There's a lot of information out there on how to write and produce music, which programs to use, how to use them, and how to abuse them.  This is give my $0.02 toward this worldwide conversation.  Allow me to share with you the outset of my process.   Whether it's for another artist, for myself, or for commercial music it begins with wanting to hear something I haven't heard yet.  Many times it's something I heard and liked, but didn't quite love.  Other times it comes directly from the aether as a moment of lucid inspiration befalls me during some tedious or banal task.  And so begins the quest to fill the cracks with a voice of my own.  

Perhaps it begins with a lyric, a beat or a tempo, a melody, key, or a chord.  I quickly get to work on my laptop within Pro Tools or Nuendo.  If it's a drum beat I may turn to any of the thousands of samples I've acquired and work the patterns out via MIDI(Music Instrument Digital Interface).  I may work it out on the drum kit.  If it's a melody or a lyric I document it on my phone.  Then I turn to the piano to work out the voicings.  I always begin with clear goals in mind, though there is a lot of room for changes down the line.  Many times I begin with something that quickly becomes more than I imagined as I put melody to rhythm and words to cadence.  

As I first glimpse where the piece might take me I put pen to paper.  Although, concentrating on the feeling and not the meaning of each line gives me a broader canvas which can be filled in with many details once the outline has been drawn, often times each line leads to the next as if a box was wrapping itself and tying a bow on its own.  

This type of indirect yet organized creation differs from stream of consciousness as Jazz differs from chaos.  I feel this process may keep me from falling into cliches or reusing other's metaphors or allegories.  Everything's been said, everything's been done, every song's been sung.  Yet, not the way, or why, I will.  And so begins the quest to fill the cracks with a voice of my own.