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A few weeks ago, I went back to my roots and made a Composing in Real Time video:
These are my favorite videos to make. I love sharing my process on-camera (mistakes and all), and exploring the creative process in front of a virtual audience. Hope you enjoy them as much as me!
(And if you want the uncut version, consider becoming a Patron to gain access to all of my uncut footage and MIDI fil...
Composer Geoff Zanelli drops some difficult truths in his recent Twitter post:
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While I don’t feel quite as strongly on all points, I do agree that cold emailing a composer with your music is not likely to get you hired.
(If you’ve done that, don’t worry—we’ve all been there.)
The key is to build a real relationship with someone.
Slowly, patiently, authentically. 🕝
No ulterio...
In a recent interview with Canvas Rebel, I was asked how I built my audience on social media.
Whether you’re into social media or not, finding success as a professional creator is about one thing:
Providing VALUE.
That might seem obvious...
But we often we confuse OUR wants and needs with the wants/needs of our audience.
We think to ourselves:
- “I want more people to listen to my music.”
- “...
Here’s a tip that’ll change the way you score scenes forever.
When starting off composing for media, many composers start by matching on-screen emotions 1:1.
If a character is angry, they think:
“What does angry music sound like?”
But here’s what separates the good film composers from the great:
To be truly impactful for an audience, music needs to speak beyond what we see on-screen. 🔎
I...
This week, I’m sharing a bunch of videos with you.
Here’s all of the episodes from my “How to Compose Like” series, where I break down a piece from a popular film/game and show you step-by-step how to imitate it.
Imitation is a fantastic way to practice your composition and production chops, so dig around and see which video catches your eye!
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(And if you’re a Patreon member, I...
In May, I joined Rich Webster’s quarterly “Work Less Cohort”—and it was one of the best decision’s I’ve ever made.
Too often, creative entrepreneurs build a career that feels like a cage, boxing them in to draining hours, endless communication, and zero boundaries. 😰
The Work Less Cohort is about undoing that, and making your business work for you. 🏝️
It's literally jam-packed with resources, s...
If you’re a composer writing orchestral music and you haven’t made a template yet, you could be saving hundreds of hours a year.
Templates aren’t for everyone, but for me, they’re 100% indispensable in my ability to deliver high-quality music on time to clients. But for many creatives, the non-creative act of routing, color-coding, and labeling a large template feels daunting (and frankly, a bit ...
One of my all-time favorite clients to work for is Team True Potential. They’re a 3-person team of animators who create gorgeous short films on YouTube.
(If you’ve been on my channel for a while, odds are you’ve seen me score at least one of their pictures)
In this video, I walk through my process scoring “The Final Touch”, a short little film about a grumpy dwarf and a capricious elf. The mus
...I saw entrepreneur and educator Chris Do speak at a university a few weeks ago.
During the panel, a student asked Chris what he thought about the influx of A.I., and what it meant for creative professionals. 🫢
Chris paused for a while. Then he said this:
In the pursuit of great melodies and colorful orchestrations...
... we often overlook a subtle but powerful tool in our arrangements:
Bass. 😤
While melodies can stick in a listeners' head, bass lines can add drive, complexity, and excitement to an arrangement when used properly.
In this video, you'll learn how to improve your bass lines with:
- Inversions
- Rhythmic offsets
- Countermelody