Recently I had a conversation with my friend, composer Mary Fineman, an earthy, soulful singer and classical pianist. We talked about putting ourselves out there, outside our comfort zones. As composers, we create our own music, transform it into WAV files, MP3 files or PDFs and put it online for others to purchase, play and enjoy. But doing that requires being brave enough to step beyond what feels comfortable and safe.

It Goes Past the Making of Music

• Who will market your music?
• Who is your target audience?
• Which performance rights organization (PRO) will you use? American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) or SESAC?
• Do you copyright your music and if so, how do you copyright it?
• How do you promote your music?
• How can you find time to balance creating, branding, marketing and promoting your music?
• Do you have a team to outsource certain tasks?
• What are your primary and secondary sources of income as a composer/musician/songwriter, especially during a pandemic?

Because I’m a composer, performer, teacher and entrepreneur, I must leave my comfort zone, so I have joined several associations that, I hope, have my best interests at heart. I take advantage of opportunities to meet people who might be able to help me grow my business or from whom I might learn something new. I look for occasions to partner with like-minded people and nonprofits.

“Taking risks and putting myself out there is always a challenge for me.”
—Grace Joy Reid

Mary and I talked about not always being comfortable with the people we’re around. You know how you click with some people, but not with others? Not being comfortable and making others uncomfortable can be good, too. This means you are breaking their perceptions of what a composer is, what music is. Composers are anyone who writes any kind of music—from classical to electronic to African drums—and may include techniques like sampling and the use of atonality or tonality. Is it music just because it is meaningfully assembled sound? It’s good to break one another’s perceptions.

When I write music, the key is for my music to touch people’s hearts and move them. And when I play music, it is worship. Music provides a release for me as performer, as well.

Organization is a First Step

To keep myself on track, powering toward my goals, I open myself to the suggestions of influential people in my life.

• Currently I am reading Daymond John’s book Powershift, which offers insight about taking control of your destiny and driving the changes you want to see so you can seize every opportunity that comes your way. Reading John’s ideas and using the free, online workbook that comes with the book, I am gaining awareness and understanding about reaching my goals.

• I have several three-ring binders full of notes from webinars, masterclasses and interviews, but it is hard to find what I need. I want to organize them for easy access, so my web designer encouraged me to make a bullet journal to systematize, prioritize, schedule and keep track of projects and progress. I plan to make a key (like a table of contents) on the first page, listing the titles of the information that is on the subsequent pages to make it easier to locate exactly what I am looking for.

• To help lighten my load as a composer, musician, teacher and entrepreneur, I outsource some tasks to skilled friends I trust. These might include marketing, social media, accounting, web design, graphic art, engraving, mixing and mastering.

How Do You, a Composer and Musician, Juggle Your Responsibilities?

Perhaps you have ideas to share:

• What are your goals?
• How do you prioritize your to-do list?
• What motivates you to get out of your comfort zone?
• Do you ever outsource things that are too much for you?
• How do you find experts to help you?
• What most effectively increases your creativity and productivity?

Be courageous, reach out to others, try new ideas and techniques and delegate tasks to people with skills or time you lack. If we follow this approach, it can help us keep up with our responsibilities as composers, making us more efficient and fruitful!

Contact Grace Joy Reid for help with composing, arranging, accompaniment or piano instruction at Contact – Creating Music Joy LLC.