Composition vs. improvisation

By composition I mean sitting down and thinking about each and every note and rhythm you write. By improvisation I mean sitting down and playing or writing something as it comes to you, spontaneously. But right off the bat we know that they both involve sitting down. So that’s the first thing to practice.

Obviously I’m kidding, but there’s sometimes a distinction made between these two when discussing writing or making music. But I’m not sure that that difference is as important or even as noticeable as it is made out to be.

If I listen to a song, I have no idea whether something was improvised or whether it was composed. There’s no way of knowing which one it was. Because something that “sounds improvised” could very well have been composed specifically to make it sound that way. And something that “sounds composed” could’ve been improvised. I’m not sure there is much of a distinction between the two other than the way in which they’re created. The only difference is in what happens when the person making the music is making the music. They only matter in that moment. Afterwards the difference between them doesn’t matter much, because there’s no way of knowing.

There’s no definitive test to see whether a piece of music was composed or improvised. There’s no musical way to tell. There are some characteristics that are commonly thought of as being characteristics of “composed music” or characteristics of “improvised music”, but they aren’t exclusively one or the other. The only distinguishing characteristic between the two is something that has nothing to do with how the result sounds. What music is produced isn’t affected by it.

There are musical traditions that more commonly involve composing or improvising so you might be able to use that as a guess, but even then there’s no real way to know, unless you ask the performer. The only person that knows whether something was composed or improvised is the person that made the music. No one else will be able to authoritatively answer that question.

The reason I point this out is that I think people often get caught in saying which method of making music is “better”, but I honestly think that’s a little silly. Neither is better. What matters is whichever makes the music you want to make. If the music you want to create comes from improvising then improvise. If you prefer the music you make when composing then compose. But my guess would be that you’ll likely make music you are proud of through both means of creating. Sometimes you’ll make great music by composing. Sometimes great music will come from improvising.

ISJ