How to make it as a Composer...

Hey Everyone,

I'm wondering if any of the professional composers on here have any advice in regards to "Making it" in this industry?

Could make for some very useful discussion!

Thanks,

Chris :-)

Although I am not a professional composer, I am afraid that there's not such thing as a rule or guideline to help you "make it" in the industry.

If I tell you that you need to have some fundamental education and then some higher education, then people will point out to composers such as Sciarrino, Birtwistle or even Santaolalla, who were primarily self-taught (Birtwistle studied clarinet, but only a lot later did some studying in composition). Supporting the other side, people will show that composers such as Berio, Boulez and Williams all studied either with important composers or at places like the Juilliard.

Again, if I tell you that you need to make connections and know people, then I can show you examples of composers who know a lot of people, yet are not successful, or composers who know (or knew) very few people or are not interested in networking, and are considered successful.

One thing is sure: that the more you know, whether that is people, theory, pieces, listenings, anything, the more options you have, the bigger your potential is. However, note that even knowing everything in the world wouldn't make you a good composer - it's not what you know, but what you do with what you know that matters (and that's true in many other aspects of life, not just composition).

Take care, and good luck :D

Yeah, I agree with Jujimufu. There's no sure path to "success", especially not in the arts. But educating yourself, going out to concerts of other composers and not just locking yourself in your room all day, being interested, courageous and willing to take musical risks all are generally not bad ideas. None of these will make you a successful composer and the absence of none of these will make it impossible for you to become a successful composer, but they can help.

But in the end, I don't think it helps much to have "success" as your main goal. Try to write your own, best music, try out stuff, get to know stuff, and just see how it turns out. Make it your goal to write good music, whatever that means to you, personally.

Just look at Conlon Nancarrow. Now, he may not meet the common idea of a "famous" composer, but he is certainly a lot better known than many composers who studied with famous teachers, know a lot of important people and always composed in the most recent musical fashion. And he has been quite an important influence on many other composers. And all he did was writing a very personal, peculiar sort of nonconformist music, that was his own through and through.

I agree with the second part of your reply - I do think, however, that Healey meant making a living out of composition as "success". But again, you're right - Feldman didn't make a living out of composition until very late in his life, and he was one damn good composer :P

I think going out there and well..making it happen is a good advice indeed. Make sure people hear your music and the changes are much bigger you will get somebody to pay you for it. Making it in art music means in many cases you have to make some money here and some money there. It's very much project based. Getting commisions, playing on festivals, these sort of things. If you feel you have a substancial piece/repetoire try to get on a festival or something in that order. Try to get over your fear of being rejected( if that aplies to you) and put your neck on the line is important i quess.

What exactly does the OP mean by "industry"?

THAT is probably the most important part of the question, and will heavily affect any possible answers.

There is no "classical concert music industry", so making it there is more a question of luck, who you know, being at the right place at the right time, etc... than anything else.

The film music industry, on the other hand, is entirely about who you know. You want to get into doing movie music? Go to the right school, meet the right people, start out as an orchestrator for one of your teachers, build up connections, etc...

As for the pop music industry, well, do you gots big tats? if not, forget about making it there.

Chris.

To start off you need to realise what "kind" of composer you want to be.

If you want to make it into the concert hall, knowing the president of Procter & Gamble won't help. If you want to make it into pop, knowing Penderevski won't really help. etc, etc...

Once you know what you're aiming really, repost and some more advice, I'm sure will come to your way.

You can either be the broad "classical" composer, or the "media" composer. Classical can be devided into different styles, as well as operatic, theatrical, installation composer, etc, while the media involves computer games, films, animations, ads, TV, etc.

all the above are differentl they need different people to netword, different knowledge even in music (who cares about computers and cubase in concert hall music? Who cares about quarter tones in ads music? etc), different degrees maybe (is a PhD in classical composition useful when you try to enter the media arena? Is a degree in production useful if you want to do... solo piano music?), and different experience. One who has many computer games under his belt, will he be able to score a good gig in films (the answer is no*). One who's written tons of ad music, will he be able to persuade LSO to play his music (the answer is no*).

and so on...

So once you get your ideas fixed you will need to following to become successful:

1. tons of luck (some people call it talent. Some people call it opportunities. Some people call it circumstance)

2. good looks (yeah, laugh! :D lol)

3. The ability to write music. (yes, it is needed).

Now the above will get you your first step. You may even become successful (which reminds. You also need to define your definition of successful, btw).

After that the point is that you will need to sustain your popularity and be able to keep on being successful. In other words, many may get a first shot, few will get a second, very few a career. Just because one got a few computer games to score, it doesn't mean they will have a career ahead of them!

So in combination to the above you need to also have:

i. a personality. Who likes working with a dumbass? Who likes working with someone who is always late? Who likes working with a smartass?

ii. KNOWLDEGE (capital letters). You may get away in the shadows once or twice, but the big chances are that everyone famous KNOW what they're doing, with the exception of 1-2 people who excell in everything else however!

etc...

Somehow this post got bigger than intended... heh...

EDIT: HAHAHAHAHA! What QCC says, as always! :D

I changed my mind..

dude, get some tats.. :P

Luckily, big tats are something you can buy yourself!

(I want my money back though if I they don't make me successful.)

All very good points made so far (espically about the big tats) and I don't have much to add. But, from what I've heard, being born incredibly rich may possibly help some as well. So yeah, I'd suggest doing that.

I'm still early on the road to considering myself "a success", but one thing I've learned is get involved with the kind of people you want to work for as early as possible. In my case i'm interested in composing for film, games, and musicals. So I start by composing music for low key indie games and amateur films, and I write music for my old youth drama group as well.

One game has already led me to a slightly bigger game (still unpaid), and my work for my drama group helped me get in touch with a couple of serious writers who are looking for music for a small stage show.

Start small in the area that you're interested and work up, but get involved as much as you can, and be enthusiastic!

*throws more fat in the fire*

You need to make a decision for yourself - to define what "success" is to you.

Do you want to live comfortably, while making music? Do you want to have a big house and drive the coolest car, while taking any/every job you can regardless of artistic merit? Do you want to be well-known within a small community, but live modestly while making only the most creative and artistic music possible?

What's your SUCCESS? How do you measure it? There's any number of routes to take, varying on which direction you want to go...decide now, because soon it'll be too late.

Sleep your way to the top!

...

...

What? This isn't so far from the tats recommendation!

With quality music and selling one-self efficiently and by making connections and everything else already mentioned above (except for.... well, you know), your chances should be greater.

But maybe another thing that might help is having a not-so-common name. Just thought I'd toss that out there.

One thing that I find hard to imagine is a person failing to succeed even though he did everything he possibly could have done to do so... I just can't seem to comprehend this being possible... I don't know why.

Be good.

Really good.

That's all....

You can always score film and TV. At my school, we are being trained to score for media.

same here, scoring for media is probably the only way to make a decent living with composing.

just writing music for the sake of writing music, good luck with that..

You NEED to do something. As above stated, yes, all is well. But you need to do something yourself. I am an undergraduate and I already did 3 piano concerts - they were smashing (except for the last one - I think it was a disaster!)

In my next piano concerto I will play modern music by composers on YC. Email me to have your work performed (I will consider it).

Go on! Try something! Get your friends and family togeather and do your own piano concerto. I ask R40 ($5) a grown-up and R30 ($4) for students.

Needless to say, you need to practice a minimum of at least 4 hours (your instrument goes here) to be good.

Good luck!

Right, I need to find myself a violin, spend 4 hours on it and then perform Prokofiev's 2nd...

:D

You can try and become a Composition Lecturer and get pieces played and performed on the side.

3. The ability to write music. (yes, it is needed).

Very arguable. I know people who are only writing music because they know people, and there circle of friends are all into the same music and are 'coincidentally' all on the music panel for government grants giving each other free government money for nothing.

i. a personality. Who likes working with a dumbass? Who likes working with someone who is always late? Who likes working with a smartass?

Having a personality that is marketable, meaning not normal can also help. Fake, and crap but welcome to capitalism.