Anyone steeped in a trade pays attention to certain details that perhaps most people don’t.
For me as a composer, it really bothers me when artists ruin an otherwise excellent song by mispronouncing the words. Here’s two current pop songs that drive me nuts:
1. I’m Yours by Jason Mraz. He puts each syllable with a pause in between. The lyric is “I won’t hesitate.” But he says it as “I. Won’t. Hes-. AH-. Tate.” (over and over and over and over again, first instance around 0:58) Argh!
2. “These Words” by Natasha Bedingfield. Her lyric is “No hyperboles to hide behind.” She says it as “hyper-bowls.” Argh! (At about 2:10).
It’s a shame because they are otherwise incredibly catchy songs.
A couple days of inspiration
The Minnesota Orchestra along with the American Composers Forum put on a Composers Institute each year.
This is an incredible program where seven composers are selected from a pool of applicants to have their works premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra in an all-new-music concert.
During the week leading up to the concert, the composers have intensive sections with performers in the orchestra as well as industry pros to learn the business.
I was fortunate enough to audit a few of the sessions this year, a free opportunity for members of the American Composers Forum.
In particular, I learned quite a bit about copyright registrations, performing rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC), writing for percussion, conductors’ preferences, and marketing yourself as a composer.
The sum total of this has inspired me to beef up this website and flesh out my catalog.
Stay tuned for coming attractions!