I have been keeping a musical journal for quite a while. I’ll tell you more about how I use it in other posts and why I think it’s important, but here is my recommendation.

Continue reading " ComposerBastard High Tech Recommendation #7 "

There nothing more ugly than stems, ledger, and measure bar lines that are crooked.

Continue reading " ComposerBastard High Tech Recommendation #6 "

Ok, so…I can’t shake my thoughts off this musical memory thing. It’s keeping me up. Or maybe that pink beam of light is keeping me up….
Does what we listen to daily reflect our needs as a composer, or even the musical clan we should be spending our time writing? What does it [...]

Continue reading " Delusional Composers and Their iPods "

Every composer needs a home. But every mechanical pencil needs a bed.

Continue reading " ComposerBastard High Tech Recommendation #5 "

Are composers simply recorders of past sounds? Do we merely play back derivations based on our memory-recordings and call it our own original work? Does it affect our composerly questions and choices – consciously or unconsciously? And even if we have the insight to recognize these past stimuli and prejudices, do we [...]

Continue reading " Are Composers Just Biological Tape Recorders? "

Why throw those gnarly babies out with the bathwater?

Continue reading " ComposerBastard High Tech Recommendation #4 "

from Lou Harrison:
When I find myself inspired, I enjoy it – but, I try to lay the pencil down, for, if I continue, I know that I shall have to use the eraser in the morning.
from John Cage:
[My understanding of composition is] not as the making of choices, but as the asking of questions.

Continue reading " Quotes for Today "

We all make mistakes, but how do we remove them permanently?
In the old days of ink and vellum, we would buy extremely thick french vellum and scrape off the ink with an exacto-knife. Unfortunately, we also had to draw our own staves using custom pens since this kind of paper was for drafting not [...]

Continue reading " ComposerBastard High Tech Recommendation #3 "