Scoring Ennio Morricone

This CNN article features Ennio Morricone, a prolific composer whose movie music has been heard by millions. My personal favorites are The Mission, Cinema Paradiso, and The Untouchables, but over the decades he's released so much more than just the music for these three movies. He and John Williams (Schindler's List, Back To The Future, etc.) take up significant space in my iPod.

From the CNN article:

"I would recommend the young composer practiced (sic) in all genres of music, all: rock, pop, exotic. A composer must be able to write a string quartet, a symphony, a song, a bad piece, because even to write something bad can be useful, and also a beautiful piece, of great breadth."

I bring this up because it's almost the same advice Stephen King gives in his book, On Writing, about writing; that you can learn as much, maybe more, from bad writing than good.

The same, I believe, can be said, for reading. Short-stories or novels, much can be learned from the bad as well as the good, or at the very least, make one appreciate the time spent reading a good one versus a bad one.