Wizarding Notes
Official Blog of the Wizarding School for Composers
How to Compose Like a Professional
Without fluency in both technique AND process, you can’t compose like Michael Giacchino, for instance, and take on a project like Rogue One last minute — with only 4½ weeks to score and record it — and then complete it while still working steady hours of 9 AM-6 PM.
The Courage to Commit
How do you know you’ve found “a really beautiful and worthwhile musical idea”? How do balance the “courage to commit to an idea that might be good” vs. “enough awareness” to abandon an idea that “just isn’t great”?
Why Farmers Work Smarter Than Composers
If you’re like most composers, when you sit down at your desk or think about what you’re going to work on tomorrow, you probably think some variation of “It’s time to compose!”
Here’s the thing: Any farmer could tell you why that’s not helpful.
What I Learned from Quitting Music
I’d had it with music. Composing was too hard, too frustrating. Little did I know that my alternate career path would help me understand composing better than I had before — and reinvigorate my creative spark.
Why, yes, even today I can write!
When you say “I can’t write music today,” you’re probably not referring to an ability, but to an outcome or aspiration. And you’re probably correct. As BJ Fogg explains, “you can only achieve aspirations and outcomes over time if you execute the right specific behaviors.”
Well, maybe I can write today...
Composing is not magic. It is a behavior. More specifically, composing is a collection of actions and behaviors—improvising, sketching, notating, revising, etc.—that may lead to a deliverable outcome—a printed score, a live performance, a mastered track, etc.
Why, no, I cannot write today! I have no time, no motivation, no . . .
If you’re like me, your number one love is writing music—but your number one skill is avoiding writing music. Every day, we find some “good” reason to avoid writing. These excuses reveal what Steven Pressfield calls your “Resistance”—the shadow part of yourself that keeps you from working.
Getting Started with Dorico
So you just got Dorico or you have the trial, and now you want to know how to use it. Here are a collection of resources and ideas I found helpful in my process.