Thinking like a composer
There are many challenges you can expect to face when composing. You can break down all of these challenges into a series of steps. You don't have to do all the steps at the same time. Each step on its own could be a specialist aspect and many people have careers focusing on just a single part.
Although this book goes into minute detail about each stage and technical tools and skills, the goal of a composer isn't to become a master technician. The goal of a composer is to create music that fits the project, whatever that may be. On large-scale projects, most technical tasks might even be delegated to specialized personnel to take care of.
You can hire other people to play instruments and mix and master your music. All of that is important, but the composer's job is a bigger picture than mere technical details. A film director's job is to shape the vision of the film and take steps to bring it to life. Like a director, the composer's job is to shape the vision of the music and take steps to bring it to life.
Depending on the project, you may have different teams, instruments, software, and hardware available to you. All this changes due to the nature of the project, or due to technological advances. The playing field is constantly changing, so you should be prepared to adapt to it. In other words, although you do need to know how to use tools to get the job done, you don't need to be an expert before you start and shouldn't get overly attached to any single tool.
It's easy to get hung up on technical details, but they are just one piece of several in the big picture of composing. What is important is that you understand the key stages and can put the pieces together even if you aren't an expert in a particular aspect.
Your job is to deliver music that satisfies the project's requirements. Communicate with the client throughout to understand what they need. Understand how all the pieces fit together so you can jump in wherever necessary. This book is designed to show you how all the pieces fit together.
