Note-worthy Experiences Music Studio
F E A T U R E 
Interview with Jay Flood

When did you start studying music?
I guess that was before I was born since my mom was a practicing singer while she was expecting me--later, when I became a composer, I once found that I had written one of her vocal exercises into a theme in the orchestra. I was one of six siblings and we would perform publicly. I sang solo at shows at Lynn Auditorium where my mom was music director when I was three. She was also a piano and vocal teacher so there was constantly someone singing opera or show tunes in the living room.

What were your early musical influences?
I played piano young. I loved Scott Joplin, Mozart, Bach. Having five siblings meant I was exposed to tons of musical trends. I played bluegrass banjo, folk guitar, and then in my teens, lead guitar in rock bands. At university, I wrote contemporary classical works and ultimately earned a PhD in music composition at UCLA.

Were you teaching at this time?
Yes. I was always wearing many musical hats. I had guitar and piano students and taught at UCLA for four years--theory and baroque counterpoint. I got a break as an intern/composer/producer at Disney. I had also started orchestrating and composing B movie scores in Hollywood.

What was your professional music career like?
I got an Emmy nomination as a student, by a fluke really, on my first project, and then went into film scoring. The demos of my symphony recordings got the attention of Hans Zimmer's organization. This began a long journey which included me composing with top composers on projects like the Transformers movies, Friday the Thirteenth, the Sims 3; I was music director on a season of Desperate Housewives and had many other interesting jobs.

So what happened next for you?
We moved back to Boston as I had decided to transition back to teaching. I became a "staff member" at the iconic free school Sudbury Valley and also a professor of music theory and film scoring at Longy School of Music in Cambridge. When I met Renee, I realized the great opportunity to connect with local musical families so I have taken on a few students as of this Fall as well...as much as my schedule allows.

What is your teaching method?
The main class I taught at the college was Graduate Theory Review which condensed a bachelor's degree of theory into one semester. It gave me a great perspective. I'm not a huge fan of college theory books and I have been putting together my own ideas. I don't believe one size fits all. There are many roads to a destination. I believe understanding comes through the
creative process so I like to stress improvisation and composition, along with the basics. I try to spark an appetite for discovery--whether it be in the performance of a sonata or the writing of a song. What I think is important is the passion--for the physics, for musical structures and patterns, and for the stories that can be told with notes and chords. So I stress finding a kinetic musical connection that is felt. You can tackle larger and more complex works if you have an emotional attachment that brings you back daily to your music.

Learn more about our Composition, Piano and Guitar teacher Jay Flood in his Teacher page.