About

This site provides a catalog of my compositions, a resume, and a blog that talks about my pieces, random thoughts, and a series of posts about how to write music and about being a composer.

As you can see from my picture, I’ve been around a long time. 30+ years of my life were spent teaching composition students in a university school of music. Even longer was spent composing music myself. I never made it to “Rich and Famous,” but I did make it to “Writing Music I Really Believe In,” which is a worthy goal, and the one I wish for you.

A few words before you read on:

• The posts on the website that talk about how to write music teache what I think you really NEED to know. That doesn’t include a lot of the theoretical stuff you’re “supposed to know.” (Yes, those are sarcasm quote marks.)
• In this posts, I hope to teach you how to write intuitive, non-intellectual music, like what you might hear as the theme for a movie.
• All posts are in no particular order of importance. Skip around freely. I wrote them when I felt like writing them. Maybe someday I’ll organize them.

So if you’re okay with all that, then we’re good to go.