Sketchy

I hear alot of beginning composers asking how to start writing, or what is the right way to start. The answer is, "you just start" -- but that's probably a little too Zen for the room, and isn't all that helpful if you're trying to find your bearings on a new piece.

Every time I ever sat down with a big sheet of manuscript paper and decided to WRITE, it's turned out disasterously -- by that, I mean the piece never got finished. Eventually, I was too intimidated by filling in blank page after blank page.

The blank page is as daunting as you make it -- I've heard about one composer who writes at the top of each page "nobody cares", just to dispell the notion that what he's writing really matters. I understand the reasoning, but I find that a little dismal and defeatist. I prefer my mother's favorite analogy: how do you eat an elephant? The answer is: one bite at a time.

Every piece of music I write begins with a sketch, and I don't confine myself to a set process or style of sketching. I just try to get down the aspects of the piece that come the easiest to me, with the notion that I'll fill in the blanks later. The sketch could be a "lead sheet", with the basic tune and chord changes, or maybe even just the tune. It could be a kinda topographical timeline, where I try to draw a line that represents the texture and shape of the overall piece. It could be a list of descriptions of musical events I want to happen within the piece, or it could be a few parts I've banged out into a sequencer. Whatever it is, it's the start of a plan, and I continue to develop that plan until I'm ready to actually engage that dreaded blank page. And by that time, my intentions are so clear in my own mind, that I really am just filling in those blanks!