I was going through some old journals and found this one. I may be bordering on illiterate. I was 32 when I wrote it. That was 2002. It was a reply to a post someone made about something. I have no idea what, but.. yeah.

Regarding composing, specifically:

I spent time studying other composers to the extent that I would bury myself in many recordings of the same piece until I could pinpoint what it was that moved me about it.  At that point I would 'look into' exactly what was going on technically to satiate my curiosity and leave an impression on me that would come out later – in my way.  Study is like sweating; we shouldn't be able to drink Gatorade and then sweat Gatorade, we take things in and grow from them.  As a young composer who wants to speak his or her own truth or sound, we should listen to music we like, allow ourselves to be moved, and study the basics of what makes music in general work.  Then we should apply it to our own context without romanticizing ourselves into 'writing a tune like –[insert heavy composers name here]- would have' etc…  I believe –[insert heavy composers name here]-  would want us to listen, learn the basics, and do our own thing.  Know that I am not saying not to study what others have done, I am speaking directly to the statement of trying to emulate a composers style.  When it's mentioned that a person can leave that behind when it's time to write in their own voice, that's a delusion; you can't just reroute your hard-earned neural pathways. You've programmed your brain to do things a certain way, hear things a certain way, etc.  There are very few people, statistically speaking, that can separate themselves from what they do when they are practicing something and what they do when it's for real (it should all be the same thing, do it for real *every* time you pick up a pencil or pen).  This is why *most* of the stuff by younger (and many older) composers sounds so similar to so many things already out. Still, there's the possibility that what you write will fall solidly within a 'camp'.  

Regarding composing on your instrument:

Unless you are a virtuoso and free from pattern playing etc (even then…), I believe writing on your instrument carries the germs of your limitations as a player into your composing, thereby infecting all of your music with your weaknesses as a player (though if you compose on an instrument that you are  totally unfamiliar with, the exploration can yield some heavy results). I believe it inhibits the imagination.  I am not saying great tunes can't be composed on an instrument, many have and many more will be, but working straight from the mind is much more freeing, and without the imposition of muscle memory and agenda.  None of this is to say not to write *towards* a specific instrument, at that point you would want to take into consideration the limitations of the instrument itself, not yours as a player of it.  Our playing can benefit from our progress as composers, what happens in our minds is often times much more advanced and moves more quickly than our control over the instrument.  Let your composer-self be an inspiration to your player-self.  Let the player self aspire to make the composer in you happy.

I agree about the "just for the doing" statement, but again, the above applies.  When I first started studying harmony I would write a piece of music based on every new scale (or anything new) I encountered.  Once I had extrapolated a melody from it I would then proceed to harmonize it in every way I could (I was a high school dropout who did nothing but study and shed, so I had all day, everyday to do this).  This harmonization included everything from a one note voice to the obvious 'diatonic' triads and chords, to what amounted to 'clusters'.  It was during this time that it made sense to me that harmony is the direct consequence to two or more *melodies* happening within the same ear-shot of a listener – which leads me to another statement/generalization:  It is ass-backwards to write a 'progression' first when composing.  Again, this is a generalization – there are times when we come across a progression that's beautiful that will hand us its melody
Etc.