20 Tips for Composers
20 Tips for Composers:
1. Work every day, even if only to take a few minutes to visualize new work
2. Never forget why making music is called playing
3. Output your works in progress frequently as audio files to review when things aren’t coming easily
4. Send work to someone you trust for feedback
5. Do things you’ve never tried
6. Work with some visual medium such as dance or film to stimulate new creative paths
7. Re-engage yourself with new sounds
8. Listen to the world around you, musical and otherwise
9. Seek periods of silence
10. See how softly you can play
11. Seek collaborators
12. Learn your craft and your gear
13. Sing, dance and misbehave
14. Draw your music pictorially to fully develop its design and overall shape
15. List your accomplishments every day
16. Write sacred music, whether you’re a believer or an atheist. Nothing stretches you like writing music to describe the indescribable.
17. Read creation stories
18. Revel in and transcend your limitations
19. Talk to small children. They see and hear the world differently.
20. Back up your work every day
– Daniel Buckley