John Hunter is one of my favorite guys / composer / business owners. I think of him kind of like a mentor. He shared a great thought about composing with me that goes something like this:

When you see a new commercial on tv and the music is really simple, maybe just drums, guitar and bass, or maybe just a few notes on a single instrument, you might think, ‘I coulda done that!’ But you have to ask yourself, ‘Could I have come up with the IDEA to do that?’ Could you have thought to make it just a few clever notes on piano? Would you have known that THAT particular simple music is EXACTLY right for that spot?

And of course he’s right. No matter how simple or complex the music is to be, our most important job as composers is often deciding WHAT the music should be. Is rock the best choice? Does it really just need to be piano? Will a large complex piece just over complicate the spot?

Among a few other projects, I’m just finishing up a 5 sec intro / theme piece for a client. They already knew it should be simple. I watched the video and got a feel for what it was about, then sent them a few different versions varying in complexity and feel. I think they chose the right one. It’s very simple and feels right. So simple that someone might hear it and think ‘I coulda done that!’

But would you have known that a mixolydian chord progression tied to a simple major melodic phrase of 4 seconds was just what the thing needed?

That’s why you hire a composer!