A few years ago, I gave up composing on paper and began using the piano roll view inside of Sonar to write. I still use paper from time to time to jot down a quick idea, but I have found Sonar to actually be a great compositional tool, as well as simply a sequencer. It made sense for me for several reasons:
It is much faster to input
By entering notes either with the mouse or by playing directly on my MIDI keyboard I save a lot of time vs. writing by hand.
It is easier to edit
Note fixes, transpositions, retrograde, inversion, note-value doubling/halving... all of these are much easier inside of a sequencer. No more crossing out or erasing.
It helps me find new ways to alter material
In addition to the types of edits listed above, I have done some very satisfactory exploration of material alteration that is not easy to accomplish or even to conceive of on paper. I will get into more detail on this point later in the book, giving examples of what these processes are, and how some of my works have heavily relied on them.
It offers instant aural feedback
I can now instantly hear the changes as I make them. Yes, I can site-read music, and I can more or less hear a score in my head, so long as it isn't extremely complicated. But reading and interpreting through my brain isn't as immediate or as accurate as actually hearing the results as I write. And using realistic libraries such as the Garritan offerings, I can hear an entire orchestral passage as I subtly tweak the individual parts. This has led me on numerous occasions into territory I am convinced I never would have discovered without the aid of a computer.
It offers portability of material between mediums
Gone are the days of laborious score and part copying by hand. Nothing kills creative juices faster than the drudgery awaiting a composer at the completion of a new work. Now it is a simple matter to export the piece into a notation package directly from the sequencer, clean it up, and print it out. Going from MIDI to audio to printed score and back again has never been easier. Those who think of the modernization of the composition process as somehow "impure" or as disrespecting a long-standing tradition are simply missing out on a set of wonderful tools that could otherwise help serve their ultimate purpose: to create something new.
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I couldn't agree more. In my case, I got a very late start musically (age 54),had a strong desire to start composing, but lacked fluency in both notation and playing an instrument. So piano roll was the ONLY avenue open to me if I wanted to compose. I'm very pleased to find someone who actually likes piano roll...especially someone with a more conventional musical history who therefore had a choice.
For me,four years later at age 58, the next step in my evolution is actually to learn to read and write notation, to gain adequate playing ability, and to start composing on paper--the reverse of your experience. But it's what my music needs to reach its potential. However, I will never abandon piano roll and sequencing programs. They're just too helpful to ignore, for all the reasons you mentioned.
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