Composing

Do you usually compose from a place of joy, melancholy, tension... or total chaos? Share your thoughts, and if you want to drop in a link too as an example, please do!

Musical composition is a creative and technical process that involves different skills and tools depending on the case.

Academic composers use musical scores and pencils; more modern composers may use Sibelius or other software on an iPad or computer. Still others simply open their favorite DAW, load a virtual instrument, and start playing.

However, composing music isn't the same as creating music.

The creative act can happen at any time, and with no other tool than our own imagination.

If I had had the opportunity to record all the melodies I've created throughout my 50 years of life while I was in the shower, I would surely have a huge collection of compositions because, of course, ideas must be captured in some form.

Creation is something innate. As artists, we are capable of creating whatever we do at any moment, without thinking or planning.

A photographer sees art practically every time he opens his eyes: landscapes, people, objects, all the life around him is his backdrop. The same with a painter.

A writer imagines stories from a word, a phrase, a conversation, a sound, or a situation.

Those of us who create and compose music live surrounded by symphonies.

I often read articles—well, actually, just the titles—about "how to get inspiration"... Wow! Go outside! Listen to the wind, the voices, the noises, the sirens, the horns, the rain, the sounds of construction, the train passing in the distance, the birds, the people walking, the kids playing in the park, or even absolute silence!

If at any time, for whatever reason, you feel lacking inspiration, remember that music is nothing more than "the art of combining sounds."

And sounds are all around us all the time.

What's your go-to habit or routine that sparks your inspiration?

Think about those moments in your films where the air thickens, a subtle shift occurs in the audience's understanding, yet no character utters a specific line, and the visuals remain seemingly neutral. Often, it's the score that carries this weight, communicating unspoken layers of meaning, foreshadowing impending events, or subtly revealing a character's hidden motivations.

The power of film music extends far beyond simply providing an emotional backdrop. Consider the strategic use of a recurring motif, perhaps initially associated with a seemingly minor detail, that subtly evolves and intensifies as a character's inner turmoil grows. Or think about a dissonant harmonic shift that precedes an unseen threat, creating a sense of unease long before it visually manifests. Even the choice of instrumentation – the fragile vulnerability of a solo cello versus the ominous weight of low brass – can speak volumes about a character's true nature or the underlying tension of a scene.

These aren't just "pretty tunes"; they are carefully crafted sonic brushstrokes that add depth and nuance to your narrative. As a composer, my focus is on understanding the subtext of your story, the unspoken emotions that simmer beneath the surface. By employing subtle scoring techniques, we can enrich the audience's experience, allowing them to feel and intuit elements of the story that lie beyond the explicit.

I'm curious, what are some instances in films that have particularly struck you with their use of score to communicate subtext? I'd love to hear your thoughts and discuss how music can become a powerful, unspoken language in your cinematic storytelling.

Here's a little inspiration and wisdom as you head into your weekend. Feel free to share how you prevent burnout and keep yourself in flow state.

A very interesting article about the subject. What are your thoughts?

https://www.production-expert.com/production-expert-1/the-myth-about-imp...

I have certain 'processes' when I search for new software.  This 'methodology', I use is based on 30+ years of IT experience (19 of them where my primary job was to evaluate new hardware and software technologies for Exxon).  I do not look for software by first identifying the candidates and then select based on criteria.  But in a way perhaps I do - depends on what you call criteria.  I first imagine what the solution I am looking for will look like and behave.  And in the case of my search for a virtual singer solution, I judge that today, predominantly, software claiming 'artificial intelligence' has put some of the 'intelligence' of the solution in its 'underpinnings'.  But most of the intelligence and actions must still be customized and invoked and 'shaped' by the user of the software.   Again, some of intelligence is in the software and most remains in the user of that software.

The solution I am looking for is software where that balance is switched - where most of the intelligence lies in the solution and the user merely guides the software towards the solution.  I believe in real life that is how we operate.  We care primarily how a singer 'sounds' and often care little about how the singer creates the sound.  However, sometimes we ask the singer to make the modifications.   For example, if the singer sings "H AND" and we want them to pronounce each occurrence as "HA ND" (hopefully you get the difference in the two pronunciations) in the current generation of software, the user goes to every place the word is sung and assigns a different phoneme code to change the singing pronunciation.  However, in real life we just tell the singer "sing each occurrence of "hand" as ... .  The solution I am looking for allows we to interact with the virtual singer "in English" the way I would do in real life and not through a bunch of clicking to modify rectangles and curves in a piano roll.

This high level English language approach to creating AI-based software which places most of the intelligence in the virtual singing software and all the underlying customization is handled by the software as much as possible, has been over the years described as an "expert system".  I participated in expert system research while a graduate student at Rutgers from 1972 to 1976.  And here we are 50+ years later and music expert systems still need conception.  Again for my envisioned software solution, I want to interact with a virtual vocalist the way I do in real life - by communicating in English using the three basic audio entities the singer cares about - the audio file or other entity they used to learn the song, the instrumental track they will listening to while they do the singing and the singers vocal track (the 'output' which will be mixed with). Every other object other than those three should be hidden.

So before I delve into more details on what I believe a virtual vocalist expert system should look like versus the current piano roll-based Audio Engineering (AE) model, here is my personal list (from my own experience) of how I collaborate with singers.  Again, I am looking for software to handle most of the collaboration and what remains I should be able to tackle with little technical knowledge of the underpinnings of the singing.  Some of the software I am looking at (like Dreamweaver Synthesizer V) have an increasing amount of intelligent functionality and what they all (so far) seem to be lacking is an intelligent English interface that hides the technical underpinnings.

The Collaboration Process

•    Auditioning (Finding the Vocalist) – There are five basic methods by which a primary vocalist is determined: (a) Listening to demos/snippets of the vocalist singing, (b) filtering out a smaller subset of vocalists based on various criteria including singing style, genre, etc., (c) choosing a vocalist that ‘sounds like’ another vocalist (the later often is well known), (d) choosing a vocalist previously collaborated with, (e) asking vocalists to sing part or all of the song being recorded.

•    Learning The Song – (a) Many vocalists have no formal music training nor interest in learning the basic concepts or the theory.  They learn a song by hearing it played with a melody sung by some one else or perhaps by an instrument. (b) Other vocalists ask for lyric sheets which contain merely the lyrics and possibly chords on top of the lyrics. (c) some vocalists learn songs with ‘lead sheets’ (which contain melody, chords, and lyrics) or other codified sheet music.

•    The Sweet Spot – Once a song is learnt and ready to sing, there must be an agreement on where the vocalists ‘sweet spot’ is located.  That way, it can be determined whether the key of the song needs adjusting so that the vocalist can be most effective at the ‘highlights of the song’.  Adjusting the key the vocalist sings could impact the accompanying music track and may necessitate the music track be re-recorded.

•    Octaving – Sometimes the melody of the written song is way too low or high for the vocalist necessitating singing the whole melody an octave higher/lower.  Or perhaps, only parts of the song are out of range or at the ‘edges’ of the vocalist necessitating moving up or down an octave.  However, if there is too much movement/too many jumps, then it may be more effective to change the key to place the melody in the middle of the vocalist’s range.

•    Singing Style – Choosing a vocalist in the real world comes with a primary singing style.  If that does not match the criteria for the choice, there could be a certain amount of leeway for the vocalist. At some point, if the style does not match the criteria another vocalist needs to be chosen.

•    Tempo – The vocalist may prefer a particular tempo as they are better singing at certain tempos.

•    Articulation – Singers have a primary accent and many can sing in different accents.  The singing accent will impact the pronunciation of certain words. For example, the words “hand’ or “potato.”

•    Syncing – If the instrument track was created digitally, then the vocalist merely sings at a constant tempo.  However, analog tracks (not recorded with click track) especially live performances could vary slightly in tempo in various spots.  A quality vocalist can find a way to start and stop at the beginning of phrases so that the resulting vocal track does not have to have certain parts shifted/sync’d.

What’s Your “Desert Island DAW”?

If you were stranded on a desert island (yeah, I know—cliché), and you could only have one DAW—the last DAW you'll ever use—which one are you choosing, and why?

And yes, let’s assume your laptop never runs out of battery, and the island has an infinite supply of coconuts and rum (thanks, Jack).

Would you go with:

Adventurous Ableton Live

Crafty Cubase

Funky FL Studio

Legendary Logic Pro

Precise Pro Tools

Reliable Reaper (like me)

Or maybe something else entirely?

But here’s the thing—don’t just pick the one with the most features or the trendiest name. Think about the one that feels right. The one that gets you into that magical headspace, where your brain syncs up with your tech and creativity flows effortlessly. Which DAW would you get a tattoo of? Which DAW do you name your first born child after?

So… I’ll ask again:

What’s your desert island DAW?

What’s your ride-or-die?

Here’s a Blog by RB - !

Definitely know the feeling .. moving / shifting from writing music / producing to performing music.

Knowing your (my) experience and education sure helps to focus my attention at times.

Always keep learning !

I like how he mentions the relationships as well as Learning how the different teams within the film industry work - or .. how they work (together).

- how they should ! ;-). - smiles

Kerry Kennard

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https://www.stage32.com/blog/coffee-content-do-you-know-why-most-people-...

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I’ve been thinking a lot about how a well-crafted musical theme can stay with an audience long after the credits roll. It’s not just about creating something catchy, it’s about writing something emotionally honest that reflects the soul of the story or character.

Think about how Hans Zimmer shaped the sound of Interstellar with that haunting, church-organ-driven theme, Or how Ludwig Göransson crafted something deeply personal and cultural for Black Panther. The theme becomes more than music, it becomes story.

For the composers here, what’s your process for building a theme?

Do you start with character, setting, or emotion?

Do you sketch ideas at the piano, or experiment with instrumentation right away?

And for filmmakers, what’s a theme from a film or show that has stayed with you long after you’ve seen it?

Here is some of of what went on with my previous project:

1. The opening scene of the film happens in a grocery store.  I needed to come up with grocery store music.  The music I created was not 'musak' enough.  Eventually we agreed to leave music out of the opening scene.  The opening scene mockup with the score was made available on day 1. The music was pulled prior to the mockup on day 3.

2. I mentioned that the opening scene music would be used for the 2 min of end titles.  8 days after completion (day 15), I received feedback that the director and sound editor agreed that the music I used for the end title was not a good fit.

3. Cue #1 after the opening scene was pulled, was behind dialog.  After completion the filmmaker said they told me no music on dialog.  I did not have that in my notes.  They could have just pulled out the cue.

4. There was a 'montage scene' where the film maker supplied a temp track which had a piano playing a constant repetition (ostinato) flowing into a cello playing random jumps.  I decided to have an acoustic bass playing a repetition and my 'sound' by default is more melodic.  It seemed to me that I could have a sax do a little swing thing.  Filmmaker in their final feedback, said I didn't follow instructions - the cue was not close enough to the temp track.  I could have recreated a closer match had I known the feedback sooner.

5. Then came the relative lack of collaborative communication. I spoke to the film maker once at the beginning and once right as I was beginning to score the end titles.   The project lasted 7 days and the film maker received 6 mockups with the score as it was progressing.  Feedback happened only twice as described above.

So there could have been reworks but none were requested.  The two cues on top of dialog could have been simply deleted as the cue on the opening scene but were not asked to be.  The project started Mar 30.  I had an Apr 5 deadline.  I finished on Apr 3 leaving 2 days for reworks.  Texted completion on Apr 3.  The film maker was out of town shooting another film.  No response. Texted completion again on Apr 5. On Apr 7 film maker texts they are about to get on a plane and will contact me in the afternoon.  Never did.  I went ahead and posted the completed score on Apr 7 and let the sound editor know. Yesterday/Apr 11 asked for / texted status?  Noticed the dropbox music folder had music files added which were not mine.   Asked for status today/April 11 and received a very long and detailed email with all the above feedback and letting me know they have decided to 'move in a different direction' and will not be using the score.

I was of course disappointed but ultimately the director/producer/filmmaker does have the say as to what music gets put into the film.  The inability to use the score in this case in my opinion has multiple causes: (1) my inability to score acceptable cues on the first take, (2) my not being totally attentive to the needs and requests of the film maker, (3) the lack of ongoing collaboration by the filmmaker and (4) the filmmaker's lack of interests/time for re-works,

These are my personal assessments and I am willing to take ownership that no matter how well I liked the score in the mockups, I am still a service provider and work at the pleasure of the film maker.

I have looked back at all my scores over the years and have noticed while I have had 35 scores released in films, I have also have scored 12 films where in many the score was completed but not used.

Here are some reasons:

1. In many of them the filmmakers should have listened to my scores / music and understood the type of 'sound I normally create' but waited for the cues and then realized the music did not match their expectations and so they moved in a different direction.

2. In one film, I had it nearly finished when I explained the score needed to go as a single unit starting at 0m0s.  This was not a work for hire.  The filmmaker insisted they wanted to be able to break the music into parts and put it anywhere they liked.  And so the score was rejected.

3. The filmmaker wanted me to work along with multiple composers on a feature for free. I had already scored the end titles first.

4. The filmmaker proposed a contract that gave them ownership and the ability to remove the score after 1 year if they chose.  This happened after a full score was created for the film in a festival they decided to leave/exit from.

5. One cop/police/shoot em up film I start scoring and then they just decided to go in a different direction with no explanation.

6. In one film the score was finished and the night before the deadline the film was unlocked and things moved around.  The filmmaker/director claimed they didn't have the score to resync it themselves.  I had thought I was going to do it in the morning not realizing they had to go to work by then and need the sync sooner.  that one was definitely my bad.

So in summary I would say that most of the time but not all of the time, if I create a full score and it is not used, I likely had a role in the cause.  So they all serve as learning experiences of what works, what doesn't work and ways to improve.

The question:

have you had one or any number of films that you have scored where the score were not used in the film?  Fell free to share your experiences if you want.  It could be a learning less for all of us.

By the way, this was the score I had written that was discussed above:

https://soundcloud.com/joelirwin/tastes

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