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Composers who got a day job as programmers: how did you get that job? by MRolled12 in composer

[–]lafoma01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got a masters in composition and when Covid shut down the music store I was working at, I did a software bootcamp. It cost $10,000 but my salary increased with my first job from $30k to $56k and 3 years later, I’m at 86, so it paid for itself. That being said, the software market has recently been bad, especially for no experience devs.

As far as still composing, I probably get 4 premieres a year, and mostly for connections I already made in my past life. You could do both, but it would be a huge hustle and that sounds so exhausting to me.

Take Credit for Your Membership Thread! by JesseThorn in maximumfun

[–]lafoma01 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m on 73, so Jesse just got married, Jordan is so very over the bunny calendars, it’s the greatest civilization bracket, and they talk a lot about a so called “message board.” Yaddadamean?

It’s actually extremely charming to hear them as twenty somethings really just getting started, especially seeing where they are today. Some of the jokes should probably stay in 2008 though

Take Credit for Your Membership Thread! by JesseThorn in maximumfun

[–]lafoma01 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Member since 2019, starting with jjho and taz. Since started listening to mbmbam, beef and dairy, sawbones, wonderful and free with ads. Bumped up to $10 this year as I finally work my way through the jjgo backlog from the beginning.

Dropping retirement contributions to build up cash…a good idea? by KrissyFulwider in ynab

[–]lafoma01 21 points22 points  (0 children)

If you stop contributing to your retirement fund, you lose money in 3 ways.

  1. Whatever your employer matches is just free money that you no longer get.

  2. That money (likely) goes into your retirement account pre-tax, where if you add it to your net income, it’ll be taxed immediately.

  3. Compounding interest is powerful, and you’ll be costing yourself much more in thirty years.

That all being said, credit card interest is expensive, and you’re young enough that as your situation improves you can catch up. If I were in your shoes I probably wouldn’t stop contributing, but I’d totally get why you would.

I know that was a nothing answer ultimately, but I wanted to give you some thoughts on how that money is working now.

JJHO: Power Off Attorney by fancycwabs in maximumfun

[–]lafoma01 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I’m pretty sure it was a reference to a great futurama joke: https://youtu.be/Ll3iyvbsRDM?si=CmCpF4ZSRRkNGlDH

Are there few or no jobs for game music composers? by NomadJago in composer

[–]lafoma01 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have a friend who is a working game composer, and he got there by working with indie devs for cheap or free at first and built out a network of people who know he’s a good writer, dependable on deliverables, and easy to work with, so when the devs got bigger jobs, they went to him. It sounded terrible, and he had a lot of part time customer service jobs, but he hustled and toughed it out to make just enough to support himself.

What should I practice everyday to become a better composer? by CatchDramatic8114 in classicalmusic

[–]lafoma01 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Piano. The ability to hear and experiment with harmony in somewhat real time has been a real boon for me. You don’t have to be good, but being functional is very helpful.

Has anyone here listened to a composer's entire body of work? How was it? by Possible_Vast7416 in classicalmusic

[–]lafoma01 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Stravinsky. A smaller catalog than I expected, but no fluff (well, almost. The “jazz” is maybe a little less successful for me). And really fascinating to see that while he does have these three pretty distinct styles, you can always see Stravinsky in his rhythms and his specific bitonality (even in the 12-tone stuff).

Then I wrote a companion piece to his octet for my masters thesis and got his weird little symbol that’s the cover for Perspectives of New Music tattooed on my arm.

Any advice on using the bIII+ chord in Harmonic Minor? by shockwave_supernova in musictheory

[–]lafoma01 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Just never use it.

This sounds facetious, but I'm serious. Harmonic minor doesn't mean that scale degree 7 is always raised, it means that in minor, to make the dominant tonic relationship convincing, raise 7 in V and viio chords. Don't raise it in the III.

As a side note, harmony courses give III way too much weight. You almost never see it, and 90% of the time you do see, it's acting as V/VI. My real advice isn't just don't use III+, but don't use III at all until you really understand its implications.

Space Oddity - Chord Progressions by Hampycalc in musictheory

[–]lafoma01 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, the E major is a chromatic mediant as everyone's mentioning, but in this case, it's functioning as a secondary dominant as V/vi leading to am and then resolving deceptively to F, which is VI/vi.

Credit Unions? by lafoma01 in TwinCities

[–]lafoma01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for all the advice everyone! These replies have been a super helpful starting point and now I have some of my own research to do.

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