Have a look at this baby girl, coloring in a coloring book. She is enjoying the sensory experience of it, the tactile sensation of having crayons in her hand and exploring the paper.

I was chatting with a beginning composition student recently and I asked him to show me what he’s working on. He offered to show me some theory homework, and this raised again the old issue of theory vs. composition. He seems adept at theory, but is just getting started with composition.

I talked about children like the girl in this picture, who go off into the corner with some crayons and a coloring book. They just start coloring, don’t they? They don’t concern themselves with whether it is “right.” There’s that sensual, enjoyable experience of running your crayons over the page.

Later, someone will tell this child the importance of staying inside the lines. And thus begins a lifetime of our own inner critic asking, “Is it good enough? Is it right?”

Music theory is “the lines” of the coloring book. I’m not saying that it is important to ignore “the rules” or that theory is insignificant. As composers, obviously, we should know where the lines are.

But as composer, also, we don’t let the lines define us. We can compose whatever we want to, for the tactile, sensory experience of it. It’s a good idea to explore strategies that return us to this childlike state!

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Sometimes performers wait around until someone gives them a call and hires them. This means that if they are holding your score in their hands, they won’t likely perform your music. They’ll be busy waiting around for someone to call them. And when they get that call, they’ll perform whatever is asked of them instead of your piece.

Instead, you want to seek out performers who are actively getting their own recitals together — who are busy with their careers. Get involved with these performers! These are the people you want to know. Your compositions will be contributing to their success, and their success will be contributing to your career.

(Performers reading this: don’t forget to keep working at your career and pushing yourself! This always attracts good attention.)

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Dowd wrote, “[Hillary Clinton] has ignored some truisms of politics that her husband understands well: Sunny beats gloomy. Consistency beats flipping. Bedazzling beats begrudging. Confidence beats whining.” (NYTimes, 27 Feb 2008)

Whether Dowd’s assessment of Hillary Clinton is accurate is debatable. But I was reminded of some composers I’ve met who have had enormous success: Paul Moravec and Chen Yi and Jennifer Higdon, for instance, truly follow this non-whining, confident way of life. It might seem hard to live every day this way, but composition careers are about more than composing; politics counts, too.

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Browse around. There’s good articles about the state of publishing today, and lots of composer weigh in on the advantages and disadvantages of being your own publisher.

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