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You are here: Home / Process / I Will Finish Every Composition I Start

I Will Finish Every Composition I Start

June 17, 2012 By Jon Brantingham 3 Comments

Everyday, each one of us faces about 10,375,238 things to do. You have to exercise, feed the cat, make breakfast, shower, brush your teeth, go to work, take the car to the shop, buy a new pair of shoes, etc…

So it is as a composer, you probably feel the need, as I do, that you have to compose. But have you ever taken a count of your finished compositions? You may end up being surprise.

My Count

Prior to starting this site, I was not very deliberate in my composing. It was a passion, but I didn’t approach it as a professional. I had started a lot of compositions. But when I sat down to count how many were actually finished, I was dismayed.

Started:

Finished:

Composer’s Manifesto Point 1

I Will Finish Every Composition I Start

The reason I put this in my manifesto, above everything else, is because an unfinished composition isn’t worth anything. This is both in the sense of you couldn’t sell it, because it’s not complete (unless your Mahler). But also in the sense that you haven’t gone through the entire process of composition. You have practiced starting, but not finishing.

And if we are deliberately practicing our composition, shouldn’t we be practice finishing as much as anything else. If you start compositions, and then don’t finish them, you will end up having that ingrained. And before you know it, you be on your deathbed with a handful of compositions finished and ask, “Where did all my time go?”

So here is your task: Count how many compositions you’ve started in your entire life, and how many you have finished. Keep a running count from that point on, and just make sure, every time you add 1 to the start number, you end up adding 1 to the finished number.

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Filed Under: Process Tagged With: Composer's Manifesto, Deliberate Practice, Follow Through, Habit, Mindset

About Jon Brantingham

I am a film composer, and lover of music theory. I have spent many years figuring out the tools and techniques that actually work for composers, and now I want to teach them to you.

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Damian Stroka

      April 26, 2019 at 2:51 am

      How to do it? I have numbers composition started but none of them finished, i get bored before I finish.

      Reply
      • Jon Brantingham

        May 3, 2019 at 8:07 am

        Pick one, and don’t do any others until that one is done. It doesn’t have to be a symphony, just a finished piece. And you can write a good piece in 16 measures.

        Reply
    2. Daniel Williams

      June 13, 2018 at 6:36 am

      Easily said than done

      Reply

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