light your music on fire

My dearest tortured composer,

I write today with the hopes you are feeling prolific.

That bounteous fountains of stunning melodies pour out of you.

That you feel as though you could compose endless quantities of music only you could write.

But should you feel as though you’re festering in the slough of despair…

That the well has dried up…

That your best ideas are behind you…

Fear Not!

For I come with some inspiration and fire.

Today I’ll share with you a story that illustrates one of the most essential creative lessons any composer can discover.

The story comes from the life of Johannes Brahms, and contains a treasure that could help you to finish much more music…

And feel a lot less tortured while doing so.

Writing For The Fire

This story made me feel that Brahms would have undoubtedly been a member of The Tortured Composer Society.

Because as a young tortured composer, Brahms apparently wrote 20 string quartets that were never released.

Why were they never released?

It is quite simple…

He Burned Them!

That’s right. The first 20 string quartets he wrote are gone forever.

They did not live up to his standard, so he lit them on fire.

And I do find this somewhat inspirational…

Because I have tried to embrace the idea of “writing for the wastebasket.”

What is writing for the waste basket?

It’s writing with the intention that what you’re working on will be thrown away.

Writing quick without focusing on the details as you go.

And perhaps now I will embrace - writing for the fire.

I do feel like that is more in line with the overall ethos of The Tortured Composer Society.

Now, you may feel like this idea is insane.

And I do understand that, but let me explain to you why this idea can be so powerful.

You see, one of the great traps that you can fall into is simply not writing enough.

The vast majority of composers cling far too tightly to their ideas.

Only starting a few…

And getting bogged down in the details.

I have a startling idea for you…

Most of The Ideas You Start Are Not That Good!

And many of them will never be good!

And no matter what you do…

No matter how many edits you make…

No matter how many of your friends you show it to or how many people you ask for feedback…

The IDEA itself is never going to be that great.

But many composers end up continuing on with these subpar ideas.

And end up placing flowers and decorations upon a pile of vomit.

Editing endlessly and never starting anything new!

When in reality, they should have just burned the ideas and moved on!

Lighting their ideas on fire and proceeding forward with the confidence that the fountain contains an abundant number of ideas yet to be written.

If it worked for Brahms, it can work for you.

Or to put it in the words of Stephen King, “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings. even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”

Meaning…let go of some of those ideas!

Write as many ideas as you can and then select—or curate—those that you find to be the best.

And then edit the ideas that stand out.

There are multiple examples of prominent composers and producers doing just that.

And next week, I’ll tell you a story of my own attempt at replicating this idea…

One where I wrote 600 “bad” musical ideas in just 3 months.

And in so doing, pushed my sanity as far as it could go…

But I managed to come out unscathed.

And I feel that when you hear this story…

You’ll discover a completely new way of composing. One that could both help you write BETTER music…

And do it without a lot of the angst, struggle, and pain that so many composers, producers, musicians face.

But until then, remember…

The world waits for your music…

Luke

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