Essex, United Kingdom

Thursday 1 November 2012

Writing at volume and why you're more motivated than you give credit for...

This is one of those questions i have asked composers over the years and im now being asked myself, which is really nice and it feels like that one area alone has travelled full circle.

How do you write at large volumes and how does one remain motivated to do so??

The answer is probably not as complex as you would think and most of this i believe stems from trust.
That is to say, trusting your own gut feeling about how music feels to you.Its about how much weight you place on your shoulders.

I dont ever feel that any client, producer,editor etc can ever beging to compete with the amount of stress YOU place on your creativity.Its a lot of about over thinking it all.Placing a lot of stress over "can i be me and be original, can i show the world my own voice in every cue"

This is great, dont get me wrong, having your own way of writing and voicing is extremely important, but never for the sake of not being able to write at all.I would never let me inner muse get so bent out of shape trying to be a John Williams,Thomas Newman,Silvestri etc because in all honesty, its not going to happen.

What you find about your own sound and identity is what others see in this music.Eventually you will start to develop things about your music that are purely just you.The beauty of which , is you never really understand why you write like you do, and the honesty of your music comes from just saying "i do trust myself,its ok"

But that's the barrier isnt it?? Saying its ok to explore and make mistakes or take risks above your station, or so you perceive.
When i write during a typical month, i get all the cue calls, briefs etc and i just gather as much info as i can.
Sometimes, well pretty often really, the info is sparse and likely to change and evolve as the producer of a show for example, totally changes their mind midway and you have already written 20 cues.....

Dont worry, this is not only very normal but you will get used to it!

I just start with the genre itself.What is the place i need to be first and foremost.
Is it a drama led cue, comedic, suspenseful, do they want or need any synthetic elements, organic and natural??
Fast paced or ...well, you get the idea on that one.


When you know the vicinity you need to be in, and perhaps the pace as mentioned, you have a scope of instruments you can reach for, then you can start riffing those ideas.

Its only as daunting as you make it.I actually feel comforted once i know the location of that music.
And when i say this, its my way of talking riddles that makes sense to 'me' so your inner lingo will be what you use to voice your journey, but once i know im writing tension for example,
ill be in a dark room in my mind, or a nervy subway,maybe a apocalyptic waste ground etc.

Just a quick visual kick in the synapses to make you feel how those instruments will work.
Then i would just think of ways to make it develop, nothing too OTT.for the most part, the cues ill write will be massively supportive so just some light melodic ideas to sketch out.

And every composer tends to come from a slightly different starting block.Some think like drummers and percussionists(which i personally do), some are guitarists,some play a woodwind or brass instrument, and those among us have a great orchestrators ear for what can be done and what cant.

But this critical point right now, is the brick wall a lot of composers face.Despite visualizing the mood you need, even with all the right sounds at your finger tips, your riffing things and just erasing them/

This is that point i don't entertain that sensation in writing.I trust the idea, and i develop it.
I have always worked at great speed.This is just me, but i find working very fast and rushing out quick ideas gives me far less time to doubt them and judge them

Does that make sense???

well to me its the key.you can come back and clean up later, but working at speed is critical for getting ideas out before your demon tells you to re write them over and over.Write quickly and from the heart.
Its more instinctive to do so even if you think its a mad way of working.it works.

picture yourself on the airport travelator, the one that moves flat from one side of an airport to another, but for a lot of us, even though we're still very early to get to the gate which doesn't depart for over an hour, We;re walking with the damn travelator lol!!! we still motivate to move forward even though by its design, you can veyr much relax and stay put.

you see it alot.if someones late their running, so forget that.but those who still walk with a pace when their being moved, its cos you want to keep feeling like you are moving forward, that your moving things at a pace of your design.

Its a little extra motivation that you don't think of but you all have and in large amounts.I write just like this.
Even though the process with modern tech is very fast as it is.compare it with 1988 and you will at least agree on that point, it bares no resemblance.

but writing instant ideas, recording and moving on, you can get a sense of a piece of motivation you don't tap into.
Does it feel wrong and plain weird if you have never adopted this style??? yes of course no question.
But stick with it!!!!!!

push yourself to create, trust what you do and remember, you can come back and hone and tidy later.
In the same way your stomach has like a 7 minute duration where the info travels to your brain to tell you you're full up, its the same for me with writing.


The most i have got from this unspoken duration for me, is about 4 hours max.
But during this time, i can write and complete 5-6 minutes of music and sometimes a fair bit more.All rendered to audio and ready to post.I can break for a couple of hours and repeat the process again.
It is a style that is very in congress to what you will want to naturally do.

Does it sacrifice the music in order to become a one man production machine???

To my mind, the answer is very nearly no.it just doesn't you ever miss a trick cos you moved at this pace, yes you can but can i point out that many weeks after writing any cue, you still get this same feeling that you would have written in something better, more developed.

In fact years after you will have this sensation so its as norm as it gets.

I dont by any means feel like this is anything like a trade secret if any kind.It has worked for me for many years.Sometimes it enables you to hit your targets and still have time to spare.
This week which we are right now in day 4, i have written 6 cues and 2 product demos but i have time now to write this, listen and research,(which we will get to in just a minute),and spend time with my family.

Templates and how they work for you.....

This is a very controversial one actually as the amount of debates ive been involved with about using templates and then just running with a blank screen, you wouldn't believe.But despite having a good chunk of RAM and a decent CPU,i still dont employ a big template but this is largely due to moving around from one genre to another, that the template would just be a huge bloated mess for me.

Plus i like to have access to things i need when i can use them, not having a screen that endlessly scrolls.I enjoy the process of just discovering things as i need them.
Its part way a blend of working with limitations and also working with an endless amount of choice.

Sorry if thats a confusing statement lol, but by having a empty template im not drawn into certain sage decisions but by having a couple of drives full of sounds, i can discover little by little new exciting choices.

And make bizarre combos.We were talking about identity at the start of this, and this is another mechanism to promote that happening.By limiting what you see, we tend to compose too much visually now anyway,your being drawn into a place you can cherish and make a connection with sound that isnt utterly obvious.
And back to research,does it help??

Up to a point.i reserve the right change my mind on this one as time goes by © lol!!
but essentially for me, its learning what works in writing format for tv show.I can see what devices and tricks,meters, modulations,sounds,pace, works for certain shows.how they like their cues basically.
if you know what your client buys, you can write a lot better than going in blind or over confident that "you know best".
you do, kinda, thats why you were hired, but the customer still knows what they want.so research will mean you understand perfectly what your doing.

you combine this understanding with the method i outlined above about writing at speed, and your end result?? it will be many more minutes of music than you currently write, you will see a brand new perspective on your work that maybe others catch a glimpse of.
you might even start seeing your own voice appearing in music, cos you wrote it fast enough not to doubtr every measure.

No comments: