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Music Directors and Composers

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Conduct, direct, plan, and lead instrumental or vocal performances by musical artists or groups, such as orchestras, bands, choirs, and glee clubs; or create original works of music.

Related: Art, Drama, & Music Teachers, Postsecondary Choreographers Musicians & Singers Producers & Directors Talent Directors

Industries: Service Arts & Entertainment

Summary
Details

Experiment with different sounds, and types and pieces of music, using synthesizers and computers as necessary to test and evaluate ideas.
Use gestures to shape the music being played, communicating desired tempo, phrasing, tone, color, pitch, volume, and other performance aspects.
Transcribe ideas for musical compositions into musical notation, using instruments, pen and paper, or computers.
Meet with soloists and concertmasters to discuss and prepare for performances.
Fill in details of orchestral sketches, such as adding vocal parts to scores.
Arrange music composed by others, changing the music to achieve desired effects.
Perform administrative tasks such as applying for grants, developing budgets, negotiating contracts, and designing and printing programs and other promotional materials.
Transpose music from one voice or instrument to another to accommodate particular musicians.
Perform administrative tasks such as applying for grants, developing budgets, negotiating contracts, and designing and printing programs and other promotional materials.
Assign and review staff work in such areas as scoring, arranging, and copying music, and vocal coaching.
Coordinate and organize tours, or hire touring companies to arrange concert dates, venues, accommodations, and transportation for longer tours.
Audition and select performers for musical presentations.
Study scores to learn the music in detail, and to develop interpretations.
Audition and select performers for musical presentations.
Write musical scores for orchestras, bands, choral groups, or individual instrumentalists or vocalists, using knowledge of music theory and of instrumental and vocal capabilities.
Apply elements of music theory to create musical and tonal structures, including harmonies and melodies.
Plan and schedule rehearsals and performances, and arrange details such as locations, accompanists, and instrumentalists.
Collaborate with other colleagues, such as copyists, to complete final scores.
Transcribe musical compositions and melodic lines to adapt them to a particular group, or to create a particular musical style.
Position members within groups to obtain balance among instrumental or vocal sections.
Explore and develop musical ideas based on sources such as imagination or sounds in the environment.
Confer with producers and directors to define the nature and placement of film or television music.
Create original musical forms, or write within circumscribed musical forms such as sonatas, symphonies, or operas.
Study films or scripts to determine how musical scores can be used to create desired effects or moods.
Copy parts from scores for individual performers.
Rewrite original musical scores in different musical styles by changing rhythms, harmonies, or tempos.
Direct groups at rehearsals and live or recorded performances to achieve desired effects such as tonal and harmonic balance dynamics, rhythm, and tempo.
Consider such factors as ensemble size and abilities, availability of scores, and the need for musical variety, to select music to be performed.
Determine voices, instruments, harmonic structures, rhythms, tempos, and tone balances required to achieve the effects desired in a musical composition.
Perform administrative tasks such as applying for grants, developing budgets, negotiating contracts, and designing and printing programs and other promotional materials.
Write music for commercial mediums, including advertising jingles or film soundtracks.

Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.

Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.

Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.

Education

Bachelor's degree

Work Experience

Less than 5 years work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

77840/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

37.42/hr

Currently Employed

530

Yearly Projected Openings

Artistic: People interested in this work like activities that include creating, designing, and making your own rules. They do well at jobs that need:

Dependability
Integrity
Attention to Detail
Initiative
Cooperation
Independence

Audio monitor
Bells
Cassette players or recorders
Conductors batons
Desktop computers
Digital audio workstation DAW
Drums
Guitars
Laser printers
Loudspeakers
Microphones
Musical instrument digital interface MIDI interfaces
Musical instrument effects unit
Musical organs
Notebook computers
Pen or flash drive
Personal computers
Photocopiers
Pianos
Portable hard disk storage device
Synthesizer
Tablet computers

Data base user interface and query software
Desktop publishing software
Electronic mail software
Music or sound editing software
Office suite software
Presentation software
Spreadsheet software
Video creation and editing software
Word processing software

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Music Directors and Composers

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