Getting help

Don’t be too shy or to proud to ask for help if a project asks too much of you. Every composer once in a while encounters a situation where he/she is pushed so far out of his/her comfort zone that it becomes a struggle to handle the project properly. Very often the argument is to get as much money out of this project as possible which will not allow to hire someone else to help you but the essential question here is if that extra money is worth risking your reputation (because you needed to deliver in a style that is out of your comfort zone and don’t deliver at your usual quality standards), worth risking not hitting the deadline because of just too much work, worth risking to create a budget disaster (because you didn’t want to hire that orchestrator and incomplete or wrong score sheets or orchestral writing slowed you down on the session in a way that you didn’t get it all done in time) or even worth risking your health because you overstretched your stamina. Remember that there is hardly any composer on the bigger scale projects who is working alone on it. I have made the experience that asking someone for help if you can predict that things are going to get tight or are not really up your alley always had a beneficial outcome just because of the psychological reason to not struggle through this problematic project alone. And delivering something that is spot on under problematic conditions will on the long run make you more money on follow-up projects than the money you lose to hire someone to help you.