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Reflections on composition, teaching, and the craft of music
The composers who score blockbuster films, the jazz pianists who reharmonize standards, the singer-songwriters who make you cry at the bridge — they all drew from the same well. The craft has one foundation.
Conservatories, video masterclasses, and private instruction each have a legitimate place in a composer's education — and each has real limits. Between them sits a gap: a rigorous practice system, available anywhere, that demands you write every day.
Receive new reflections on composition and the craft of music.
A student can define an authentic cadence, explain a suspension, and describe the rules of first-species counterpoint — and still write nothing usable. This is not a talent gap. It is a practice gap, and it has a name.
The internet is full of shortcut frameworks and ten-tip lists for writing better music. Mastery is built differently — through sustained practice of the same disciplines that trained Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms.
Most students cannot afford a private composition teacher. The critique Maestro provides is what the student should be getting between lessons — specific, analytical, and grounded in the actual score they wrote.
Most music education teaches students to identify chords and label forms, then calls this composition. It is not. Knowing the name of a thing and being able to do it are two entirely different skills.