Composition, and how it's haunting me.
Welcome back! Or if you're new, welcome to my blog!
If you're not familiar with me, there's a post you can read here - Clicky - and you'll find out a little about me.
However, today I want to talk about composition, and how it's not actually haunting me, rather me chasing it. That's musical composition, and if you've never encountered that word before, it's the process of writing music. Simple to understand really, but not necessarily to do. Unfortunately for me, composition doesn't come as naturally to me as it does to some people. I can't just knock out work after work with them all sounding good. My brain doesn't really work like that.
I really like writing music. Whether it's for some sort of assessment, or for fun, or for the band I play in (cheeky plug). And recently, I had a bit of a revelation in the sense that I may have actually worked out what I want to do with my life. It's a little bit of a risk in a way, because I won't be guaranteed work, however I guess if I try hard enough, and find myself working with the right people these next few years it could become a reality. So brace yourself, here it comes.
I want to write music for film. (I think.)
It's as simple as that really. Every time I watch a film, I have to find out who the soundtracks composer was, and 9/10 times it's either Zimmer (e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean) or Silvestri (e.g. Back to the Future). Have you ever just sat back and listened to the score from a film? I don't imagine you've done so whilst the film was playing. It's a little difficult not to be distracted by the action on screen, as to be expected. But if you go away and YouTube the soundtrack to your favourite film, chances are you'll find it, and I urge you to give it a listen. It's incredible. Or at least I think so.
I'm straying away from the point a little here, and that's perhaps because I'm still not actually sure what I want to do. I'd love to write for film, I really would. I love playing music, and I'm really getting into writing it, so maybe after I've been writing for as long as I've been playing (various instruments(8 years)), I'll have developed a real talent for writing. I've been writing for a few years now, both because I've had to do it for GCSEs, a-levels, etc. and because I actually kind of enjoy it. Okay, during a-levels I just about wanted to give up because I spent so much time on a piece which I really didn't like, but when I'm writing for myself, not for an examiner, it just feels so much better. The music sounds better, and I actually end up liking it.
I'm working on a few pieces now, each different, and hopefully I can get them all finished relatively soon and get them transferred into Pro Tools, and improve the sound of them dramatically, because anyone who has ever used Sibelius knows how terrible everything sounds. It's kind of fortunate that one of my current modules here at university is 'Electronic Music Production'. We all have to write a piece of music, and produce it with the software we have here at university. I'm being slightly awkward in the sense that I'm scoring mine first, and then I'll import it, whereas it's likely everyone else will just play it into the software using a keyboard. But hey-ho, this works for me.
We've got a presentation in 6 weeks now, and ideally I'd like to have finished at least one piece by then so I can spend a few weeks working on it in Pro Tools, and then I can share it with you all, and it'd be great if you would let me know what you think. I'm writing it as if it's for a film, but I don't actually have any picture to go along with it, so I guess you'll have to imagine a scene in your head.
Anyway, I just wanted to fill you in on that all. Maybe one day you'll be watching a film at the cinema, or on TV, or online (I won't judge), and my name will pop up. We'll see. I'm sure as hell going to work at it, so you never know.
So thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.
More soon!
- Anthony.
If you're not familiar with me, there's a post you can read here - Clicky - and you'll find out a little about me.
However, today I want to talk about composition, and how it's not actually haunting me, rather me chasing it. That's musical composition, and if you've never encountered that word before, it's the process of writing music. Simple to understand really, but not necessarily to do. Unfortunately for me, composition doesn't come as naturally to me as it does to some people. I can't just knock out work after work with them all sounding good. My brain doesn't really work like that.
I really like writing music. Whether it's for some sort of assessment, or for fun, or for the band I play in (cheeky plug). And recently, I had a bit of a revelation in the sense that I may have actually worked out what I want to do with my life. It's a little bit of a risk in a way, because I won't be guaranteed work, however I guess if I try hard enough, and find myself working with the right people these next few years it could become a reality. So brace yourself, here it comes.
I want to write music for film. (I think.)
It's as simple as that really. Every time I watch a film, I have to find out who the soundtracks composer was, and 9/10 times it's either Zimmer (e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean) or Silvestri (e.g. Back to the Future). Have you ever just sat back and listened to the score from a film? I don't imagine you've done so whilst the film was playing. It's a little difficult not to be distracted by the action on screen, as to be expected. But if you go away and YouTube the soundtrack to your favourite film, chances are you'll find it, and I urge you to give it a listen. It's incredible. Or at least I think so.
I'm straying away from the point a little here, and that's perhaps because I'm still not actually sure what I want to do. I'd love to write for film, I really would. I love playing music, and I'm really getting into writing it, so maybe after I've been writing for as long as I've been playing (various instruments(8 years)), I'll have developed a real talent for writing. I've been writing for a few years now, both because I've had to do it for GCSEs, a-levels, etc. and because I actually kind of enjoy it. Okay, during a-levels I just about wanted to give up because I spent so much time on a piece which I really didn't like, but when I'm writing for myself, not for an examiner, it just feels so much better. The music sounds better, and I actually end up liking it.
I'm working on a few pieces now, each different, and hopefully I can get them all finished relatively soon and get them transferred into Pro Tools, and improve the sound of them dramatically, because anyone who has ever used Sibelius knows how terrible everything sounds. It's kind of fortunate that one of my current modules here at university is 'Electronic Music Production'. We all have to write a piece of music, and produce it with the software we have here at university. I'm being slightly awkward in the sense that I'm scoring mine first, and then I'll import it, whereas it's likely everyone else will just play it into the software using a keyboard. But hey-ho, this works for me.
We've got a presentation in 6 weeks now, and ideally I'd like to have finished at least one piece by then so I can spend a few weeks working on it in Pro Tools, and then I can share it with you all, and it'd be great if you would let me know what you think. I'm writing it as if it's for a film, but I don't actually have any picture to go along with it, so I guess you'll have to imagine a scene in your head.
Anyway, I just wanted to fill you in on that all. Maybe one day you'll be watching a film at the cinema, or on TV, or online (I won't judge), and my name will pop up. We'll see. I'm sure as hell going to work at it, so you never know.
So thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.
More soon!
- Anthony.
Wow, great post. Kisses from Spain. http://redecoratelg.blogspot.com.es/
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