I received this email from an eager 16 year old this morning. And I liked everything about it – the interest in my response, the honestly of the question, and the ability to lay my thoughts down on an important topic to me.
So what DOES it take to be a composer? Well, at first, not much. Anyone can write a melody. But to be a composer, or anything you choose to do, should yield several key characteristics:
1.) Passion: If you’re not into it, then it will show. I remember when Derek Sivers wrote a blog post about how he knew he was finished with CD Baby. He asked Seth Godin for advice, and the answer was simple: He wasn’t crazy about doing it anymore. The company he started, grew, and nurtured, deserved someone who was going to be crazy about it.
2.) Majority: I regularly read Ariel Hyatt‘s newsletter, and this past month she interviewed Josh Ryan. He said a pretty interesting thing that I agreed with: whatever it is you do the majority of the time, that’s what you are. He was making a reference that if you have a full time job as an accountant during the week, but arrange music on the weekends, or part time after work, then you’re an accountant. Simple, whatever your desire is, make that your majority.
3.) Open Mind. A composer must understand the variations in music. It’s fine to have a style you enjoy or are influenced by, but don’t let it overtake you and your ability to be objective. Not every song calls for a wind section. Not every arrangement is going to be perfect. Just keep an open mind, do what’s best for the composition. And grow every day.
4.) Make mistakes. This is similar to taking risks. But there are two parts to this: risk taking within the composition and risk taking withing your own career. Both will make you a fantastic composer. It’s about the music, and music has been evolved by risk takers, free thinkers, and passionate visionaries.
5.) Long road. Its not overnight, nothing truly ever is. But it depends on what you want to get out of it. A simple melody played on piano isn’t necessarily as demanding as writing an opera. Guess which one takes longer to compose?
If you said the opera then you may actually be wrong. In many cases I could write an opera faster than I could write a melody that stands the test of time. A melody that moves you. A melody that you’ll sing all day after hearing it. It’s about understating. Be a composer is about creating, and identifying.
Of course there are points about music knowledge, but that can easily be learned in a few weeks. This is more of a Dale Carnegie charactistic list. Which makes me want to point out…
this list isn’t necesssarily about how to be a composer, it’s about how to be a leader.
And the best leaders make the best composers.
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