A few months ago, I wrote a piece called GAZING AT THE NIGHT SKY for fun and as I needed a piece to try out a few new sample libraries that I bought at that time so I just had some fun writing an a...
2020-03-30 08:08:58 +0000 UTC View PostAs you might know, I made it possible to join a tier on my Patreon where I give you a monthly feedback on a composition you send me.
There is one general phenomenon that can be observed in much of the musician's and composer's community which is that musicians often create music for musicians rather than for a general audience.<...
2020-03-26 09:04:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a rather quick Walkthrough through my orchestral template in Studio One talking about the general approaches as well as the sample libraries that I'm using.
This is my first ever scree...
2020-03-25 08:51:20 +0000 UTC View PostAs my composition walkthrough of WE HAVE TO SHAKE THEM OFF was very well received, I'd like to know which piece you would like me to walk through next. Here are the candidates, please vote below: 2020-03-23 13:19:35 +0000 UTC View Post
This is the final part of digging through the score sheet before we move on to the mockup/production part of this cue. As with all the other parts, I will use score reductions here for clearer over...
2020-03-23 09:36:20 +0000 UTC View Post
I recently had the chance to record this piece with real orchestra. I originally wrote it as a side project for fun last summer. The idea was to write a hommage to the great 80s/90s scores and crea...
2020-03-20 09:05:59 +0000 UTC View PostGlissando and Portamento both describe a playing technique that involve an audible transition (slide) from one note to the next note in a melodic line. There are several common misconceptions about...
2020-03-18 09:25:49 +0000 UTC View PostIn the last part I mentioned already that the minor 9th is a problematic interval and should generally be avoided in voicings unless you have a plausible reason for it. Unfortunately, this interval...
2020-03-16 08:56:42 +0000 UTC View PostCertain instruments in the orchestra have a preference for certain key signatures which either sound particularly good on these instruments or are easy to read and therefore have a lower stress fac...
2020-03-13 09:46:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's one of these pieces I wrote as a fun project on the side. This time it dives into a Jazz idiom centering around a full blown Big Band. It starts off with a sneaky feel to it and transitions ...
2020-03-12 09:21:17 +0000 UTC View PostIn some occasions, particularly in busy action/adventure scoring with a high hit point density, it is sometimes desirable to sacrifice some hit points that you would normally hit and play through t...
2020-03-11 09:26:21 +0000 UTC View Post
The passage starting at bar 58 sets up to lead all musical ideas to a consequential end. The idea of this passage is to not introduce any more new musical material but lead the previously establish...
2020-03-09 08:40:15 +0000 UTC View PostIn an ideal scenario, at least in rather traditional 4-part writing, every voice of a composition should have its own plausible melody or at least proper voice leading while still serving its funct...
2020-03-06 10:35:26 +0000 UTC View PostAs soon as you get the chance to work with a real orchestra for a larger project, it becomes increasingly tricky to do all the work yourself. Outsourcing is key in such situations and most composer...
2020-03-05 07:46:08 +0000 UTC View PostAfter we had a closer look at the management of the lower registers in the last two parts, in this part we will begin to have a closer look at how to manage more complex chords. So the big topic he...
2020-03-03 08:43:37 +0000 UTC View PostA common question many learning composers ask themselves but also discuss quite frequently on the internet is to whether one needs to get a degree from a music university in order to become a succe...
2020-03-02 08:08:14 +0000 UTC View PostFirst of all I have to say a huge thank you to all new and existing patrons! I'm totally overwhelmed by your support and the fact that this community is growing so fast. We've more...
2020-02-28 16:21:19 +0000 UTC View Post
This part of the walkthrough is also available for the $1 and $5 Patrons as a thank you for your support over the last month!
The next section of the piece falls back on a little more traditi...
2020-02-27 09:36:11 +0000 UTC View PostMusic has a tremendous power to guide emotional responses of the audience. This is of course one of the biggest reasons why music is used at all in film. In fact many of the iconic emotional moment...
2020-02-25 09:17:13 +0000 UTC View PostAs I wrote in the last part, the handling of the Low Interval Limits is pretty straight forward:
...
2020-02-24 09:15:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe orchestral string section has a few sonic properties that set it apart from the rest of the orchestral sections.
One of them is the incredible homogeneity of their sound. The sound qualit...
2020-02-20 10:01:57 +0000 UTC View Post
After the initial statement of the action passage as discussed in the last part, the orchestra comes to a brief moment of relative rest. I will again use reductions here, you can compare it to the ...
2020-02-19 08:59:03 +0000 UTC View PostAfter recently having dived deeper into why not to double thirds in a chord too extensively, this time I'd like to shed some light at the infamous fifth and octave parallel avoidance rule.
Un...
2020-02-17 08:22:50 +0000 UTC View PostThe management of the lower registers is one of the most essential elements that define whether a voicing sounds good or not. This register is a two sided sword. On the one hand using it properly w...
2020-02-14 08:28:50 +0000 UTC View PostAn undeniable development over the last decades has been that movies have become increasingly louder. With the advent of surround sound and THX standards in cinemas in the 90s plus the general tech...
2020-02-13 09:26:49 +0000 UTC View PostIn every artistic work for hire job there is always a gap between two points that is unpaid. These two points are the distance between the client being happy and the artist being happy.
Bar 19 starts the actual "chase sequence". As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to create a sense of unpredictability and yet keep some strucutural elements that hold it together and take the listener ...
2020-02-10 08:42:19 +0000 UTC View Post
I tend to always have a "fun project" next to my regular work that I can come back to when inspiration or joy with these other jobs is not that high. This little adventure cue I wrote on the side o...
2020-02-09 13:26:05 +0000 UTC View PostWhen writing a solo for a particular instrument or section, you need to know a few certain things.
First, any important solo that needs to stand out should always go to the first chair ...
2020-02-07 09:07:02 +0000 UTC View Post