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This is an issue I think about all the time especially as it relates to music. What is truth? When people ask me "what music do you like?" and I tell them classical some people have told me "do you listen to anything normal?" and some even advise me that I should "broaden my taste" and listen to more than just classical. This can get under my skin especially since classical music incorporates over 700 years of music that couldn't be any more diverse and "broad". To know classical music is to truly know what "broadening one's taste" really means! But this is what really gets me. There are Beethoven string quartets that have put my whole being into aesthetic arrest by how profound and beautiful they are. That this same quartet can simply be noise to someone else seems impossible to me. To then be told that I should "broaden my taste" and listen to something else feels like my soul has died inside of me. I can gather this much; the truth is not everyone will hear music in the same way and not everyone will hear it as I do; I can live with this. But it is still equally true that there does exist music which has an effect on me that is nothing short of divine; and THAT is truly something I could not live without. Thoughts?

Going a step further with Goss's viewpoint on score literacy, as in learning a foreign language. You need to read it, speak it AND write it. Therefore, it is worthwhile to take a piece that you can play by memory, like Bach for example, and write it out on paper from memory. There is something about this transfer from mind to paper that cements certain synapses in your head together. This is harder to do than your think. Much of performance memory is motor memory by your fingers or your lips, not so much your mind. Once you start this exercise you will see what a challenge this shift is.

Sauteed in butter with chopped garlic and some salt and pepper.

Stop caring about what other people think. In general, other people are idiots.

I'm not sure I exactly understand the question here. But I can relate to you. Not many of my friends are interested in classical music and they want me to listen to their dub step and what not even though that's not my cup of tea. Then somehow they think it makes me closed-minded and snobby. I can't claim to understand what makes some people call Skrillex a genius while shunning Beethoven. I just ignore them and remain secure in my own passion. I find that they listen to music that speaks to the part of their ego that they value most. People like throbbing bass lines or primal/carnal lyrics because it appeals to the part of them that should be wearing a loin cloth and dancing around a fire(the 'id' so to speak). Nothing inherently wrong with that. Some of us like to listen to music that appeals to the super-ego. Some of us listen to it all. To each his own, I guess.

"do you listen to anything normal?" AHHH

Why is it that everytime I listen to music, I love the repetition of phrases, and when I am composing myself I never feel like repeating any of my phrases .... it is so freaking annoying. Anyone with a similar experience?

When you go to concerts, or hear about them, pay attention to what instruments they had available, what difficulty level they were limited to, and what theme they used to organize their concert repertoire. Write stuff that fits those boundaries.

I'd dare to respectfully dissent, Justin. Many professional composers, especially in tight time budgets, hire people to orchestrate their ideas for them. This is, at least according to the books I have read, quite common in the film industry and, according to those random e-mails offering to orchestrate my music for me (yeuch!) I get every other month or so from random person somewhere, it's a rather far reaching one too. I think the reason he calls himself that is that it is in Orchestration that he does MOST of his work, but not all, which he mentions in his 50th birthday video (titled ironically "A Composer Turns 50"). Yes, Thomas Goss is rather opinionated (if not VERY), but he has some very good points and years more experience than most people I know. He also has studied scores religiously and seems to understand the elements of orchestration as well if not better than the principles of composition. For that reason, I think he has a bit of a right to be opinionated and authoritative (his video where he berates Bernstein for being this way made me laugh a little).