Variation in music is like having a good set of kitchen knives. If you use them properly, cooking becomes easy and fun . . . If you use them carelessly, somebody loses a finger . . . Likewise, in composing music, variation is NOT inherently valuable. How you use it makes the difference between Giving […]
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Fact: Your Brain Thinks Music Is a Horror Film
Strange but true: As far as your body is concerned, all great music is the equivalent of a horror film. “Takes my breath way,” “held me spellbound,” “gave me goosebumps”—these are the physical reactions we crave in music. These reactions are also literally our physiological fear responses. How does music transform our fears into pleasure? […]
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Beethoven says, “You should be studying scores!”
Last night, my mind was slightly blown while listening to Beethoven’s “Tempest” Sonata. The piece plainly exhibited example after example of the World Building and Sleight of Hand magic I teach in the Wizarding School. It was a masterclass in how to obtain musical excellence. And here’s the best part . . . Beethoven’s music […]
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Get Better at Counterpoint with This One Centuries-Old Trick
FACT: In classical music, chord progressions are a byproduct of contrapuntal gestures. As a Paris Conservatory professor once said, “Harmony is a fairy tale told about counterpoint.” This is no “chicken or egg” question. For more than 500 years, beginning with medieval chant, European musicians thought in terms of melodic lines. It wasn’t until 1722 […]
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How You Can Jumpstart Your Composing This Summer!
For most of us, summer is peak composing season. School’s out! Teaching’s done for the year! And (finally) the pandemic is easing up! You may be all geared up to launch into your next choral commission, write the piece for your festival, or even finally produce that chiptune track—but with everything going on, you probably […]
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What Tolkien’s World Building Can Teach Composers
Among fantasy stories, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is renowned for the depth of its world building. Just to write the trilogy, Tolkien created extensive backstories, poems, maps, and even entire languages, including their calligraphies. Tolkien’s world is so thorough that, even when he doesn’t share the backstory in a given passage, it still […]
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Do the Work of Inspiration
Inspiration is the ideal starting point and goal of all music. That is why it’s the composer’s greatest scapegoat: You may feel that inspiration is fleeting and unreliable—that it comes on its own time and in its own way. You may think that inspiration is just a feeling—something you can’t always conjure with thoughts or […]
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What I Learned from Quitting Music
I’d had it with music. Composing was too hard, too frustrating. I couldn’t figure out how to get the sounds I heard into my head onto the paper. Worse—I wasn’t even sure if I should put those sounds to paper. So I became an editor. Or rather, I added the editing minor to my undergrad […]
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How Chess Captures the Essence of Why Composing Is Hard
When I was in elementary school, my siblings and I went to the chess club at our local library. (This was back when playing chess would make you a “nerd.” Or, at least, back when I might have cared about being called a nerd.) Chess club solidified my hazy idea of what all the pieces […]
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My Biggest Musical Embarrassment
I was mortified. I had been invited to conduct my Calvin and Hobbes–inspired piece, “Go Exploring,” during a reading session of a visiting ensemble. The musicians were struggling with the music I had written in general and with a certain 7/8 bar in particular. They had been rehearsing the piece without a conductor, and then […]
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