Which do you find harder when composing: starting a new piece or finishing one?
Composing : Starting vs. Finishing by Kat Spencer
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4 people like this
Starting by far! Once I get my writing groove or rhythm going I don’t usually have a problem finishing, but finding that musical idea that’s inspiring and sets all that in motion is what’s difficult for me and can be time consuming!
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Mark Gosney Do you have a trick to get yourself going?
5 people like this
I just write lyrics. When I write a song I can immediately write a new one. The most I ever wrote in one day was 18. I was a busy guy.
3 people like this
I haven’t at this point figured out what triggers that other than a lot of hard work and trial and error! I don’t struggle to create good ideas but finding the correct musical idea that sets the scene and naturally leads me to the rest of the composition is the hard part. At times it can happen fastener but typically not. I’ve heard John Williams even talk about this very thing as well saying “a lot of times it come down to a lot of hard work”.
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For me, finishing is much harder than starting. With orchestral compositions, I often begin with a part of the piece, sometimes just a hazy fragment, in my head, but endings are always tricky: should it end with power, or return to calm? I sometimes spend as much time on the last eight bars as on the rest of the piece...