A Practical Guide to Becoming a Composer: A wealth of advice, tips, strategies, and examples

by Arthur J. Michaels

Would you like to become a better composer, advance your skills, and increase your creativity? This book can help Even now, as a published, award-winning composer, if I saw this book, I'd buy it. That's because earning a high school diploma, a college degree, or even an advanced degree is a wonderful, promising achievement--I know. I did that. But the problem This book's huge amount of specifics makes it a valuable reference that you read, reread, and consult often. This book is a vital standalone guide for composers outside of formal learning circles and a practical supplement for composers who are studying or who have studied in classrooms. Because composing music is so varied with an enormous number of opportunities, a diverse, international group of 24 fellow composers contributed their ideas to this book. These composers work in different genres and styles. This book includes details of specific composer how-to skills, so composers and those who want to be composers get an intimate, unique view of the private professional procedures and practices of fellow composers--a perspective few composers ever see in one comprehensive source. Let this book's wealth of guidance, insights, and suggestions inspire you! Dive into this book and watch your skills, output, and success blossom!

Genres: Music

214 pages, Paperback

Published June 23, 2020

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This book shows up twice on goodreads, so I'm not sure which one is the official listing. The other listing is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5....)

I found this book useful and inspiring, with some particularly helpful-to-me gems. As an amateur who does not have a degree in music, I appreciate that he was inclusive of taking non-traditional routes to composing. I felt that he would take me seriously even as an amateur beginner, if it is a way of expressing myself creatively that I enjoy.

My only criticism is that I felt it could have used some more editing, especially at the detailed sentence level (sometimes two sentences in a row started the same way, or were worded awkwardly, etc.--there was enough of this that it was fairly noticeable and sometimes disrupted the flow).