the challenge of composing

[sumpianodude]

i was writing the other day and i decided i wanted something to sound a different way. i tried to put it in paper but got something completely different(which i was not satisfied with,  but couldn't change) when i kind of played it out.
so my question:
is it harder for you to make up the music(melody, harmony, counter melody, chrod progression/modulations, etc)
or
is it harder for you to get the effect of the music(i.e. tone/mood, style, certain voice balance aspects, or even just a rumble) down on paper?
the ladder is much harder to explain, so i hope you understand what i mean.
of course, the effect thing sort of comes with experience(knowing what certain chord variations sound like in context to others). but that doesn't make it less challenging. the former comes more with familiarity.

[j_tour]

Interesting question.

Yeah, I guess coming up with the ideas, i.e., "making it," is the big issue.

For me, writing it down is not a problem, not because I have golden ears, but that I've been transcribing things since I was a toddler -- chord progresssions, scalar improvisations by jazz saxophonists/guitarists/horn players/pianists, chord voicings.

For me, composing has always been basically making contrafacts that get the job done, but the work of real composers is a little bit more. 

Well, we all can't do everything, so that's my answer. 

[minhogang]

To write it.
I've had some great ideas when I'm very awake mentally, or "in the mood". If I can somehow write my best ideas in paper, with good musical form is the problem. I'm not alone in this, even non-professional music dilettantes have this phenomenon where they can mentally conjure up amazing musical ideas spontaneously but fail to write or remember it. Even if I did remember it, writing would be hard. You have to be careful of form, harmony, possible dissonances, etc. all while maintaining your melody you imagined. This I believe comes from experience and academic study of music theory.

Ironically most composers have their best ideas outside of the piano, such as Beethoven's writing of the pastoral and onwards, where he spent very little time near the piano (particularly of deafness) and outside in nature. Mozart recalled having his best ideas walking outside after a good meal.

[j_tour]

I've always been fascinated by the bit of lore that Messiaen used to carry around a little notebook of staff paper and notate what he heard, you know like birds and stuff.

Does anyone know of a good, sort of state-of-the-art authoritative book about Messiaen's practice?  Obviously, he was a guy who lived in interesting times and had diverse interests, so it's kind of hard to find specific details, since so much has been written about him.

[sumpianodude]

To write it.
I've had some great ideas when I'm very awake mentally, or "in the mood". If I can somehow write my best ideas in paper, with good musical form is the problem. I'm not alone in this, even non-professional music dilettantes have this phenomenon where they can mentally conjure up amazing musical ideas spontaneously but fail to write or remember it. Even if I did remember it, writing would be hard. You have to be careful of form, harmony, possible dissonances, etc. all while maintaining your melody you imagined. This I believe comes from experience and academic study of music theory.

you just described me here
terrible to remember that you had a good melody but not remember what it was.

[beethovenfan01]

Well, writing is harder ...

Concerning making and remembering a melody:

If I come up with a melody that seems great at the time but I cannot remember later, it probably wasn't worth remembering anyway ...

Maybe I just tell myself that so I'll feel better about forgetting something potentially legendary!!!