Today: studying voice, writing musicals, why I’m not a real jazz pianist, why I’m not a novelist, and why I’m not helpful. Sara Ptak writes: I am an aspiring singer/actor/etc., mostly singer. For most of my summers as a child I went to arts camps, Interlochen and Northwestern and I “studied” music theatre and did as many showsRead More »

Who knew you all had so many questions? I’m going to try to get to a couple a day, just so I can whip through the backlog (there are about eighty questions sitting in my Ask JRB box, just mocking me and teasing me every day). So, first up, Ryan DeFoe: 1. In the newRead More »

In this week’s ridiculously long entry: What is “King Of The World” really about? Can I translate your show into Farsi? Plus: orchestrating, writing lyrics, being a rock star, teaching, and much more! Geoff Cook writes: You are obviously influenced by popular musicians and have spoken highly about people such as Joni Mitchell, Stevie WonderRead More »

In today’s installment, marketing advice, queries from the UK, wonky piano questions, and the story of “Music of Heaven.” (I really will get to the business of blogging one of these days, but there are so many questions sitting in the “ASK JRB!” pile on my desktop that I just want to push through themRead More »

More Q & A with everyone’s favorite cranky composer! I think my responses are a little snippy this time out, I’m sorry about that; I really do appreciate all of your questions, keep ’em coming! Thomas Hodges writes: I was curious about your advice composing in today’s world and the road to making it inRead More »