Pen, Pencil or Keyboard

When I’m online, I’m alone in a room, tapping on a keyboard, staring at a cathode-ray tube. — Clifford Stoll

Someone once asked me why I compose music in longhand rather than using computer music software such as Sibelius or Finale. I don’t do much of that kind of composing, and when I do I like to force myself to focus on what I have written, which helps me to fine-tune it and find mistakes. I need occasional reality checks when I write in different clefs and do transposing. Sometimes I get distracted and start writing the viola part in the violin clef, ­especially after a few drinks. When I have to copy the whole thing out by hand note-for-note,­ I see and hear the music again as though for the first time and spot weaknesses I might have overlooked and any just plain lazy writing. If I just had to hit a key and the whole thing reproduced itself automatically, it would be too easy to miss these kinds of problems. However, if I was writing out scores for a living daily I might…