I LOVE ORCHESTRAL STRINGS. They are my fave section of the classical orchestra (followed closely by the brass and horns). They're just SO VERSATILE - there are so many different techniques and tone colours you can make with string instruments, which means that their emotional range (I would argue) is enormous. This makes them, without …
Continue reading "Why I Love Orchestral Bowed Strings and Use Them All The Time (with LOADS of Musical Examples)"
Coming up with ideas can be difficult, but it doesn't have to be. In this post, I'll go into more detail about a particular form of restriction that's very common in music - the 'limited palette'.
Getting feedback is scary. Getting negative feedback is the WORST... or is it? Here's how to turn the fear of criticism on its head and into a superpower. Seek out and focus on negative feedback to zero in more accurately - and more creatively - on what your client wants from their music (or whatever …
Continue reading "The Four Steps I Use to Turn the Fear of Negative Criticism into a SUPERPOWER"
I want to show people how they can make more sustainable choices in their work-from-home offices and studios. I truly do believe there are very few jobs that can't be made more sustainable. Here are 8 areas to consider in your home office or studio to support your career without destroying the planet.
You're staring at that blank page. It's scary, and you want to get ideas onto it fast just to take away the terror... But wait, there might be a better way. Generating those lusciously original ideas, to order, can be a tricky venture if you don't have strategies - but stick with me, I've got …
Continue reading "How to Generate Great Creative Ideas: Refresh and Get Perspective"
You want to get something quick onto that scary blank page. Generate great, original, creative ideas by (counterintuitively) imposing restrictions. You need new, juicy, creative ideas, and you need them now. This is how to get them on tap, stat. (Yes I do rather love E.R. and I'm binging series after series of Grey's Anatomy …
Continue reading "5 Strategies to Generate Great Creative Ideas by Imposing Restrictions"
How do you generate great creative ideas when you're faced with the abject terror of the blank page?! Here are my tried-and-tested strategies for composing music and beyond. These are the methods of idea generation I've actually done. They all work. The order doesn't matter. Not a composer? They'll work great in any line of …
Continue reading "5 Mind-Freeing Strategies Guaranteed to Generate Great Creative Ideas"
This is the final part in a five part series on the similarities in challenges faced by composers of both games and theatre, and the similar evolution of their solutions. In the first post I talked about those challenges brought about by the live and interactive nature of theatre and games, respectively: timings change, and …
Continue reading "Composing for theatre is the same as composing for games: The Techniques (part 4) – Horizontal Resequencing"
This is part 4 in a five part series on the similarities in challenges faced by composers of both games and theatre, and the similar evolution of their solutions. In the first post I talked about those challenges brought about by the live and interactive nature of theatre and games, respectively: timings change, and are …
Continue reading "Composing for theatre is the same as composing for games: The Techniques (part 3) – Vertical Layering"
There's a great deal of overlap between the techniques of scoring theatre and games. In the first post of this series, I talked about the practical similarities between these two platforms: of writing music to accompany and synchronise with events that are unlikely to happen at the same time each time they are performed, be …
Continue reading "Composing for theatre is the same as composing for games: The Techniques (part 2)"
