What's up?! Half way through February... time is flying. I am leaving for the Dominican Republic on a mission trip this Saturday, and I will be gone for a week. So prayer is appreciated!
Before I leave, I wanted to share something with you guys... remember way back, about a year ago, when I posted this piece? Well, it has been almost one year, and I am proud to say that this piece is now published. Hal Leonard, "the world's largest music print publisher"(as it says on their website), contacted me about four months ago and asked if they could publish my piece Café à la Française. Of course, I said yes, signed the paperwork, etc. (Interesting fact: a better translation is just straight Café Français, which is what the piece is now named. Also, they shortened the piece by taking out the key change.) When they first contacted me, all I wanted to do was to post all about it on my blog. But I knew that it might not work out, so I waited till it was physically published. So if you want your very own copy, just click here!
Here's a picture of it: 




Or... instead of buying a copy, why not get one for free and signed, plus a CD containing five tracks of my music? Giveaway time. It's the classic blog giveaway:


1.) Log onto my website and become a member: 1 entry
2.) Follow my blog: 1 entry.
3.) Comment on this post: 1 entry.
4.) For every person you get to follow my blog, you get 1 entry (and they get 1 entry because they followed my blog). BUT, they have to comment on this post (giving them another entry) saying who got them to follow my blog. (So if you get 100 people to follow my blog, all of them commenting, not only will they have 200 entries collectively, but you'll get 100 entries. And I'll have a lot of work. haha)
5.) Post about it on your blog: 5 entries.
6.) Post about it on Facebook and/or Twitter: 1 entry. (only can be done once on each site... so if done on both, you get two entries).


So yeah... deadline is February 29th. The more entries you get, the better your chances to win.  Drawing for the winner will be taken from the entries and I'll announce the winner March 1st.  The winner will have to email me with their address, so watch for your name on this. Good luck!


And lastly... music. I literally have no new finished music to post. And it's bugging me, because I have to post something! I'll be lame and post something I composed a year and a half ago... it's called At Least You Know Who You Are, based off the Ranger's Apprentice series. Most of you have probably heard it. But hey... hope you like it enough to listen to it again. haha. (Btw, like the new music player?)








Spring break is the week I get back from the Dominican Republic, so hopefully I'll have more time to compose then. As always...


Thanks for listening,


Jonathan Maiocco

It's February already. The craziest part is I wore shorts today, and went longboarding. It's too warm to be February... but hey, I'm not complaining. Haha
I haven't been posting as much as I have in the past, mainly because I (sadly) don't have as much time to compose music. But this weekend, I finally was able to sit down and just... compose. Gosh, I've been missing it!
Here's a piece I just did. I was reading 100 Cupboards by N. D. Wilson, so it's loosely inspired by that. I don't know if it is finished or not... I feel like I can add more. But, we'll see. Let me know what you think!

100 Cupboards by Jon M.

I'm working on my first official album. As I have said before, it's going to be a trailer music album, mainly epic music. I still have to compose at least six more pieces for the album. Working on them now... I don't want to post them as I compose them, because I want them to be a surprise. But... I might post a sample. :D
Also, I think, along with doing genres, I am going to do word genres. For instance, the word whimsical. What would whimsical music sound like? How about haunting music? Etc... more to come on that.
As always...

Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

First post of 2012. World's going to end in December, so I'd better write a lot of music... haha.
Here's the spy genre. I consider it "old school" spy, if you get what I mean. (Like Get Smart, James Bond, Mission Impossible, etc. Not like Salt, Bourne, etc.) This is supposed to be main-titles/suite/just-trying-to-get-all-my-thoughts-out kinda piece.
I want to share a back-story on how I got the theme: I was on vacation with my family at the beach. On the last night there, I had the weirdest dream. In the dream, I was a spy, and the "bad guy" had found me. He looked at me and said something like, "Game's over _______..." (Whatever my spy name was... haha). And then suddenly, everything faded to black, and the theme started playing full force in my head. I woke up suddenly, and immediately ran over to the keyboard I brought with me, and plucked it out. That's how the theme came about. Haha... hope you like it!

Mission Improbable by Jon M. 2011

Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

P.S. College starts Monday. Don't know when I'll get a chance to write more...

Well. It's the end of the year. Crazy! I can't believe I have been running this blog for a whole year now. Time seriously flew.
I sat down and composed some African music. It's kind of short... it helped me get my ideas down. I did a lot of research on African instruments, etc. It was really neat. (My favorite African soundtrack of all time is Duma. Great soundtrack and movie. Also, Blood Diamond, by my favorite, James Newton Howard, is really good too.)

African Style by Jon M. 2011

What do you think?

Also did some trailer music. Always a good time. Haha...

I Am Transformer by Jon M. 2011

Within this year, I composed to nine different genres: Action/Adventure, African, Arabian, Cartoon/Comedy, Celtic, Classical, Horror, Pirates, and Western. Personally, I think African, Classical, and Horror can be re-visited because there is so much more I could do within those genres.

Including this blog post, I posted 24 times. Within those posts, I posted 29 pieces, coming to a total of 72 minutes of music, averaging at roughly 2.5 minutes for each piece. (I posted music I have composed from whenever up to now. All the music combined from this year only comes to about 50.5 minutes, give or take.) From the pieces I composed this year, the longest piece was Ever After at 3:14, and the shortest was I Am Transformer at 1:22.

Answer some questions for me: out of all the songs I posted, which one was your favorite? Which one was your least favorite? What do you want to hear more of? What is something you want to hear that I haven't done?

Resolutions: compose more music. Compose longer pieces. Be more... epic. Most of all: compose a complete trailer music album and put it on iTunes. (#1 Goal.) Hold me to that.

Thanks for following my blog this year. Can't wait to see what happens next!

Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

I am going to cut to the chase...
First on the menu: actual video! "myouterspace.com" recently held a contest where you composed to this video clip and it was judged. About 300 were judged... and I didn't win. But you know, that's OK. (Watch it without audio, and then with audio. What do you think? Did my music fit?)



Second: I wanted to post this song... some of you might have heard the music I did for Robert Liparulo's series Dreamhouse Kings. (If not, you can download it for free on my website in the store or on his website near the middle of the page). I really like the themes I did for his books, and I want to continue with them. So I did and "action/adventure" sequence, just for fun. What do you think?

House of Dark Shadows, Action/Adventure Sequence by Jon M. 2011

And lastly: another Christmas epic! I threw it together, so I wouldn't say that it's incredible... but I hope you like it anyways. And guess what? You can download it! Just click the little down arrow button. Consider it a Christmas present from me to you.

Christmas 2011 by Jon M. 2011

Hoping to finish Sci-Fi before 2012. We'll see... haha.

Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

Wait, it's December? Wow...
Here's a song I did about a year ago. I call it A Christmas Epic, inspired by O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and Carol of the Bells with a Trans-Siberian Orchestra twist.

A Christmas Epic by Jon M. 2011

What do you think? I'm considering doing another one... can't decide.

Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

P.S. Here is the best thing ever: (this is SO much better than my song. Hands down).



And here is probably the second best thing ever: Sleigh Rough.

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted. Sorry for the wait. College is very time consuming.
I realized that I've been posting music and just talking on and on and on... and you probably don't know anything about me. Life story. Age. How I started writing. Etc. So, lets start at the beginning...
Quick Facts:

• Born October 29th, 1993. So yes, I just turned 18. 
• Second oldest in my family. 
• I have two brothers, one sister, and two great parents. 
• I've lived in Atlanta my whole life. 
• I am currently a sophomore in college.

I started composing about the age of 12. But as of then it was only a hobby. A lot of the first pieces I wrote were inspired by Narnia. Here's a piece called The Spell Begins to Break. (It's one of the first pieces I composed). Warning: not only did I steal from the Narnia soundtrack, it also sounds bad. Haha...

The Spell Begins to Break by Jon M.

Two years go by. I'm introduced to Christian fantasy books (the first being Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis.) Reading books really inspired me to write more music. When I was 14, I submitted one of my pieces to a contest. The grand prize was to head out to LA for three weeks, and to meet Mike Post, composer of Law and Order, Rockford Files, etc. Here's the song I submitted:

The Voyage by Jon M.

It's called The Voyage, inspired by The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. On April 14th, 2008, my mom got a phone call from Mike Post. As it turns out, I would have won the contest. But I was too young. But, he wanted me to come to LA anyways so we could talk, and he could show me what he does.
It was incredible. Summer came along, and my family and I flew out to LA. My mom and I went to his studio, and he gave us a tour, and then sat down and just told me what I needed to do, what I didn't need to do, and how to succeed. After going to LA, that's when I decided this is what I want to do.
So fast forward about 3.5 years. Music opportunities come and go. I slowly get more experienced... and here I am. In college. And that's my story. Now you know me!
Moving on... the comedy piece. Remember ages ago when I said I would compose a comedy piece and a sci-fi piece? Well, I meant to post the comedy piece ages ago, but never got around to it. So, here it is. I don't have a name for it... (and also, it ends abrubtly. I was going to add more, but I just didn't know what to add... any thoughts?) Here is (officially) the comedy genre:

The Comedy Piece by Jon M

The sci-fi piece is still a work in progress. Once I finish it, I'll post it.
I don't want to end on the comedy piece, so I'll post a song I just finished. A while back, I sat down to compose some epic trailer music, but then came up with this. It's like my first Celtic piece, but... epic. I call it Ever After. (No, not movie inspired... that's just the only name I could think up). This piece also ends slightly suddenly... don't know if I like it. What do you think?

Ever After (Celtic) by Jon M.

Lots and lots of music. Let me know what you think! This should make up for not posting for two months... I think the next genres I want to do are "spy" and "African". Haven't decided which one to do first...

Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

Hey everyone. College has officially started. So composing time is almost zero. But... I somehow always manage to find a little time here and there to sneak in some composing (whether that means staying up till 2am or procrastinating school work).
I have two reasons for posting. One: I have been interviewed Jessica, who runs a pretty awesome blog. Check it out! Also, here is the link to the interview. She is also holding a contest, the prizes being some of my music. So, if you want some of my music possibly for free, then I would hop on over.
Two: I can't post without posting new music. So, here is a song I call World's End (not to be confused with As the World Ends). Probably should change the names, but eh. Whatever. World's End (the book) is the sequel to Dormia, a book I also did a song for. Two things I want to say about World's End (the song): 1. I literally was thinking of snow the whole time while composing. 2. It repeats a lot. I don't know if I like it. What do you think?

World's End by Jon M.

Almost done with the comedy piece. Hoping to finish it and post it soon. Sci-Fi... we'll see what happens. I have a couple of ideas.

Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

Words of wisdom: never update to the newest version of a software till you know for sure that everything you use on a daily basis will work with it.
I updated to OS X Lion (Apple's "most advanced desktop operating system") and as it turns out, none of my music software works on it. So now I'm back to the basics. I erased my main hard drive, re-installed the original operating system, and right now, I'm installing all my music software. Some of my sound libraries take three-four full days to install. I'll be busy for a while... but not all hope is lost. I still have my laptop to compose on. (But I can't transfer songs between computers, so I can't work on the Comedy or Sci-Fi piece till my main computer is back up and running.)
College starts this Monday (the 22nd). Am I nervous? Eh... no. I just hope I can learn to balance everything. Quickly.
This past week, my family and I went to Panama for a family vacation. It was very nice. Six hour car ride both ways = composing time on laptop. I couldn't think of what to compose though. So, I decided to just... compose. No direction, no inspiration. I just wanted to see where the music would take me. You could say I doodled (musically) for six hours. This is what I came up with:

T.B.D. by Jon M.

I honestly don't know what to name it. That's why I called it T.B.D. Any name ideas?
Let me know what you think of it! ("It" being only a doodle...) What does it make you think of?
Since college is starting soon, it might be a while before I post next! So, until then...

Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

"Dramatic" was never listed under my genre options. But yesterday, while I was trying to compose some trailer music, and I composed this and realized that it fits the word dramatic pretty well (in my opinion). A really good friend of mine helped me name the song.


As the World Ends by Jon M.


What do you think?


Thank you so much to everyone who commented on A True Western. I'm glad everyone generally liked it, and I liked all of your thoughts and suggestions. (There were some really good suggestions/insights I'd never thought or heard before!) I will be composing a longer version that will have a lot more themes and definitely more western aspects to it. 


Thanks for listening,


Jonathan Maiocco