--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I'm not sure how any > > > composer could write any music down without first > > > hearing it in his/her head, any more than a writer > > > writes without first hearing the words in his/her > > > head. ... > > > > Just like writers have different ways of writing so > > do musicians have different ways of composing. > > Yeah, what he said. Just FYI, writers who have to > hear the words in their head before writing them > down are the counterpart of "mouth readers" when > reading.
Barry Wright, ever the literalist... You don't hear the words as if someone is speaking, of course. Slows you down and is definitely not > necessary, except maybe for poetry and to get a > strong feel for dialogue. Sometimes the process > is concept --> language, without an intervening > stop at speech. Not "speech." The concept generates the language, but the language happens in the mind via the sense of hearing before it is output on the paper (or computer file). > I know, I know...somebody's going to come running > in and say something like, "...also without a stop > at thinking," which is possible, but not my point. :-) > I'm just making the point that the idea of the usual > progression as concept --> "hearing" it in your > head --> paper is not always true. Many writers > skip the middle step entirely. No, they don't. It goes through the sense of hearing, but much faster than in real time. You may not be *aware* you're hearing it--it happens on a subtler level than actually sounding out the words in your head, just as happens with reading if you're a fast reader--but you are. Editors may be more tuned into the way this works than writers because they do a lot of editing purely for rhythm. An editor certainly doesn't have to sound out the words of a sentence or paragraph to sense that the rhythm is clunky or flat or that punctuation is missing or wrong, but it isn't the eyes alone that do the sensing; the sense of hearing is heavily involved. Writers do the same thing when they're revising, natch, so if you can pay attention to what goes on with that process, it may become clearer how the sense of hearing is involved. Then pay attention to what it's like when you write a sentence for the first time whose rhythm *doesn't* need fixing. Where does that rhythm come from? It's just a matter of becoming aware of that step between the nonverbal thought and the thought expressed in words on the paper or in the computer file, because it happens very fast (or can happen very fast; it doesn't always). To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
