Let’s talk Digital Audio Workstations or DAW’s. Love them or hate them, they are the central hub of just about every recording or writing setup, helping us to get our ideas down and combining Midi and Audio to help us produce a polished audio file of our music.
There are numerous...
For many composers, their lifelong musical pursuit is trying to write that perfect melody.
When the Theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber first played his father (who was also a composer), the melody from 'Memory', apparently his father simply replied - ‘It sounds like a million...
Over the past couple of weeks it feels Hans Zimmer has been everywhere promoting his latest film Dune: Part 2. It is interesting to see how much of a household name he has become, especially in the UK. Even my in-laws have heard of him!!!
Along with the first Dune movie, Zimmer set about creating...
The percussion section is an extremely versatile family of instruments. Equally capable of adding a light sprinkling of fairy dust to a Strings and Woodwinds piece, or providing the rhythmic energy and movement to an action cue accompanying a car chase.
Many people struggle writing for percussion...
Without Rhythm, there would be no music.
I also strongly believe we all have rhythm inside us - after all we all have a pulse, (hopefully!) beating in a fairly regular manner.
So what happens if you have trouble coming up with a rhythm when writing a piece? It could be the rhythm of a melody, or...
Lots of my subscribers have asked me in the past about the use of unconventional instruments when scoring films.
So I thought I would put together some of my favourite examples.
Many films contain stories that take place in numerous countries or geographical areas. Composers will often use...
This week, I wanted to explore the world of Movie trailers - well more specifically, the music for Movie trailers.
Composing music for movie trailers is an extremely competitive business. If you are one of the lucky ones though, it can also be extremely lucrative, with some trailer tracks earning...
As you know, my focus with Composing Academy is on writing 'Cinematic Music' - music, often orchestral based, that would typically accompany visual media such a Film, episodic TV or a Video game.
Music for each of these three different mediums share various similarities and differences, which I...
During this past week, I have ventured out of my comfort zone and been tasked with writing in a style that I am largely unfamiliar with - Medieval Fantasy music. Think music from projects such as Game of Thrones, The Witcher (Video Game), or the Tudors.
The task came about as East West kindly...
Having a toolbox of musical techniques that you can call upon, when you are starting a new piece can be incredibly useful to set you off in the right direction.
Here's my latest YouTube video, in which I have put together 9 different chord progressions, which I feel portray 9 particular...
If you were tasked with developing one 8 bar melody into a three minute piece of standalone cinematic music, would you find the challenge daunting?
Analysing the structure of some of your favourite standalone cinematic pieces can be a great way to dissect and discover the composing...
I would like to show you something I have been working on over the last few days. I'm going to show you step by step how you could take a simple 8 bar melody and orchestrate it in the style of the End Credits from 'Edward Scissorhands' by Danny Elfman. Here's a link to the track which I used as...