writing the score

I'm a little confused on how it is you can read standard notation, but not write it.   What is the blocker?  For most guitar pieces I simply use tablature, but if there is some different rhythmic bit I'll write it in standard form.

What is it about standard notation that prevents you from writing it down?

Hello Theminxy1 - Transcribing a melody that you have invented into standard notation can be frustrating.  Since you know piano, you have a huge advantage. 

Start by getting the basic notes down - forget about the rhythm until you have the proper intervals sketched out.  Then go back and start assigning time values to the tones.

I have a little battery-powered cheesy keyboard.  Sometimes I use it to help figure out a melody and jot down ideas.  Here is a site where you can print blank staff paper:

www.danmansmusic.com/ player/common/printpaper.htm

The nice thing about having a melody written out is that it is then easier to improve upon it and play with variations on the theme.

Many thanks James, I'm sure I'm probably just biting off more than I can chew here...... trouble is I always 'hear' the music as a complete piece...accompliments and all, so I tend to over-complicate things............

.......... what's an interval when it's at home  <img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_redface.gif" border=0 alt="Embarassed">  <img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_lol.gif" border=0 alt="Laughing">

You are not the first musician who has 'musical dyslexia'.  Irving Berlin composed hundreds of wildly popular songs. However, he could hardly read or write music himself.  He played piano exclusively in the keys of F# major and D# minor since these keys are mostly just the black keys on the piano.

He had assistants to actually write the music and work out the details of the melodies and arrangements.  Berlin had a 'gut' understanding for musical theory, a keen ear, and a creative spirit.  He eventually gave up on learning the details since it just took time away from songwriting.

The moral to the story is this - the musical ideas are more important than the paper representations of those ideas.  If you really need written versions of your songs, find a collaborator whose talent for transcription complements your talent for originating songs.

If you don't really need your ideas down on paper, get some very basic recording equipment that can hold our ideas while you are creating the songs.  For a guy who really couldn't read or write music, Berlin created a vast array of songs which are still alive in our collective consciences - and he lived to be 101 years old!

Strangely, I've been playing for thirty years, not too well I grant you, but hell, considering pops only taught me three chords and told me to get on with it, I don't suppose I did too bad. However, what is has meant is that I mostly play alone, so I haven't really developed my playing very much.

However, now I have a little more time on my hands, and I find that I need to write things down, not least because I want my kids to have the music they've heard me murdering all their lives, I'm not gonna be around for too much longer, and they don't want to lose it.

Many thanks for your time and help my friend, it's much appreciated.