This is just a general question, but how many people who improvise to compose find it always works? And does anyone ever sit down at a piano/keyboard and come up with an entire song on the spot? And does improvisation involve choosing chords and making random melodies? (I'm sure it does, but is this what most people use?)

Sometimes I improvise to explore the music, then I take the bits that sound nice to add to my composition.

I think few people improvise entire songs. Using improvisation to write music is usually used to find what chord progression you want to use, or what sounds you want to go for. I use it to determine what kind of style, feel, and color my tunes have. It's just a tool

I'm confused - don't people usually improvise to create?

Or do all you guys sit down with paper and write down the notes all first? I don't know - I can't read or write sheet music, so I don't know how exactly it works, but can you really tell what it would sound like just from the marks on the paper, without actually hearing it being played? Or do you think up a tune in your head in full and then write it down?

When I create something, or when I'm improvising, I usually take only one or two elements of what I've played, or maybe none of it, or maybe most of it, and add it onto something else I'm creating. Or would you count this as not a real improvisation because I've only selected specific bits, and not let the whole thing stand as a piece in its own right?

Thanks,

Jack

I personally really suck at improvising.

When I'm composing I find that it's best to think what atmosphere, mood etc. you want to create. Then, using notes and chords that are best suited to making it happen, putting it together on paper or playing it out on an instrument.

Music created spontaneously is sometimes great (sometimes it's, well, not) but it's just a personal preference thing.

With my first 3 songs I improvised melodies on a keyboard and these where low brass arangments! and now I am heading for the big stuff....right now Im writting a song a bout the frist few years of WWII and ending with a Battle Theme for DDay and Im using improv on my Trombone and a Piano for now!

So yeah I basically use Improv to write my stuff!

It can, but not everybody's that good at it. I like to sit at a piano and improvise for hours, but not being able to improvise doesn't necessarily make you a bad musician either.

Improvisation...You just play your instrument...What comes out is ,sometimes,worth writing down on paper...It's all about the mood you're in.
To write it down from scratch...you've got to have a pretty good ideea of what it should sound like + ... perfect pitch

Beethoven wrote the 9th Symphony when he was basically deaf. He could not have improvised anything audible. It is pretty clear that he knew what he was hearing in his head, but the song writing itself probably relied heavily on theory at most times. Again, who knows, he was the great Beethoven! I think improvisation probably had little to do with any of this composition.

Improvisation and the ear are the keys to writing songs for me. This is for me. Not everyone plays by ear, or can improvise. I have really combined my knowledge of theory and the circle of fifths as well as intervals and sounds together with college composition classes to bring together what I write. I have written probably 75% of my work strictly from ear and improvisation.

Still, there has to be a root, and anchor. That is where the theory of music and the various modes, and all that good stuff comes in to hold it all together for me. Let me once again say, this is what works for me. Everyone has their own formula, that is mine.