the hardest part of writing music

My dear tortured composer, 

One of the hardest parts of writing music has nothing to do with music at all. 

Because so often the actual music is not what causes the composer pain. 

You see, the biggest issue most composers face is Other People. 

And their own imagination of what Other People are thinking.

How these Other People will judge their works, what they’re putting out, their creative process. 

I discovered this could be the number 1 problem most composers face.

And I have seen it with my students again and again. 

There’s nothing more deadly…

More blocking…

More CONSTRICTING…

Than the imaginary thought of what someone else will think of your music. 

Fortunately, lad, there’s hope for you. 

There’s a few ways of dealing with this that can unleash your musical prowess and pull you out of the slough of composing despair.

But first a story….

On How To Never Finish Any Music EVER

Back when I was a younger tortured composer, I collaborated on a piece with a friend of mine. Let’s call this friend Steve.

Everything was going great. 

We both liked what we had made. 

And one day we decided it was done. 

We were happy with it and we were going to put it out into the world! 

It felt great to finish…or so I thought.

Apparently Steve had other plans. 

He showed this piece to one of his friends. We’ll call this friend Alex.

Alex proceeded to tell him…

“I like it but maybe you could make it sound more like [insert popular artist name here]”

Murder me, please.

Now Alex did not like the style of music we were writing.

But Alex was COOL.

He had clout.

And Steve really wanted Alex to like this piece.

I’d venture to guess there was nothing we could have done to this piece that would have made Alex like it.

But that didn’t stop us from trying…

Because for the next 3 months we twisted, contorted, MAIMED this piece into absolute oblivion.

What resulted was a hobbled, Frankenstein-esque disaster that barely resembled the original.

We were both so sick of it that the piece fizzled out and we did nothing with it.

So what happened here? What caused this unmitigated disaster?

Well, let’s take a look at what was going on in Alex’s head when Steve asked him for feedback.

The Psychology of a Non-Critic

Now, when Alex heard this piece of music, there was probably one thought going through his mind:

“I’ve never heard music like this before. I don’t really like it and would never listen to it. But I feel like I need to say something or it will be awkward.”

He then proceeded to vomit out a non-response that took us down our never-ending trail of frustration.

Is this actually what Alex was thinking? I can’t say for sure.

But what can I say for sure?

Most people have NO idea how to give feedback on music.

And what else can I say for sure?

Most composers hold the feedback of random people in their lives to be some sort of mystical Holy Grail.

They have a select number of people they want to impress.

It could be friends from their school days, family members, a potential suitor.

And most people hold the opinion of their Special People as being infallible.

If that person in their life told them something is not good, it is NOT good.

And they’ll do whatever they can in service of the imaginary opinion of these people.

If you don’t think you do this, you can stop reading.

But honestly, I’ve talked to hundreds of composers, music producers, and song writers in long interviews about their creative challenges….

And I can tell you, almost everybody does this.

And if you think you don’t, you probably just aren’t aware of it.

Now, that is the bad news.

Fortunately, there’s about a million different ways to overcome this…

But for today, I’m just going to share two.

One is a nice mindset shift you can make.

And the other a creative writing prompt for you.

First the mindset shift.

This is one of the most important ideas you ever need to grasp as a composer…

Most People Don’t Like Most Music

Seems obvious, right?

And yet most composers don’t make this key distinction.

Let me explain…

I want you to think of the composer or musician that you consider to be the “best.”

The one who you look to as your North star.

Now I want you to understand, if you were to pick a random piece of their music and play it for most people, they probably would not like it.

Let me expand on this by using two artists as an example…

Let’s take Beethoven and Taylor Swift.

Now Taylor Swift is probably the most popular artist on Earth right now.

Her latest tour did over 2 billion dollars in revenue.

And yet what percentage of the world actually likes Taylor Swift?

Is it greater than 50%?

Do you think any of the people you show your music to like Taylor Swift?

If you’re reading this, they probably don’t.

You could probably show any of the people you work with a Taylor Swift song, say you wrote it, and if they were being honest, they probably wouldn’t like it.

And yet, those are some of the most popular songs ever written in the history of mankind.

And I’d be willing to guess, if you showed those same people a piece of your music, and they didn’t like it…

You’d probably feel like you needed to change something!

The same could be said about Beethoven.

If you picked a random piece from Beethoven’s catalog and showed it to 10 people, odds are MAYBE 3 would like it.

And yet he is universally agreed to be one of the greatest composers of all time!

How often do we get completely sidetracked by the feedback of some random person?

A Youtube comment, a remark by a friend, these little pieces of negative feedback can DERAIL us.

Which is why it is so important to remember…

Even the most popular and genius works of all time are DISLIKED by the majority of people!

The moral of the story is this:

Other People’s opinions are as random and inconsistent as the wind. If you use their opinion as your guidepost, you will be a Tortured Composer.

Now that’s all well and good. Knowing this is half the battle.  

Now that we understand how unreliable and potentially limiting other people's opinions can be, let's put this newfound freedom into practice.

We're going to do an exercise that helps you create without the weight of imaginary judgments holding you back.

It's time to embrace the liberating concept of creating just for the sake of creating, with no concern for how it might be received.

Your “Trashy” Creative Prompt

A famous quote from John Steinbeck goes:

“Write for the waste basket.”

What does that mean?

Write as if what you’re creating is not that important.

So unimportant that you could throw it away!

When you write for imaginary other people, you can end up using their imaginary opinions as your guide for what you’re writing.

Instead, you can write as if what you’re creating will be thrown away. As if no one will ever hear it.

This eliminates the pressure that we can often place on ourselves and allows us to tap into that free flowing creativity.

Poet Kenneth Goldsmith states it like this:

“Assume no readership.”

And this week we’ll do exactly that!

Your creative prompt is as follows

Instrument: Piano

Length: 32 bars

Key: B flat major

Creative Inspiration: Write a “Frankenstein-esque” (whatever that means to you) piece that expresses frustration

Creative rule: You MUST THROW AWAY or DELETE whatever you create when you’re finished.

Deadline: August 31, 2024 at midnight EST!

If the idea of throwing away or deleting something you made pains you…

If you feel resistance to this idea…

That means you need it the most.

Give this exercise a try.

Create something with the assumption NO ONE will ever hear it. And then make it impossible for anyone to hear it by throwing it away.

If the muses shine down upon you, this exercise will show how “light” creating can be.

Once you get through the grumbling internal voice that says things like:

“This is a waste of time!”

You may just discover a new mode of creating that makes everything significantly lighter.

Try it out. Send me a picture of your crumpled up score or record a video of yourself deleting the file on your computer.

I hope this exercise serves you well.

And that’s a wrap. I hope you throw out something amazing this week.

The world waits for your music…

Luke

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