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Greetings from Germany

johe

New Member
Hello everyone,

after years and years of passively checking this forum out and learning a lot from all of you, I finally decided to take the plunge and make an account to not only lurk in the background but actively take part in discussions, get help, inspiration...whatever may come of this. All of this coming from a renewed interest in taking writing music more seriously - more on that later.

First, a little bit about myself: I mainly play the piano (been playing for 26 years now, had lessons for the first 13 of them) and have always written my own music. In the beginning it was mostly songwriting on the piano, but later also instrumental music inspired by movie scores (Williams, Goldsmith, Horner, Newman, ...). When I was 14 I decided I wanted to be a composer and conductor and actually took lessons for years in preparation of studying music at college. When I was done with school, I was basically ready for it - had my portfolio ready, all the piano pieces prepared etc.

And then I just didn't do it. I don't really remember why - something of a mix between "Do I really want to do this as a job - or do I just want to know how to do this and work as something else?", interests in other things and - of course - the fear of not being good enough. So I went to college and got a master's degree (or at least the German equivalent of one) in Psychology, trained to become a cognitive behavioral therapist and...am one now. Not going to music school is not something I regret, but I do regret that sometimes I kind of "let go" of music and didn't write for long periods of time. But in one way or another, I've always been playing and writing (and of course listening to) music, so that hasn't changed.

Right now I am finally at a point in my life where I feel "settled" and thus freed enough to seriously branch out into music again. I don't mean professionally, but taking my hobby more seriously. I've been taking piano lessons again, got some books and tutoring to get my harmony, counterpoint and 4-part-writing back into shape and I've taken up playing the cello (which has TREMENDOUSLY altered the way I approach writing for strings and my understanding for stringed instruments) and - most importantly - I've written more music in the past few months than I have in the past 6 years or so.

So...yeah. That was quite a lot. I'm here now and I look forward to talking with you!

J.


TL;DR - Psychologist who once wanted to become a musician says hi
 
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Hi and Welcome.
Studying something else than music as a musician is something I did too and I dont regret at all (and would always do again). Taking experience and inspiration from other fields helps a lot to write music in my opinion. During my time at university (Sinology & Theology) and the first few years of workig I also didnt make much music, but I am back to it since a few years. (btw..I am German too)
 
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