a.m. inspirations

Last night, as I was winding down and trying to fall asleep, my mind started drifting to this project and what I need to do to make it work. I had spent sometime looking up music theory info online and trying figure out a way to get the info I need so that I can finish my work. I ended up reading Alan Belkin’s Letter to A Young Composer, which you can read here. In the letter, Belkin lists all the things that a young composer needs to do to be a great composer. After reading this, I realized that there are things that I still need to learn in order to succeed, although I’m not sure that I can submit myself to the years of schooling that Belkin deems necessary, being that I just graduated last year after being in school for about five and half years. Just thought of returning to a classroom and staring at textbooks make me want to head for the hills.

The best solution for me would probably be finding someone who could teach me privately or some-kind of independent study program. Unfortunately, I do not have the money to go back to school without taking out another loan, which I’m not thrilled about. I’m just barely making payments on my current loan. At this point, I’m going to have to try to self-teach myself all things that most other composers probably spend time learning in college with good teachers at their sides. Almost makes me wish I had minored in Music like I had planned to after I transferred. Hopefully I can find some more literature to read that will give me the tools that I need in an easy to understand fashion without being too easy. Reading Prout and Hindemith’s books are challenging to say the least.

While I was pondering what I need to do, my mind drifted to my current piece, “Inward” and began forming a poem for the Mind section. I pulled myself out of bed, got a pen, paper, notepad, and a flashlight, and laid back down. This is what I jotted down:

Thought-forms flow like liquid

waters from the deep

Sprung from the depths

of the uncharted mind

Ceaselessly shifting the

currents turn from thought

to thought in an endless

sea of voices

demanding some kind of

attention

The noise continues as one

moves through out the

days until a gentle

sleep takes over

Calm the turbulent

water into a

silent spring

I think I might rewrite it a little bit because a few of the lines seem slightly repetitive but otherwise, it’s pretty good for being rewritten half-asleep. Hopefully, I be able to get where I need to be musically and get back to my composing. Finding some extra work would be great too.