[Paiblyelaxy]

If I may be so bold........A Ph.D does not necessarily equate to excellent music composition or creation. There are excellently accomplished composers and artists who have no degree at all. And then there are those of us like (me) who have studied lots of music theory and composition but can't write a memorable melody enough to save my neck from the guillotine

Well... music is not only melody! and I do agree that when it comes to creativity and artistic license I don't think a PhD matters at all...

For me, the most telling statement from nikolas was "people like me". He's right. Everyone has their own musical upbringing and media influences, and their own mentality, to bring to the listening of music. But this "people like me" statement shows musical insecurity more than musical ability.

Wait... wait... you know about my musical ability now? Or is this something I'm not reading right? My post was quite clear, I believe, showing exactly that everyone comes with their own prejudice.

Seeing symphonic and orchestral compositions as the realm of the most intelligent musicians is an ordinary observation. I have another ordinary observation for nikolas, if he cares to look around. How many times is compositional music a part of your listening experience? When you hear an on the charts pop tune blasting out at you during a movie, are you accepting it as part of the artistic landscape? Now I think I'm forced to offer a link here, but I hope you people won't mind: www.northbysound.com! I'm the 1/2 of this team working on the computer games industry. I know perfectly well how to work on media music, so... When I hear something I judge it not from an academic point of view, but from a personal liking it or not, like every human being I assume.

But I'll let you carry on...

When compositional music is being used to backdrop other scenes, isn't the intelligent and global appeal obvious to all? Even auld classical composers used real cannons and guns onstage to recreate sonics unavailable with musical instruments. And to be open and honest with you, nikolas, and Corno Dolce, I'd sooner be left with the thoughts of my own intelligence,
if I'm left all alone as a musical failure, than be left picking up after others who faded away.
That's always a nice time to start building a new guitar. Here I totally lost you. 'compositional music'? The intelligent and global appeal is not obvious, because music is part of the medium and immersion is really important. Really when you watch a movie do you notice the 100+ minutes of music going on, or only the main theme and a couple of variations?

Other than that I'm feeling envious that you guitarists care so much about your instruments and making them and tuned wood and all that stuff, while we composers and pianists do nothing with our instruments... We don't even take it with us when we leave home/studio... Oh well...