I'm 34 years old, and one of the things I want most in life is to become a successful film composer. But lately, I've been struggling with the feeling that I might have started too late, and it's been weighing on me quite heavily. 

I've been composing and producing music for around 20 years, and I also have a formal music education. I'm not someone who's just discovered music or decided last year that I want to give composing a try. I've spent a significant part of my life developing my skills, writing music, and learning my craft. I write cinematic music and while I know there's always room to improve, I'm confident in my abilities. 

The problem is that, despite all this experience, I'm only now looking to break into film scoring, and I can't help feeling like I'm already falling behind at 34.

I see people in their teens and early 20s who have already scored films, built connections, and started establishing themselves in the industry. Meanwhile, I'm 34 and still trying to get my foot in the door as a film composer. 

I understand that becoming a huge name like Hans Zimmer is an incredibly unlikely outcome for anyone, regardless of age. But I do want to aim high. I don't just want to occasionally write music for a small project, I'd love to build a real career as a film composer, work on meaningful projects, and hopefully become a recognized name in the industry one day. 

Music has been my entire life for as long as I can remember. The thought that I might have missed my window to achieve something significant with it is genuinely painful.  

At the same time, I keep reminding myself that I'm not starting from zero. I already have years of composing experience, musical knowledge, and a body of cinematic work behind me. I don't need to learn music from scratch. What I need is to turn those existing skills into actual opportunities in film. 

Am I genuinely at a disadvantage at 34, or am I putting too much emphasis on age and not enough on what I already bring to the table? Have any of you started pursuing film composing in your 30s or later and gone on to build a successful career? 

A light waltz in a romantic style.

Audio

Score

Hi composers and arrangers. A quick question:

For those of you that use ArrangeMe by Hal Leonard, do you think the $80 yearly fee for ArrangeMe Pro is worth it? Currently I have the free version and was considering the upgrade. Commission is 2% higher, plus some added features, expanded distribution, and discounts.

Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

Quiero saber si hoy en 2026 vale la pena invertir en StaffPad. Actualmente lo usaría en pc con pantalla táctil pero próximamente también me gustaría pasarme al iPad. Quiero saber si la sincronización en la nube es fluida porque muchas veces necesito reanudar alguna partitura pero desde otro dispositivo por la razón que sea y también quiero saber que tan potente es el motor de reconocimiento de la escritura para usar el lápiz. Cualquier experiencia buena o mala quisiera leerla. Gracias

Here's the links:

• musescore
• audio file (if musescore doesn't work)
• sheet music pdf (if musescore doesn't work)

thanks

parts i like:

• mendelssohn inspired first theme, and lyrical 2nd theme
• the beautiful section starting measure 92, which slowly transforms the motif from theme 1 to basic arpeggios playing harmonies inspired by rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto
• how energetic the coda is. (it starts on measure 205, and I accidentally labeled it the cadenza)

parts I don't like or am unsure about

• I'm not sure whether the virtuosic parts like the string crossings starting measure 63 are comfortable to play or not (i'm not a violinist). Additionally, that section feels repetitive.
• Even though I like the cadenza, I feel like it's too short and not satisfying enough to resolve the tension that's been built up throughout the piece.
• the transition to the recapitulation starting measure 185 feels abit weird to me, particularly measure 190 where the key changes. I went from B major to C major which should work because it goes up a semitone, and I think beethoven did something similar in his 7th symphony, but I just feel it's a bit weird.

Also, I'm looking for a friend to talk about composing stuff with, and have fun. If you're interested in composing, text me on reddit or comment please. thanks.

YouTube Sheet Music

I really like this type of classical piano music. Think it might be my favorite type so far as I continue studying

After studying intro to counterpoint, I started listening to nocturnes for the first time. I’m a fan of Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, which definitely seems to be the most well known and famous based off of some googling, and so many of his other ones sound amazing too

Does anyone have another nocturne they would suggest? I’m sure there are lots more out there by other composers besides Chopin

I know mine is a bit simple, but it was fun to put together

Title. I arrange for jazz band a lot, and there comes times where I need to write chords/melody for guitar rather than slash comp notation, but I don't have close access to a guitar, and don't really personally know any guitarists irl. Is there a guide somewhere online that can demonstrate what voicings are and aren't possible for guitar? Bonus points if its a program/website where you can input the notes and it can tell you that way

Hi, dear guitarists. I’m an amateur composer - not a guitarist - and I usually compose in the classical style. But I wanted to try a cooler sound, so I wrote this. I do have a question, though. Is this playable on the guitar? Or is it more suited for the piano?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M7XYtQChwMBXn7N1Vf7VZIG3AU-yuodm/view?usp=sharing

I've been hanging around here for a while, exclusively just listening, but I'm finally getting around to posting something because no one I know is very interested in anything I write. (A recent post here brought up that issue and it resonated.)

This is the first movement of my bar-for-bar re-imagining of Beethoven's 5th symphony for piano duet. This is just the first famous movement, but all four movements are finished, maybe I'll get around to posting them sometime too.

(Pardon the MuseScore default MIDI performance, especially the mondo-annoying tremolos (ugh) I assume there's a way to attach my actual demo of the piece to this score, but this is the first time I've ever published out of MuseScore so I'm going default settings all the way :-))
https://musescore.com/user/40546707/scores/39405470?share=copy_link

Hi all, I’m relatively new to composition so I needed some more time to finish a portfolio, which means I’ve missed the deadline for some summer festivals already.

I’m looking into two things with a December deadline: 1) Mostly Modern Festival and 2) European American Musical Alliance. Does anyone know of any other similar things I can apply to for next summer too?

Hello all,

For context, I am a 3rd year in University trying to explore film composition and eventually go into that field. I have about 10 years of musical experience, and 6 years of experience with experimental electronic music. I am most comfortable composing ambient music, and even when not composing strictly ambient, I feel my music drifts in that ambient direction. I admit I am not great at composing traditional orchestral pieces, but I am taking classes for that and working on those skills. 

In terms of software, I have Native Instruments Collector’s Edition from 2023 (no upgrade yet), Spitfire Martyn Ware, Serum 2 as well as some free libraries from Spitfire and other sources. The past few years have been focused on obtaining effect plugins like Soundtoys, Lunacy, iZotope mixing and mastering, RX, Fabfilter, Unfiltered Audio, etc. etc. I believe I am in a good spot with effects plugins in terms of having enough at my disposal to modulate and mangle sound to my needs. I understand effects are not really needed for typical film composition, but as I compose mostly electronic music, VST effects are my best friend.

Where I struggle comes from producing sounds. Native Instruments instruments and libraries (especially Reaktor, Absynth, Battery, Massive), Serum, Cube and Ableton’s built-in devices are typically my go-tos, but I’m looking to branch out and understand more libraries and tools.

With Black Friday coming up, I want to ask for recommendations on composition libraries. The music and films I consume are wide and varied, and I am just trying to build my skills as much as possible as I start my professional career.

I’m looking for anything from singular instruments that are good for one specific thing, to large dynamic libraries. Anything to recommend. Or tips in general based on what I’ve been saying.

Some music from films I enjoy/ hope to emulate:

It Ends by Eluvium

Ben’s Sister by April Harper Grey (Underscores)

Oppenheimer by Ludwig Görranson

It Follows by Disasterpeace

Obsession by Rock Burwell

tl;dr looking for composition libraries or instruments tailored towards electronic music scores.

Thanks so much!!

I posted a first draft on [r/Composition](r/Composition) the other day but wanted to post the parts here as well as the notes. I plan on performing this myself in recital this coming February as well as a few works from my students. Hope you enjoy!

This collection is titled Songs and Tunes for the Violin in homage and in reference to the fact that, for years during college, my roommate (violist) and I paid our rent by street performing. This resulted in us developing a systematic way to create 8-10 minute long “fantasie-suites” that would essentially take 4 different “tunes” (improvised along with the harmony) and create a logical hierarchy of intervallic and metric relationships (that we would listen and detect in real time) such that we could basically “bend” the perception of pitch & pulse in case we got off track…which, was a lot lol.

But this also led us to devising a macro-form that would take our second theme overall and bring it back for a final reprise but with the roles reversed. Of course we refined it over lots of paying attention to real time audience reactions as well as what made the most money, eventually getting us to the point where we would have hours long gigs doing this. So, this collection is a look at what that entailed.

What we would usually do is start with a rather quirky but simple theme that descends in pitch overall (we tried more conventional structures, but turns out that’s not very easy to make interesting infinitely lol), and then the next tune in the set would be some kind of experiment in bending the perception of pitch and pulse simultaneously. That would be kinda exhausting so one of us usually would take a break at this point and walk to the starbucks on the corner to get us both drinks (i’m not kidding lol, this was a whole workflow) meaning the other would stay and improvise solo. In this set, I wrote this using a scordatura from the Arabic version of Gamal Abdel Rahim’s Violin Sonata since a retune is required after the second movement anyways. Then the fourth is a folk dance on top of a vamp that manipulates pulse as well until it recaps the opening but with reversed roles and bitonality.

Score PDF

Violin Part PDF

Audio (MIDI)

Score Video (YouTube)

Hey guys,
When writing I know you can do modal mixture by changing modes on the existing tonic. For example if I am in Ab Ionian I can borrow chords from Ab Lydian.

But how does that compare to go to Db Lydian? I know Db Lydian is the same collection of pitches but with Db as the tonic.

In my mind going Ionian to Lydian on the same tonic can have the same effect as going from Ionian to Lydian on a different tonic, but because doing the modal mixture on the same tonic introduces a new pitches it’s less subtle.

Is that accurate?

Also I know modal mixture is when you introduce the new pitch on the same tonic (like when I say ab Ionian vs ab Lydian) but what would it be called if you are doing ab Ionian to db Lydian? Or c Ionian to d Dorian? Is that also modal mixture

Hey everyone - I'm from the team at thatgamecompany (studio behind games e.g. Journey and Sky: Children of the Light) organising thatgamejam#02. Wanted to share it with the community here in case folks might be interested in our next jam due to its theme :)

Our first global jam had ~250 entries inspired by a single image. This time, the theme will be a piece of music, revealed on October 24. The challenge is to turn what you hear and feel into gameplay.

Any genre is welcome. It doesn't have to be a music or rhythm game, and you don't need to include the music track in your game.

• When: October 24 - November 7, 2026 (PT)
• Who: Students, hobbyists and professionals, solo or teams of up to five
• Prizes: USD 10k across five categories
• Judging: Entries reviewed by the thatgamecompany team, with finalists judged by our Founder and Creative Director Jenova Chen

Full jam details & registration: https://itch.io/jam/thatgamejam02

If you're looking to participate but may not be a programmer yourself, feel free to join our discord group (invite link available on jam site) where we have a channel there for open teams and many are looking for sound designers as well :)

Just Composed a Scherzo for Piano Solo using Musescore Studio 4. Feedback is Welcome.
https://musescore.com/user/37270121/scores/39401396?share=copy_link

Hi, I am looking for a good chamber strings library. I’ve boiled down to either Spitfire Studio Strings Professional, or Spitfire Olafur Arnalds Chamber Evolutions.

Spitfire Chamber Strings Core is too expensive, don’t even need to talk about the professional version.

But the reasons for these picks are because the sizes, like OACE has 4,3,3,3,3, SStS can also be 4,3,3,3,3 because of its ability to perform divisi.

But to those who have used or own it, how do these 2 stack against each other? Or is SCS really the best one out there because I kept seeing many people recommending SCS.

Or other chamber string libraries are also welcome.

As composers (all of you lovely readers), where do you like to start when you’re writing a new piece?
Not even necessarily what tools or instruments or DAW, etc (though feel free to include that too!).
But I’m very curious how folks actually get started. Do you have a melody in your head and figure out chord progressions and overall structure from there?
Do you pick a set of chords in a key that you like and figure out what you want to emphasize in melody?
Do you decide what instruments you want to use first, and then look at how they might fit together?
Do you hear it in a dream and just play it out perfectly every time?

Any and all insights welcome! 💜

This is the first time ever I am asked to transcribe a brass band score to a workable Sibelius file. How much should I charge? Or how could I calculate this? I was thinking of how many hours it costs per page and then thinking of a decent hourly rate.

here’s the score video

Inspired by a few Kupka paintings. Thought I’d upload it for fun. I had about 2 weeks to write this and the performers stepped in about 3 days before the premiere when the original two dropped out. Some errors here and there but was overall a great time.

Recently I have been discovering a lot of Mahler's song cycles (they are amazing highly reccommend if u like Mahler but want something a but lighter than his symphonies), and I stumbled upon “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” and something just clicked. It was the perfect 3rd mvt for my personal string suite that I've been writing so I wanted to transform the material into the slow mvt (I thought it would be a nice nod to Mahler too given that he had famously done a similar thing with many of his other songs featured in his 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th symphonies).

Here's where my problem lies. The vocal line doesn't translate very well into a slow mvt for string orchestra (which is fine because I wanted to change it anyway), but I'm struggling to figure out a different melody to take its place.

If you have any ideas, I am very interested to hear them!

Thanks!

(I would post what I have already, but I'm having some issues with musescore and can't)

Hello, fellow composers! I got a new string quartet piece here, and I'm really curious to know how you feel about it

Starts with a very baroque-like basso continuo over which I try to glide with some counterpoint knowledge. Tried my best to stay modern yet true to that baroque writing mentality

I'd love to hear what you think of the counterpoint in the opening! Or the rest of the piece - it goes kinda in a weird direction. Thank you!

https://youtu.be/p4NUC_IuGmk?is=yo0uv_Tjw7grpZ8M

These are some of the first ever pieces I’ve written for piano. All feedback is greatly appreciated. 🙂

I'm pretty new to composing and haven't had any formal composition lessons, so I was hoping to get some feedback on this new piece I composed! It's a short piano romance that's themed around gnomes, so it's meant to sound a little silly. Anyway, I'd really appreciate any feedback, whether it's in regards to the piece as a whole, or the structure, harmony, textures, etc.

Here's a link to a score video I made: https://youtu.be/RUiAh9jNozk?si=zeefTMFCbJm7NQve

Hopefully this is fine with the posting rules here, thanks for listening/reading!