My first composition professor Dr. Kenneth Jacobs recently celebrated his retirement from the University of Tennessee. I have learned a great deal from him through many tears and hard work after he regularly criticized my compositions without mercy. Here are the top 12 comments I have received from him:
1. Your main theme is a random doodling
2. This is horrible
3. This is monotonous
4. Let’s not write elevator music
5. This is so cliché
6. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER again
7. This piece has the flattest tension curve I have ever heard
8. Why do I have to listen to the same thing again?
9. You are a snob
10. End sooner
11. It’s a Mickey Mouse cadence
12. It’s kinkier over the bar line