Thank you for this! The thought experiment was a new idea for me and it's highly useful! Thank you for reinforcing my conviction that the genius composer is more a myth than anything else. I've been telling this to my students and through years of teaching I notices that those who were considered less gifted usually went much further and achieved more through hard work than those who came in the door as ready made superstars and thought that they don't need to work on themselves. There's a reason why 99% of people, even avid consumers of classical music never heard the first 20 symphonies by Mozart. He too had to put in the work. And speaking of Mozart's symphonies... I'm not afraid of new or old ideas, but I am afraid of bad ideas. One of the very bad ideas is that we usually expect young, beginner composers to find their own voices. Immediately. I challenge anyone who is not specialized in Mozart and Haydn to listen to a randomized playlist of Haydn's least known symphonies and the first 20 symphonies by Mozart. If they can tell just by listening which of them is by who, I'll eat my hat raw and unsalted. Expecting immediate and total originality where both the techniques, the ideas and the result must be totally new and unprecedented is crazy and it results in a lot of unnecessary anxiety. The fear of putting on paper anything that might even remotely feel like someone else's musical world results in more writer's block, pointless and empty avant-garde extremes (really endemic music which is only heard, enjoyed by the professionals who can understand those interesting techniques), musical exercises in futility. Let's not forget that while music can be interesting and most often it is, that's not it's primary role. I think we should also remind ourselves that the modern notion of originality in music was born really only in the 19th century. Before that it was a free for all. Handel stole unashamedly, everyone knows how Mozart borrowed his fugato theme in the overture of the Magic Flute from Clementi, and Eric Chafe wrote a book "Bach the Borrower" in which he lists well over 600 cases when Bach used earlier stuff - both by others and by himself - in his work.
Hey Saad, I was just recently accepted for the BA at the UdK, and I'm really looking forward to seeing a complete breakdown of everything necessary for an upcoming composer. Thank you for your work, and the fact that it is free and accessible to all is very inspiring!
Saad, do you believe restricting materials to work with (a specific scale, pitch class set etc, at least initially) might also help with writer's block? Some composers say they sometimes feel overwhelmed by the virtually unlimited possibilities that music offers nowadays.
🧠 Watch the rest of the 5+ hour masterclass for free here: www.skool.com/composersbrainlite
Thank you for this!
The thought experiment was a new idea for me and it's highly useful!
Thank you for reinforcing my conviction that the genius composer is more a myth than anything else. I've been telling this to my students and through years of teaching I notices that those who were considered less gifted usually went much further and achieved more through hard work than those who came in the door as ready made superstars and thought that they don't need to work on themselves.
There's a reason why 99% of people, even avid consumers of classical music never heard the first 20 symphonies by Mozart. He too had to put in the work.
And speaking of Mozart's symphonies... I'm not afraid of new or old ideas, but I am afraid of bad ideas.
One of the very bad ideas is that we usually expect young, beginner composers to find their own voices. Immediately.
I challenge anyone who is not specialized in Mozart and Haydn to listen to a randomized playlist of Haydn's least known symphonies and the first 20 symphonies by Mozart. If they can tell just by listening which of them is by who, I'll eat my hat raw and unsalted.
Expecting immediate and total originality where both the techniques, the ideas and the result must be totally new and unprecedented is crazy and it results in a lot of unnecessary anxiety.
The fear of putting on paper anything that might even remotely feel like someone else's musical world results in more writer's block, pointless and empty avant-garde extremes (really endemic music which is only heard, enjoyed by the professionals who can understand those interesting techniques), musical exercises in futility.
Let's not forget that while music can be interesting and most often it is, that's not it's primary role.
I think we should also remind ourselves that the modern notion of originality in music was born really only in the 19th century. Before that it was a free for all.
Handel stole unashamedly, everyone knows how Mozart borrowed his fugato theme in the overture of the Magic Flute from Clementi, and Eric Chafe wrote a book "Bach the Borrower" in which he lists well over 600 cases when Bach used earlier stuff - both by others and by himself - in his work.
I’m glad you resonated with this!
Hey Saad, I was just recently accepted for the BA at the UdK, and I'm really looking forward to seeing a complete breakdown of everything necessary for an upcoming composer. Thank you for your work, and the fact that it is free and accessible to all is very inspiring!
This is amazing, Saad. Congrats on making this high-quality series!
Many great ideas, definitely worth watching to the end, the last bit about writer's block is very valuable, thank you for doing this Saad!
Saad, do you believe restricting materials to work with (a specific scale, pitch class set etc, at least initially) might also help with writer's block? Some composers say they sometimes feel overwhelmed by the virtually unlimited possibilities that music offers nowadays.
Thanks alot! This masterclass was very helpfull, especially the "ideas" part!
Tx !
Thats a great video
Inspired
Heavy
Excellent content 👏👏 also, watching it all in 2x, now tour normal voice sounds weird 🤪
I always think it sounds weird to be fair 🤣
hello saad, do you still do 1 on 1 consultation sessions?
Yes, in the free community we do.
@@saadhaddadmusic How do I access that and book a session?
@@crzymm_ there’s a link in the bio and in the description.