​The traditional classical music mindset is one with a competitive lens. Trying to be “better” than the person sitting next to us is ingrained into us from early on in our musical training, especially in the world of classical concert music. The trouble is, that this can create a toxic environment, one that ultimately hurts us more than it helps us.

One little fact about me is that I am incredibly competition adverse. I’m not interested in “beating” anyone. I don’t want to be worried about trying to figure out how my work stacks up next to someone else–which is an impossible task when you’re dealing with something as subjective and arbitrary as music. Early on in my musical path, I found myself at a crossroads where I was scared to enter the music field because of that competition. I really loved making music, I loved playing with other people, I adored improvisation, but I felt that it was not worth the stress of trying to put another person down, or obsess over out-performing them. 

​It was this crisis that ultimately led me down the path of studying music composition. It was a route I could take where I could still be immersed in music but be free of the burden of competition, and instead focus on the art itself, and sharing it with others. On top of that, it was the musical subject I knew the least about… the most bang for my educational buck! Although I’m grateful that I started writing music, I’ve realized along the way that I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

In the process of writing, playing, and working in a variety of musical positions, I’ve noticed that the concept of competition, true animosity or jealousy for one another, is manufactured and encouraged to keep us at odds with one another. How much more successful would we all be without it? How many incredible collaborations never occur out of the fear and apprehension created by competition? How much stronger and lucrative would our business be for the artists, rather than the corporations without it? It is never a necessity. Especially not in music. 

Now your mind might be jumping to music competitions, auditions, and the myriad of other events which require us to compete for highly sought after positions. Yes, even in an audition, those other musicians you are “playing against” are not enemies, not rivals, they are simply other people just as passionate about their craft as you are. If you find yourself caught in the habit of considering them competitors, ask yourself, what good does that accomplish? You have no control over where they studied, the instrument they play on, or how well they’ll perform when their moment comes. The only thing you can control is your own performance. Remembering the fact that at the end of the day it is a performance–you are playing music–can be liberating. 

I’ve been recently watching some content from Eliran Avni’s YouTube channel. He currently posts videos of his classes and interviews pertaining to the philosophy behind music. I highly recommend the videos to any musician! A recent subject of discussion has been the topic of creating prompts for motivation, and how our motivation in music should always be internally focused rather than external. By basing our motivation and goals on something we have control over, we’ll find they are profoundly more achievable! I’ll link to a recent insightful interview with Eva Cappelletti-Chao here:

​Despite what we are taught, either from teachers or from ourselves, the competitive mindset has no utility in music. There is no circumstance in which it is helpful, and in fact, it often holds us back from accomplishing the most amazing work of our career. Rather than insisting on competing with my friends, I choose to collaborate with them. It’s much more fun anyways! 

​If the established world of music requires us to push down and excel over our colleagues, I want no part in it. So what if we just made our own? What if we gathered all our friends, existing and yet to meet, and created a new music world which was built around collaboration? What if we reached beyond the lot we each get in life and helped each other to find success? It’s something we could all start today.

The more people we get on board, the more people we get listening to and playing this wonderful art, the better it is for all of us. When you consider the fact that we’re all working for the betterment of the same industry, there’s suddenly no sense trying to compete. Collaborate with your friends, share each other's music, share your audiences, play each other’s music, these are all things that can only benefit your career, and they benefit others too. I know you want to, what's holding you back?

​Speaking of, if any of you have music you'd like me to discuss and write about, whether it's yours or a friends, feel free to send it my way ; ). Until next time, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

​Photo by Elimende Inagella on Unsplash

The recent announcement of the Napoleon movie has created a stir of excitement among history nerds everywhere, myself included. However, upon watching the trailer, I noticed something that has been bugging me about many trailers recently: the music. For those who are not aware, the composer that writes a film's score is usually not the same composer that writes for the trailers. This makes sense as the composer for the film has the important job of scoring the film first and foremost. However, there is one worrying trend that has been emerging from this process, and I’ll be discussing it below.
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It’s a pretty cool trailer right? Costumes look amazing, the colors chosen are wonderfully satisfying and fitting. Why a 48 year-old Joaquin Phoenix is playing a 24 year-old Napoleon is beyond me, but who am I to judge? Oh right, I’m here to judge (but maybe we’ll stick to the music). The set and material appear to be painstakingly researched to ensure the visuals are as historically accurate as possible. So, can someone tell me why “The National Anthem” by Radiohead is playing in the background? What does this have to do with the film we’re supposed to be excited about? I’m almost certain Radiohead didn’t time-travel to assist in the Siege of Toulon.

Maybe I’m weird… No,  I’m definitely weird, but the current trend of sticking any old song into trailer music really just breaks the immersion for me. If it's out of the question to use something written for the film, and it needs to be something pre-written, why not some music from the time period? A little Beethoven? I’ll explain.
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Personally, I’d be more in favor of something written for the film, maybe a reference to a theme from the original score. Barring that, I think including something at least historically relevant would be better than Radiohead. Beethoven famously composed his third symphony in honor of the brilliant general, later defacing its title and removing its association after Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France, breaking Beethoven’s anti-monarchical heart. Using Eroica or some other music from the period for this trailer would at least better set the scene. It could even be used to mirror Napoleon's progression through history.
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I realize the reason why Radiohead was used in this trailer, and why films tend to do this. They want to grab and maintain a prospective audience member’s attention with a hint of familiarity. Using a recognizable pop tune can achieve that quickly and easily. I want to clarify that I’m not completely opposed to using pre-written music in trailers. I think there is merit to using popular music from the time to set a scene or help put audiences in the correct mindset. One good example of this would be the trailer for the Fear Street series, which intentionally references the time period as an important setting and plot point. In this case briefly quoting “I Will Survive”.

​The song use is done in reference to the fact that each movie follows a different time period. The music for the trailer cleverly underscores the changes between time setting for each movie, working to make the trailer even more digestible. The crucial step that the Napoleon trailer was missing was the relevance of the music to the material.
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​This trailer for the first Harry Potter movie is a great example of utilizing musical themes which will appear in the film. If the composer of the trailer were to have access to elements of the score for the film (which may be difficult due to the fact that the score is one of the last elements added to the film) that would work. Even fragments of themes being included in trailers could serve as subconscious preppers for the score of the film, creating that sense of familiarity in the movie theater rather than on YouTube, Facebook, or God forbid… Twitter, I mean “X”, I mean Twitter.

Granted, this example is quite dated, but the inclusion of thematic material introduced audiences' ears to the musical world of the film, and made it more impactful when they heard it as they watched. Now just watch the trailer again, but imagine an epic arrangement of an NSYNC tune mixed in…

I can’t be the only one clawing at my skin right now. 

All joking aside, the reference to a John Williams score actually brings up another aspect to consider. There's a worrying trend (in my opinion) of film scores moving away from a thematically focused approach towards a more effect-based/sound design emphasis. This could further make the trailer composer’s life difficult, but I’ll likely discuss it in a future blog post as it’s a whole topic on its own.​
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​I don’t mean to harp on this Napoleon movie, it looks promising and I’ll look forward to giving it a watch either way, but it was one of the most recent films that has followed this annoying habit. Am I the only one bothered by this? I would love to hear from you if you have any thoughts or potential solutions! Until next time, thank you for reading.