Maybe you shouldn't believe things just because people told you. Ditch the anti-curiosity mindset of narcy-narcs in favor of scientific thinking and questioning premises.
Thank you so much for writing this! As a self-taught composer, the only way I can build my craft and write music is to have the orientation you describe here. I have to be curious about why something works and ruthless when it doesn't; there's no backstop of "well that is the proper way to have written that passage" or "this smart person told me this is what is popular among the hottest folks at a conservatory" that is convincing or comforting to me. So please do write more about that third bullet point! ("Anyone who the Historians™ have deemed to be an Excellent Musician™ is certainly that, and their genius is beyond your comprehension and can only be understood if you pay the Musical Priestly Class™ enough money and kiss enough butts. (You can’t figure things out for yourself. You need us to explain them to you)") I try to refute this bullet every day by not substituting the judgement of critics/musicologists/theorists/fanboys for what I think is good and great—and then digging into those things to figure out what it is I like about them. But it can be SO hard and it's very tempting for me to think I just need an eminent teacher or composer to make me see the light of day (fwiw I do think I need a composition teacher to help me with my craft, but not to convince me of the worth/quality of music I don't care for).
I'm glad you liked it so much! And your way of judging music is exactly correct. Good to know writing something like that would be worthwhile, then! I'll make writing that a priority.
Thank you so much for writing this! As a self-taught composer, the only way I can build my craft and write music is to have the orientation you describe here. I have to be curious about why something works and ruthless when it doesn't; there's no backstop of "well that is the proper way to have written that passage" or "this smart person told me this is what is popular among the hottest folks at a conservatory" that is convincing or comforting to me. So please do write more about that third bullet point! ("Anyone who the Historians™ have deemed to be an Excellent Musician™ is certainly that, and their genius is beyond your comprehension and can only be understood if you pay the Musical Priestly Class™ enough money and kiss enough butts. (You can’t figure things out for yourself. You need us to explain them to you)") I try to refute this bullet every day by not substituting the judgement of critics/musicologists/theorists/fanboys for what I think is good and great—and then digging into those things to figure out what it is I like about them. But it can be SO hard and it's very tempting for me to think I just need an eminent teacher or composer to make me see the light of day (fwiw I do think I need a composition teacher to help me with my craft, but not to convince me of the worth/quality of music I don't care for).
I'm glad you liked it so much! And your way of judging music is exactly correct. Good to know writing something like that would be worthwhile, then! I'll make writing that a priority.