Music for Theatre – Composing for All Eventualities
The music themes are all pretty much composed for The Count of Monte Cristo, a new, irreverent theatre adaptation of the book by Alexandre Dumas. Rehearsals start next week at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, where it will play from mid-April to mid-May.
These are some of the challenges which have become clear through the writing process.
Ten Tips for Getting Into the Composing Game
No clue on how to get into this crazy composing game?
Here’s an article on Ten Tips for Getting Into the Composing Game I wrote for the fabulous Scorecast Online site.
I talk about finding your niche, networking and relationships, pitching and persistence, things that I’ve experienced and learned from ‘Getting the Gig’ – January’s topic on [...]
Get the Musical Mojo Back
My latest post for SCORECastOnline is up now: How to Get Your Mojo Back
This month’s theme on SCORECastOnline, the very cool site for film music composers, sound designers, and others in the same line of work, was Creativity, and more specifically the creative process.
There’s some fantastic posts on there on what was rather a tricky [...]
They Only Come At Night: Visions on Tour
I love soundifying Slung Low’s promos. They’re so flippin’ exciting!
The hit sell-out show is on tour…
Sold out at the Barbican in October, They Only Come At Night: Visions is moving to the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, next week (23-28th November, 2009).
So if you didn’t get your ticket before they all sold out for [...]
How Important Is Formal Education To The Film Composer?
How important is a formal, relevant education to the film composer? And specifically media-related music degrees?
Beyond The Front Line – Up and Running
Beyond The Front Line, the Slung Low promenade show, is now playing at the Lowry Theatre in Salford until next weekend (17th Oct 2009)
Requiem for Beyond the Front Line
As promised in my last post, here’s some news about my latest project, the Requiem for Beyond the Front Line.
It’s actually probably better to describe it as a Requiemetta, putting to music five verses of the many-more that are usually part of a Requiem.
The most exciting part about this project for me is that the [...]
TOCANLive: The Hunt Goes Live Online!
Slung Low, the fantabulous theatrical collective, is launching TOCANLive this Monday, 10th August.
TOCANLive is an Alternative Reality Game (ARG) that will expand the world of ‘They Only Come At Night’, Slung Low’s series of vampire shows, to a worldwide audience, and promote the next show, They Only Come At Night: Resurrection, which is on at [...]
Speedy Sound Design
When time is short and you’re looking for a little fresh inspiration, try a couple of the free sound design toys from ixi-audio.
Personally I’d recommend ixiquarks and noiser, that you can find links for on their software page.
Ixiquarks is a modular synthesis program where you can chain effects to create original sounds, and noiser will [...]
SCORECast Online – Diversify to Get More Work
as a Film Composer
Whilst I’m really busy with several projects on the go at once, the blogging’s gone a little to pot.
Apologies for that
So, in the meantime, here’s a link to an article I wrote for SCORECast Online’s awesome new site on ‘diversifying’ your job description to get more work: One Man Band.
They’ve also a podcast [...]
How to Delegate Work and Do More of the Fun Stuff
So, yeah, if anyone can tell me how that’s done, that’d be ace.
I’m rubbish at delegating. I’m of the school of thought that, if you want something done properly, do it yourself.
To be honest, in my home life this has led to numerous DIY blunders.
But in the case of music composing and sound [...]
Silence is Golden
It’s all been a quiet on the blogging front in the last month, and, for this, I apologise.
It’s because it’s been busy busy busy here! I’ve been working on developing the upcoming shows Beyond the Front Line and They Only Come At Night trilogy with Slung Low, and scoring and sound designing a gorgeous short film with [...]
Just Because You Don’t Like It, Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Music.
I can’t begin to count how many times I’ve heard a friend, in response to a piece of music or film or some other piece of art, proclaim, “It’s rubbish,” (or use much stronger language ) when actually what they mean is, “I don’t like it.”
That bugs me a bit.
Don’t get me wrong [...]
Unexpected Inspiration
Inspiration, the source of creativity. I would say that mine usually comes from the film that I have in front of me, or conversations with a director; or, at least, that is the most obvious source.
This morning I drove from Sheffield to Manchester for my final day working with Slung Low at the Lowry theatre [...]
Composing Music for Slung Low Theatre
This month it was my turn to write the ‘New Thoughts’ article for the Slung Low website, entitled ‘Why Music’.
You can read the whole post here.
In the article I cover a few basic, practical reasons for including music in a Slung Low show.
Slung Low makes installation and site-specific theatre. It’s anything but conventional, [...]
Deadlines: Making Music To Order
I live for deadlines. I love the thought that at some defined point in the future, the project that I’m currently working on will be complete, that I will have something tangible to show for all my efforts, and that I can move onto something brand new.
A deadline is wonderfully focussing. For this reason alone [...]
Composing Film Music Tips: Imperfection
In honour of the two more voters on the poll (w00t!) —–>
I’ll continue this series of tips for composing music with a post about imperfection. Don’t worry, all will become clear…
I’ve been trawling through the ol’ music back catalogue to add to the new Music Store. It’s been a real trip down memory lane, [...]
Composing Music Tips: Find Your Voice
Composing music is all about communication: communicating mood, intention, pace, atmosphere, character, movement…
In thinking about more composing tips to discuss, it occurred to me that I was describing some of the techniques that I like to use, that sound right to me.
I’ve started in quite a general, generic way, talking about writing to the [...]
Composing Music Tips: Suspensions
You, the public have voted: 80% of you want more posts about tips on composing music! Vote now in the poll to the right: YOU decide what goes in this blog! ——->
So here’s today’s easy-to-implement tip: suspensions.
Suspensions are an incredibly easy way of adding colour to a series of chords. At their simplest, suspensions ’suspend’ [...]
Composing Film Music Tips: The Pedal Note
Due to popular demand (aka the poll in the right sidebar), my next few posts will be tips on composing music, with an emphasis on writing music for film in particular.
Today’s tip is all about the ‘pedal note’ or ‘drone’. It’s really a very simple concept: a single, sustained note or tone.
Pedal notes [...]
What Kind Of Posts Would YOU Like To See?
Take a look at the poll at the top of the sidebar to the right: I want to know what YOU want to see and read here. You decide what I write about next. ————->
The categories are pretty self-explanatory, but if there’s something you’d like to know about that I haven’t put in [...]
Inspiration
inspiration n
stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings, etc., to special or unusual activity or creativity
the state or quality of being so stimulated or aroused
someone or something that causes this state
an idea or action resulting from such a state
the act or process of inhaling; breathing in
From English Collins Dictionary – English Definition & Thesaurus
Inspiration is [...]
How to Compose Science Fiction Music: My Personal Recipe
Image via Wikipedia
If you been reading my posts for the last week or so, then you’ll have noticed that I’ve recently been spending my days writing science fiction-related music.
If you’ve not been reading… why not?
Also, a lot of the search engine terms used that send traffic here are along the lines of ‘how [...]
Translating the Director’s Ideas into Musical Reality
I have to be honest.
It’s day 8 of the 30 Day Challenge to myself to blog a-post-a-day and I was completely stumped on a topic.
So today’s subject comes from John Hunter, my lovely man. Ta!
8 Pointers
When it comes to chatting to the director during the initial meetings for a project, it’s good to keep [...]
A Day In The Life Of A Composer
Today is going to be a pretty typical day for me. As in hectic. And exactly the kind of work I like.
Although composing is now my bread and butter, I also do other work to keep the roof over my head. Today is a pretty good example of how I live day-to-day. It [...]
SCOREcast
Image via Wikipedia
It’s Sunday so I’m gonna keep this short and sweet
SCOREcast is a podcast series that I’ve just recently discovered, started by Deane Ogden, a fabulous film composer from LA that I recently became twitter-friends with. Why not follow him too: @deaneogdenmusic; and Scorecast is also on twitter as @scorecastonline.
It’s been [...]
Writer’s Block? Impose Restrictions.
Sometimes, if I’m a little stumped as to how to proceed when composing music for any sort of media, I realise the reason is that I’ve too many options. To help me out, I impose restrictions on my options.
Starting A New Project
Today I get to grips with a new project. This is the one of the more exciting parts of my job… and possibly the scariest!
The Usefulness of a Chord Progression
It’s verrrry difficult to copyright a short chord progression, say, of four chords or thereabouts. In fact it’s impossible. Having a music composing mental block? Go find a chord progression from your favourite piece of music…
Online Drama ‘THE END IS NIGEL’ goes LIVE
‘THE END IS NIGEL’ is an online offbeat comedy-drama about a possible impending apocalypse…
This project was originally commissioned by SCREEN YORKSHIRE and BLINK to be a two-minute film for mobile phones, but [became] a little high-concept but low-budget online world full of webcomics, blogs and dummy websites, following saxophone-wielding deities, shady corporations and facing life after university as Verity tries to find out what happened to Nigel.
Theatre Music – Terre Haute off Broadway
Terre Haute has received its first review Stateside from Jon Sobel on the Blog Critics website.
I’m very chuffed to read that my music gets a mention!
“the dark-Americana musical score by Heather Fenoughty heightens the play’s ‘weird America’ atmosphere at critical moments.”
Now I’m smiley
Click here to read the full review Theatre Review (NYC): Terre Haute [...]
Moth To A Flame on Rollem Production’s Website
Moth To A Flame, a short film that I scored back in 2007 (that sounds like it’s ages ago!) is currently being screened on the Rollem Productions (Band of Gold, Fat Friends) Site as winning ‘Short of the Month’.
Sound Mixing Techniques for Online Web Audio
This is what I’ve discovered specifically for mixing sound acceptibly for delivery as audio online via website.
Sundance Theatre Lab at White Oak in Florida
This is Day 5 for me at the Sundance Theatre Lab at White Oak Plantation, Florida. I’m here as composer with a great bunch of artists from Punchdrunk Theatre developing ideas for their epic, immersive, experiential, theatre adaptation of Woyzeck.
Ten Top Qualities of a Great Director
I LOVE working with directors that have any or all of the following qualities.
Is Film Music Art or Just Low-Brow Commercial Fluff?
Is any music that is created for a purpose, other than that of it’s own existence, art? Is film music art, or theatre music, or advert music, or music that appears on a CD-Rom presentation, or accompanying a website promo film, or music on a trailer? Even if the music’s primary purpose is purely commercial – to sell that product or promote another – does that preclude its intrinsic value as art?
Looking for a Film Music Composer Job Online?
Try Out ‘Teamscoring’
Any budding film composer really really needs to get involved with The Composer Collective. An online database, forum and resource for film music composers, they’ve just recently started ‘Teamscoring’: there’s a project in the works – the last three projects include a documentary, a drama feature and a sci-fi feature, just in the last week – and there’s the opportunity for every single member of the Composer Collective to get in on scoring it!
Tips for Composing Music With A Computer
(ie How To Make It Sound Good)
Composing on a computer sequencer with software/outboard synthesizers and samples is quite a bit different to composing for real instruments. There’s no subsitute for an orchestra when that’s the sound you want. However, if you think of your kit as something other than an orchestra-in-a-box, and write instead to its strengths, you might not [...]
Creativity and How To Deal with Mental Blocks
Having a creative career is absolutely the best thing ever. I really do love it. But there comes a point when you’ve been ‘creating’ for 8 hours straight and suddenly you hit a brick wall – bam! And that’s it. You’ve no idea what to do next. The well’s run dry. It doesn’t happen much [...]
10 Top Tips – Writing Film Music
So you’ve got a great commission, composing music for feature film.
Congratulations!
But now what? Here are a few ideas that I’ve learned (often from some pretty tough lessons) make the process go a little more smoothly…
Get involved as early on as possible
Communicate with your director
Communicate with the editor
Be really clear about tone/mood/emotion
Be really clear about [...]
Writing Music for Theatre – Helium
The ’short adventure for one’, Helium, has completed its run at the Barbican.
4 stars in The Guardian
The show is a theatrical installation, or ‘box show’ where an audience member travels through a number of specially-constructed rooms featuring digital audio, video and live performance. The audience is invited to follow Bella’s imaginary journey through her Grandfather’s [...]
First Post
Hi – and welcome to my new blog!
My first post comes on one of the last few performance dates of ‘Helium’ by Slung Low, performing at The Barbican in London to riotous acclaim (4 stars in The Guardian, same in Metro), and the news that I’ll be off to Florida in October with the [...]
