"After playing the keyboard intensely since 1991, I have come to
the conclusion that composing music really has much less to do with manuscripts or notes
on a page, and a lot more to do with "originating" what is being heard.
Manuscripting is a useful method of communicating to the
musician who is skilled at reading and interpreting what a composer intended for a
particular instrument.
Composing
and recording a piece of music by writing notes and instructions for its performance on
paper, was the only method available in recent centuries. Certainly it is reliable method
and it has stood the test of time. But from the point of view of composing, it is a very
slow and tedious method, which can interfere with "the spontaneous creative
flow".
There has been a rather gigantic development for composing and recording
musical works over the last 40 years or so.
Sequencers with
real time recording facilities have made their
appearance. They are gradually replacing the method of manuscripting in musical
composition.
Because
synthesization of
the voice of a recognized instrument, or the sampling of the 'voice' of a
particular instrument is now technically possible, a composer can become immersed into the
mind-space of a musician playing that particular kind of musical voice with a 'hands-on'
instrument, while in the "moment" of composition. This leaves the focus of the
composer's attention on capturing the musical message rather than on playing a wide
variety of musical instruments, or slowing to the demands and possible limitations
of manuscripting.
The main requirement for the synthesizer
method of composing is familiarity with a
key-board.
However there is an industry out there that demands manuscipts. So
after composing you will be learning how to use programs that
"listen" to your music - perhaps by track at a time, and writes the
music with all the necessary notation onto manuscripts for the
orchestra and interested musician.
