BLOG.RALPHKENDRICK.COM: Are Composers Hermits?

Are Composers Hermits?

As many of you know, I have a day job in the insurance business. I'm officially called a Relationship Manager, which involves quite a bit of gregariousness. It's important for me to develop good relationships with my customers, so they'll trust me, and honestly share what they really think. So, often, I'll turn a two minute phone conversation into a fifteen minute one, asking them about their families or other things they may be passionate about. Over time, we become friends.

I genuinely like developing relationships with people all over the country, but by nature, I'm not a 'chatty Kathy'. There have been a few days, where after I've spent an entire day and some of the evening with customers, I want to come home and stare at the wall for an hour to regroup and be alone with my thoughts.

These are classic signs of being an Introvert. Introverts recharge our batteries by being alone, whereas extroverts garner their energy from other people. Since introverts are also stimulated by internal thoughts and ideas, I began to wonder if most composers were introverted. A survey of 240 composers revealed some unexpected results...

30% of composers indicated they were Introverted, compared with 21% choosing Extroverted and 49% 'Halfway In-Between'. For the sake of discussion, if we give half of the 'In-between' number to the Introverted and Extroverted categories, we end up with 54.5% of respondents indicating they are introverted and 45.5% indicating they are extroverted.

I found this a surprising result, considering the fact that composers are stimulated by ideas and spend hundreds of hours yearly, alone in their studios composing. Prior to conducting the survey, I thought the results would be that two-thirds or three-quarters of composers considered themselves introverts.

But, when compared to the population as a whole, composers have much higher rates of introversion. Roughly 30% of the general population falls into the introverted category, compared with 54% of composers.

The next statistic literally blew my mind. Composers were asked whether their personality had become more introverted, more extroverted, or had remained unchanged since they became a composer. Surprisingly, 25% of respondents indicated they had become more extroverted since becoming a composer, compared with 9% that had become more introverted.

One would think that all of that time cooped up in a studio like a hermit in their shell would lead to more introversion, as it has in my case, not the other way around.

But, perhaps composers become more confident and outgoing upon discovering and living their true passion. They could have also become intimately involved with a larger musical community whose shared passions for performing, theory or history provide fodder for endlessly stimulating conversations. Another possibility, is that composers have realized that the more social they are, the more opportunities they have for performances and commissions.

Whether we're an introvert or extrovert doesn't really matter, what matters is that we've discovered what it is that makes us tick.

And when we're talking about our passion for music... you won't be able to tell the difference between us.

So now that you've received your pop psychology fix for the day, I'd be curious to know your reactions. Were you surprised by these results as well?