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Hello Young Composers, I want to take this time to discuss a new development I have been working on, which is a standalone music notation program for Windows. The program will integrate with this website which will include comments and music management/uploads. I haven't made any official announcements because I wanted to make sure I was actually able to follow through. The first version of this program will be for Windows, and I am happy to say that none of this will be outsourced. Because it will not be outsourced, fixing issues or adding new features will be much easier to accomplish. I plan on making all files saved by this program exportable to Lilypond, which will be worked on after the main phase has been complete. Thus, the vision is after a score has been saved it will be integrated with Lilypond and export a PDF. This will mean that the program could be used exclusively to create Lilypond files. The features of this program will contain everything you would expect in a typical music notation editor. However once the basic framework of the program has been complete, we can be creative and add features that may not exist on competing products.

Ahem. KJ is too polite, but Rodney, I feel like someone should inform you that KJ has, in fact, taken college level music courses, just like you. He's here supplementing what he is learning elsewhere, as are most of us. This is a place to get clarification, find new resources for study, and get additional feedback from your peers. Questions are the point. Discussion is the point. How much you paid for your music education is not the point and really none of our business.

BAM! Sometimes, one of a composer's stylistic characteristics is doing things that are uncharacteristic of them! A "stylistic-side-stepping" if you will ... I almost missed this nugget: Is this what you actually believe? Maybe I'm taking this out of context or something, but being "fully committed" to something doesn't mean ignoring outside influences and not allowing for progress or growth. I wonder what our musical landscape would be like if we couldn't change our style as we went along! You can't let your style "harden" - we have to be constantly exploring and moving forward to be making any meaningful or creative music.

You forget, I was one of the people arguing for flexibility. What I was describing was my "style" as it exists so far. If I mentioned to somebody that I like composing, and they asked what kind of stuff I write, that's what I'd tell them. Doesn't mean I can't or won't write anything else, but that description would give someone a good idea of what to expect, if they decided to look my work up later. Every moment is the starting point for the rest of your life. That description is where I reside currently. (And you can absolutely leave the baby home and go to the beach with your wife. That's what grandparents are for: saving your sanity in the early years of child-rearing.)

Well I'm not sure how to define my own style since I'm really just fiddling around with different things at this point in an attempt to test the waters and get a feel for different ways of composing. I don't think I really have one yet, if I ever will. I think what's more important than sticking to one style or another is making sure that no matter what style you're composing in, that you realize your own artistic vision to the best of your ability without sacrificing the practicality of the circumstances under which you're composing. Translation: Do what you need to do, in a way that you're happy to do it. Maybe that's what it means to be committed to your own style. Who says a personal style is a style in the same sense as how we define musical styles academically? It could be that it just means being able to envision the music the way you would best like to realize it and then doing that. If that's the case, then you can be committed to your style despite the fact that it may not always be exactly the same in every scenario. Just like faith in God and a relationship with your family may develop and grow for better or worse, so can your way of perceiving, imagining, and composing music. But what do I know? I'm just some 20 year old from Texas who done went and starting making' music and ain't yet finished school. Perhaps the more enlightened on this site are better prepared to debate these topics.

I'll fix this for you: ;)

Honey in musical terms would be trumpets representing the bees with Harmon mutes, stems out playing fast chromatic and scaled runs while the thick, golden honey itself would be a tuba in its mellow mid to high register falling gracefully downwards to the plop of the double basses' low pizzicato, all the while hearing a lovely waltz in 3/4 and a major key playing in the background.