The 7 patterns I see derailing most composer careers (and what we fix in the room) Skool post After 20 years of writing music and several hundred composer conversations, here are the seven things I see derailing more composer careers than anything else. If you're stuck, the answer is almost always somewhere on this list. 1. You overthink. You write a strong first idea, then spend the next four hours second-guessing it. You re-EQ, re-arrange, swap libraries, sketch alternatives. By the time you come back to the original take, you can't tell if it was good or not. The instinct that made the track interesting got buried under doubt. Most of your favorite tracks were written fast and finished slowly. Most of your stuck tracks were written slowly and never finished. 2. You can't stay on topic. The main theme is the whole job. One idea, stated clearly, varied with intent, returned to with weight. Instead, most composer tracks I review have three half-melodies pretending to be one. A motif appears, gets abandoned, a new motif shows up, also gets abandoned, the track ends without a thesis. The waveform looks like indecision. Library editors hear it instantly. A great track stays on topic for two minutes. Most drafts don't last 30 seconds. 3. You are drowning in plug-ins and sample libraries. You opened Kontakt to write and spent 25 minutes browsing. You bought the new library you saw on YouTube last week. Your template takes 90 seconds to load. The unfinished track from Tuesday is still sitting there. Tools are not the work. Most of the time the problem isn't that you need a new library, it's that you already have too many. 4. You don't know how to set up your demo reel. Your reel is your highest-leverage sales asset. It's the single piece of media that decides whether a music supervisor, library editor, or director takes you seriously in the first 20 seconds. Most composer reels I see are 6 to 12 minutes long, start with the safest track, bury the best one in the middle, jump between three unrelated genres, and have no edit or montage shaping the listen. Nobody finishes them. Nobody books from them. A great reel is 60 to 90 seconds, opens with your single most representative hit, and tells the buyer exactly what you do in one breath.

Hi Guys, i am very new to this community, also i'am about to finish the trailblazer 1 Course. Very nice Course, super helpful tips and insights! as i want to make Music as a hooby or on the side (no clients). What would you recommend on releasing tracks? Wait until i am more advanced in composition, balancing and arranging (as well a bit Music Theory), or should i share, upload Music to YouTube or other platforms, as soon i finished a track? The other thing is that i'm deaf on the left ear. Do you think it is possibly to get away with mix & Master with Ozone? I'm interested in mixing myself, ist fun but i truely struggle with my Hearing espacially small adjustments. Is it better to take time and try, or forget about mixing and sending it to a mixing engineer? Also is it affordable (mixing engineer) doing it as a Hobby? let me know what you guys think. Thank you! Cheers, Michael

I wonder which of both is easier to get in and has the higher potential outcome? My assumptions are that game music requires more networking, but is easier to get in overall as the production quality standards aren't as high as in trailer music (excluding AAA) and you can get away with many more musical styles. From a money making perspective I guess trailer music has a higher ceiling?!? What do you people of the internet think/know?

What is the best place to get professional feedback on Trailer cues? Do you guys have any recommendations? Could be paid or free, but preferably by someone with experience in the industry. I'm trying to get my productions to the next level, but the online communities where I posted my music before didn't give me that many points to work on. Thanks :)

Hey everyone, The Live Call Archive got a complete rebuild. If you're in Rise, your access is already included and the new version is live now. What's new: - Topic filter on the side. Video game music, pricing and rates, cold outreach, music theory, percussion, YouTube, all tagged. Click a topic, every relevant call surfaces. - Sticky player. The video stays open while you scroll, so you can keep listening while you hunt for the next one. - 269 calls in there now. New ones added every week. I recorded a quick walkthrough showing exactly how the new archive works and what's inside. If you want to see it before you decide, watch the video above. To get in: Sign in with the email you use here on Skool, get the magic link, you're forwarded straight to the archive. For anyone not in Rise: the archive is now available standalone. $27/month, $297/year, or $997 lifetime. 👉 https://lca.alexpfeffer.com/ If you'd rather join the live calls themselves with track feedback and the full Rise program, drop a comment or DM me and I'll walk you through it. Cheerio, Alex