Rejection is something we all have to live with, yet when you get nothing but excellent feedback about your 'natural, original ear for harmony' and you shock people because you tell them you are entirely self taught, rejection can seem all the more frustrating.

I am sending my pieces to every female choir i can find on the internet or local papers. I have already been rejected by one of them, and by a local orchestra who wanted me to take the contrabassoon and harp (two of my favourite instruments) out of my composition, which from my angle was a definite no.

But that is the thing, No-body got famous EVER by getting rejected and giving up. Anything like music, the arts, acting, even writing a book, is all about will, determination and never giving up. If you, like me are desperately trying to plug that piece for Piano and oboe you wrote in two days or thats 60 minute symphony you've spent the last 15 years on and no-one seems to take the bait, i just wanted to say never give up. No matter how fruitless it seems, someone is bound to look at it one day and love it. If you like it, then someone, somewhere must.

I wish everyone who reads this the very best of luck with all their artistic endeavours. You are keeping alive the treasure that is classical music, and that is a gift to the planet.

Andrew.