Week 20 - 1/2 way there - - - - - "aaaaaah, livin' on a prayer!"

Wrapping up week 20 and the 1/2 way mark of the program. 

I'm deeply involved in the Cue for 'Cane', I meet with advisors 3-4 times a week now instead of once as with previous cues.  A key difference with Cane is we are starting to encounter more than 1 emotion per cue. The Rom Com and Psycho Thriller cues were pretty emotionally stagnant.  With the Tension Chase cue we had two distinct yet separated emotional states. Now we have a 90-second cue where the emotional state changes 4-5 times and that needs to be reflected in the music. The limited instrumentation makes that task even more difficult.  I'm taking advantage of the unique 'playability' of the harp and cello, using the various sounds they are made for; pizzicato and rich soaring melodies for the Cello, glissandos and long reverb time for Harp. 

Closed out Ear Training, Logic, and Sibelius this week. Moving on to Pro-Tools (DAW) and Dorico (Notation). Music for Video Games, Songwriting for Film, and Advanced Mixing are coming up this quarter. My finale project for Ear Training is an electronic recreation (mockup) of "I'm Forrest...Forrest Gump' from the soundtrack.  I'm particularly happy with the way it is turning out. I'll probably post a segment here on the blog. 

We had a pretty intense conversation about AI and the outlook it might have on music creation. At the moment, AI created music, while quasi-acoustically pleasing to the ear, has a way to go before (if ever) it achieves a human's sense of aesthetics and emotional context. It's possible (but doubtful) that machines will achieve a decent level of emotional awareness in my lifetime. It's further evolution of the music library where YouTubers can find royalty-free (or a small fee) music in their content to appease the copyright gods. 

AI-generated music will replace the need for some musicians / composers, but not all; most likely not even 1/2.  Lower-budget productions will most likely take advantage of the decent-sounding / less expensive alternative to hiring live musicians and renting a studio. However, much like how people who seriously want a decent experience with photography will hire a professional photographer, people serious about real, raw music, will continue to hire a professional composer. 

Well, at least I hope that's how it turns out, I don't know if there are studies or data surrounding the effect of AI on music creation. It's possible I'm entering a dying creative field, perhaps I waited too long.  But I'd rather regret the choices I made and the chances I took than regret the ones I didn't. 

There will always be the opportunity to teach, just as I am currently seeking mentorship so will there be future musicians seeking to learn the ways. Fortunately I have my feet in the Symphonic and Marching Band worlds. 

Week 19 - Out with the old

The pace is quickening! 

I turned in score and parts for the Brass / Percussion cue on Sunday. I have at least 4 more recording sessions before graduation. There will also be 1-2 purely electronic scores, and at least 1 remote recording session. The pandemic has made remote recording a legit part of the industry.

On Monday I got my first cue for an actual film! I am writing 90 seconds of music to accompany onscreen action of an elderly man waking up and walking to the kitchen table to have breakfast. Instrumentation is certainly interesting this time round; Clarinet for melody; 1-Cello, Harp and Synth Pad for texture / propulsion. It's different writing for something you can actually see, rather than an abstract such as 'generic Rom Com'. I have to put much more thought into the emotion of the scene as well as keep in mind the director's desires. It's also time to 'check my ego at the door'. Up until now I've had the luxury of writing what 'I' though sounded good. Now, I have to write what I 'think' the director's idea of good is. It doesn't matter if I write the most amazing cue of my life, if the director doesn't like it, I start again. I am in love with my profession, I just can't fall in love with the music anymore. 

From here on, we will get a new film to score every three weeks. This first one is a short, but as the films get longer, we will start writing in teams of 2-3 per film.

This is also the week I started meeting with Hummie for directed study / composition lessons. Slightly intimidating but mostly awesome! 

I'd like to say that I've leveled out emotionally, but that's not the case. It used to vary from day to day, now it's hour by hour. As my work becomes more and more public facing, I become increasingly vulnerable as my music is brought front and center. I'm hoping the ability too become emotionally detached from my music is something I learn soon.

As for this next quarter, I got my schedule today. Take note of the 'Songwriting for film' class in the red rectangle. 

Sue Ennis is best known for co-writing for Heart. (Yes, 'that' Heart). 

Week 18 - Prep for 3rd session

I found a few free minutes to update my journal. 

The last 2 weeks have been the busiest yet.  

Here's what I've been up to:

• Orchestration: 
• Writing my next cue, a Tension - Chase scene 90 seconds long 
• Conducting: 
• Preparing a video of myself conducting the next session cue along with an electronic mockup of my score
• Ear Training: 
• Preparing a full electronic mockup of "I'm Forrest Gump" by Alan Silvestri
• Studio Technology: 
• Writing a score for a 30 second video commercial, then combining that score, existing effects, VO, and video
• Synchronization / Timings: 
• Use Digital Performer to create a click track for a score that contains fermatas, then re-baring the music to fit the hit points, then retiming between hit points so they align perfectly with the required frame
• Logic: 
• Compose 30 seconds of music, align hit points to the exact required frame, adjust meter and tempo so if the tempo needs to change between hit points for them to align, verifying the tempo does not change by more than 2 beats per minute
• Sibelius:
• Create a new Film Score template
• Advanced MIDI:
• While recording myself playing an instrument, record 4 different pitches each at 2 dynamics, edit the sound files, import them into Kontakt, and using a variety of tools and settings create a new instrument from scratch that plays well across the entire piano keyboard and has volume control set to be altered by the modulation wheel

Here's the first 2 pages of the draft of my Tension / Chase cue:

The emotional roller coaster continues to change pretty much daily. My morning mantra is, "I'm doing the right thing and deserve to have a happy career in music". It helps!