Today’s tip is not complicated.  I have just found that sometimes when I am composing I can get bogged down in small details that don’t matter that much in the early stages of writing a piece.  

My solution is something I call Rhythmic Sketching.  

It probably doesn’t even need a name, but that makes it sound more official I guess.  All it is is putting the rhythms in the score on random pitches and then going back later to figure out what the notes need to be.  

I think this is maybe something that I picked up from working with choreographers, because they’ll ask me for bah bah bah bah on and then I have to go back later and figure it out.  

So anyway, it’s not rocket science but for me it’s liberating to give myself permission to deal with it later, and then when I do go back with fresh ears I’ve already got that rhythm there as a starting point.