Composing : Do you hear music fully formed—or discover it while writing? by Kat Spencer

Actually I start hearing music ideas and themes when first speaking with the director as they describe the story and main characters. From there I can start putting together themes even before seeing the visuals.

It depends on the kind of lyrics I'm writing. I always begin writing songs with lyrics. I can imagine a melody in my mind after I've finished the lyrics. If it's a slow melody, I imagine piano or keyboard. If it's a more upbeat song, I imagine guitar, drums, harmonica, sometimes saxophone.

I'm a pantser in screenwriting and composing. I'm usually the one who is most surprised at the end of a composition!

In my next life I want to be a fly on Jacob Collier’s shoulder.

I'm more of a screenwriter than a song writer, but I do write poems and songs sometimes, out of interest and it varies sometime its the cue, sometimes note by note or many different notes merged together and sometimes the lyrics and the concept and then the musicals.

Visual material and scripts give me fuzzy ideas but it's not really musical, rather I feel beats and what kind of instruments I'll choose, whether it's fully orchestral or blended with synthesizers, voices, traditional instruments. Then I put myself behind the keyboard, and very often, the timbre of the instruments lead me to ideas that I develop further until I have the full score. But for every single project I make, I always have the fear of the blank page, and I'm myself highly surprised by the result.

I’m a bit late to this thread, but for what it’s worth I always discover musical ideas while writing. I might have an idea (e.g. I want something staccato and jolly sounding) beforehand – but I have never been one of those people who hears tunes in his head, and the only bit left to do is write it down. Whenever I have tried to work that way, the process of transcribing that tune in my head to paper or keyboard has never translated perfectly. The subsequent piece may be good (or not, you decide!) but it’s often a little, or a lot, removed from what I was thinking.

I usually sit down at a keyboard, detach my brain as much as possible, and let my fingers discover the piece.

Ditto to that Libby Wright !!!

That's exactly how I compose Thomas Owen!