Teachers may be apprehensive about commissioning, and frequently directors do not see it as realistic for their programs. It took the author a while to commission a piece, even though he is often on the composer side. The author asserts that there's already plenty of high-quality literature out there to keep teachers busy, but a bigger factor is budgetary. In this article, the author points out that hiring composers to write music for the ensembles is a good way to build relationships and creativity.