Composing : Sound or Soundless by Joel Irwin

The question is how do you codify your music. Back in the 'old days' to write music, composers either used their preferred instrument (piano, harpsichord, guitar, violin, etc.) or they did so in their head 'sounding' the notes. And no matter how they 'envisioned' the notes, there was still the process of describing the note length and the various ways to articulate the sound. Nowadays with samples/samplers, vsts, etc. it has become 'easier' for those who write music to envision the manifestations of the sound - even if the sound will eventually 'transfer' to a live musician.

In depictions of the early 20th century songwriters or earlier classical composers in film, we often see them writing music directly on paper without first 'sounding' them on an instrument. Many of the composing teachers I have studied under could write whole pieces of music without outwardly hearing anything at all.

So how do you compose. As I do not have perfect (or perhaps not even relative) pitch :) , but having had all the years of formal ear training or the dozens of transcriptions I have done, I can not sound a whole piece in my head even given the initial note. So I make a stab at it using my second and third fingers tapping to determine the note durations. I then play it back on a sampled piano (or the instrument it will eventually sound on) and make any corrections). More often than not, I get 1/2 to 3/4 of the notes correct. If I have any 'errors' it is often putting 1/8 or 1/16th notes in the wrong spot and I need to move them over slightly left or right to get the rhythm correct.

So how do you get what's in your head onto your sheet or piano roll? Are you blessed with perfect pitch and rhythm and can get it out correctly on the first time without hearing a thing? If not, what techniques do you use to make sure what was in your head ends up as you envisioned it - either as correct notations or bars with appropriate midi commands in your piano rolls?