Here's what I've got.
/First of all, let me admit up front that doing this makes me very nervous, but it is important for any readers of my book and this blog to see how crappy my workflow is and yet I keep hacking away at any music I’m working on until it works.
Back when I was composing semi-regularly, I would post all my ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS and bitch and moan about how hard it was. I would also, of course, post my successes. The point was that if I, as an untrained composer, could produce some of the stuff I’ve produced, then why shouldn’t you compose that song, write that novel, paint that Ultimate Lichtenbergian Portrait, etc.? (This was over at my personal blog, dalelyles.com, before I wrote Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy and moved most of my creative meanderings here.)
At this point, it’s been a while since I’ve tried to compose anything. My last “major” piece was Azure Stone in 2023. I’ve whacked out a couple of Little Waltzes, but those are almost trivial, just kind of a way to keep calling myself a composer — “Of course I can write 120 seconds or less of a single piano waltz, what, are you crazy?,” that kind of thing.
It has been borne upon me more and more that if I am ever going to write more music, I’d better get started, and so now you get to follow along as I try to unclog that portion of my brain that used to find this sort of thing a lot easier. (N.B.: That is not true; it was always a struggle.)
Here’s the way I work: I pull up my music layout program — currently MuseScore Pro** — and start noodling around. I’ll plop down some chords or a melodic fragment and play with it. Soon I’ll hit a bump, so I leave a measure or two blank, add a double bar, and start a new ABORTIVE ATTEMPT. (In the original Ten Little Waltz abortive attempts file, there were more than thirteen such attempts.)
What we have here is two such. The first one sucks so bad — how bad does it suck, Dale? — it sucks so bad that I had to squeeze out another ABORTIVE ATTEMPT just not to be as embarrassed as I could have been when I posted it. It is execrable.
The second one, though, has promise. Is it finished? Nope. Do I know what happens next? Not yet; my brain is still trying to pin down a shinyperfect to tease me with.
So here you go, a ringside seat for the agony that is the composition process. You may wish to keep a copy of the Lyles Scale of Compositional Agony handy as we progress, if that’s the word I’m looking for.
Abortive attempts for a Little Waltz, tentatively titled “Meditatively”: score [pdf]
Remember: Neither of these are great. The first one sucks. The second shows promise.
Now we wait for the composer to astonish us.
**BTW, MuseScore — If I’ve chosen your grand piano as my instrument, and I’m using my MIDI keyboard to noodle around, shouldn’t your grand piano sustain the tone as long as I’m pressing the keys? You know, like a piano? That it doesn’t is not a point in your favor.
