Recorded Talks
The LEAP from my degree to Professional Freelance Composer
UMBS Ultimate Music Business Summit
UMBS Ultimate Music Business Summit
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Discussing my musical background, current career, and how I'm supporting my family writing music!
How to prepare a portfolio for calls for scores, competitions, applications, etc.
FREE Online Resources
Instrument Studies for Eyes and Ears (online instrumentation manual)
https://isfee.music.indiana.edu/
Vienna Symphonic Library (online instrumentation manual)
https://www.vsl.info/en/academy/index
Great little instrumentation reference book (I still use use my copy!)
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Dictionary-Orchestration-Comprehensive-Orchestrators/dp/0739000217
Solo Rep to study
https://intranet.music.indiana.edu/departments/academic/composition/solo-rep/solo-rep-list.html
Info on clarinet multiphonics!
https://heatherroche.net/
https://heatherroche.net/2018/09/13/27-easy-bb-clarinet-multiphonics/
https://isfee.music.indiana.edu/
Vienna Symphonic Library (online instrumentation manual)
https://www.vsl.info/en/academy/index
Great little instrumentation reference book (I still use use my copy!)
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Dictionary-Orchestration-Comprehensive-Orchestrators/dp/0739000217
Solo Rep to study
https://intranet.music.indiana.edu/departments/academic/composition/solo-rep/solo-rep-list.html
Info on clarinet multiphonics!
https://heatherroche.net/
https://heatherroche.net/2018/09/13/27-easy-bb-clarinet-multiphonics/
Read about Dr. Taylor's background and typical daily schedule as a composer here:
http://bgindependentmedia.org/composer-ben-taylor-brings-together-music-entrepreneurship-to-create-a-blessed-life/
You might want to occasionally check this resource for cool opportunities/contests:
https://composersforum.org/resources/opportunities
And another great one:
https://live-composers.pantheonsite.io/
http://bgindependentmedia.org/composer-ben-taylor-brings-together-music-entrepreneurship-to-create-a-blessed-life/
You might want to occasionally check this resource for cool opportunities/contests:
https://composersforum.org/resources/opportunities
And another great one:
https://live-composers.pantheonsite.io/
Quotes
"I experience a sort of terror when at the moment of setting to work and finding myself before the infinitude of possibilities that present themselves I have the feeling that everything is permissible to me. My freedom will be so much greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles... the more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self to the chains that shackle the spirit."
- Stravinsky - Poetics of music
“No two pieces are composed in the same way, and with every new piece I must learn the creative process all over again.
[Inspiration] comes from patience and a lot of hard work. You simply have to put in the hours. Those who tend to make up all kinds of excuses for a piece that isn't going well are often denying the single fact that they aren't putting in the time. I love American composer John Adams' comparison of the creative artist to that of an athlete. You stay in shape through discipline and regular activity, and if you get out of shape, it takes time and patience to get back in.
On an ideal workday, I rise shortly before sunrise, have a light breakfast, and make a hasty escape out to my backyard studio before the daily concerns of normal life have a chance to overtake me. I usually produce my best work before lunchtime, and I rarely compose at night. I prefer pencil and paper with my piano nearby. I also spend a lot of time singing through my music and playing it on my trumpet, not so much to hear it but to feel it.”
- Frank Ticheli
“Writing music is not so much inspiration as hard work.”
- George Gershwin
“Composing is like painting a house with a Q-tip.”
- Quincy Jones
“Why go with your fifth bad idea when you can go with your first?”
- Hans Zimmer
“...the most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matter except sitting down every day and trying. Why is this so important? Because when we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen. A process is set into motion by which inevitably and infallibly, heaven comes to our aid.
When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.”
-Steven Pressfield
- Stravinsky - Poetics of music
“No two pieces are composed in the same way, and with every new piece I must learn the creative process all over again.
[Inspiration] comes from patience and a lot of hard work. You simply have to put in the hours. Those who tend to make up all kinds of excuses for a piece that isn't going well are often denying the single fact that they aren't putting in the time. I love American composer John Adams' comparison of the creative artist to that of an athlete. You stay in shape through discipline and regular activity, and if you get out of shape, it takes time and patience to get back in.
On an ideal workday, I rise shortly before sunrise, have a light breakfast, and make a hasty escape out to my backyard studio before the daily concerns of normal life have a chance to overtake me. I usually produce my best work before lunchtime, and I rarely compose at night. I prefer pencil and paper with my piano nearby. I also spend a lot of time singing through my music and playing it on my trumpet, not so much to hear it but to feel it.”
- Frank Ticheli
“Writing music is not so much inspiration as hard work.”
- George Gershwin
“Composing is like painting a house with a Q-tip.”
- Quincy Jones
“Why go with your fifth bad idea when you can go with your first?”
- Hans Zimmer
“...the most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matter except sitting down every day and trying. Why is this so important? Because when we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen. A process is set into motion by which inevitably and infallibly, heaven comes to our aid.
When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.”
-Steven Pressfield
Composition Process Slides
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vSoUxGpLgG1RCpOxeuM3wGeHFGriUOFD-_KpRiyKzkw/edit?usp=sharing
Composition Workshop Slides
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ee-QCW7tY73Y-0bkgdKLewQmx9u2Jml4-bronmGuyNQ/edit?usp=sharing
Composition Process and Work Slides
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Wf8B7BB-Tmd6k3JsGnnMYgJfKuG4obElUixU0OazNbE/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vSoUxGpLgG1RCpOxeuM3wGeHFGriUOFD-_KpRiyKzkw/edit?usp=sharing
Composition Workshop Slides
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ee-QCW7tY73Y-0bkgdKLewQmx9u2Jml4-bronmGuyNQ/edit?usp=sharing
Composition Process and Work Slides
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Wf8B7BB-Tmd6k3JsGnnMYgJfKuG4obElUixU0OazNbE/edit?usp=sharing
Myths and Income Streams
Q and A from 2026
1. What is a general overview of the trajectory of your career? Any specific achievements or events you'd like to highlight?
I started receiving paid commissions during my graduate work at Bowling Green, State University, and then my doctorate at Indiana University. Actually, now that I think about it, I even got paid to write several works during my undergraduate degree at Brigham Young University. The jazz band commissioned me to write a few works and I got some grants to do some other compositional work. I pursued a doctorate, thinking that I would teach at the University level. However, as I was graduating, I became quite disillusioned with the academic environment and wanted to see if I could make a career where I was paid to write music that people wanted to listen to! So ever since graduating in 2014 I've been supporting my family, as a composer, primarily writing for large ensembles, like orchestra and wind band, but also writing for smaller groups, as well as a variety of other activities. See a breakdown of my income producing activities here:
2. Have you pursued other career options simultaneously with composition? If so, what are those?
No, I really haven't. In grad school in the summers I was often finding unrelated work, for example, working as an electrical contractor one summer and working in a computer lab a different summer. But ever since graduating, all of my work activities have been focused around music.
3. How did you personally enter the music industry? Did someone provide you with connections, or did you forge your own path?
Certainly winning a few awards in my student years was helpful, and graduating from great schools, but overall I have had to forge my own path. For me, my career has always been about relationships. I write music for my friends. So first, I form a relationship with someone and then a collaboration or commission is a natural outgrowth of that friendship.
4. What should all young composers know about beginning/maintaining their careers?
Write for your friends! Write for specific people for specific occasions. You should know when, where and by whom the peace is going to be performed before you even write it. Composers don't grow by writing scores that sit on the shelf and never get performed. And the computer playback lies! You have to develop your ears to be able to hear a score without hitting play on the computer. Learn to look at scores and hear it in your head. And the only way you'll get there is by having lots of your music performed and studying lots of scores.
5. What about composition brings you joy?
I echo the words of Cindy McTee:
"I write music because I enjoy the process. I enjoy exercising my imagination and hearing the result. I feel changed by the process and invigorated by a positive response from persons who are touched by my music. I write music because sound fascinates me. But I also find delight in the more intellectual parts of composing, in creating intricate patterns of pitch and rhythm. Creating art is, for me, not unlike a religious experience. It is a profound human response to living, and provides a path for spiritual renewal. It celebrates life and sharing.”
6. How have you found longevity in your career as a composer?
Do I get to count my career as having found longevity? he he he. I'm only 42 and feel like I'm still learning and growing as a composer. I think any longevity experience will be due to my curiosity and desire to continue growing in my skills.
7. When you compose, how often do you find pieces are personal or convey an experience/feeling from your life?
All the time! Almost every piece I write is connected to my life, or my personal experiences, even if the title and program note do not directly reflect that. The only thing I can share, that's genuine and authentic to me, is my own perspective and background and experience. So yes, every piece is a very personal offering of mine.
1. What is a general overview of the trajectory of your career? Any specific achievements or events you'd like to highlight?
I started receiving paid commissions during my graduate work at Bowling Green, State University, and then my doctorate at Indiana University. Actually, now that I think about it, I even got paid to write several works during my undergraduate degree at Brigham Young University. The jazz band commissioned me to write a few works and I got some grants to do some other compositional work. I pursued a doctorate, thinking that I would teach at the University level. However, as I was graduating, I became quite disillusioned with the academic environment and wanted to see if I could make a career where I was paid to write music that people wanted to listen to! So ever since graduating in 2014 I've been supporting my family, as a composer, primarily writing for large ensembles, like orchestra and wind band, but also writing for smaller groups, as well as a variety of other activities. See a breakdown of my income producing activities here:
2. Have you pursued other career options simultaneously with composition? If so, what are those?
No, I really haven't. In grad school in the summers I was often finding unrelated work, for example, working as an electrical contractor one summer and working in a computer lab a different summer. But ever since graduating, all of my work activities have been focused around music.
3. How did you personally enter the music industry? Did someone provide you with connections, or did you forge your own path?
Certainly winning a few awards in my student years was helpful, and graduating from great schools, but overall I have had to forge my own path. For me, my career has always been about relationships. I write music for my friends. So first, I form a relationship with someone and then a collaboration or commission is a natural outgrowth of that friendship.
4. What should all young composers know about beginning/maintaining their careers?
Write for your friends! Write for specific people for specific occasions. You should know when, where and by whom the peace is going to be performed before you even write it. Composers don't grow by writing scores that sit on the shelf and never get performed. And the computer playback lies! You have to develop your ears to be able to hear a score without hitting play on the computer. Learn to look at scores and hear it in your head. And the only way you'll get there is by having lots of your music performed and studying lots of scores.
5. What about composition brings you joy?
I echo the words of Cindy McTee:
"I write music because I enjoy the process. I enjoy exercising my imagination and hearing the result. I feel changed by the process and invigorated by a positive response from persons who are touched by my music. I write music because sound fascinates me. But I also find delight in the more intellectual parts of composing, in creating intricate patterns of pitch and rhythm. Creating art is, for me, not unlike a religious experience. It is a profound human response to living, and provides a path for spiritual renewal. It celebrates life and sharing.”
6. How have you found longevity in your career as a composer?
Do I get to count my career as having found longevity? he he he. I'm only 42 and feel like I'm still learning and growing as a composer. I think any longevity experience will be due to my curiosity and desire to continue growing in my skills.
7. When you compose, how often do you find pieces are personal or convey an experience/feeling from your life?
All the time! Almost every piece I write is connected to my life, or my personal experiences, even if the title and program note do not directly reflect that. The only thing I can share, that's genuine and authentic to me, is my own perspective and background and experience. So yes, every piece is a very personal offering of mine.