“I put in 30 minutes of practice every day, whether it’s guitar or composing. It’s like exercise 30 minutes a day goes a lot further than five hours once a week. It keeps your brain engaged.”
Brandon Goff is a composer, producer, engineer, performer, and professor of Music Industry at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina. As a Memphis, Tennessee, local, he attended Rhodes College where Goff’s creative path began. This path has taken him through academic and professional music spaces across the U.S. and abroad. With a PhD and a background in music composition, he believes in celebrating every step of creative growth, whether that’s writing an album or landing a gig. His career is a witness to persistence, curiosity, and the value of creative support systems.
About
Dr. Brandon Goff is a composer, producer, engineer, performer, and professor of Music Industry at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, he brings decades of professional experience to the classroom. Although he comes from major music hubs like Memphis and Nashville, Goff believes in the creative potential of South Carolina: “The talent pool is just as big as it is anywhere else” he states that there is less exposure here than big music hubs, yet there are “chances you can take even if you don’t realize it.”
While many students aspire to break into big-city music scenes, Goff sees value in the grassroots nature of local music. South Carolina’s cultural variety and fresh perspectives help shape his own compositions. Even without the traditional infrastructure of the industry, students can gain real-world experience in unique settings like running sound and lighting for large-scale worship services. “We’re still a big production state,” Goff says.
A high school dropout who once worked in a factory, Goff believes success is about growth and persistence, not fame. “Even if you’re just someone who has actually sat down and written an entire album worth of material, and that’s not what you do for a living, that’s still incredibly successful.” he says. That mindset has guided his journey, from early breaks with recording software to composing Full on Rumble, a guitar concerto that unexpectedly became one of his most performed works.
Goff’s creative life is grounded in daily discipline. Mornings start with emails and invoicing, followed by teaching, and afternoons filled with studio work. “Thirty minutes a day goes a lot further than five hours once a week,” he explains. For Goff, consistency matters more than flash: “You don’t always know what you’re building while you’re building it. But if you stay in motion, keep making, keep believing you’ll look up one day and realize you’ve created something that lasts.”
