Does anyone acctually write music anymore?

Illsidgus

Illsidgus

Desiccated Member
I like many song writers who write on the guitar will often times write down lyrics and chords when writing a song. When writing and instrument though I put pen to paper (figuratively) and score the song on the staff. I haven't uses actual pen and staff paper for a long time but I do use notation software to write out the notes.

Does anyone else do this?
 
I'll write short sections by hand as reminders. For one of my projects, I compose on paper (actually on notation software). For another, I compose and record and might not notate anything. My "hand" is, for all intents an purposes, illegible to anyone else and barely legible to me. It suffices for writing down brief ideas, but not much else. Notation software was a godsend for me.
 
PTravel said:
I'll write short sections by hand as reminders. For one of my projects, I compose on paper (actually on notation software). For another, I compose and record and might not notate anything. My "hand" is, for all intents an purposes, illegible to anyone else and barely legible to me. It suffices for writing down brief ideas, but not much else. Notation software was a godsend for me.
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You are one of the people here that I felt probably still knew how to write/score music. With the guitar ensemble I write I have to score them otherwise they would be a pointless exercise.
 
I scored the first song I ever wrote. That was in 76.

Around 2000 I bought a Sound Blaster sound card that came with a program called Cakewalk. It has a scoring app. I wrote a lot of music with that.

When I moved to a Tascam 2488 I didn't need to score anything. With multitrack it's so easy to lay down ideas and develop them at leisure. And with the internet, as soon as you post a recording it's like there forever.

I don't see the need to score anymore.

That don't sound right.
 
I scored the vocal part for a Smashing Pumpkins song out once because I wanted it to be our graduation song.

And that's about the only time I've scored music. I work mostly with rock/pop musicians, so when I need to share ideas, a chord chart and a scratch demo are usually the most effective way to go.
 
My optometrist does. I did until I stopped using Cakewalk. I just play the parts into channels now. I did a lot in high school with the big sheets, but that was late 70s.
 
I can't read music notation. A mate of mine that plays keyboards and with whom I played music for years was always saying to me "come on, I'll teach you how to read music. It's so easy." Of course, he'd been doing it for 35 years so I guess it was pretty easy.
But I've never needed to be able to read music. Modern music {ie since the start of the 20th century} has rarely needed it. That was the source of so much sniffiness between musicologists {mainly classically biased} and first jazz, then blues then rock'n'roll then pop. They refused to acknowledge that great music didn't have to be written down.
I did used to write down the notes for a friend of mine that played the flute though. I'd write down the notes and while the recording was playing, show her how it fitted. She always picked it up really quick, even when she was a kid.
For some years now, for both myself and anyone that has a specific part to play, I have a track on the multitrack with me humming that part. It may change a little when we actually come to record it {in my world, everything is subject to some spontaneous alteration} but by and large, the main notation exists on the multitrack, courtesy of my humming.
 
grimtraveller said:
I can't read music notation. A mate of mine that plays keyboards and with whom I played music for years was always saying to me "come on, I'll teach you how to read music. It's so easy." Of course, he'd been doing it for 35 years so I guess it was pretty easy.
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I understand what you are saying, I have learned many a song by listening to the recording. Having said that though, I started to learn to read music when I was seven years old, that was 54 years ago.

grimtraveller said:
But I've never needed to be able to read music. Modern music {ie since the start of the 20th century} has rarely needed it. That was the source of so much sniffiness between musicologists {mainly classically biased} and first jazz, then blues then rock'n'roll then pop. They refused to acknowledge that great music didn't have to be written down.
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Improvisations is the candy coating on the musical center. Uhhh, that was a bit corny.

grimtraveller said:
I did used to write down the notes for a friend of mine that played the flute though. I'd write down the notes and while the recording was playing, show her how it fitted. She always picked it up really quick, even when she was a kid.
For some years now, for both myself and anyone that has a specific part to play, I have a track on the multitrack with me humming that part. It may change a little when we actually come to record it {in my world, everything is subject to some spontaneous alteration} but by and large, the main notation exists on the multitrack, courtesy of my humming.
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For many years when I wrote a song I just wrote down chord progressions and lyrics and played them over and over so I would remember the melody. But when it comes to multi-part instrumental music, I have to write it out long hand (notation). I have also played euphonium in wind ensembles since I was ten years old. When you have a hundred people playing together, you need sheet music in front of you.

When all is said and done though, there were and still are many great musicians that could not read or write a single note but that didn't keep their genius from shinning through.
 
The greatest thing about early jazz was it's improv and flexibility. You used a standard riff/progression and "filled". Won a couple awards for jazz improv on the piano in high school. Was a lot of fun. OTOH, I started music lessons @ 4, was coached by some heavy hitters in the field at the time, and have no problem with reading music either. In one of my college courses, we had to sit down and write quartet parts without playing. Just theory and head instruments. I wrote mine for clarinet, oboe, sax, bari and scored well, but most just did the standard string quartet. My prof liked my "unique choice of instruments."
 
BroKen_H said:
The greatest thing about early jazz was it's improv and flexibility. You used a standard riff/progression and "filled". Won a couple awards for jazz improv on the piano in high school. Was a lot of fun. OTOH, I started music lessons @ 4, was coached by some heavy hitters in the field at the time, and have no problem with reading music either.
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In college I minored in music and really enjoyed conducting. Even now I enjoy following a full score while listening to classical pieces. One of my favorites to do this with is Shubert's Symphony No. 8 in B min.

BroKen_H said:
In one of my college courses, we had to sit down and write quartet parts without playing. Just theory and head instruments. I wrote mine for clarinet, oboe, sax, bari and scored well, but most just did the standard string quartet. My prof liked my "unique choice of instruments."
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Your quartet project does sound like it was fun and interesting. I like the instrumentation you chose. One of the projects I want to work on is to write a guitar piece with flute, trumpet and euphonium, should be fun. My daughter plays the flute and I play the guitar, trumpet and euphonium.
 
I am not versed in reading sheet music, so I definitely don't write a score for my music.
I do however tab out the parts for lead and bass guitar with a tab writing program. I also create a basic drum groove for the drummer to work with. I play all the parts for a rough track, then then everyone gets a copy with the tab sheet to learn their parts. Improvisation is highly encouraged amongst my band mates with new material.

Then we jam out, and wherever the song goes from there is all good!:guitar:
 
Greg_L said:
I write my songs in Cantonese.
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Then can you call for take out....?

:D


I don't score Rock/Pop songs.....but I do write out the lyrics/chords.
The last time I did actual scores for some of my songs was maybe 10-15 years ago.

Working alone for the most part....I really don't need to provide a lot of detailed instructions for anyone else....and when you do work with typical musicians that are not use to reading music....it's kinda pointless.
Most times....you play thro-ugh it a ocuple of times and everyone has a pretty good idea of the song.
 
It depends where I am or what I'm doing, but I write out notation all the time. It could just be a melody that I want to remember (sometimes I'll sing those into my iphone too), or it could be a complete score to parts on a song/project I'm working on. I do use notation software for my work sometimes, but I always prefer to put hand to paper when I'm not on the clock.
 
Illsidgus said:
Your quartet project does sound like it was fun and interesting. I like the instrumentation you chose. One of the projects I want to work on is to write a guitar piece with flute, trumpet and euphonium, should be fun. My daughter plays the flute and I play the guitar, trumpet and euphonium.
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Pitting the clarinet against its family member, the oboe and the alto sax against the bari sax and alternating the score to pit the oboe and the bari vs the alto and clarinet was great fun. I was actually pretty amazed at how it came together when we actually played the piece (I was a sax player in high school). Wish I still had it.
 
Illsidgus said:
I like many song writers who write on the guitar will often times write down lyrics and chords when writing a song. When writing and instrument though I put pen to paper (figuratively) and score the song on the staff. I haven't uses actual pen and staff paper for a long time but I do use notation software to write out the notes.

Does anyone else do this?
Click to expand...

I'll write out chord progressions by hand just so I can look at them on the staff and see if melody ideas pop out at me.

Sometimes I'll write out short segments.

I write out rhythms all the time, usually to figure out what the hell time signature they're in.
 
when at the university of leeds I got to conduct once and really enjoyed it, it was some baroque pieces like thomas tallis, purcell, bach. I rarely use actual scores if I'm honest even though I know how I would still rather record something instantly on a phone if I have an idea, there is the odd idea I have though that can only be written on a score because it's too intricate to sing, I just wish there was more of those moments where these melodies come from nowhere. I've got to admit it though as boring as it sounds, learning how to write music gave me a foundation and it has become very helpful now that I'm older even though people were calling me a geek at the time lol
 
I'm unschooled so I just record the music. I guess writing it down would be cool but it seems like such a hassle to learn
 
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