# Why does my music sound different when I just write, vs when I play it first?



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I will have examples later, but I've often noticed that if I just write something that it often sounds different from my normal playing style, and I'm wondering if a: that's common? b:what may be behind the difference?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

When you play something and then transcribe it, your musical imagination is being based on your technique and propensities as a performer. You'll find certain shapes, chords, and so forth that feel right to you and use those. Writing on paper (or at a computer without a keyboard) will activate a different part of your musical imagination, and you'll find that your compositions will be different.


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

So, should I be using both tools? What you say makes a lot of sense by the way.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Manok said:


> So, should I be using both tools? What you say makes a lot of sense by the way.


Yes, both are VERY important (if you're also a musician) :tiphat:


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I am a classically trained pianist. . Thanks again for the advice.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

All my music as of yet has been written at the keyboard, but I kept a 'writing music journal' for a time and the results were occasionally interesting. When I stopped to ponder how things might work in functionally tonal or lightly contrapuntal ways, I produced a start to a piece that I certainly would not have just at the keyboard. It had perhaps a better theme/phrase, but the cost to my energy was great, and this was simply juggling two lines. Writing more freely onto the paper (even just as a rough beginning to a longer process) is not something I can yet comfortably do.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Manok said:


> So, should I be using both tools? What you say makes a lot of sense by the way.


You may come by a method that utilizes both eventually. Definitely as a student and music lover desirous of deepening your knowledge of craft and artistry, many of us(especially me!) could use more interest in all the processes. We can afford to have that focus at the expense of a product, whenever we wish to develop ourselves and our ideas.

Of course, if you have an idea you really like, one way to go about constructing a better piece might be to widen and diversify your compositional process. Sketching on paper(sometimes without tapping into detailed aural imaginings, it can practically become a visual exercise), piano tinkering, straight improvising, entirely mental aural imagination, singing in the shower, day dreams, and funny side concepts, working out physically before you do any of this, jumping into freezing water(I'm starting to get carried away)..: it's all fair game and over a period of however long you desire/need.


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