As regular readers know I take this whole music thing seriously - so on the approach of my 33rd birthday I treated myself to a We Are Listening music assessment. You get to choose what questions to ask out of a choice of about 10. Here is what they said:

Is my sound original? Do I stand out?

All the tracks I listened to are beautiful and cinematic. They opened up my imagination and colorful images came pouring in while listening to your songs. I also really enjoyed how memorable your themes are and how you develop the orchestration of them throughout each piece. You have a great sense of melody and “hooks” and I sense a lot of character in each piece. Really wonderful work!

Is my music commercially viable?

I think a lot of what I heard is viable in the film and TV scoring world as well as in commercial advertising. Most of those kinds of projects are scored to picture (the picture is filmed and edited and then the music is scored afterwards) so I’m not sure these specific pieces would be able to be used without modification, but from listening to the many and varied pieces you’ve created I’m sure you would be capable of scoring whatever a scene might require in the classical/orchestral genre.

Should I quit my day job?

I’m not as familiar with the scoring world as I am with the songwriter world, but I can tell that you’re very talented at what you do. Beyond that what I can tell you is that if you want to write and score full time, be sure you are prepared to work 7 days a week on both your craft/art and your business. Success requires not only being talented, but being willing to put yourself out there and network and learn from your colleagues, and maybe even have a mentor. You might consider looking for a manager who can help you get scoring gigs. And you might have to make the sacrifice to relocate to really have a chance at success in your field since it’s a very specific and small market. I don’t know how much work is available in London, it might be plenty. Los Angeles is a great city for your field. Be prepared to work really hard and make sacrifices and your talent will take you far!