One thing that I have learned over the past 15+ years that I am working in this field is that it is usually impossible to predict or schedule anything work related more than a few weeks in advance.
I have to admit that for many years this problem was causing me a lot of stress and it took many years for me to be more relaxed about it. I wa...
2021-03-19 09:16:47 +0000 UTC View PostAfter we had a look at Dynamic markings and general layout issues with notation for scoring and sight reading sessions in the last few parts of this series, we're having a closer look today at a few notation issues that...
2021-03-17 09:11:26 +0000 UTC View PostBrother Commercial (Scoring to Picture) (with Audio Commentary):
In this part, we will continue looking at the climax cue from the score. I will use a mixture of condensed score sheets and excerpts of the full score according to what makes more sense to understand the musical idea.
All the previous parts of this series are available 2021-03-15 09:05:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Since I started this Patreon page, the question about my past and current practice routines popped up in the comments and direct messages a few times already and the reasons why I haven't adressed these things yet was that I first needed to think about which ones of my habits I would consider as such.
As you can guess from that state...
2021-03-12 09:14:09 +0000 UTC View PostI originally wanted to write an article about a completely different and more music related topic today but after a series of incidents on social media over the last weekend, I feel like I want to address a topic that is relatively uncomfortable to talk about but unfortunately ever present.
So what happened?
In a relatively harmless ...
2021-03-10 09:03:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the last part of the ongoing composition screencast for my piece RETURNING HOME that is taking place in Dorico. Today, we add some finishing touches and layout optimizations before we move with it to the DAW for the mockup process in the next part.
I'm still trying to understand Youtube's encoding procedure as at the time of writing...
2021-03-08 08:45:57 +0000 UTC View PostIn the no/low budget and also in semi pro productions, it is quite a common practice to "pay" the cast and crew in percentages of revenue. It goes effectively something like "You get x% of any revenue this film/game/project generates after release".
At first glance, this seems like a better deal than working for nothing but oftentimes ther...
2021-03-05 09:09:25 +0000 UTC View PostWelcome to the next part of this tutorial series about (re)harmonisation strategies. All the previous parts can be accessed here.
When I first learned about Secondary Dominants, I was not quite convinced that they would be a...
2021-03-03 09:04:34 +0000 UTC View Post
In this part, we move on to the final (and climax) track of the score for the short film HERO.
All the previous parts of this series are available here.
The sequence in question starts at 2021-03-01 09:05:20 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm very happy to see that we keep gaining more new patrons in the last months and are now close to 100 people which is an insane number that I would have never expected to reach when I started this thing. So let me first start by welcoming everybody who's new here and thank everybody who has been supporting this patron site for a while now. I r...
2021-02-28 15:33:02 +0000 UTC View PostI have written a few posts already how technology has changed media music and how changing the tools (from score sheet writing to DAW production) has changed the music.
As this is a very multi layered phenomenon several aspects arise from this d...
2021-02-26 08:42:04 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the most challenging things to notate for orchestral musicians without using additional verbal instruction is a long isolated note that doesn't decay in volume/presence over its length. Write a whole note with a forte and you get a forte with a decrescendo. For every orchestral musician, this is the absolute default.
To put it...
2021-02-24 09:19:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the fifth part of the composition screencast for my piece RETURNING HOME. In this part, we sketch out the piece to the end and start again from the beginning with the detail work.
All the previous parts of this series are available 2021-02-22 08:42:55 +0000 UTC View Post
It seems like one of the unquestionable rules even among composers is a mandatory relationship between a good melody and it being singable.
Even in professional discussions, this relation is often used as a knockout argument. "I'm sorry, but your theme is not hummable" is often synonymous for "It is not good". Also, you get these "John Wil...
2021-02-19 15:29:18 +0000 UTC View PostAs mentioned before, this tutorial series is structured in a way that we start with the easy (yet effective) strategies and work our way up to the really deep reharmonisations.
After we had a look at the power of changing bass notes of chords to non-root notes in the last part of this 2021-02-17 08:55:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Today, we're focussing on the "stand-off" part of the cue M5 for my score for HERO.
All the other parts of this walkthrough series are available here.
The sequence in the movie that we're focusing on today starts 2021-02-15 09:17:13 +0000 UTC View Post
There are several "rules" or guidelines in composition that are strikingly simple, like "a melodic leap in one direction should be follwowed by a step in the opposite direction" or "Melodies are very effective if their peak notes move in a series of ascending or descending stepwise motion".
These are rough guides that are very logical and ...
2021-02-12 07:44:52 +0000 UTC View PostPizzicato strings are one of film composer's favourite devices for anything comedy. Their use is so clichéd in comedy situations that it has become comedic in itself already.
Yet, we hear it every day in all sorts of "oh that's funny, clumsy or silly"-scenes on practically any media outlet with a particular peak in trashy reality TV.
<... 2021-02-10 08:08:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the next instalment of the ongoing composition screencast about my piece "Returning Home".
All the previous parts are available here.
There are 2 improvements in this video over the last ones which is that I ad...
2021-02-08 09:19:35 +0000 UTC View PostA while ago, I saw a Youtube video by a fellow composer who has her fair share of work experience as composer and assistant in Hollywood.
While I agree with many of her statements and find her videos highly informative she was recently making a statement that I found rather problematic.
In a nutshell, she said that when you write a s...
2021-02-05 09:05:22 +0000 UTC View PostIn the previous part of this tutorial, I was talking about the general idea of (re-)harmonisation and why these techniques are relevant, not only from a harmonic standpoint, but also from a dramaturgical standpoint, regardless whether for a film score or a purely musi...
2021-02-03 09:18:10 +0000 UTC View Post
In this part of this ongoing series about my score for the short film Hero from 2017, we have a look at the fifth cue.
All the other parts of this walkthrough series are available here.
As always, we work with score reductions he...
2021-02-01 09:28:26 +0000 UTC View PostThis Patreon page had its first birthday a few weeks ago. It's great to see how it developed over just one year and I'm very grateful for your contributions and making this platform possible.
I changed a few things behind the scenes. I was observing a few people joining the Patreon, accessing all the material and cancelling their mem...
2021-01-31 14:54:12 +0000 UTC View PostThere are several arguments in the composer's community that keep popping up in a new iteration every few weeks. Mac vs. PC, John Williams vs. Hans Zimmer are for instance two of the standards.
One more is "Music Theory vs. Using Intuition". This one has recently been fueled again by controversy company number one: Spitfire Audio. They rel...
2021-01-29 09:18:53 +0000 UTC View PostNotating dynamics for a recording session is considerably different than notating them for a concert work.
The absence of any substantial rehearsal time means to notate as precisely as possible without overloading or cluttering the page with information that is not necessary.
The correct and most effective execution of these notation...
2021-01-27 09:18:34 +0000 UTC View PostA few months ago, I introduced the ORCHESTRA DISCOVERY SESSION that are exclusively happening here on this Patreon. In a nutshell, I'm inviting some of you to record their own music with a professional ensemble. The first session we will have will be with a Woodwind Q...
2021-01-26 09:19:35 +0000 UTC View Post
#SPOILERALERT ;)
If you want to hear how that piece from the current composition screencast series turned out in the end, here's the final audio. There are quite a few more parts coming up to explain how it got to that state including the entire mockup process but I thought I'd show you in advance how it eventually turned out.
2021-01-25 09:55:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the next part of the composition screencast for my piece "Returning Home". In this segment we focus on the build-up in the middle part and sketch out the following "breakdown section".
All previous parts of this series are available 2021-01-25 09:16:35 +0000 UTC View Post
Now of course this headline is a bit over the top and not completely serious, so don't burn your piano or guitar just yet, but there is some things to be considered in this regard:
Being a composer also means to constantly be self reflecting and self critical. You can read in practically every artist's interview that they are their own wor...
2021-01-22 09:39:07 +0000 UTC View Post