accountability is from "them" to "us".

On the positive side, maybe being at times relieved of the burden to compose is a good thing? It isn't as though there isn't a lot of piano practice to do and various projects to follow through on such as recording some of your music.

Hi Roger,

Thanks for the reply and the insights, yes I do take composing seriously though not for myself as a profession, with me musical honesty is helped by having music divorced from money.

About doing something everyday or on demand regardless of variation of quality I can think of a few piano recitals when my playing was off interpretively and sounded a bit "flat", but I couldn't just not show up because my mind was distracted and I wasn't in the mood.

I might just need to be more persistent with composing during these lulls, maybe there have been days recently when I was inspired in that way but did not realize it as I didn't sit down, focus and give it a go. The force has been acutely strong recently which has added to the puzzlement.

Maybe I am "composed out"!

(no, you are right, I should give it some time every day rather than just waiting to see what happens)

Thanks to everyone else as well for the replies!

Some days, I only write a few measures before I get bored and feel I've exhausted myself. Sometimes I write a roughly two-minute long piece in an hour. I'm not a "seasoned" composer, so I don't know the complicated musical components that I can 'use'.

I usually start my pieces with a theme that I get stuck in my head. I am often conjuring up melodies in my head and then I just memorize them until I get home and write them out in Finale. Then I work on it some more there or save it for later.

The problem with "saving it for later" is that all but the best composers will never come back to what they have saved. The better thing to do is make it into a complete piece, however short.

I don't know about that.

At least based on my own experience, I have various notes, drafts, ideas and other stuff hanging around which are certainly not complete. I'm just looking for the right opportunity to revisit them again. Had I completed them in that "untimely" fashion I wouldn't look back, but it would've been a shame to "lose" them.

... I think

I don't know what you're talking about. Lose them?

I have boxes full of odds and sods that I've saved for later. I go through them from time to time to see if any ideas are similar to others in terms of construction, and often I'll fit ideas together that represented different approaches to solving posers that pop up during the process of writing.

I began doing this a very long time ago when writing counterpoint. Very often when writing counterpoint, you (speaking only for myself) hit a crossroads where your composition could go in very different directions. Sometimes I'd try one direction, end up being stumped, set that one aside, try something else, and end up with one solution that worked, and many that didn't, but often held tantalising possibilities that kept me coming back and working on them a little at a time.

I defer to gsmonks since he knows all.

Well. If I finish a composition I won't go back to it. If it remains in a state of a "draft" I will revisit it until I consider it done.

Then you are the exception rather than the rule, but surely, if a composition is finished, it is anything but lost?