I’d like to ask whether my composition skills are strong enough to work professionally as a composer for instrumental music.

I’d like to ask whether my composition skills are strong enough to work professionally as a composer for instrumental music.

I don’t know how to use a DAW at all, so please exclude DAW-related skills from the evaluation criteria.

I originally worked in manufacturing, but due to a lack of overall cognitive ability, I can no longer continue that work, so I’m trying to make money by composing instrumental music

Edited Friday at 12:29 PM1 day by Scriabinian

Good day,

I had a listen to your work. It would really help providing info on your inspiration, intentions etc. Evidently - at least from the title - this is program music. What is everlasting Hegemony?

Regarding the music itself, it is of a medium that I do not understand and as such I am in no position to judge its quality. That said, from the perspective of my personal medium (tonal music/common practice) I struggle to hear anything memorable. The music sounds like a continuous mass of crunchy chords without much pause at all or distant melody. This is a problem for me at least. I prefer art with clarity and a relatable structure.

This piece is dedicated to the veterans, and to the countries that offered their support, who extended a helping hand to Korea during times of hardship—particularly the United States, as well as nations that provided assistance through the United Nations and NATO. The work was composed as an expression of gratitude for their sacrifice and support.

Many listeners have mentioned that the piece comes across as a continuous mass of dense, abrasive chords without a clear melody, and that they find this difficult to engage with. I understand this reaction and recognize that such a texture can be challenging for some audiences. From my perspective, however, the absence of a single, dominant melodic line was an intentional compositional choice, rooted in the conceptual framework of the work. That said, I am open to the possibility that this decision may still present musical issues that I have overlooked. I would therefore appreciate your perspective on whether the perceived density and lack of a clear melody pose structural or expressive problems within the piece, independent of individual stylistic preference. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Thank you very much for your advice. Many of the people around me are not confident in their ability to judge music, so I truly needed the perspective of someone with a well-trained ear.

Edited Friday at 02:59 PM1 day by Scriabinian

9 minutes ago, Scriabinian said:

This piece is dedicated to the veterans, and to the countries that offered their support, who extended a helping hand to Korea during times of hardship—particularly the United States, as well as nations that provided assistance through the United Nations and NATO. The work was composed as an expression of gratitude for their sacrifice and support.

From a compositional perspective, I deliberately refrained from establishing a single principal melody. My objective was to distribute musical weight as evenly as possible across all instruments, thereby preventing any one part from dominating the overall texture. Accordingly, the absence of a clear leading line is not accidental, but a conscious artistic decision that aligns with the conceptual foundation of the piece.

Many people have said that the piece sounds like a continuous mass of dense, abrasive chords without a clear melody, and that this is problematic for them. Since evaluations differ from person to person, I wanted to ask and get another opinion.

Is it objectively correct that the piece is problematic because it sounds like a continuous mass of dense, abrasive chords without a clear melody?

Thank you very much for your advice. Many of the people around me are not confident in their ability to judge music, so I truly needed the perspective of someone with a well-trained ear.

With respect, your reply reads like something generated by AI. And I really wouldn't be surprised if the music was in fact AI generated.

It asks a good question, though: "Is it objectively correct that the piece is problematic because it sounds like a continuous mass of dense, abrasive chords without a clear melody?"

I did not suggest that my position was objective. I made it clear that I was coming from a perspective influenced by personal taste and training.

The atonal and textual messiness without clear direction or distinct character in this work is unlikely to become more than an intellectual curiosity that only you can only possibly understand. This is not objectively problematic, but when you consider the taste of your audience, it can become so if it does not align with broader aesthetic taste. A composer that does not need to care about that is surely privileged but not of much value to the experience of others.

And this inadvertently circles back to your question: "[are] my composition skills are strong enough to work professionally as a composer for instrumental music". In the professional landscape, you will need to compose in accordance with other people's vision.

Edited Friday at 03:15 PM1 day by Markus Boyd

Hello

The truth is, it’s very difficult to answer your question based on just one piece. And I wouldn’t attempt to do so anyway, as I’m not a professional qualified to judge something like that.

What I can tell you is a bit about this piece. I’m used to listening to 20th-century music because I generally like it a lot. I don’t think this is atonal. It bears a certain resemblance to some works with dense counterpoint and a post-Romantic style, such as Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen, differences aside, of course.

I quite like the way it sounds. I also had a look at the piano version you have on YouTube. Although it seems more like a ‘working’ version than a realistic one, because there are things I think are impractical.

The sextet version gives me the impression that it sounds a bit too ‘flat’. Although there’s a profusion of written dynamics, you don’t really perceive any great contrasts; perhaps that’s down to the sounds you used. The fact that the texture is very homogeneous throughout also contributes to this. A piece of this sort always seems to be striving for a grand climax.

Thank you very much for all of your responses. If I were to single out the three composers who influenced this piece the most, they would be Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Brahms. As Luis Hernández pointed out, neither of the two works has ever been premiered, which likely makes them impractical in performance. And as Markus Boyd noted, I have also received many comments regarding the atonal and texturally messy construction of the piece, as well as its lack of clear direction or distinct character. I am sincerely grateful for both of your observations. They have given me an important opportunity to reconsider the overall direction of my work. Thank you.

“I just made public the eight music tracks I had submitted to companies on YouTube. Do my compositions have professional-level value?”

In Answer to your Original Question .............i would say :

Can YOUR Music be composed to " FIT " A Film ?............. If it can , Then the Answer to your Question is : Yes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lust_for_a_Vampire

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by interlect

Now, I can't treat DAW or any type of midi or any sequencer then, the answer seems to be No ㅠㅠ

Im surprised to see you say No ?.........As your composition as Several of the Hallmarks that Sound like a HAMMER-FILM sound

which will always be in demand......................Wish i could create stuff like that.

The truth is that in this style, where the forms aren't the classic ones where you already have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen, it's more difficult to outline a general plan for the work.

It's easy to get carried away by what's happening in the moment and put that planning on the back burner.

Well, I am a composer, professionally for films. Used to do games the better part of 20 years ago, now I am currently working on films that will be doing festival tours in North America this year before going to streaming and such.

Some of my current projects have actors from TV series like "Billy The Kid", "The Last of Us", and more as well as Emmy-winning special effects teams who have worked on films like "Sonic The Hedgehog" and "Child's Play".

The reason I preface with that is to say: I don't have the career of John Williams (yet), but I'm not entirely a nobody either, so I am probably qualified enough to give you some honest advice and feedback. I could write you an entire essay, but I will try to keep this as short as possible:

Firstly, if you want to be a professional concert composer, then no matter how good you are, that is extremely rare in today's world and to be honest: It kind of always has been. Historically, most works were commissioned by the church, aristocracy, etc. for some reason or another. So, if you were aspiring to simply write music for live performance or albums of orchestral music and make a living on that...I'm sorry to say the odds are astronomically small.

Some will suggest you compose for video games, but speaking from experience only a handful of composers have that entire industry locked down. Getting a job that pays ANYTHING in video games is hard to come, the games take years to develop now, everything is a buyout deal, cancellations of entire projects are normal, and this all translates into relatively low annual income even on "AAA" games.

Where the real money is in being a composer today, and for the last 40 or so years, is in television and film. Especially long-tail income in the form of royalties and licensing fees that accumulate over decades.

Now, to the meat of your question:

My brutally-honest answer based on the piece you have shared is "No". If you wanted to compose for films, especially if you have no DAW or MIDI mockup skills, I'm sorry to say it would not cut the mustard for even lower-level indie shorts.

Very few musicians to be honest have what it takes to be a film composer, even a middling one. There is a massive list of skills, that take decades to build up, just regarding music and its production before one could confidently score a film. I can honestly say that even 8 years ago, I don't think I would've made much of a film composer, and I had already been writing music for bands or games for years by that point.

Not only must you be able to write memorable themes, which this piece does not demonstrate, but you must have a thorough knowledge of orchestration, mixing, MIDI mockups and recording; advanced composition theory that involves: counterpoint, various unusual scales and harmonic progressions that are not typically found in popular music (or even a lot of older orchestral music for that matter), experience with synthesizers, creating realistic mockups, structure that works with a clear emotional arc, writing effective short pieces, writing effective long-form pieces, etc.

And this is before we even get into: You have to understand how all these musical devices can relate to linear story-telling and emotion. You have to understand "film" at least as much as you understand "music". There's "composing music" and then there is "composing music that tells a story".

You also must be able to be an effective business man. You have to get out there and make friends with directors, producers and editors. Attend festivals and build genuine working relationships with people and be very easy to work with. 99% of composers stumble big time on this one.

And one of the hardest things of all is that you have to be extremely-reliable. On a film, and god knows on a TV show, you do not have time for things like writer's block. You need to know theory, composition, orchestration etc. like the back of your hand to be able to write on average 2 minutes of finished music per day to get the job done on time.

Not being on time on a film or TV show would be absolutely catastrophic for that studio and I'm not joking when I say that being late would ruin your entire career and cost people potentially millions of dollars. Now bear in mind, on a film you might have just two or three months to write the score. On a TV show a matter of days or weeks per episode. You must be absolutely certain you could deliver on that.

The composer is often the very last major person involved with a film aside from the sound mixer and maybe colorist. It is generally the case that the score has been recorded and finished just weeks before a film hits theaters.

It is for all of the aforementioned reasons that age 44 is considered "young" to be working as a professional composer in film and tv. Studios and directors are placing an enormous amount of trust on the composer. So most film composers started composing at very young ages, and spent decades in music, honing their craft, making connections and essentially "proving" themselves before anyone trusts them enough to score a film and pay them good money to do it. John Williams, the most successful and iconic film composer (and probably just composer of the 20th century tbh) was already just about 50 years old when he did Jaws and Star Wars.

So unfortunately, in the most profitable avenues that I am aware of for being a composer, I don't think you presently have the skills, musically, yet.

That is of course fixable, but what you must ask yourself is if everything else that goes with it is something you can do and your personality is a good fit for. Another thing is, I'm not sure how old you are right now, but age is also a factor. Deciding you want to become a professional composer in your 20s is more practical than starting in your mid 30s, for example.

Hope this has been of some help. Good luck.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by AngelCityOutlaw

Thank you all very much for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully.

I was not fully aware that, as a professional concert composer, it is extremely difficult to sustain a full-time composing career with only mediocre skills. Considering my strong preference for stability, I also came to realize that game music is not a field that suits me well.

I would like to be honest about myself: I am not particularly strong at understanding films subjectively or independently, without discussion or exchange of ideas with others. I also have very pronounced weaknesses as a businessman. In particular, the likelihood that I could personally meet directors, producers, and editors, build relationships with them, attend film festivals, and form genuine collaborative partnerships is almost nonexistent.

In addition, my knowledge of orchestration is extremely limited, especially when it comes to balance-related issues. On top of that, I had not fully anticipated that the time given to write an entire film score could be as short as two or three months.

When I reflect on these points, it seems clear to me that all of the accompanying factors—the lifestyle, personality requirements, and workload—are fundamentally misaligned with my own disposition. I am currently in my thirties, and I realistically believe that there is very little room for me to meaningfully overcome these weaknesses at this stage.

Your response has been extremely helpful in guiding my decision, and I am sincerely grateful for your honesty and insight. Thank you very much.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Scriabinian

51 minutes ago, Scriabinian said:

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully.

I was not fully aware that, as a professional concert composer, it is extremely difficult to sustain a full-time composing career with only mediocre skills. Considering my strong preference for stability, I also came to realize that game music is not a field that suits me well.

I would like to be honest about myself: I am not particularly strong at understanding films subjectively or independently, without discussion or exchange of ideas with others. I also have very pronounced weaknesses as a businessman. In particular, the likelihood that I could personally meet directors, producers, and editors, build relationships with them, attend film festivals, and form genuine collaborative partnerships is almost nonexistent.

In addition, my knowledge of orchestration is extremely limited, especially when it comes to balance-related issues. On top of that, I had not fully anticipated that the time given to write an entire film score could be as short as two or three months.

When I reflect on these points, it seems clear to me that all of the accompanying factors—the lifestyle, personality requirements, and workload—are fundamentally misaligned with my own disposition. I am currently in my thirties, and I realistically believe that there is very little room for me to meaningfully overcome these weaknesses at this stage.

Your response has been extremely helpful in guiding my decision, and I am sincerely grateful for your honesty and insight. Thank you very much.

There is one other option I forgot to mention, which would be lighter on the business/personality requirements.

Library music composition.

What that is, is that you compose for a company who licenses music out to television and advertising.

So you write an album of music, they get the distribution rights and you get the writer's share for royalties.

Some of these companies, like Atom Music Audio, Warner-Chappell etc. provide a lot of music to things like commercials, trailers, TV spots for shows, reality TV, etc.

Competition is fierce and there are never any guarantees that your music will get placed in anything, however, a number of composers do make a decent living after years of building up a collection of albums and licensed tracks.

How this works depends on whether you're writing for a European company or American one.

In America, companies like Warner-Chappell will pay you an upfront amount of money for the album. This is very often 10s of thousands of dollars. HOWEVER, the trade off is that these companies do not offer you any amount of the license fee when some company licenses a track. You do, however get your writer's share of royalties when it airs.

So pros: Upfront money can be enough to live on. You still get royalties until the day you die as long as your music is airing somewhere in the world.

Cons: Licensing fees, especially if a track is for a big movie trailer or something, can be worth anywhere from tens of thousands to even millions of dollars in the very best cases. You don't get a dime from that. Plus, a few types of placements don't count as a "public performance" and don't have to pay any royalties, such as movie trailers that don't air on TV.

European companies offer a different deal and my understanding is this deal is legally-mandated in many countries.

Usually, there is no upfront money, but it is the case that you not only get your writer's share from royalties, but also 50% of licensing fees. So if you had a track that they licensed out for a lot of money, half that is yours. This means that you can potentially make more money if you release albums with a European library, BUT as they tend to have little to no financial skin in the game, they don't really have any incentive on their end to aggressively pitch your music.

So this could be another option for you if you just want to focus on composing and not have to worry really about networking and deadlines. However, you have to be able to deliver professional quality, broadcast-ready mockups or recordings, and the tradeoff there is that you have little control over your own career; it's a roll of the dice. With enough albums you could make good money or nothing at all, but it is less involved than being a dedicated film composer and doesn't really involve much risk.

Thank you for your response. I guess I should first verify whether I can write music that appeals to a wide audience haha. Once again, I sincerely appreciate your very thoughtful reply. I almost feel sorry that my words of gratitude are so short.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Scriabinian