# What road did you take?



## TheWillardofOZ (Feb 24, 2013)

In talking with professionals from all over the industry, I have noticed that most individual journeys to where we are now, in our careers specifically, are really interesting and vastly different. In particular, last weekend I was at a conducting symposium led by the director of bands at The University of Michigan, Michael Haithcock. Obviously he's not a composer, but the story of how he has made it to this point in his career got me thinking about how many different paths there are to our goals. 

Does anyone else have "road less travelled" story they'd like to add? I feel that something like this could be really insightful to composers just starting out on this path.


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## RiffWraith (Feb 24, 2013)

TheWillardofOZ said:


> What road did you take?



The yellow brick road.


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## cadalac (Feb 24, 2013)

I'm just starting :( .

3 years ago I realized that composing would be my best career option. I continued to work in my current field until just recently. Now I'm putting my studio / portfolio together and soon will start to look for work. Its very difficult for me because I'm in my mid 20s. Had I realized that being a composer was the career best suited to my style of working and my skills (and that it was possible to do) I could have started at it much much earlier.

I have a feeling my next couple years are going to be really though and I wish I was starting earlier, but what can you do...


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## Arbee (Feb 24, 2013)

cadalac @ Mon Feb 25 said:


> Its very difficult for me because I'm in my mid 20s....I wish I was starting earlier, but what can you do...


ROFL :lol: 100%, totally, completely and entirely irrelevant - and I mean that in a very positive motivational way. o-[][]-o 

..


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## Jimbo 88 (Feb 24, 2013)

In 1984 I was a "dubber" and an audio production mixer in a recording studio making little more that minimum wage. Dubbers made copies of projects, like Reel to Reels of commercials to be sent to radio stations. 

One day I walked into a studio and saw a producer who was very upset, I got him a glass of water and asked "What was the matter?" He explained his music composer and close friend had just died. 

I said, "that's too bad, but I can do your music project." At 1st he said no, but I persisted. He let me bid on the project and I did, I bid lower than anyone and did not mention royalties.

Long story short, he gave me the job and it allowed me to parley that job into scoring a couple of TV docs and the rest is history.


So I tell everyone you just have to be persistant and in the right place when someone dies.


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## TheWillardofOZ (Feb 24, 2013)

> The yellow brick road.



This brings up something I've always wondered. Where does the red brick road go? :mrgreen:


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## nikolas (Feb 24, 2013)

Well... I think that I've had a very set path in regards to music early in my life, even though I realized it at around 20 years old.

I've been studying since the age of 5-6 or so... Piano, and have been composing from around the age of 10 (simply because I was bored to what I had to study on the piano and got excited when I saw another student (more advanced and older than me to present one of his compositions)). 

The unexpected thing about my life is that while I've always been wandering about academia (even got a PhD to prove that) I have nothing to do with universities and such institutions. I like my life as a freelance composer and publisher...


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## dcoscina (Feb 25, 2013)

I took the road less travelled....AND IT HURT MAN! Not cool Robert Frost!- kid President


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## windshore (Feb 25, 2013)

I turned down a scholarship in engineering (mechanical) about 3 months before I started college to become a music major. (Much to my father's dismay.)

Ironically I find that most of what I do now is EXACTLY like engineering. I'm given a project which is very specific to a particular need, I'm told the type of materials I can use, I'm given parameters and technical specifications, then told to create something that has structural and esthetic integrity for that particular application...but I'm not given enough time to do it as throughly as I'd like. - it's engineering...


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## dcoscina (Feb 25, 2013)

I was supposed to study psychology in university but in the 11th hr went to York for jazz performance which then Turned into composition. 

I finished with a philosophy degree though and ironically found that I listened and appreciated more 20th century music more than when I was in music. I know my composition prof (James Tenney) was very cerebral and into a lot of modern music. A lot of stuff just clicked when I began taking courses in epistemology.


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## Allegro (Feb 25, 2013)

Anyone else here wants to compose for film, realease his own pop/hiphop and rnb music album with own vocals+lyrics (major label release) and then produce mainstream electronic music, all at the same time ? I think I got hit by one of the bricks from the yellow brick road


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## reddognoyz (Feb 25, 2013)

What I did:


I decided i was going to go to Berklee in 9th grade. I did. 

Dropped out to become a rock star. I didn't.

Went on the road for 9 months /w a cover band. Hated it.

Moved to NYC to become a rock star. I didn't.

Discovered, quite by accident, "performance art" and started writing music and sound design for it. 

Met a guy who was working at the Record Plant and he helped me set up a tiny studio.

Met a guy who had produced for an in-store radio network and wrote 100's of station ID's ("woolworth radio" etc etc..) and cheapo radio spots. kept me and the studio afloat.

My Big Break

A studio opened up next door to me and I met a guy who had just hit it big with a sag contract on a long running tv spot ( he was "hefty hefty hefty" the guy who hired him was "wimpy wimpy wimpy" for the long running Hefty garbage bag spots) Enough money to get out of the business he hated. He segue-ed me into his role as "music guy" I owe him big for that, thanks Bob K!!!! (he's a big part of the Transiberian Orchestra now, he IS a rock star)

Scored commercials, promo's, industrials, etc, also lots of sound design, paid the bills.

Moved to a room at an audio post house( I highly recommend this btw), and got a shot at the underscore for a Disney Cartoon. I was the dark horse, but I spent about 14 hours on the first 15 seconds over the course of 3 days,(I highly recommend this as well if you really want the gig), and got the gig.

Opened my own audio post studio( I highly recommend you DON'T do that), with a partner a recovering Agency producer, and continue to score, mostly cartoons, some commercials if they come to me.....and post here on the forum as a way to procrastinate from scoring said cartoons, I'm a little tired of it, but I've scored over 500 episodes, I could use a change of pace.....


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## EastWest Lurker (Feb 25, 2013)

My path as a composer and musician was the conventional route but my secondary career as a Logic Pro author and consultant and "technology guy" was anything but. My bass player used to have to patch my board for me

But what i had was patience and perserverance. I was willing to try something 20 times without it working right until I had a lightbulb moment and went' Oh, NOW I get it".

So I became known in LA composer circles as a guy who knew Logic well and could help people, and then became a teacher/consultant and then a Certified Trainer, which led to me being offered by Cengage the chance to write books. And now I write 3 monthly columns as well, thanks to Peter Alexander and Steve Horelick of MacPro Video.

And I certainly never envisioned a tertiary career working part time as Online Coordinator for EW. But the unfairness of attacks on certain developers and their products, among them EW, so offended by sense of fair play that I defended them by separating fact from opinion and debunking misinformation. This eventually caught Doug and Nick's notice and so I was offered that gig.

And whatever turns my career has taken, it has not been dull


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## Mike Greene (Feb 25, 2013)

Like Stuart, my dreams were to be a rock star. I dropped out of grad school (Math) to move to L.A. and give it a legitimate shot. I taught high school math for three years to pay the bills.

I played in lots of bands and eventually one got an EP deal with one on MCA. Recording took almost a year (a story in itself) but we were eventually shelved.

But the recording process taught me a LOT. Mainly that I could afford a Fostex 16 track and Aries mixer (about 10 grand for both) and set up a legitimate small project studio. Not pro by any means, but I put an ad in Music Connection and got lots of demo work as a "one stop shop" for aspiring singers and rappers. And having my own studio saved me a ton of money in my own song demos. (In those days, doing a decent sounding demo cost at least $500.)

A few of my songs (mostly dance/R&B) and a few of the demo artists had some success, so I built a bigger studio (with a couple Otari MTR 90s and a Trident 80B) so I could bill record companies not only a producer fee, but for studio time as well. I'm a greedy mofo!

Along the way, I played in a weekly low-dollar poker game with six other guys who all became friends. One guy was a commercial director. He was doing a Hot Wheels commercial and didn't like the music that the regular guys were giving him. He knew I was in rock bands, so he asked me if I'd take a shot at it. As luck would have it, the spot wound up winning some awards and he and I became the darlings of Mattel.

From there, I liken my career path to a venereal disease. I'd do other spots, and producers would bring my on to _their_ other spots. Where the client would have me do still other spots with different people. I eventually got hooked up with a promo company ("promos" are like trailers, but for TV shows.) As I did these promos, I'd start asking if they had anyone to do the theme song yet.

Just theme songs, mind you. I had no interest whatsoever in "scoring." I stupidly considered that to be not as cost-effective as themes and commercials. Which was partially true, because I was making crazy money. (Crazy enough that we bought the property my studio was in and then paid off the bank loan in 5 years.)

I then got the scoring bug, though, and learned a few things:
1. Scoring is hard.
2. Getting scoring gigs is hard. Especially when your credits are all theme songs and commercials.
3. I was right that scoring doesn't pay very well. At least until . . . 

I got my first ASCAP check for a show that had a lot of "minutes." Dang! It was a total POS show, but was wall to wall music. (As POS shows generally are. You know the drill: "The action sucks, so let's try to make it interesting with more music!") I'd gotten ASCAP checks before, of course, but it was eye opening how "quality" means nothing. It's all "minutes" and "when and where a show airs." Even ratings don't matter.

Sadly, this reignited the greed centers in my brain, and I became all about trying for shows with lots of minutes and ignored "good" shows. This bit me in the butt, because libraries have largely taken over that market now and I'm once again faced with trying to get scoring gigs on legit shows with my lowly credits that might be viewed as "not a serious composer."

Okay, I'm rambling and don't really have a point to that, but there's my "road," less traveled or otherwise.


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## mathis (Feb 25, 2013)

Jimbo 88 @ Sun Feb 24 said:


> So I tell everyone you just have to be persistant and in the right place when someone dies.



This is so true. One of my major career boosters was the suicide by another composer...


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## Markus S (Mar 3, 2013)

mathis @ Mon Feb 25 said:


> Jimbo 88 @ Sun Feb 24 said:
> 
> 
> > So I tell everyone you just have to be persistant and in the right place when someone dies.
> ...



I love this business.


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## nickhmusic (Mar 3, 2013)

Mike Greene @ Mon Feb 25 said:


> Like Stuart, my dreams were to be a rock star. I dropped out of grad school (Math) to move to L.A. and give it a legitimate shot. I taught high school math for three years to pay the bills.
> 
> I played in lots of bands and eventually one got an EP deal with one on MCA. Recording took almost a year (a story in itself) but we were eventually shelved.
> 
> ...



that was a very interesting and :shock: opening read Mike, thanks for sharing it.

I'll just ~o) now...


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