about composing

[liszmaninopin]

I have always wanted to compose, but a problem keeps blocking me.  I may hear music in my head, but I can almost never manage to transfer it to paper without either losing alot or spending an hour just figuring out one bar.  How does one write down music one hears in one's head?

[schnabels_grandson]

What I usually do when i'm struck with a musical idea is focus on what i'm hearing in my head then immediately sit down at the piano and play it out.  After i've got the first measure or so, I write it down.  If you write down the first part it will be easy to remeber the rest, in my experience at least.

[Daevren]

Writing down or playing what you hear comes from practice. Composing classical music is 10 times harder than playing it. You have to study all those scores, analyse them, do tons of counterpoint excersises, read alot of theory books...

I use my computer for composing. You can write down music and listen to it instantly.