If you are weak in the music theory department, we recommend that you
read Music Theory For Dummiesby Holly Day and Michael Pilhofer (Wiley).Space, Time, and Ideas ..................................................................................
The rhythmic beatings and messages that we get from the sounds around
us in everyday life strongly influence the music that we compose. To a city
dweller, a bird song is a signal from a world beyond the din of street noise.
To a more rural ear, the sound of a jet flying by is also a signal from another
world. Such influences affect the making of our inner music. The background
of a song, either supporting or contrasting a theme, is what commands our
attention. The best music is about a place, time, mood, setting, or vibe
that offers a silver string of melody and throbs with the rhythmic urgency
of our lives.Engaging in musical composition often requires silence. Silence is the con-
tainer of musical imagination. Your best melodic and rhythmic ideas may
come to you amidst the hustle and bustle of life, but if you can’t find a quiet
place and time to spend nurturing these ideas, they will bear little fruit.A Pack Rat Mentality......................................................................................
Keep everything. Tape everything. Whether you compose with pencil and
paper or on a computer, or just hum lines into a portable tape recorder while
you’re out for a walk, it is essential that you try to keep all the little begin-
nings, endings, chord progressions, melodies, grooves, and musical ideas of
all shapes and sizes on file somewhere. A melody that leads to a dead end
today may inspire you next year. A dumb little ditty that you have rolling
around in your brain may not be your next masterpiece, but it might work
great for a TV or radio jingle.Many great composers disliked the very works that earned them notoriety.
Bizet hated Carmen, for example. And maybe fame and fortune aren’t all
they’re cracked up to be, but along with them comes the freedom to continue
to pursue the craft of music composition. To a musician, money equals time,
meaning that the more money you’ve got coming in, the more time you can
spend working on the music you truly love to write. So don’t be so quick to
condemn your “unfinished” works. Just know how to recognize when a par-
ticular musical idea isn’t working and don’t try to force pieces of a puzzle to
fit together. If something doesn’t work, put it away and save it for a rainy day.Chapter 2: Tools of the Trade 21
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