How best to coordinate parts spacing when composing by hand?
Forgive my enactment, but it seems like the easiest way to explain: Let's say, hypothetically, it's a piano piece. I'm on a train, composing on paper, no piano in sight. I have a strong idea for a part in the bass clef. It's fairly simple rhythmically, spanning about 10 measures, but the notes vary in each measure. I then start working on the treble clef. I had a vague idea to start, and it evolves as I write. I want a complicated run in measure 5. Ooops! I don't have enough space to properly coordinate with the bass clef. Time for the eraser. Or, I re-write bar 5 on a different page and worry about it later when finalizing. Or, maybe next time, I space out the bass clef part extra-wide, just in case I decide to cram a bunch of notes above it. Ugh!
I assume this is a problem solved by others long ago (centuries ago), and there's probably a set of best practices somewhere. However, I can't find them. Notation software obviates the issue (obviously), but I'd really like to get more comfortable notating by hand, well.
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It doesn’t matter at all!
It’s the same as you have to edit a literary texture:
As this will not be the final layout of your composition just notate your idea with a short graphic sign, may be red coulored or by a *1), then number the specific bars and continue writing at the end of of your already finished phrases and notate the idea in the new measure, assigne it with 1) and in the final layout you can insert this measure in the part above. Don’t forget to markup the place where it will be inserted.
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