If it’s difficult to play, it should be intentional and necessary

Sometimes when writing music we want to write something that’s difficult to play just for the sake of writing something that’s difficult to play. But what’s the point of that? Writing difficult music, in all honesty, is pretty easy. Make it really fast and a strange shape for that instrument. Or make the rhythm weird and the notes far apart and unrelated to common musical patterns. Writing music that’s difficult to play is often easier than it is to play difficult music.

So make sure it’s intentional and necessary when you do write music that’s difficult to play.

I’ve seen this in music from composition students. Writing music that’s hard to play simply for the sake of knowing they did. And that’s fine if it’s an academic exercise, but if real people have to play the music then don’t do it.

It’ll create problems in rehearsals because it gives the musicians more work to do, and is often frustrating to play because writing music that’s hard to play for the sake of writing music that’s hard to play often doesn’t create music that’s interesting. It’s only interesting in it’s difficulty and difficult music isn’t anything new.

So think of the effect you want to create when writing music. Can that affect be achieved by writing music that’s fairly easy to play? Or does it require specific techniques that may be more difficult to perform?

I’d err on the side of writing music that’s easy to perform. It’ll often be more satisfying for the players and it’ll result in a better recording and performance. It’ll also lower levels of anxiety and stress related to performing and rehearsing the piece well. It also allows you to work on the more musical and interpretative aspects of a piece of music, rather than just focusing on technique.

And if you do decide that you need to write something that’s difficult to perform, make it intentional and necessary.

ISJ