reluctant to let it go as he wanted the approval of his peers and the music community in general. Once his first symphony had the recognition of the musician community, his second was completed 1 year later in 1877. This is just one example as to the extremes one will go to achieve perfection.
Many musicians have this little inner dialogue that takes place in the mind (called the ego by the way) while creating. That voice always wants to manipulate, sabotage,. and inhibit one from creating out of pure expression....it is the voice of insecurity and is one that is afraid of making choices and sticking with them. One can start second guessing themselves, or even third or fourth guessing themselves, to the point where the process of writing is not enjoyable anymore. Your conscious mind however has the authority to override these thoughts and turn off that dialogue once you are aware of it. This does require practice...but certainly anyone is capable of doing it if you are committed to it.
Ideally I think the composition process has several stages. The first stage being the initial conception of an idea. Once the idea is conceived, it can be developed further until reaching some point of finality. Once that point is reached, the overall piece can be assessed further...editing can be done. I think in the initial conception phase, the only thing that should be working are your ears and your imagination. Try for a moment to forget harmony, forget rules, forget about what you’ve been taught....trust your musical instincts and let them reveal ideas to you. Once the ideas are revealed, then one can make conscious decisions to enhance the idea and polish it. I think the end result will be something far different than writing a piece entirely based on what you know academically. Maybe the idea completely reveals itself from start to finish in the initial conception stage...still, there’s nothing wrong with going back and reassessing the piece. Maybe it requires putting it on the shelf for a bit and coming back to it at a later time with fresh ears and a fresh mind set.
I do recognize that sometimes circumstances do not permit this type...
