How Did Music Affect My Life

I started writing music as an assignment for my middle school orchestra class. Since then, I’ve written over thirty pieces, taken AP music theory and scored a five, scored films for students in the TV production magnet program at my school, and studied in depth scores by the great composers of history. I didn’t do these things just so I could inflate my ego by writing about them in college essays, and I certainly didn’t do them because I was good at them naturally. Why, then, is it necessary to mention these miscellaneous achievements? Unfortunately, the only way to officially quantify one’s interest in something artistic seems to be making a “laundry list” of their artistic achievements. Personally, I’ve always felt that the impact that writing music has had on my life is exponentially more important than any award or honor

Since my school was an arts magnet school, I now had access new musical resources. I was able to get the help of many talented student musicians to record the pieces I wrote. Because of these recordings, I received an offer from the TV production teacher at my school to be put in contact with some of his students who were interested in submitting their short films to independent film festivals (meaning they would need original scores.) I worked on three films, one of which actually made it to a festival. The new techniques and styles I learned while scoring films spread to my personal compositions and inspired me to write many new pieces, including my first symphony. In three short years, my music writing career had snowballed from a hobby to one of the most important aspects of my life. With all of these new stylistic options, I could now make my music my own. As my music became more personalized, I began to integrate melodies and harmonies based on experiences from my life. My music became truly personal to and based in my