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Transcript

I Just Turned 50 and I'm Just Getting Started! · 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast

• 0:30
  Dave Kropf: So how have I changed over the years?
• 0:32
  Dave Kropf: Well, I think I've mellowed out and I don't take myself as seriously.
• 0:39
  Dave Kropf: Having some success definitely helps with that.
• 0:44
  Dave Kropf: When, when you get validation whether it be from a publisher or from you know, a mentor or a coach, or getting placed, I mean, that definitely is a boost to your confidence.
• 0:56
  Dave Kropf: But many of us aren't there yet.
• 0:58
  Dave Kropf: What is happening everybody?
• 1:10
  Dave Kropf: And welcome back to another episode of the 52 Cues podcast, your weekly insight into all things production and library music.
• 1:18
  Dave Kropf: Whether you're simply curious about the sink industry or learning to write better cues, or maybe you're ready to pitch to publishers, I promise you you are in the right place.
• 1:27
  Dave Kropf: My name is Dave Kropf and it is so good to be with you today.
• 1:31
  Dave Kropf: And if you find this video helpful, then why don't you give it a thumbs up here on YouTube or a five star review in your podcast app?
• 1:37
  Dave Kropf: And please be sure to subscribe, because I talk about library music all the time.
• 1:41
  Dave Kropf: Today's episode wouldn't be possible without the incredible support of our members, subscribers at 52 Cues, who not only keep our community alive and thriving, but as members, they get access to extra features like workshops, live streams, office hours, cue breakdowns, zoom feedback sessions, hundreds of hours of video archives, plus opportunities to submit to real music libraries.
• 2:05
  Dave Kropf: So if this sounds like you and you're feeling stuck, or maybe you're finally ready to take your sink career to the next level, then head over to 52cues.
• 2:13
  Dave Kropf: com.
• 2:13
  Dave Kropf: It's free to join and membership start at around four bucks a month.
• 2:20
  Dave Kropf: Today is a very special episode.
• 2:22
  Dave Kropf: It's not a teaching topic.
• 2:24
  Dave Kropf: I don't have any interviews, we're not reviewing any cues or anything, but today, december 28th 2023, is my 50th birthday.
• 2:36
  Dave Kropf: Yes, I am 50 years old and I got to tell you I don't feel 50.
• 2:43
  Dave Kropf: And I imagine anybody that turns 50 probably doesn't feel 50.
• 2:47
  Dave Kropf: But I wanted to take some time today and just kind of reflect on that.
• 2:52
  Dave Kropf: It is a milestone and I'm going to.
• 2:57
  Dave Kropf: I want to talk about you know, am I where I thought I would be?
• 3:00
  Dave Kropf: What are some of my achievements?
• 3:01
  Dave Kropf: Where have I grown?
• 3:03
  Dave Kropf: Do I have a legacy?
• 3:05
  Dave Kropf: What lessons have I learned and what's next?
• 3:09
  Dave Kropf: So, am I where I thought I would be?
• 3:13
  Dave Kropf: If I could go back in time and talk to 20 year old Dave or 30 year old Dave or even 40 year old Dave, am I, am I where I thought I would be?
• 3:25
  Dave Kropf: Well, a little bit yes and a little bit no.
• 3:29
  Dave Kropf: If I had asked 20 year old Dave, where would you be when you turn 50?
• 3:34
  Dave Kropf: I would probably say a band director.
• 3:36
  Dave Kropf: I'd be either teaching a college band or a high school band and the drum line would be smoking.
• 3:42
  Dave Kropf: And that's what I would be doing.
• 3:47
  Dave Kropf: When I was 20, I married Shannon.
• 3:49
  Dave Kropf: I got married when I was 20.
• 3:50
  Dave Kropf: I look back at 20 year olds now and like, oh, you're way too young.
• 3:53
  Dave Kropf: But when you're actually 20, it doesn't.
• 3:57
  Dave Kropf: It doesn't feel that young.
• 3:58
  Dave Kropf: But I got married when I was 20.
• 3:59
  Dave Kropf: And next year Shannon and I will be celebrating our 30th anniversary, which is astounding to me.
• 4:10
  Dave Kropf: 30 year old Dave probably wouldn't be thinking that I was 20.
• 4:14
  Dave Kropf: , that I was a.
• 4:16
  Dave Kropf: Well, I definitely didn't want to be a band director by the time I was 30.
• 4:19
  Dave Kropf: But I was pretty sure I was going to retire as a percussion instructor in college in A college.
• 4:29
  Dave Kropf: At the time I was teaching at Visible Music College in Memphis, tennessee, and I headed up the drum program there and went on to be music department chair.
• 4:39
  Dave Kropf: Really really enjoyed it.
• 4:40
  Dave Kropf: But I knew that that college kids I'm 50, I can call college students college kids now as soon as I start sending you AARP stuff in the mail, you're allowed to call anybody younger than you kids.
• 4:55
  Dave Kropf: But 30 year old Dave thought I would be teaching in college.
• 4:59
  Dave Kropf: And 40 year old Dave thought that too, because when I turned 40, I was living in Orlando, here in Orlando and teaching at full sail.
• 5:11
  Dave Kropf: And so, while the career has an arc to, far from being an educator, I'm an educator at heart.
• 5:21
  Dave Kropf: It's what this YouTube channel is about.
• 5:23
  Dave Kropf: It's what the community is all about.
• 5:23
  Dave Kropf: It's an extension of me as an educator.
• 5:26
  Dave Kropf: What I didn't know was what 10 year old me had kind of lost side of and 15 year and 16 year old me, because 10 year old Dave and 15 year old Dave didn't necessarily want to be a drum instructor or anything.
• 5:44
  Dave Kropf: I wanted to be a composer, film composer specifically.
• 5:48
  Dave Kropf: And so I took a 20 year detour into and through education, percussion education, until coming here to Orlando and getting plugged in as a composer.
• 6:04
  Dave Kropf: And since then I'm seeing the realization that 10 and 15 year old Dave saw down the line, the Dave that was inspired by Alan Sylvesterie and Danny Elfman and John Williams, and then later Thomas Newman, even the music of Gustav Holst, beethoven, vivaldi.
• 6:23
  Dave Kropf: Yeah, those were my early influences.
• 6:28
  Dave Kropf: Beyond or before Neil Peart or John Bonham or Keith Moon, it was Mozart and Beethoven and Haydn.
• 6:34
  Dave Kropf: So am I where I thought I would be?
• 6:39
  Dave Kropf: I'm pretty sure I thought I would be an educator, but I'm further along than where I thought I would be as a composer making music for film and television.
• 6:51
  Dave Kropf: Did I think maybe I would be on a scoring stage?
• 6:55
  Dave Kropf: Yeah, I think so, but we'll talk a little bit about that later when we talk about the lessons I've learned.
• 7:03
  Dave Kropf: In some ways I'm not there, but in many ways I'm much further along than where I thought I would be.
• 7:10
  Dave Kropf: So let's talk about, maybe, some of the things that I've achieved.
• 7:16
  Dave Kropf: I don't mean this kind of in a braggie way, but just when you turn 50, I think you're allowed to kind of take stock of what you've done and what you achieved and run it against where you were hoping.
• 7:27
  Dave Kropf: So one of my proudest achievements is my relationship with Shannon.
• 7:32
  Dave Kropf: We started dating.
• 7:33
  Dave Kropf: Our first date was November 2, 1992, and she had an astronomy lab that night.
• 7:41
  Dave Kropf: I can't remember if I've told the story on the podcast or not, but she had an astronomy lab that night and the reason she picked that day was so that if the date was going poorly she could very, very smartly back out.
• 7:59
  Dave Kropf: Right, she'd go.
• 8:01
  Dave Kropf: Sorry, Dave, I got to go to astronomy lab.
• 8:03
  Dave Kropf: Needless to say, she skipped that astronomy lab that night.
• 8:08
  Dave Kropf: And we've been all but inseparable ever since, ever since we got married in 1994.
• 8:16
  Dave Kropf: Next year will be 30 years, and it's not without its challenges and its work, you know, maintaining a relationship, but she has been one of the most important constants in my life.
• 8:29
  Dave Kropf: And I put that, and my marriage and my relationship, first because I think having a healthy work-life balance is super important.
• 8:39
  Dave Kropf: Otherwise, why are we working so hard?
• 8:40
  Dave Kropf: Why are we living in the studio for hours and hours and hours?
• 8:44
  Dave Kropf: As I'm recording this right now, it's a couple of days before my birthday.
• 8:49
  Dave Kropf: I'm not going to record a podcast on my birthday, but it's a vacation day.
• 8:53
  Dave Kropf: You know I'm on vacation from full sail, everything at 52 cues, all the live events have all wound down for the year, and I'm sitting here on a Thursday recording a podcast episode that I'm going to release a week out.
• 9:08
  Dave Kropf: So relationships super important, and I'm really proud to be able to say I've had a 30 year marriage.
• 9:15
  Dave Kropf: I recognize that's not everybody's journey and that's totally okay too.
• 9:19
  Dave Kropf: I'm not here to tell you that you've done it right or done it wrong.
• 9:23
  Dave Kropf: I'm just sharing my achievements.
• 9:28
  Dave Kropf: Another achievement that I'm really proud of is having a graduate degree.
• 9:34
  Dave Kropf: My master's is in jazz and studio music, and there was a time in my life, you know, if I look at 20 year old Dave, or let's say 25 year old Dave, I had washed out of school.
• 9:44
  Dave Kropf: You know, I got way involved in our band fraternity.
• 9:52
  Dave Kropf: I'm a brother of Cap-a-Capa-Sci and I just got some priorities out of WAC that, on top of transferring schools from Appalachian state to University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
• 10:04
  Dave Kropf: I did a semester there, but their music departments didn't really get along and I didn't know Sulfedge, so they put me in freshman level theory and I was just like I can't do this.
• 10:11
  Dave Kropf: And there was a good eight years of my life when I thought that even just having a bachelor's degree was impossible and that's just not.
• 10:20
  Dave Kropf: I don't know.
• 10:21
  Dave Kropf: I started exploring being a graphic designer, being a web designer and going that whole tech route, which I realize now feeds into what I'm doing now.
• 10:30
  Dave Kropf: You know, the things that I learned in my web design days absolutely inform how I'm able to run a digital online community, mm-hmm.
• 10:41
  Dave Kropf: I mean, I'm of the belief that all of the stops along our journey are important and there's no wasted time.
• 10:51
  Dave Kropf: It all feeds into the person we become.
• 10:54
  Dave Kropf: So I believe that.
• 10:56
  Dave Kropf: But I didn't think I'd finish school, moved to Memphis, got a job as a percussion instructor based on my experience my theater experience and my experience in college, even though I didn't have a degree.
• 11:09
  Dave Kropf: But I did need to finish my degree, and so they enabled me to finish my undergraduate degree in music my undergraduate is in music history, of all things and then onto a graduate degree in jazz and studio music, on drum set, I mean, and that's why I have a vibraphone.
• 11:28
  Dave Kropf: I bought the vibraphone because I got tired of driving to the music building to practice, and so I got a set of vibes so I can keep in the house, practice in the comfort of my own home and not have to make a 20 minute drive to the music building, cause at this point I was an adult student when I returned and, yeah, I didn't live on campus, couldn't walk to the music building.
• 11:52
  Dave Kropf: It was a real ordeal, so that's why I have a set of vibes now.
• 11:56
  Dave Kropf: So I'm really proud of my education.
• 11:58
  Dave Kropf: I'm really proud of having started in music education, started out as a band director, went into music composition, took composition lessons yes, washed out, but wound up in music history and all of this informs who I am.
• 12:15
  Dave Kropf: Some of the achievements along the way, especially within the last 10 years, is my career in production and studio music placements.
• 12:21
  Dave Kropf: Everything from local law firm adds up to the Super Bowl, the bachelor, temptation island.
• 12:30
  Dave Kropf: Yeah, you could, I mean yeah, if you want to IMDB me, you could do that.
• 12:33
  Dave Kropf: But I'm really proud of those placements.
• 12:36
  Dave Kropf: I'm really proud of those placements.
• 12:38
  Dave Kropf: I'm proud of the career that I've been able to cultivate over the last 10 years, going on 800 or so published cues it's under the thousand that I'm going for.
• 12:52
  Dave Kropf: But I also am a full-time college instructor, college professor, and so I don't pump 40 to 50 hours a week just in music.
• 13:01
  Dave Kropf: Well, I didn't before the last couple of years, but that's for a little bit later.
• 13:06
  Dave Kropf: So I'm proud of the placements that I've gotten.
• 13:10
  Dave Kropf: I'm proud of really where I'm at in my career.
• 13:13
  Dave Kropf: I feel very confident as a composer.
• 13:17
  Dave Kropf: I'm always learning but I'm really really good with that as an achievement.
• 13:22
  Dave Kropf: And I'm proud of the community that we're building at 52 cues and, by extension, this podcast, the YouTube channel, all of those things.
• 13:32
  Dave Kropf: I'm really proud of those things.
• 13:34
  Dave Kropf: I'll talk a little bit more about that here in a moment.
• 13:38
  Dave Kropf: But over the years, how have I changed?
• 13:42
  Dave Kropf: When you turn 50, I feel like it's a really good opportunity to take stock of how you've changed, how you've grown.
• 13:52
  Dave Kropf: Am I where I want to be?
• 13:53
  Dave Kropf: Am I where I thought I would be?
• 13:55
  Dave Kropf: Well, I mentioned that already.
• 13:57
  Dave Kropf: I thought I'd be a band director, or I thought I would be a percussion division head at a college.
• 14:02
  Dave Kropf: I didn't really think I'd be writing library music, but I'm completely okay with that.
• 14:09
  Dave Kropf: So how have I changed over the years?
• 14:12
  Dave Kropf: Well, I think I've mellowed out and I don't take myself as seriously.
• 14:19
  Dave Kropf: Having some success definitely helps with that.
• 14:24
  Dave Kropf: When you get validation, whether it be from a publisher or from a mentor or a coach or getting placed, I mean that definitely is a boost to your confidence.
• 14:36
  Dave Kropf: But many of us aren't there yet and I know how that goes.
• 14:40
  Dave Kropf: But I'm much more confident in who I am as a creative individual.
• 14:48
  Dave Kropf: I'm much more confident in what I can and can't do.
• 14:52
  Dave Kropf: I'm not afraid to say I don't know, I don't have all the answers and I'm not afraid to learn.
• 14:59
  Dave Kropf: And when I was starting out, especially in the early days as a drum instructor, I felt like, hey, I'm teaching college now and I've gotta have all the answers.
• 15:10
  Dave Kropf: And I felt like not having an answer was almost a form of weakness.
• 15:15
  Dave Kropf: But looking back on it now, like 50 year old Dave looking back at 30 year old Dave, that's ridiculous.
• 15:22
  Dave Kropf: You can't possibly know all the answers.
• 15:24
  Dave Kropf: You can find answers but I don't have to have it all figured out.
• 15:28
  Dave Kropf: And not knowing the answer is not a weakness.
• 15:31
  Dave Kropf: Being able to identify that you don't know the answer is a strength.
• 15:35
  Dave Kropf: And early on I felt like I had to have it all figured out.
• 15:39
  Dave Kropf: 20 year old Dave was just a basket of anxiety and stress.
• 15:47
  Dave Kropf: I didn't really date much in high school.
• 15:50
  Dave Kropf: I was just some fat band kid and I poured all of my energy into that, didn't have a ton of girlfriends and everything.
• 15:57
  Dave Kropf: I was just all about being a band nerd and that's totally okay.
• 16:02
  Dave Kropf: And it wasn't until I went to college that I realized that when you pluck yourself out of the high school ecosystem and surrounds yourself with other band nerds, you realize, oh my gosh, there are many more people out there just like me.
• 16:17
  Dave Kropf: So going to a music program at college, it was the first time that I realized I wasn't really alone in this.
• 16:23
  Dave Kropf: It's just you put a band nerd amongst all the other popular kids and jocks and all of that stuff and the dynamic of high school which, praise God, social media and phones wasn't a thing when I was in school.
• 16:35
  Dave Kropf: I don't know, I don't know how modern teenagers navigate all of that nonsense I can only imagine.
• 16:44
  Dave Kropf: Likewise with, like, the dating scene.
• 16:47
  Dave Kropf: I don't know if I could hack that.
• 16:49
  Dave Kropf: I don't know if I could handle that.
• 16:52
  Dave Kropf: I didn't really grow into confidence until I got to college and in my 20s and 30s, washing out of school the first time kind of put me on my butt a little bit.
• 17:03
  Dave Kropf: But getting the job in Memphis and having folks who believed in me and supported me as I returned to finish my degree, that was huge.
• 17:12
  Dave Kropf: That was super helpful.
• 17:14
  Dave Kropf: But I don't have to have all the answers and I think that's how I've changed, much more confident in who I am.
• 17:20
  Dave Kropf: I mean, yeah, I still want to lose weight.
• 17:24
  Dave Kropf: I had to deal with losing my hair in my 20s.
• 17:28
  Dave Kropf: That's fine too, it's totally fine.
• 17:31
  Dave Kropf: That's why I shave it off, just remove all doubt, right?
• 17:35
  Dave Kropf: I've had glasses since I was in middle school and so now I get some trendier glasses.
• 17:41
  Dave Kropf: I think they're trendy, I like them, but I'm much more confident in who I am and what I'm about.
• 17:49
  Dave Kropf: And when you get up to be 50 years old, you're just, I don't know.
• 17:53
  Dave Kropf: You run out of Fs to give.
• 17:56
  Dave Kropf: I am out of Fs to give about anybody that wants to be a hater.
• 18:04
  Dave Kropf: I don't have space in my life for that and I definitely don't want to promote it here on the channel.
• 18:10
  Dave Kropf: And the older I get, the more I realize that I'm just going to do my thing.
• 18:14
  Dave Kropf: And if folks come at me which they sometimes do in the comments, that's fine.
• 18:20
  Dave Kropf: Or somebody disagrees with me, then that's their stuff, man, that is all their stuff.
• 18:24
  Dave Kropf: That's not mine.
• 18:26
  Dave Kropf: And so if people are coming out me and saying something hurtful, I just tell myself that hurt people hurt people, right?
• 18:34
  Dave Kropf: So if somebody in the comments hating on my glasses or hating on an opinion that I have, then that's their stuff, man, that's their stuff.
• 18:45
  Dave Kropf: And so I'm super confident in that.
• 18:51
  Dave Kropf: Am I where I want to be?
• 18:52
  Dave Kropf: Well, yes and no, I'm where I need to be and I'm happy where I am, but there's always more.
• 19:02
  Dave Kropf: There's always more than I want to be achieving.
• 19:06
  Dave Kropf: There's still a little part of me that wishes that I have had an opportunity to do a film score, like in a recording studio, conducting an orchestra.
• 19:21
  Dave Kropf: For a while I had a picture of Thomas Newman conducting an orchestra as kind of a vision board thing.
• 19:27
  Dave Kropf: I used my desktop one of my desktops as a vision board, so I just put pictures of things that inspired me, things that I am aspiring to, and one of those was conducting an orchestra.
• 19:39
  Dave Kropf: The older I get, the less likely that becomes, because there is a long kind of path that leads to I'm sitting here making music on a DAW in my studio to I'm waving a baton in front of an orchestra in a recording session.
• 19:55
  Dave Kropf: The path is doable, but I would have to shift things now to see that manifested down the road.
• 20:05
  Dave Kropf: It's doable, but am I going to do it and do I want to?
• 20:08
  Dave Kropf: And even beyond that, do I need to?
• 20:11
  Dave Kropf: What part of me wants that and why?
• 20:17
  Dave Kropf: Don't mind me, I'm just going to have an open therapy session right here.
• 20:22
  Dave Kropf: This is what this episode's about.
• 20:23
  Dave Kropf: Is it for validation?
• 20:25
  Dave Kropf: Is it this dangling achievement that just feels like it's unmet potential.
• 20:34
  Dave Kropf: I don't know.
• 20:36
  Dave Kropf: It's kind of like do I want to get my doctorate?
• 20:41
  Dave Kropf: I mean, there's a part of me that wants my students to call me doc because I had a professor, a super influential professor at Appalachian State, Dr.
• 20:51
  Dave Kropf: Scott Meister.
• 20:51
  Dave Kropf: I don't know if he watches.
• 20:52
  Dave Kropf: I hope you're doing well, doc.
• 20:53
  Dave Kropf: I know you're retired, but I wanted what he had, which was that relationship with students.
• 21:00
  Dave Kropf: They called him doc.
• 21:01
  Dave Kropf: It was fantastic and I know, having washed out of my bachelor's program, returning, getting my bachelor's, getting my master's, there's a part of me that still wants that doctorate.
• 21:15
  Dave Kropf: I want to be Dr.
• 21:16
  Dave Kropf: Dave Kropf, but why, I don't know.
• 21:21
  Dave Kropf: Once a year or so I'll get the itch.
• 21:24
  Dave Kropf: I'll be like, ok, huh, like.
• 21:27
  Dave Kropf: I know that UCF has a doctorate, an ED degree, a doctorate of education, which could absolutely help me.
• 21:35
  Dave Kropf: It'll help me at full sail.
• 21:36
  Dave Kropf: It will help me here because it's all about designing curriculum and all of those things, and I'm super passionate about community and connecting students digitally.
• 21:46
  Dave Kropf: I'm super passionate about that and that has a direct impact on the way I do things at full sail, because I have campus students and online students, virtual students in a virtual class Getting a doctorate.
• 22:00
  Dave Kropf: Do I want the education or do I want the alphabet after my name?
• 22:06
  Dave Kropf: I don't know.
• 22:08
  Dave Kropf: I don't think I want the student loans.
• 22:10
  Dave Kropf: I don't think I want the debt that it would require to do that.
• 22:14
  Dave Kropf: But yeah, those things are lingering out there for 50-year-old Dave as well, and I still struggle with it.
• 22:23
  Dave Kropf: The conducting an orchestra, scoring a film that comes and goes, but that's not a really big desire, it's more of a, it's not even a regress, just, oh man, that's something that I thought I would have done by now, but I haven't.
• 22:39
  Dave Kropf: Beyond conducting class in college, which I did, and it was thrilling, it was really, really thrilling.
• 22:47
  Dave Kropf: But getting my doctorate, there's a non-zero chance that I will end up before all is said and done, before I retire in 15 or 20 years, there's a non-zero chance I will be Dr Croff.
• 23:04
  Dave Kropf: Which leads me to legacy.
• 23:09
  Dave Kropf: You know, when you start getting up in age, when you start getting the AARP, when you start qualifying for silver discounts which, to be fair, I haven't gotten a piece of mail from AARP, that's just kind of a punchline, but I know it's coming you start kind of thinking of legacy, like what do you leave behind?
• 23:31
  Dave Kropf: What projects do you leave behind and this is something that I feel really good about because of my now nearly 30 years of teaching.
• 23:42
  Dave Kropf: Yeah, because when I was in college I was teaching drum lines and, yep, yeah, it's been about 30 years of being in education.
• 23:52
  Dave Kropf: The legacy that I leave behind are those students and those students' accomplishments.
• 24:00
  Dave Kropf: I'm very proud of that, whether they're percussion students or drum line students or composition students or students that I'm coaching and mentoring here at 52 cues.
• 24:11
  Dave Kropf: I'm very proud of that legacy and I think that's important.
• 24:15
  Dave Kropf: The job of a mentor and a teacher, what they get out of it is their students' success.
• 24:25
  Dave Kropf: That's what fuels teachers.
• 24:29
  Dave Kropf: Having a student, a drum student, finally nail the lick that they've been working on, or give a killer recital, or having a drum line just nail a show clean.
• 24:44
  Dave Kropf: Having students composition students, make air, finish albums, get recognized, win awards that fuels me and that's the legacy that I leave behind.
• 25:00
  Dave Kropf: As far as my actual music, I've talked about production, music not necessarily being art.
• 25:06
  Dave Kropf: There are some cues that I'm super proud of that I imagine could get used well after either I'm gone or retire or whatever.
• 25:14
  Dave Kropf: But the music itself isn't that important.
• 25:20
  Dave Kropf: The relationships, the impact I've had on people, some people.
• 25:29
  Dave Kropf: I'll never meet, some people who might be watching this video right now, and I'll never know your name, never know what a conversation like this or any of my other videos meant.
• 25:40
  Dave Kropf: A student that I spend four concentrated weeks with at full sail, who are going to go off and do amazing things, and I will long since forget their name, but they have a part of me, which I received from my mentors and my teachers.
• 25:59
  Dave Kropf: It's all a line.
• 26:00
  Dave Kropf: It's all a lineage.
• 26:01
  Dave Kropf: That's the legacy that I leave behind.
• 26:04
  Dave Kropf: As a drummer, I studied with someone who studied with Dom Famularo, the late great Dom Famularo RIP.
• 26:14
  Dave Kropf: He recently passed.
• 26:15
  Dave Kropf: I believe Dom Famularo studied with Don Chapin and these other titans of jazz drumming, which means that I have in me some of those teachings, because they are passed down from teacher to student.
• 26:36
  Dave Kropf: Student becomes the teacher to student, student becomes the teacher to student.
• 26:42
  Dave Kropf: Anybody that takes with me as a composing student or through coaching or mentoring or whatever, I impart on them and I impart with them the things that I've learned from my teachers and it becomes like an ancestry and that's what we leave behind.
• 27:05
  Dave Kropf: I don't think the music itself is that important.
• 27:08
  Dave Kropf: To be honest, I don't think anybody's going to look at an episode of the Bachelor with my music in it and think that that music mattered to culture.
• 27:19
  Dave Kropf: It didn't matter to the relationships that, as a mentor and a coach, I think they have.
• 27:28
  Dave Kropf: I'm really proud of that legacy.
• 27:31
  Dave Kropf: Now the question you might be asking yourself is well, what about me?
• 27:36
  Dave Kropf: Like, I'm not a teacher, I'm not a coach, I've not done any of those things.
• 27:41
  Dave Kropf: That's fine.
• 27:42
  Dave Kropf: You still have relationships with people.
• 27:45
  Dave Kropf: You interact with people.
• 27:47
  Dave Kropf: That's the legacy that you're leaving behind and hopefully I'll leave some cues that can make some money.
• 27:55
  Dave Kropf: If I go first, then I hope that it can help.
• 27:58
  Dave Kropf: Shannon, I don't really know what happens to my music after I pass, because we don't have any kids.
• 28:05
  Dave Kropf: I guess my nieces and nephews maybe I don't know.
• 28:08
  Dave Kropf: That's for future Dave to worry about.
• 28:10
  Dave Kropf: That is not for a 2023 Dave to try to work out.
• 28:13
  Dave Kropf: But turning 50 has me thinking about these things.
• 28:20
  Dave Kropf: What legacy I leave behind also has me thinking about what are some lessons?
• 28:28
  Dave Kropf: I've learned some hard-learned lessons.
• 28:31
  Dave Kropf: You know, what did I learn the hard way, through mistakes and through messing things up, and one of them is work-life balance.
• 28:43
  Dave Kropf: I've always been about having healthy work-life balance.
• 28:47
  Dave Kropf: It's why I block out Saturdays as sacred.
• 28:53
  Dave Kropf: It's why, at the end of the day, I shut the computer down and turned my brain off at least from this kind of thing.
• 29:00
  Dave Kropf: I think it's really important, especially in this gig production, music working, composer, creative, whatever Because it's very, very solitary In our studios.
• 29:13
  Dave Kropf: It's really easy to get into that kind of flow state and nothing else really matters.
• 29:19
  Dave Kropf: There are times when you do have to earn the candle on both ends, but you can't live like that, at least not with sacrificing something.
• 29:29
  Dave Kropf: And what you sacrifice could be.
• 29:32
  Dave Kropf: You can sacrifice your health, your physical health, your mental health.
• 29:38
  Dave Kropf: You could sacrifice your relationships, the loved ones, having a healthy marriage or a balanced relationship with a spouse or a partner.
• 29:49
  Dave Kropf: You know, recently there was a discussion over in one of the Facebook groups that I'm a part of and they were talking about work-life balance.
• 30:00
  Dave Kropf: And there were some pretty famous people in this Facebook group, name brand people that you would know and they were talking about how the sacrifice that Olympic athletes need to make and it's true, olympic ambitions require Olympic sacrifice but we're not always shooting for the Olympics.
• 30:26
  Dave Kropf: My goal, in my sports metaphor here, isn't to necessarily be an Olympic athlete of music composition.
• 30:33
  Dave Kropf: First of all, it's highly competitive.
• 30:35
  Dave Kropf: The chance of you actually being able to make a sustainable living on that level requires sacrifice.
• 30:43
  Dave Kropf: That started 20 and 30 years ago and it requires a lot of sacrifice, a drive, an ambition, a willingness to tell everything and everyone in your life to take a back seat.
• 30:56
  Dave Kropf: And personally, I'm not willing to do that Personally.
• 31:01
  Dave Kropf: Maybe that's why I've never stood in front of an orchestra and conducted.
• 31:05
  Dave Kropf: Maybe if 20-year-old Dave hadn't gotten married, maybe if 20-year-old Dave had transferred colleges, moved to LA or moved to Boston or New York or whatever, instead of, you know, getting hitched to this color guard girl that he met as a freshman in college.
• 31:28
  Dave Kropf: But, man, would my life be different because I've always strived for a healthy work-life balance.
• 31:36
  Dave Kropf: Now, sometimes that can get imbalanced in the wrong way, and I don't mean overworking, I mean overliving, laziness, procrastination, I get it, but I don't want to go the other way.
• 31:51
  Dave Kropf: I don't want to overwork, I don't want to sacrifice relationships at the altar of the artwork.
• 31:58
  Dave Kropf: This is part of why saying hey, this isn't art, this is what helps keep that in perspective, among other things that we've talked about before here on the channel.
• 32:07
  Dave Kropf: But in my 50 years, maintaining a healthy work-life balance is really, really important, along with self-care and wellness.
• 32:20
  Dave Kropf: It's part of that balance eating right, getting to bed on time, waking up early, doing your.
• 32:27
  Dave Kropf: You know I go for a walk nearly every day Now, admittedly, it's been really hard lately to keep that going.
• 32:35
  Dave Kropf: It was much easier before Shannon and I started a business.
• 32:40
  Dave Kropf: Now I'm a full-time professor at Full Sail and a full-time business owner of a thriving community that does a lot.
• 32:51
  Dave Kropf: Super proud of that.
• 32:52
  Dave Kropf: Talk more about that here in a minute.
• 32:54
  Dave Kropf: But I have caught myself sacrificing my morning walks.
• 33:00
  Dave Kropf: It's been a couple of months since I've ridden my bike.
• 33:04
  Dave Kropf: It's been a year since I was on my rollerblades and I can feel that motivation taking a backseat of self-care eating right, intermittent fasting, all of those things you know macro-nutrient tracking, all those things that I did great and was able to lose like 100 pounds.
• 33:27
  Dave Kropf: But since then, since starting a business and all of that, it's just inching back up.
• 33:36
  Dave Kropf: So self-care, wellness, super important.
• 33:39
  Dave Kropf: I'm still learning that lesson.
• 33:40
  Dave Kropf: So 50-year-old Dave is going to look at 60-year-old Dave and 60-year-old Dave is going to tell okay, dave, you got it, turn to 50 now.
• 33:50
  Dave Kropf: Bubba, you have to take your body isn't going to bounce back as much or as quickly as it once did.
• 33:56
  Dave Kropf: So do it now.
• 33:59
  Dave Kropf: And I'm taking Christmas.
• 34:03
  Dave Kropf: We're kind of putting a pen in nutrient tracking and intermittent fasting and we're going to give new energy to that in 2024.
• 34:13
  Dave Kropf: In fact, the first episode of 2024 here on the podcast which is going to air, I guess, next week it's doing the math on this it's going to be about my resolutions.
• 34:25
  Dave Kropf: What is 2024 going to be about?
• 34:29
  Dave Kropf: And here's one of the most important lessons I've learned as I'm turning 50 and kind of looking back, my journey how I got here, the path that I took is my journey.
• 34:43
  Dave Kropf: It's not your journey and, more importantly, it's not the only way and the only path to achieve success really in anything, but especially in production and library music.
• 34:57
  Dave Kropf: My journey took.
• 35:00
  Dave Kropf: I mean, I worked third shift at American Express, I worked web design, I was a drum instructor, I taught music theory and electronic music, I taught music history.
• 35:11
  Dave Kropf: But I can trace like a journey up a mountain, right, I can trace the path and see how each of these dots connected and pushed me forward into where I'm at now.
• 35:27
  Dave Kropf: But it's only one way to do it.
• 35:31
  Dave Kropf: One of the reasons when I do interviews, one of the reasons that I ask guests, how did you get where you are?
• 35:39
  Dave Kropf: Is to shine light on the fact that there are so many different ways to have a career in this business.
• 35:46
  Dave Kropf: You don't have to go to college, but going to college doesn't hurt, it can absolutely help.
• 35:52
  Dave Kropf: You don't have to live in LA, but living in LA doesn't hurt and it can help.
• 35:56
  Dave Kropf: You don't have to have 500 cues, but having 500 cues doesn't hurt and it can help.
• 36:03
  Dave Kropf: It's just one way to do it.
• 36:06
  Dave Kropf: I think I've talked about on before like lies that I used to believe, like in going along with the PhD thing, I used to believe that I had to go to film school, and there's a part of me that wish I had gone to film school.
• 36:18
  Dave Kropf: I wish I'd gone to Berkeley or USC and if I had done that then I would be further along in my career.
• 36:23
  Dave Kropf: Until I realized that I'm working with a publisher alongside a fellow composer who did those things, has a doctorate in film music, went to Berkeley, all of those things he did the path he did, the thing that 20 and 30-year-old Dave thought you had to do to be successful in his career.
• 36:47
  Dave Kropf: And here we are now side by side.
• 36:51
  Dave Kropf: And so, likewise how I did it getting an ed degree, getting a master's degree you don't have to do that, and so that's a lesson that I learned, that it's my journey, and your journey might look differently, might look different.
• 37:10
  Dave Kropf: So, as I kind of wrap up this super rambly reflection time, it's time to think about what's next.
• 37:20
  Dave Kropf: Well, as I mentioned, I'm super proud of 52 Cues and I'm not exaggerating when I say that it is my and Shannon's greatest life's work to work that community and to launch that business.
• 37:39
  Dave Kropf: In our 20s, in our 30s and in our 40s, we both were putting our energies and our talents into somebody else's dream, somebody else's passion, which is fine, whether it's another school or whether it's a church or whatever other clients.
• 37:58
  Dave Kropf: We were helping them achieve what they wanted.
• 38:01
  Dave Kropf: But it wasn't until the last couple of years that Shannon and I and I can't believe it took nearly 30 years of marriage to sort this out are finally doing something for us that we built from the ground up that helps other people.
• 38:22
  Dave Kropf: It's our greatest life's work.
• 38:25
  Dave Kropf: I mean, I love teaching at full sail.
• 38:28
  Dave Kropf: I'm not resigning from full sail and however big my career gets outside of that, I'm probably going to stay at full sail.
• 38:34
  Dave Kropf: I love teaching college students, but , that's kind of who I am in a nutshell Half education, half composing, half hanging out, sharing life, mentoring, pouring into other people outside of just the work.
• 38:58
  Dave Kropf: I posted a picture over in the family group.
• 39:01
  Dave Kropf: We have office hours every Monday and we had 17 people this past Monday at the office hours.
• 39:08
  Dave Kropf: 17 with no agenda, there was no curriculum, there was no teaching.
• 39:14
  Dave Kropf: We just showed up a bunch of like-minded composers from all over the world.
• 39:19
  Dave Kropf: We just talked shop, we joked, we hung out, we shared life.
• 39:24
  Dave Kropf: Yeah, that's so rewarding, so rewarding knowing that I'm a small part of their growth.
• 39:39
  Dave Kropf: Again, that's that teacher fuel.
• 39:44
  Dave Kropf: So is going to keep growing.
• 39:48
  Dave Kropf: We're adding new things all the time.
• 39:51
  Dave Kropf: We just launched our year long composer quest called Expedition 52.
• 39:56
  Dave Kropf: Would love to have you over there.
• 39:58
  Dave Kropf: I'm not here to prop it up or whatever, but it's a year long composer quest.
• 40:04
  Dave Kropf: You can head over to Expedition52.com and join us.
• 40:07
  Dave Kropf: We'd love to have you.
• 40:08
  Dave Kropf: If you think, if you want motivation and inspiration and creative working, creative sustainability, then, yeah, head over to Expedition 52.
• 40:19
  Dave Kropf: But I'm really excited about that and, through that and through all the things that are happening over in the community.
• 40:29
  Dave Kropf: What I am finding myself doing more and more, and what I think the next 10 to 15 years of my career is going to push towards, is the role of publisher and taking a mentoring and a coaching approach to publishing, helping connect amazingly talented composers with libraries who need music but they don't have the bandwidth, they don't have the expertise, they don't have the patience whatever to help composers grow to the point where they can get their music and it's viable for television.
• 41:11
  Dave Kropf: And that's what I think the next phase is going to be.
• 41:16
  Dave Kropf: That's what I think my 50s are going to be about pushing into that role.
• 41:21
  Dave Kropf: And it really dovetails perfectly into my entire story where I started in my 20s teaching drumlines because I'm taking a coaching, mentoring approach to developing cues that can get on television.
• 41:41
  Dave Kropf: So that's what's next, that's where I see myself, that's what, hopefully, 60-year-old Dave is going to look back and say, okay, that's what 50-year-old Dave did.
• 41:53
  Dave Kropf: But one thing I know for sure is, as much as I can sit here and kind of predict where I'm going to be, it's probably going to look very, very different.
• 42:02
  Dave Kropf: It's going to look very different from what I think and I'm here for it.
• 42:07
  Dave Kropf: Remember those Fs?
• 42:09
  Dave Kropf: I'm out of giving.
• 42:11
  Dave Kropf: Yeah, I'm just going to roll with it.
• 42:13
  Dave Kropf: Why not?
• 42:13
  Dave Kropf: Why not?
• 42:15
  Dave Kropf: Hang on, enjoy the ride, don't take yourself too seriously and just trust that the universe has amazing plans for me, because I do believe that.
• 42:28
  Dave Kropf: So, turning 50, I'm not scared, I'm not embarrassed, I'm not afraid of it.
• 42:36
  Dave Kropf: I think I went through a little bit more when I turned 40.
• 42:41
  Dave Kropf: Of course, on my 40th birthday I think I shared this Shannon got me motorcycle lessons.
• 42:45
  Dave Kropf: That was one of those bucket list things is I want to learn to ride a bike, and she did, and I've been riding bikes ever since.
• 42:52
  Dave Kropf: Now, what am I actually doing today on my 50th birthday?
• 42:54
  Dave Kropf: I don't know.
• 42:56
  Dave Kropf: It's not going to be that big of a deal.
• 42:59
  Dave Kropf: We're not having a bunch of at least I don't think we are.
• 43:02
  Dave Kropf: Shannon and I have a strict policy of truthfulness with one another and we call it the lie detector test.
• 43:10
  Dave Kropf: We are not allowed to lie to each other and we can say lie detector, and that means you have to tell me the truth, with the exception of birthdays.
• 43:19
  Dave Kropf: So we are allowed to be super deceitful when it comes to birthday surprises.
• 43:24
  Dave Kropf: I'm not expecting anything.
• 43:25
  Dave Kropf: Truth be told, my best friend that I've known since middle school is coming into town, we will probably play video games.
• 43:32
  Dave Kropf: 50 year old man playing video games with his best friend from middle school, probably eating junk food like a boss.
• 43:41
  Dave Kropf: That's probably what I'm doing right now on my 50th birthday, but I want to thank you.
• 43:48
  Dave Kropf: I want to thank you for joining me on this journey for your folks from the community.
• 43:54
  Dave Kropf: Thank you so much.
• 43:55
  Dave Kropf: Just know that I love and appreciate all of you and you.
• 43:59
  Dave Kropf: You are part of my life's work and so I appreciate you.
• 44:05
  Dave Kropf: Thank you so much for trusting me with the responsibility of building you up.
• 44:17
  Dave Kropf: What about you?
• 44:18
  Dave Kropf: Have you hit any milestones in your life?
• 44:22
  Dave Kropf: Maybe you're 50 or 40 or 30 or 20.
• 44:26
  Dave Kropf: What did your journey look like along the way?
• 44:30
  Dave Kropf: What were your achievements?
• 44:31
  Dave Kropf: How did you grow?
• 44:32
  Dave Kropf: What was, what was the legacy you left and what were the lessons you learned?
• 44:36
  Dave Kropf: Let me know in the comments below.
• 44:37
  Dave Kropf: I absolutely read those and I would love to hear from you.
• 44:41
  Dave Kropf: But that is going to do it for me this week.
• 44:44
  Dave Kropf: Once again, a huge word of thanks to the family, friends and neighbor subscribers of who pay their actual real life money to keep all of this going.
• 44:53
  Dave Kropf: And if you want to join us, then head over to and you can help support the channel and also keep like ads and embedded like you're not going to hear any embedded ads for meal plans and mattresses, and so you can help support as well.
• 45:07
  Dave Kropf: You definitely want to tune in next week.
• 45:10
  Dave Kropf: Next week is a special Sunday episode of the podcast.
• 45:14
  Dave Kropf: It is coming out on December 31st and it is the year in review.
• 45:18
  Dave Kropf: In the year looking forward, we're going to take a look at 2023.
• 45:22
  Dave Kropf: We'll talk about the Qs, talk about what we, what we accomplished in and what 2024 holds in, what I am doing as a composer and as a publisher, what I am setting my my sights to in 2024.
• 45:38
  Dave Kropf: But that is going to do it for me.
• 45:39
  Dave Kropf: Once again, thank you so much for joining me.
• 45:41
  Dave Kropf: I hope you've had a fantastic week and I look forward to seeing you next time.
• 45:45
  Dave Kropf: And remember, friends, that the universe really does have amazing plans.
• 45:49
  Dave Kropf: It might take 20, 30, 40 or 50 years, but the universe has amazing plans just for you.
• 45:56
  Dave Kropf: Until next time, peace.