Question 1

What is the single biggest suggestion you would give to someone wanting to get into this career?

Robert Nowak · Accepted Answer

“Become literate in the language of music.” He adds, “I was looking over my career and one thing that struck me was the amount of great people I’ve worked with in the business: the legendary Orchestrators like Sid Ramin, Jonathan Tunick, Don Walker, Hans Spialek, and Robert Russell Bennett. Historically these people provided the groundwork for all of this.
“I worked on the original Into the Woods with Sondheim and performers from George Burns to Luther Vandross and Maria Schneider to David Sanborn. I wouldn’t be working for William Perry if I didn’t have that experience that led up to it. You don’t know where your path is going to lead but if you don’t keep working and improving, you’re not going to get to a point where you can make that leap.
“There are two things I do with kids who come up to me and ask [for work] and number one is I tell them to find something other than music. My rationale is if they can overcome my discouragement that means they have a chance of making it.
“If I tell them, ‘No, you’re not going to make a lot of money and it’s irregular,’ they walk away and look for something else. But if you overcome that and are still interested, I’ll bend over backward and help you any way I can—but I don’t tell them that! If they keep fighting and fighting, I take them under my wing and it has worked for both of us.
“All in all, the opportunities in terms of learning come through your schooling and education. Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Sing. Keep open to new things. You don’t know when the opportunity is going to be there, but you have to be prepared when it shows up. That’s what all the preparation is about.
“You’ll turn around one day, you do one thing and bingo! Somebody recognizes it and says, ‘Can you do this?’ It happened to me, in a number of ways. You don’t know where paths are going to lead and if you’re not open to these things they’ll pass you by or you won’t recognize the opportunity.
“When it comes down to it, I don’t know if it’s different than any other area of life: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. You just keep going. Keep picking yourself up.”

Question 2

What’s the #1 mistake people make when trying to get into this career?

Robert Nowak · Accepted Answer

“They’re not literate. Those people are out there who think they can do it all, but they don’t know the language. So many people make the mistake of thinking they know it all, but they’re either too arrogant or too afraid to ask and to pursue this. [Ask] what am I dong wrong? What am I doing right? A big ego coming in is the biggest mistake.”

Question 3

What is the question people should ask about this career but rarely do?

Robert Nowak · Accepted Answer

“How does it work? What does it mean to be a Music Copyist?
“This is especially important because, with computer notation programs, the temptation is to think the computer does it all for you; you press the button and it’s all done. It’s easy to fall into that because yeah, you can print out some music and it looks readable and many people will be able to get through it.
“But it doesn’t always work that way on a professional level. There’s more to it, so ask what’s involved. There are many folks—when they learn what has to be done, the good, bad and the ugly (there are many aspects of this that aren’t particularly glamorous)— they don’t want to do it. If they had known that ahead of time, maybe they’d have pursued something else. So ask what’s involved.”

Question 4

If you could describe in one word what makes you successful, what would it be?

Robert Nowak · Accepted Answer

“The ability to grow.”

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