I am done with my sophomore year of college. It's a little surreal! Summer is here... it's awesome.
A couple of things: first, Gillian Adams, author and blogger, has written a book called Out of Darkness Rising. She first approached me on doing music for a book trailer for her book back in September. Now, the book trailer is done Check it out!



(Note: the piece I just blogged, Free Spriti, is in the book trailer. It's just in a different key...)
Second: This summer is ridiculous. I am going on two mission trips: May 12th-19th, I am going to Nicaragua (again!) and June 3rd-15th, I am going to Zimbabwe (which is in Africa). I feel called to Africa. I can't explain why. But I'm super excited about going. I'm getting my yellow fever vaccination and typhoid vaccination today. Prayer is appreciated.
Lastly: new music. I've been doing a lot of electronic music recently... but out of all the electronic pieces I've done, this was definitely the most fun to compose. I'm currently calling it Guts and Glory. (The name will probably change... any thoughts on a different name?) This will be on the trailer album that I'll put on iTunes... hopefully before the end of this summer... what do you think of it? Any thoughts, suggestions, etc?



Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

School has reached the busiest point in the semester: assignments are due right and left, tests every week... and then finals. So I haven't been composing as I need to. So before I reach utter chaos, I wanted to stop by and post some trailer music I just finished... it's called Free Spirit. What do you think?



I had thought about doing a complete April Fool's post, saying something like I was signed on to compose to the next Narnia or X-Men movie, or maybe that I had given up writing music and was going to take up professional skateboarding. Or underwater basket weaving. But... I didn't. haha

Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

School is crazy right now! Absolutely crazy.
I wanted to post two things... first: my mission trip to the Dominican Republic (here-on simply called "DR") and two: an epic trailer piece that I just finished.
First, the mission trip: I traveled to the DR with 23 other people on Saturday, February 18th and got back Monday morning, Feb. 20th. (We had a 36-hour flight layover on the way back... but that's another story for another time). The trip was through my old high school, which sent me (as a leader), the high school's baseball team, and a couple other people. We not only served, but the baseball team (of course) played baseball. (Side note: I actual played one official inning in right field. It was legit. Sure, nobody hit it to me... but I was so ready. haha) Here are some pics that I took:

First, here's my bro pitching. Yeah, he's a stud.


The beach was incredible. We would go there every night just to unwind and think about the day. I could live there easily... God really knows how to make a good sunset.


 Not only was it an incredible trip, but it has really inspired me to live differently... for God. It has drawn me closer to God. There are three things I learned on the trip that I want to share:

1.) Talent. There was a juggler at the campus we were staying at. One night, he gave us his testimony... through juggling. It was absolutely incredible. (I wish I had filmed it!) It made me see that, no matter what your talent, if God is working through you, He can use you in ways you might not be able imagine. I've always seen my gift in music as... quite frankly, a little wimpy. I really want to be "out in the midst of it all," witnessing to "unreached people groups," digging wells, leading people to Christ, etc. But sitting inside all day composing music? What? Uh... that sounds a little boring. But I realized that, just like the juggler, even if a gift seems "wimpy" or not-very-important, if you are following God and He is using you and the gifts He has given you, the possibilities are endless! Which leads me to...
2.) Don't limit God. I feel so much that I limit God all the time. I think to myself, "Yeah, I'll be a film composer because that's what I'm good at and that's all God has for me..." Well... no. Not necessarily. The Bible says that if you trust in God, and follow Him, He will direct your paths (Prov. 3:5-6). But for the longest time, I have been assuming where those paths would lead. Honestly, I don't have a clue where they will lead me! I'm assuming it will deal with music... but who knows? I mean really? Lastly...
3.) Priorities. Honestly, I get rapped up in life pretty easily. I am distracted on a daily basis. School. Music. Life. But when my life ends, will I look back and regret what I did with my time given on earth? A friend of mine told me recently told me that "if you do something for 10,00 hours, you are a professional at it." At this rate, I am a professional sleeper. And procrastinator. And I am almost to a point of being a professional movie watcher. It's time I get me priorities straight and focus on what matters.

I don't mean to preach or anything... just wanted to share!

To the music: I just composed an epic trailer piece that I call Extinction. It will be on the trailer album that I am hoping to release on iTunes sometime this summer. Please comment and let me know what you think... (I went more electronic/FX for this piece, and I didn't know if it was the right route to take...)



Thanks for listening,

Jonathan Maiocco

I'll cut to the chase. The winner is Katherine Sophia! Congrats! Thanks to everyone who entered! Katherine, email me at: jon@jonathanmaiocco.com. (The plan is to have more giveaways in the future, so keep checking back.)

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.