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.
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 [...]
Minimalism: Quality, not Quantity
I have an obsessive personality. I’m also a bit on the faddy side. So my latest penchant is minimalism…
Not the musical variety (although I don’t mind a bit of Glass every now and again), this is rather the holistic, organisational, get-rid-of-anything-don’t-need kind of minimalism.
I’ll get on to the specifics in just a mo, but first [...]
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 [...]
Back Online
You, dear Reader, may have noticed the dearth of posts in the last couple of months.
In comparison to my 30-day experiment to blog everyday… it’s a little bit of a polarity shift, to say the least.
There comes a point when you’re sat in front of the Mac for the 13th hour in a row and [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Patience and Planning Contingencies
What do you do when your best-laid plans go awry? Do you stress out? Rile against the injustice of it all? Or do you have other strategies to deal with such a situation?
Last week, my car’s back window was smashed in. This irked me somewhat, but mostly because it messed with my schedule. But [...]
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 [...]
Composer in Residence for the Arthur C. Clarke Awards
I’m very pleased to announce… that it’s me! Composer-in-Residence for the Arthur C. Clarke Awards! Very exciting.
You may have noticed the science fiction theme creeping a little into this blog of late (ok. a lot. a whole massive amount), and this is why.
The Arthur C. Clarke Awards 2009 were held on Wednesday 29th March on [...]
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’ [...]
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 [...]
Prioritising your Time
Read a very interesting post yesterday on a blog for Startup Businesses.
Conversations With Myself: What Should I Work On
I sympathised with the writer wholeheartedly. There are never enough hours in the day for one self-employed freelancer to get absolutely everything done and still retain their sanity.
His gripes really do refer to anyone with a [...]
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 [...]
Do You Live Your Life Creatively?
Had to share this blog post about creativity and the myths that surround it: Myths about Creativity | Tickled By Life, by Shalu Wasu.
Go have a read… then come back here if you like.
I particularly enjoyed reading his attitudes about the application of creativity to all aspects of life, not just so-called creative [...]
Early Bird or Night Owl?
Image via Wikipedia
Or more specifically – do you work better in the morning or later in the day, or later on, into the evening? It appears I’m definitely the former. I’ve left it until the evening to write this blog post and it’s proving a lot harder to form some sort of coherent structure!
Now, don’t [...]
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!
A Week of Research and Development with Slunglow
Having just returned last Sunday from a week of research and development with the Slunglow team, I’ve had time to reflect on how the week went for me in terms of productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, those sorts of things.
Winter Break
We stayed in St. Aygulf on the South Coast of France, the French Riviera, just down the [...]
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.
27 Tips for Focus and Concentration
Having trouble focusing?
Getting distracted and lacking concentration?
Follow these tips to get you back on track!
Avoid Distractions
Turn off twitter, email, facebook, IM, browser
Turn off television audio and mobile phone (i know i know! harsh!)
Schedule time(s) to check the above
Plan your Time
Write your To Do list for the day then schedule a time later on [...]
Ten Reasons to be your own Boss
These are a few of the benefits you get from running your own business and being your own boss…
Is your job right for you?
There are plenty of personality and psychometric tests and the likes out there to analyse your personality, your likes and dislikes, your needs, wants and life goals and then come up with your ideal job or perfect career.
Quitting Coffee Cold Turkey
Anyone who knows me knows I love my cuppa hot java. It’s been a habit for the last few years (and then some) to have at least two big mugs of black coffee first thing in the morning simply to function at a normal level. And, despite my preaching to the opposite in a previous post on Creativity and How to Deal With Mental Blocks, I have begun to rely on coffee and caffeinated drinks to kick start the inspiration… that is until the last week.
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.
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 [...]
