# How much do you work ?



## Praeludium (Oct 9, 2011)

Hello,

how much do you work on composing ? Do you work everyday ? Four hours per day ? Once in a while ? Do you prepare you piece (finding the harmony, ideas, making a plan, etc.) and then write everything down ? etc.










I must say I'm not as dedicated to composing as I'd like. I just haven't taken this habit yet, so it's not everyday, and sometimes I just do not write anything personal (eg. no harmony or counterpoint work) for weeks or months, because I just don't take the time (I definitely have it) to sit down and work even one hour or two everyday. It's just stupid but I don't the habit to work on something else than the instrument in music - because I've never done it much I guess. 
That's also because I sometimes feel just listening and understanding music makes me a better composer - at my level. But I'm sure that if I wrote it'd be ten times more efficient.
I do not prepare my work that much. Mainly my method is to write, check at the piano, write, check at the piano. I use the piano a lot, to find the vertical color I want, and I also often tap and sing for myself lol.


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## Davincii (Feb 17, 2012)

I listen to a lot of Baroque music and get some ideas in my head, tap out melodies as I'm listening to the music. Sometimes I find alternative melodies to what I hear in some pieces and make a mental note of them. 

I open Sibelius and start composing. Soon after writing the first couple of bars, I can't proceed any further because I've realised what I'm composing is nothing compared to the great Handel, Bach or Vivaldi. I'm now demotivated and continue listening to music. 

These creative periods come every now and then. Although the fact that I'm attempting to compose only affirms that I can't compose and I should stop trying. Perahps until I've read up on harmony and counterpoint, though that'll never happen!

There's already a plethora of Baroque music to choose from so I'm not going to waste my time composing and spend my time listening to the REAL music instead!


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I usually work when I know I have to whether it be 15 hours a day for two weeks in order to write an act for an opera or a few hours every few days sketching a symphony. I spend a lot of time procrastinating when I have to enter a composition competition and I would rather compose something other than the music I have to enter !

I usually at least think about my compositions in my head and working out some of the things I'd like to do that way before I even start planning a work. Once I think up the basic composition, I go create a very rough outline of what happens at what point in the piece and then make more plans getting more and more detailed so when I go and write the first note of the _actual_ composition on manuscript paper I know what I'm going to do so well that I can just sit and write and the music just seems to flow out onto the paper.


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## StevenOBrien (Jun 27, 2011)

I compose almost every day, and work until I feel as though there's nothing constructive left that I can do at that moment. I seem to go through a sort of cycle. There are periods when I can work non-stop on something and ideas just flow out of my head, and then there are times when I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing (and the results of composing during this period certainly reflect this ).

Generally all I need to start is an initial idea, either generated through a random idea that comes into my head, improvisation or construction, and the rest mostly just flows naturally (excluding parts that are more harmonically or contrapuntally complex and need to be worked at). Once that's done, I'll critically go back over it many times over the course of a number of days and make corrections here and there until it sounds as good as I can possibly make it. Too much correcting can actually make the piece sound worse.

I find it's like making a sculpture, you chisel out a rough version of the figure you're creating and then start chiseling out the details until you're satisfied. One could theoretically continue with the detailing process forever. There's no "perfect" version of the piece waiting to be finished, you just continue up until the point where it's not practical to try detailing it any further. At least that's how I've experienced it.


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

it helps to know when you produce your best work. down times need to be used for tedious things like proofreading, macro-scale planning, and reviewing rather than creating.


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

so I had a significant amount of caffeine for the first time in a few years. Won't be doing it again, I felt like I've had a relapse of a hard drug. I've had less than 100 mg (usually have about 1/4 of that a day) in the past 24 hours and I don't like it one bit from just that. It's very empowering to know that I won't need to be one of those people that _need_ a daily coffee to function.

Until scientists figure out if the benefits of daily coffee is from caffeine or the phytos, I'll be fine having hardly any caffeine per day (mostly from green tea and dark chocolate). My work productivity was not all that much better, it was more stressful, what I wrote wasn't somehow better than my non-influenced works, I don't like the jitters or things messing with my brain chemistry in such extreme manners, etc.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Rarely. 

I have trouble with motivation.


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## StevenOBrien (Jun 27, 2011)

chee_zee said:


> so I had a significant amount of caffeine for the first time in a few years. Won't be doing it again, I felt like I've had a relapse of a hard drug. I've had less than 100 mg (usually have about 1/4 of that a day) in the past 24 hours and I don't like it one bit from just that. It's very empowering to know that I won't need to be one of those people that _need_ a daily coffee to function.
> 
> Until scientists figure out if the benefits of daily coffee is from caffeine or the phytos, I'll be fine having hardly any caffeine per day (mostly from green tea and dark chocolate). My work productivity was not all that much better, it was more stressful, what I wrote wasn't somehow better than my non-influenced works, I don't like the jitters or things messing with my brain chemistry in such extreme manners, etc.


Well, it worked for Beethoven.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Not nearly enough to be any good.


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## Tomposer (Jul 9, 2011)

In my effort to visit this site more regularly I'm going to start with threads that are easy to answer. I like to work on composition between 4 and 8 hours a day. This has some qualifying factors though - I haven't always been in the position to put in so much time, and also, much of my music is a long way from being "concert music for acoustic instruments" (aka Art Music).

I'm of the opinion that most of us do not require an innate talent so much as a period of our lives where we can seriously and habitually dedicate ourselves to the task, because a good composer is (more often than not) someone who has been able to spend thousands of hours practicing.

This is daunting to some people, but I find it encouraging, as someone who was not identified as having any exceptional musical abilities in my childhood and teens (except maybe by my mum). I certainly think composition is something that can bloom in one's thirties or later.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

1h-2h, rest of my free time i spend to master my main instrument ( guitar).


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## etkearne (Sep 28, 2012)

Right now, composing (both classical and for my band) is my full time job, so I work from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm seven days per week. Any less and I get antsy and full of ideas. Any more and I get literally exhausted, as I can write like a nutcase in terms of output per day (and how it sounds....).


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

When I have to study less then I will be able to compose at a rate more to my tastes. However then I will have to worry about money etc. Why ever did they get rid of the patronage system?


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