Episode 6: Q&A

A whole episode dedicated to answering listener questions! 

Episode Links:

• New band piece: The Journey Begins
• The Band Room Podcast

Please visit caitnishimura.com for perusal scores, recordings, program notes, and more info about me and my work. Connect with me on social media: @composercait

If you have a question, submit it here and it may be answered during a future episode.

Thank you for listening!

Transcript

00:00
Hello and welcome back to the composercait podcast. My name is Cait Nishimura and I'm so happy to be back in podcast land after a bit of an unplanned break due to illness. You can probably still tell I'm recovering from being sick. You can hear a little bit of congestion still in my voice. I'm not fully back to my usual self, but I'm going to do my best here anyway. I'll edit out any coughs or sniffles if need be. I'm sure you can all relate to the feeling of

00:27
being stuck in bed just completely out of commission and then starting to feel some signs of life again and wanting to just start doing everything again. So that's kind of where I'm at. In today's episode, I'm gonna be answering some listener questions. I'm excited to get into this. I thought it would be a fun break from talking about specific pieces. You know, I've been accepting questions since the start of this podcast and a lot of the questions I've received are more general. So it was hard to figure out where to place them when only doing

00:57
episodes about particular pieces of music, so I figured a whole episode dedicated to some of these questions could be fun. One quick thing that I wanted to announce is that I've released my first new piece of 2024. It's a new band piece for grade 2.5 level concert band, and it's called The Journey Begins. It was just released on March 1st, so if you're listening to this as the episode comes out, you can still be among the first people to hear it and buy it.

01:26
And if you've been listening to this podcast, you will recognize this piece because the Journey Begins is actually the music that I've been using as my intro music for this podcast series. So now you know what the mystery music is. It's from this piece, The Journey Begins. I really, really love this piece. And eventually I will get to making an episode on this piece itself. And I'll elaborate more about what it's about and the inspiration behind it and everything. But I just wanted to let you know there's a new...

01:56
new piece out in the world and I'm really proud of it. I really love it. I think you're going to like it too, so go check it out. I'll leave a link in the show notes and if you know anybody who's looking for new music for concert band, especially around the grade two or three level, I think this piece would be perfect for honor bands, middle school, high school, community bands, pretty much everybody, so help me spread the word. So I'm keeping all the questions today anonymous, but thank you to each of you that took the time to submit a question.

02:26
There were some questions that came up multiple times, which was helpful to understand what you all want to hear about. I've got a big list of questions that I've sorted into loose categories, and I'll try to get through as many of them as possible. The first category I have labeled life stuff, and the first question is, when were you born? This is not a question that you might ask most other people, but I feel like it's more normal to need this kind of info for composers when you're putting together.

02:55
concert program, a recital program, it's standard practice to include the composer's year of birth and death, if applicable. So it's normal for me to be asked this, and this is public knowledge. So anyway, I was born in 1991, so I am 32 years old as of recording this. My birthday is in September. I'm a Libra, if you're into that. Next question is, what do you do in your free time, or what non-musical activities do you enjoy?

03:23
So this should come as no surprise to most people that most of the things I enjoy doing that are not music related or not work related are somehow connected to nature and being outside. I particularly love forest walks, hiking, birding, gardening, and camping when the opportunity comes up. I have a little backyard garden in this rental house, so.

03:49
It's not land that we own, but it's where we are right now. So I'm gardening in as many ways as I can. I have container gardens and perennial flower beds and things like that. I enjoy growing vegetables, strawberries, flowers for pollinators. We get visits from hummingbirds in the spring and summer, bees and birds. Sometimes the squirrels and chipmunks come and eat my fruit, but personally I'm okay with that. In the last episode,

04:18
I talked about birds in the context of my piece Ready to Fly, which was inspired by bird calls, but I really am an avid bird nerd. Just last week, the big excitement was seeing the return of the first red-winged blackbirds, which is an early sign of spring, and this week we got to see a white-crowned sparrow in our backyard spruce tree, which was pretty exciting because this bird is not seen very often at this time of year in our area. Some indoor activities that I enjoy are puzzles,

04:47
1000 piece puzzles, jigsaw puzzles. I love listening to podcasts, journaling and reading, playing Nintendo Switch and TV shows. To clarify, I would not consider myself to be a gamer. I mostly just like playing cute games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, although I did get into the new Zelda games and I've always enjoyed the Pokemon games too. In terms of TV, I pretty much exclusively enjoy nature documentaries, of course.

05:16
and re-watching sitcoms and series that I've already seen many, many times. It is a comfort thing, so some of my favorite shows are New Girl, Schitt's Creek, The Office, Friends, and Seinfeld. I enjoy spending time with my partner Brian and our cats. I am definitely an introvert, but I do enjoy seeing people sometimes, like my family and friends. Okay, so the next question is...

05:43
What do you think you would be doing if you weren't a composer? So this is common knowledge. I think most people know that I'm also a teacher. I went to teachers college and I spent a few years after graduating doing supply teaching and contract work as a teacher, eventually doing some full-time work as well. I really loved teaching and I'm super happy with the decision to go full-time as an artist, but I have always been passionate about education as well. So I think there's a pretty good chance that if I wasn't a composer,

06:13
that I would either still be teaching or would be doing something else connected to that. The other thing is that I did a certification in summer 2022 to become a forest therapy guide. So forest therapy, also known as forest bathing or shinrin yoku in Japanese, is a nature-based mindful practice of connecting with all of our senses, slowing down and spending time in our

06:42
It is scientifically proven to help with stress and mental health. It promotes better sleep, focus, and creativity. Basically, spending time in nature is going to help us feel better. And I've already started incorporating this work as a forest therapy guide into my artist work in a variety of ways. And I can see myself doing this more in the future, whether it's guiding public walks or private walks or incorporating like what I did with a recent residency.

07:11
I was the composer in residence, but I also did some forest therapy with students at the university I was visiting. So I could see myself doing more of that. When I was younger, so before I knew that I wanted to do anything to do with music, some of the things that I thought I might do when I grew up, I wanted to be a radio show host. I think it's just because I listened to a lot of radio. Both my parents have radio on a lot in day-to-day life.

07:38
and I loved the idea of getting to pick what music was on the radio and get to maybe talk about what I liked about it or maybe even interview the songwriters or the bands. So being a podcast host is pretty close to being a radio show host, so check. I also thought maybe I would be an environmentalist or work as a park ranger or somehow working in conservation or nature-connected job of some sort.

08:08
Again, I did kind of fulfill that in other ways, but there was a time when I thought I might go into it from a more science-based perspective, as opposed to like nature-inspired art. I thought I might actually work more hands-on in nature. I also wanted to be a writer. I thought I might write books, either children's books about nature, about music or other formats. I don't know, I've always enjoyed writing. So that was something I thought I might wanna do as well.

08:36
some jobs that I've done in the past. This wasn't exactly the question, but I just thought it would be fun to include this because I've had a lot of random jobs over my life. I started working part-time when I was in high school and have been working all throughout my school student days and everything. So my first job was working as a tutor or a tutor's assistant at this, I don't even remember what it was called, but like a tutoring center. I worked as a grocery store cashier.

09:06
I did movie theatre concessions. That was a whole... I smelled like butter all the time. It's not a fun job, but I did get to see a lot of free movies that summer. I worked at merch tables for music festivals. I did subscription sales for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I was a box office clerk. I was a receptionist at the office in the Faculty of Music where I went to school at the University of Toronto. I was also a tour guide.

09:35
on campus, so I was one of the people that would meet with prospective students coming to the university to see if they wanted to go to school there, and I would give them a tour of the buildings or of campus in general. A pretty wide array of things that I've done. I think I'm missing some things as well, there were other things that I did here and there, but being a composer is definitely my favorite job that I've ever done, so I'm happy with how it all worked out.

10:03
The next question is, where have some of your favourite travels taken you to? So being a composer is what has prompted most of my travelling. Recently I got to go to St. John's, Newfoundland. I was a composer in residence at Memorial University, and that was all thanks to my good friend Dylan Maddix. So in addition to all the music related things that we did there as part of my residency,

10:28
I also got to bring my partner Brian with me on this trip and we did some sightseeing and hiking and things like that as well So we got to visit the easternmost point of Canada I think it might actually be the easternmost point of North America as well so that was a really cool highlight of that trip in Episode 3 of this podcast I talked about Alpine Meadow and the trip to Oregon in California that inspired that piece so you can go back and listen to that episode if you haven't already and I

10:58
talked a lot about that trip, which is a really cool experience. A lot of the residencies that I've done as a composer have led to some really cool experiences that are not directly related to music. So one example that comes to mind is I did a residency in Colorado Springs, Colorado College, and they were doing my piece Lake Superior Suite. And my host there was Jeremy Van Hoy, and he brought me to a really cool trail with all these beautiful red and orange rocks.

11:28
pretty iconic Colorado landscape type things, but that was the first time that I've ever been anywhere like that, so that was really, really cool. A few years back, I got to visit the Vancouver area of British Columbia for BCMEA, the British Columbia Music Educators Association Conference, and visited the Japanese Garden at UBC. Brian came with me on that trip as well, and we went up to Squamish. We took a gondola up to the top of a mountain and did some hiking up there.

11:57
We got to visit coincidentally on the first snow of the season, so that was particularly beautiful. We basically had the park to ourselves and got some gorgeous photos, got to go on a suspension bridge across a snow-covered mountain. It was very, very cool. In the past, I also visited London, UK. Gillian MacKay, one of my wonderful mentors, was hired to be a guest conductor at a conservatory in London.

12:24
and she chose to program my Lake Superior Suite. So that was my UK premiere, my UK debut. And I got to go on a trip to London and my mom came. That was really cool. We got to visit Kew Gardens and see some orchestras. So that was a really cool trip. I could go on and on. Honestly, all of the trips that I have taken, all of the highlights of my traveling so far have been like hybrid work slash non-work kind of trips where.

12:51
The primary purpose of traveling is to do a residency or attend a performance, but I've built in time to see other cool things too. And I'm really, really grateful for all of the opportunities that have been extended to me and that I get to do all of that and call it work. What a dream. A similar question is, since your music relates to nature, what is your favourite nature place to go? So, honestly...

13:17
My backyard, the pond down the road, the forest at the end of the road, like my local conservation areas, local places, really are my favorite. And I think that probably will be true wherever I live, even when we move in the future. I'm really passionate about just connecting with my immediate surroundings and getting to know the environment and the habitats and the animals and wildlife that I coexist with.

13:43
But I also enjoyed when I was younger, visiting the cottage, my grandparents' cottage. I will talk about this place more when I get to the episode on Echoes of a Northern Lake because that is the place that inspired that piece. So I won't go into that right now. I also enjoy exploring Ontario parks and national parks, state parks when I go to the states. Pinery Provincial Park and McGregor Point Provincial Park are two favourites that Brian and I enjoy visiting from time to time.

14:12
I love a botanical garden, an arboretum, even visiting a garden center and just looking at plants, especially in the winter, going to a garden center and looking at tropical houseplants and cacti and things like that is just life-giving. I love it. There's very little that I'm not interested in when it comes to experiencing nature. I just don't do really intense activities like climbing or like full on summiting mountains.

14:37
That stuff just doesn't interest me as much as, like I said, developing relationships with the nature all around me in my regular life. Okay, this next category of questions, I've titled instrument related questions. And the first question is, what instruments do you play? So my primary instrument when I was a student was the bass clarinet. A lot of people know this already. Whenever I do a virtual visit with a band or an in-person visit with a band, and I mentioned that I'm a bass clarinetist,

15:07
There's always at least one or two kids in the band that are super, super excited about that. So I also played all of the other clarinets, B-flat clarinet, contra-alto clarinet, contra-bass clarinet, alto clarinet, etc., etc. In high school, I also played saxophone in the jazz bands and bassoon in the orchestra. I started playing piano around age nine or ten, I can't remember exactly. I took lessons and I did some of the RCM exams, the Royal Conservatory of Music exams.

15:36
but I didn't continue all the way with it. So I'm definitely not the most technically proficient piano player, but I think piano is the instrument that I play the most often now, because as a composer, I use the piano a lot as a tool in my creative process. It also helps that I'm engaged to a pianist. So Brian has a master's in classical piano performance and is a fantastic pianist. So we have a grand piano here, and I think because of that and because of his influence, I definitely make contact with.

16:05
piano a lot more than anything else. I also learned the basics of all the band instruments during my music education degree. So those of you that know, I studied music ed and lots of other music teachers out there will be able to relate to the experience of having to take, you know, the trombone 101 or whatever. It was not actually called that, but you know, fundamentals of brass or strings or percussion or whatever it was. So I can play like a tiny, tiny bit of all the band instruments and

16:33
Although the intention with taking those courses was to be prepared as a music teacher, I have found it to be incredibly helpful as a composer to have that knowledge as well. It's really helpful to be able to write parts that are idiomatic to all of the instruments. I know what's gonna be comfortable or a bit of a stretch because of my firsthand experience learning a little bit of all of these instruments. I also play a little bit of guitar, ukulele, and during the pandemic, I learned how to play the banjo.

17:02
And fun fact, last year I performed as a singer, banjo slash keyboard player, actor slash dancer in a country music theater production. That was a wild ride, something I will probably never do again, but I'm so happy that I had that experience.

17:21
This next question is, if you could start over again on a different instrument, what instrument would you pick? I thought that was a fun question. So I've always loved the horn. I remember back in fifth grade or whenever it was that we had to select our instrument preferences. I remember choosing the horn and the clarinet. I might have put flute or something as my third choice, but I wasn't really that interested in it. I was always really intrigued by the horn, and I think I would.

17:50
enjoy being a brass player. If I were to play any brass instrument, that's what I would have chosen. Either that or the euphonium. I've always really liked the euphonium as well. And I also really love percussion, particularly mallet percussion instruments like the marimba and vibraphone. So I think I would have also enjoyed being a percussionist. Another question is, what is one of your favorite instruments to write for and why? So again, I love the horn. I think bell pointing backwards is somewhat

18:19
metaphorical for me as a composer. I use the horn a lot when I'm trying to create a feeling of maybe nostalgia or going back in time or being transported somewhere else or being in a dream land or something like that. Just there's something about the fact that the sound is like behind everybody that I've always really gravitated towards as a writer. It works really well for writing these big swooping

18:46
soaring melodic lines, but it's also very good at playing supportive roles as well, so that flexibility appeals to me a lot as a composer. Of course, as a clarinetist and bass clarinetist, I enjoy writing for the clarinet family as well. There's no other instrument that can fade to nothing the way the clarinet can, so I really enjoy using clarinet in that way. And as a bass clarinetist, I've talked about this a little bit before in other podcast episodes and elsewhere. I know what it's like to...

19:13
I play a lot of whole notes for an entire piece, and so I try whenever I can to write more interesting parts for the low woodwinds and low brass instruments as well. So I think it's not necessarily that it's my favourite instrument to write for because I play it, but because I played it, I understand what it's like to have that kind of role within the ensemble, and I try to be balanced about the way I write. Okay, there were a lot of questions that were...

19:39
about specific instruments like have you thought about writing a sax quartet? are you planning to write a piece for solo trumpet? will you ever write for orchestra? and that kind of thing so short answer yes probably maybe i i don't know i have really fallen into band being my primary medium and i enjoy writing

20:02
chamber ensembles as well. An opportunity hasn't come up yet to write a sax quartet, but I would be open to it at some point in the future. As for orchestra, I just don't have the lived experience with orchestra the way I do with the wind band. That's not to say that I won't ever write for orchestra, but it hasn't been a priority so far. I also feel that the concert band world is more receptive to

20:29
new music in general and repeat performances and working with living composers. Not that the orchestra world is opposed to it, I just feel that the band world is giving me so much already that I don't feel that I need to look elsewhere for meaningful opportunities or income or work or anything like that, but the orchestra is a pretty powerful machine and I think...

20:56
it would be really satisfying and enjoyable for me to try to write for orchestra. I'm already writing for the winds, brass and percussion section of an orchestra. Really, I just need to add strings and because my comfort level is definitely lower when it comes to playing and writing for strings, that's just not something that I've really sought out myself, but I would love to in the future and I think a sort of long-term goal of mine is...

21:24
maybe to do some film score work at some point, and I'll definitely have to learn about writing for strings for that. So, someday, for sure. This next category of questions, I labeled general music questions. First question is, what is your favourite genre of music or what music do you like to listen to? So, I have pretty diverse interests in terms of the music I listen to personally.

21:49
Above all else, I really value good songwriting, good composing and storytelling, regardless of genre. So I'm pretty open to listening to music that falls into any genre or even multiple genres at once. Some artists that I currently have on repeat and have for a while are Maggie Rogers. I love her songwriting. She has so much dynamic energy in all of her music and every album she's put out so far has been

22:18
different from the last and I love seeing artists that are multifaceted and trying different things all the time. I particularly loved her album notes from the archive, which was sort of her personal ode to her past self. She decided to release music that she wrote many years ago in some cases for some of the tracks she wrote when she was in high school or college. Then after she became

22:43
somewhat famous as she is now, she decided she wanted to like honor her past self by including those older songs in her discography. So I really respect that. I enjoyed listening to that album and the commentary that she provided with it. I have loved the music of Kathleen Edwards for a long time, Canadian singer-songwriter. Noah Reid is a favorite of mine. He was actually an actor in Schitt's Creek, which was one of my favorite TV shows, but he is also a fantastic singer-songwriter.

23:10
Brian and I have seen him perform live and he's very good. I also really like Ken Yates. He's a local musician, somebody that I discovered just in the past few years and we've seen him live as well. His songs are like, if you need something to accompany you when you feel a bit sad or a bit like nostalgic or just kind of rainy day, wanting to lean into the moodiness or something like that.

23:38
Ken Yates has amazing songs for that. He just tells it like it is. They're very simple harmonically, musically, but very, very effective. So Brian also got me into the music of the Grateful Dead several years ago and just jam band music as a genre in general. And I surprisingly really fell in love with it. I love the exploratory, highly communicative, playful nature of this music. And I particularly enjoy listening to live shows by Dead and Company.

24:07
which is like a more modern version of the Grateful Dead. During the pandemic, when there was no live music, concerts were canceled and all of that, this band was supposed to go on tour. They obviously weren't able to. So they broadcasted live shows every Saturday for many, many weeks. I watched 20 in a row, 20 Saturdays in a row. I watched this band's live stream and I loved it. It really got me through that.

24:34
whole section of the pandemic, I think. And then when live shows were able to return, I had such a deeper relationship with all of those songs. And it was really beautiful to get to witness them played live after watching them on a screen for 20 weeks in a row. And then also when I'm working, I listen to lo-fi and ambient music. I have some playlists that I really love for meditation and journaling.

25:04
Um, I like to listen to music that doesn't have lyrics, especially when I'm working on things because then it doesn't interfere with my ability to write my own words. If I'm doing admin work, I also enjoy listening to classical music and band music, but I find myself doing that a little bit less ever since making it my job. When I was younger, when I was a little kid, I used to listen to classical music every day. And when I was a student, I listened to band music a lot as a, an aspiring, you know,

25:33
conductor and composer. Now that I'm immersed in it fully professionally, I think my relationship with listening to it is a little bit different, but I will always, always love listening to band music. The next question is, when did you know you wanted to pursue music as a career? So I don't know if there was ever a singular moment when I knew for sure, but there are some key memories that I feel are linked to this decision, so I'll share a few of those.

26:02
One of them was Hearing Sanctuary by Frank Ticheli at the University of Toronto, performed by the Wynn Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Gillian MacKay. My high school went on a field trip when I was in grade 10 maybe, and we got to go to this Wind Ensemble concert and getting to see musicians that were still young adults, like young people, but more advanced and more experienced than me, I think that was really inspiring. And

26:30
Sanctuary is such a beautiful piece and recently on the Band Room Podcast, which I co-host with Dylan Maddix, we had the opportunity to interview Frank Ticheli for our 100th episode. So at some point go over and check that out on the Band Room pod because I did tell him this story of how hearing this performance of Sanctuary inspired me to feel like I wanted to just do that. I don't necessarily know that I meant compose.

26:59
or conduct or perform or anything specific, I just, I wanted to be part of whatever that magic was because that experience was so magical for me as a high school student. Another one of these key moments I think was having my own music played by other people, particularly having my first concert band piece read by...

27:20
the wind ensemble that I played in in high school. Having my music played by my peers, my friends in the music room where I felt at home, that was really, really special. And I remember the feeling of just wanting to do more of that, wanting to do as much of that as I possibly could. I don't necessarily know that that was, I want to do this as a career, but it was just, I wanted to do it as much as possible. And that naturally sort of led me to take the steps towards making that a career. And then the last thing is,

27:50
playing in honour bands. I played in the National Youth Band, the Ontario Provincial Honour Band. I got to meet other young people who were just as passionate about this as I was, and I think that was really influential in my decision to not necessarily pursue music as a career, but to pursue it at the post-secondary level, to study music at university. And then once I was studying music, that's when I was really starting to make more decisions and ask more questions about the practical steps to making

28:19
lightbulb moment necessarily that went off that said I could do this as a career. It's just that I fell more and more in love with music the more I did it and I just kept going and now here I am. Speaking of all of that, there was a question, what college did you go to? So I went to the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I studied music education. Many are surprised to learn that I did not and have not ever formally studied composition.

28:49
But of course, I have lots of other musical training. So I did a five-year program that included a Bachelor of Music and also a Bachelor of Education. And within the education side of things, my specialty was music, of course, but also English was my second teachable subject. And I specialized in grades seven to 12, so intermediate secondary education.

29:16
This next question is a big one. It is, how do you create and manage your goals as a musician? So I had to think about this one a little bit because there are long-term goals, like really big goals, and then there's also the more day-to-day short-term goals and tasks to manage. So I'll talk about long-term stuff first. I am a big dreamer. Like I let myself dream big and imagine.

29:43
really cool things and even things that I don't imagine would realistically be possible. I just sort of let my mind wander to these imaginary amazing scenarios. And then over time, I feel like I just sort of work towards creating a possibility for some of those things to happen. So when I was 10 or 11 or 12 or something, I made a bucket list. And I included.

30:09
all sorts of things that I didn't necessarily think were actually possible, but just things that I thought maybe the adult version of me will be able to do this somehow someday. And one of the things I remember including was have my songs played at a concert. And something as simple as that seemed so huge because when I was a kid I was pretty shy. I didn't like performing in front of people, especially not by myself. I was writing songs in my bedroom, you know, I saved up my own money for a guitar.

30:39
when I was 12 or 13 and I taught myself some chords. And that's kind of where everything started for me. And I never imagined that any of that would ever leave my bedroom. So writing on a bucket list to have my own songs performed in front of an audience, that was a pretty big dream at the time. But it happens all the time now. Literally every day, people around the world are playing my music. And weekly, at least, there are performances happening.

31:09
over the world, which is really, really cool. I never ever take it for granted and I often remind myself that little kid me would have just been absolutely floored to find out that other kids and other people, professional musicians, are making music with my ideas. I think, you know, I never could have imagined that that would be a regular occurrence. So that wasn't necessarily a goal of mine, it was just something I hoped to happen one day. But then

31:38
The closer I got to achieving that goal, the more seriously I pursued it. And I have always really advocated for myself. So when there's something that I want to do, I get curious about it. What would it take to do that? What are the steps between where I am now and where I want to be? And I find that short-term time management is a really tough thing for me, but long-term achieving goals, I find more success with that.

32:08
So for the short-term things, I make a lot of lists to attempt to keep myself on track with making sure that I get tasks done. And I do some journaling so that I'm always kind of keeping myself on track with bigger things that I'm working towards as well. Like just keeping myself connected with my long-term goals and what I hope to accomplish, what I hope to experience. And I find that just keeping myself in the headspace of

32:34
yeah, maybe someday I'll do this, or this is something that I want for myself. The more I revisit those ideas, the more it's at the front of my mind. And so then when opportunities come up for collaborating or connecting with people, or just taking an opportunity that might not seem connected to a long-term goal, I feel like I'm able to make those connections and see if something is going to help me further my career or further my personal development or musical development or whatever. This is a really rambly way to say

33:04
I don't know that I really think about managing my goals. I just allow myself to make room for new ideas and new dreams. And when I achieve something, I celebrate myself and I feel, you know, I let myself feel proud of that. I let myself feel that I've accomplished something. And then I allow myself to make room for even bigger things, even bigger dreams.

33:34
There was a time not so long ago when I could not have imagined supporting myself fully as an artist, making, composing my full-time job, and now I am over six years into this career, and it's working, it's working even better than I would have thought. So really just kind of letting myself have hope and letting myself dream is what has allowed me to

34:02
meet this goal and once I met the goal of, you know, yes, I am in fact succeeding as a full-time composer, now I get to dream even bigger and think about, well, what kind of collaborative experiences do I want? What kind of project do I want to take on for myself? What kind of skills do I want to develop for myself? You know, even things like I mentioned last year, I performed in a country music theater production. Like, that's not something I had as a goal, but when the

34:31
I said yes, because my goal overall is just to continue growing and experiencing as much as I possibly can. I will say just a small note on day-to-day goals and tasks. If I'm working on a project, I really struggle with sticking to a routine or a specific schedule. That's just not how my brain works. So the approach that I take is just making contact with it regularly. So consistency is...

34:57
different than routine, I think. You don't necessarily need to do the same thing every day at the same time in order to be consistent. So if I'm working on a new piece, as long as I make contact with it every day, that could just be opening the file. I don't even need to write any new music. I don't need to edit anything. Just making contact with it consistently, that is something that I make sure to do as I'm working towards a more shorter-term goal with a deadline or something like that.

35:29
of rambled a lot in answering that question. I don't know if it's the most helpful or concise response, but hopefully it's interesting anyway. To the person who asked this question or just anyone else out there who's interested in this, I think one other thing that's worth mentioning is developing curiosity and the willingness to ask questions. Because if you have a goal and you're not sure how to achieve it, or you have something in mind that you would like to accomplish or

35:58
and you're brainstorming, like, how can I get from where I am now to where I want to be? Expand beyond yourself individually and invite other people into your dreaming. I think that can really help because as you talk to somebody else, whether it's a friend or a teacher or a family member or whoever, as you talk about what you want,

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that will help you get closer to articulating what it is that you want and why. And maybe the person or people that you're talking to can help brainstorm next steps or possible things that you can try, things you can look into. So I think just asking questions of yourself and also asking questions of other people who have experienced things that you want to experience can be really, really helpful in your goal setting and making sure that you actually do get closer and closer to those goals as time goes on.

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OK, and the last thing I'll say on this goal setting thing is write things down. Like whether you have a journaling practice or you just type it in a note in your phone or you write it on a sticky note and you put it on your desk or on your wall, there's something about externalizing your goals, getting it out of your head, out of your body, and into reality. Put it in your space, whether that's physically or digitally, so that you are reminded of it. I think when you write it down, it makes it real.

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And sometimes that's scary, but I think it's an important first step. Okay, the last question is, how has music changed your life? And I thought this was a fitting last question for the episode. So I feel like music has shaped my whole life. So many pivotal moments are marked by musical experiences. Many of my closest relationships have come from music.

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I learned how to express myself and connect with my emotions and process experiences through music, not just through composing, but listening to music, attending concerts, bonding with other people over music. Even before making music my career or my field of study, I feel like music had already defined and enriched so much of my life. And I know so many other people feel this way too, even non-musicians. The music we listen to at various stages of our lives is hugely influential in

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the people that we become, the way we move through life, etc. So music is just, I mean, it's everything to me. And I think it's kind of everything to everyone. So music has been huge. I don't know how else to say it. It's just shaped so much of my life. I'm so grateful that I get to incorporate it into my job, my professional life, my personal life. And I'm so glad that I get to share all of this with all of you.

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So thank you so much to everyone who sent in questions. If I didn't get to your question today, don't worry. I will include it in a future episode. There are a lot of really, really good questions that I intentionally left out of this episode because I want to save them for future moments. So I will get to them. Thank you so much for listening and bearing with me with my sick voice. I have had to stop to cough like so many times and I'm thankful that this is not a live podcast that I have the option to.

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pause and edit things out and whatnot. I don't do a ton of editing with this podcast, especially this episode, because it's been a little bit more off the cuff compared to the episodes where I'm talking about specific pieces of music. But anyway, thankful for the option to pause and cough. As usual, if you are interested in checking out my music or learning more about me and my work, you can visit my website, caitnishimura.com, or you can connect with me on Instagram at composercait.

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If you haven't already, please subscribe to the composercait podcast on whatever podcast app you use. You can leave me a rating and or a review. It really helps me out. It helps more people find my podcast and it lets me know that you're enjoying the work that I'm doing. So please take a second and do that if you haven't already. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here and I'll see you in the next episode.