Quick Update

While the studio computer is booting up, I wanted to post a quick update on what the last two weeks have been like. First off, my new studio computer is still down. The new motherboard got installed on Monday but it didn't solve the problem. They now think it's the power supply. The replacement part arrived today and the service tech is scheduled for tomorrow. So HOPEFULLY I'll be back up and running on the new machine by tomorrow night.

In the meantime, my old machine is doing the job. I've submitted 11 cues so far for the film score. I've been getting some positive feedback from the director so that's very encouraging. I've started to get into a bit of a groove and I think I've got a pretty good sense of what the director is looking for score-wise. I've still got quite a bit of music left to write, but not a whole lot of time left to do it in.

Speaking of which, gotta get back to it, that March 1st deadline is coming up quick!!!! But before I go, I just got to give a "shout out" to my awesome wife who is being so extremely supportive and encouraging through this "stressful" couple of weeks. I love you honey!

-Big Blue

What's Up Ahead

As some of you already know if you happen to follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I recently got a gig scoring a full length film. I've had the rough edit for a few days but tomorrow I'm getting the locked version, as well as having a spotting session with the director. I'm very excited about this project, as it will be my first full length film scoring gig, and with a very quick deadline, I'm also slightly terrified :-)

Fortunately, I've got the support of many friends, family and colleagues to help provide some words of wisdom and encouragement. If this one goes well, then the possibility of other projects looks to be there. But I'm not worried about that. As a sports fanatic, I plan to take it one score at a time.

If the deadline wasn't as soon as it is, I would take the time to blog about the process while it's going on but I'm just not going to have enough time to do that. After I'm done I'll try to post a blog or two about the process and the overall experience.

Once I'm finished with the film project I'll start writing some "Reality TV" cues for my largest library client. I wrote a couple of them last year and so far one of them has been used in a couple of different shows over the last 3 months. I expect I'll be writing quite a bit more this time.

After that, well, if it's anything like the last project, then I'll probably need to take a break!

- Big Blue

Blog Contest Week 7 - Real Live Networking Tips

Before I get to this week's topic, here's a quick update on last week's entry. I set aside some time to go through a stack of business cards that I had acquired over the last year or so from people that I met at the TAXI Road Rally in LA to increase the size of my newsletter list. I'm happy to report that I was able to double the size of my newsletter list! Now, in full disclosure, it wasn't very large to begin with, but hey, that's what this contest is all about right? Taking the steps to build something. I haven't even tackled my "inbox" yet, or the majority of my friends and family either. So I think it's possible that with a little work, this list can break the 100 mark very soon! The next step is to actually send out a newsletter! LOL... That's my primary goal for the week.

Now on to this week's contest. Chapter 7 is entitled "Real Live Networking Tips" and though I'm not gigging out anymore, this chapter still has relevance to me. One of the concepts she mentioned was being a shark in a sea of tuna. In other words, go hang out with groups of people that are NOT doing what I'm doing. One of the things that immediately came to my mind would be film festivals. I actually went to the Nashville Film Festival last year for the first time and was able to make some contacts there. Nothing came out of them yet (other than a few email addresses I was able to collect!) but it's something that I'll be even more prepared for this year.

She also gives some practical advice on things you shouldn't say as well as things you should say, and how to position yourself in the conversation. Some excellent advice that I will be implementing as I find myself in live networking situations. Which these days, don't seem to be that often. I used to spend much more time outside of the house but over the last couple of years, I've really become much more of a home-body. Wonder if it's related to the fact that I got a home studio about 2 years ago. Coincidence? I think not.

That's all for this week's chapter. I'll be posting my entry for Chapter 8 very soon so be on the look out!

Until next time...

Blog Contest Week 4 - Musician's Web 2.0 Guide

Hard to believe that it's been almost a month since I wrote the entry for Week 3 in the CyberPR blog contest. Check out my last post to see some of the reasons (*cough* excuses *cough*) why (as well as pictures of our new cats!).

One area that I've been struggling with as I've read through this book is in the way that I perceive myself as a musician/artist. Here's what I know:

What I know that I AM: a songwriter and a composer for film and tv

What I know that I AM NOT: a touring artist

My dilemma lies in finding that line between writing music for use in film/tv and writing music for mass (hopefully) public consumption. Because I don't sing, or at least not in a voice that most would find pleasing, though I can do the scary cookie monster growling thing fairly well, I typically write more instrumental tracks. And though most of what I do is guitar driven, I am NOT a "shredder" like some of my favorite guitarists - Satriani, Vai, Petrucci, Gilbert, etc... - who typically write guitar driven instrumental music.

I do have some side projects with a couple of co-writers that do sing, Crushing Gray (rock/metal) and Big Blue Shoes (indie/rock/pop), but I still have a desire to "do my own thing." I guess what it REALLY boils down to is a fear of failure. I think every artist deals with that though. In this instance, my fear is about something that I'm planning on launching next month. I know that on my own, there is NO WAY I will be able to achieve the results that I'm hoping to get. But instead of dwelling on that now, let me try to get back on topic for this post. Trust me, there will be plenty of time to talk about "the big project" after I announce it next month.

Ok... Chapter 4 - A Musician's Web 2.0 Guide... There was a lot of stuff in this chapter that I was already doing or familiar with. But instead of glossing over it I wanted to put the time in to it as if it was all new to me.

The first exercise was to head on over to CommonCraft.com and check out some short videos on different Web 2.0 concepts. Though I was already familiar with the concepts, it was fun to watch the videos. They were short, concise and amusing. Well worth the 15 minutes.

Up next was setting up a Google Reader. This one has been one of the best pieces of advice for me personally so far. I had worked with an RSS reader once before a few years ago, not Google's, and just didn't enjoy the experience. But Google got this one right. With the exception of a few social networking/community sites, I've now got the RSS feeds for all of the sites that I visit on a daily/weekly basis set up in my reader. What a great time saver!

The next section was blogging and podcasting. One of the things she mentions to do is to sign up for an account with http://www.mybloglog.com. So I signed up for that and you should be able to see their plug-in is now on my blog.

This next exercise was to identify 50 blogs that you would like to have your music reviewed on. Remember the indecisiveness and the fear of failure from earlier? I think this exercise helped contribute to it... lol... I had to skip this section for the time being. I do plan to revisit it later, but it will be for when I go back through this book for my "band" projects, Crushing Gray and Big Blue Shoes. Actually... I just had a thought... instead of looking for blogs to review my music on the basis of it as being art, I think instead I will look to have it reviewed more for the basis of it's production quality! Yeah!!! I think that will be more in line with my "goals" at the moment. Then I'll start expanding the list to include reviews on the quality of the art. Whew... I'm glad that thought popped into my head. I actually feel a sense of relief, as funny as that may sound.

The next step was to join the Podsafe Music Network. I was glad that the book had the web site URL listed near the back of the book, but it would have been handy had it been included in this specific section as well. I didn't realize it was in the back of the book at first and I ended up going to google to find it. I created an account there and will begin the process of adding my music there over the next week.

The next section was on Twitter, which I've already been using for a while. I've got things synced up now so that when I upload a new track to my ReverbNation profile, it updates Twitter which in turn updates my Facebook profile. Thanks to an article by Robert Holland from http://www.facebook.com/SocialSEO - I was able to get my Twitter feed to update my Facebook Fan page as well. Unfortunately, the specific method he was advocating, using Yahoo! Pipes, no longer works due to a change in policy by the Third Party developers. I'm still able to do it, but it's not as "neat" or "clean" as Robert's first plan was but it still does the job.

Finally, the next step was to get set up on Flickr. I wasn't sure if I was going to follow through with this step or not as I was beginning to get concerned that I was starting to spread myself too thin. But I figured I'd go ahead and do it anyway. I created my account and uploaded a couple of live shots of me from a show I played a couple of years ago, a picture of me with the legendary Bill Gaither, and a picture of each of our cats, both past and present.

That's all for this week's chapter. Now that I think I'm out of my funk and moving forward again, I plan on getting caught up this weekend and knocking out Chapter 5 as well as trying to do a better job of organizing my time for blogging, facebook, etc... so that I don't start to get the feeling of being overwhelmed with all the "non-musical" music stuff that I'm trying to keep up with.

Until next time...

Scoring to Film, Part 2

I had a few moments so I thought I'd try and finish up the story on my first film scoring experience. The last post ended right as the scoring process was about to begin, so that's where we'll resume.

I was expecting it to be a challenging experience, and IT WAS. VERY MUCH SO. But as much as it was challenging, it was every bit as rewarding. In fact, I would even go so far to say that of all the projects I've been involved with, and all the music that I've written, I don't think I'm any prouder of any of them than I am of what I accomplished on this documentary.

You see, it's not just about the music. While I am very proud of how the music sounds and the parts that I wrote, I'm much more excited about how the music FEELS. That was probably the biggest challenge I faced throughout the project.

It's easy to write a piece of music, at least, I think it is. Now, that doesn't mean each piece is good. But I can sit down with a guitar and within 5-10 minutes, I can typically have the basic outline of a song started. I'm sure I'm not the only one who can do this. It comes with years of practice and dedication.

But to sit down and write a piece of music that:

a) Is high quality and performed well
b) Fits within the parameters that the producer has given you to work with
c) makes the listener FEEL something as they watch and listen

Well, that's a whole other ball of wax. For me, the first two were nowhere near as difficult as the third one.

I can remember a couple of nights where I spent probably 3 hours or more trying to write a piece of music that was around 30-45 seconds long. I would come up with something that met the first two criteria, but when I listened back to it while watching the scene, I would say to myself "That doesn't make me feel anything... ok, it makes me feel like crap 'cause I've spent over 3 hours on this and I'm nowhere close to what I want it to sound like!" Yeah, I occasionally talk to myself. :-)

Part of my struggle, especially early on in the process, was in the way that I typically write music. When I'm "riffing" on a guitar, I'm not really watching anything, so I'm not really concentrated on if the riff makes me feel anything for a visual cue. Continuing with that theme, from a physical standpoint, my actual recording setup made it difficult to record acoustic guitar while I was actually watching the scene. I eventually just settled on "writing" while watching the scene, then when it was time to record, I wasn't concerned about watching, as I had already "validated" that the music had the necessary emotion behind it before I began to record.

One thing that really helped me in dealing with the producer was drawing on the experiences I've had co-writing with my best friend Joel. I speak in numbers and he speaks in colors. Because of that, I've learned how to communicate better with people who deal more in generalities and less in specifics, stuff like "Can you make the song sound more orange?" Or in this case, "Can you make cue 10 sound like a Jewish song, but not really too Jewish?" Let me tell ya, THAT one was a challenge, but I think it may be one of my top two or three cues in the whole film.

We were on a pretty tight deadline. Even though I was only responsible for about 12 minutes worth of the film, I still only had about 2 weeks to get it completed. One thing that I wasn't sure how to anticipate would be the revisions process. Fortunately for me, nearly every piece, if not every piece, that I submitted was generally accepted for use in the film. There were usually a couple of tweaks here or there, but I don't recall any major re-writes taking place (thankfully!).

One thing that I learned throughout the process was that in my heart, I felt a feeling of completeness, a feeling that to me was saying, that I was/am doing EXACTLY what I was created and born to do. And by that I mean, working with music in general, not specifically scoring acoustic guitar music to film.

I guess that's it for now. Please feel free to leave me comments or questions and I'd be glad to answer them.

Until next time...
- Big Blue

Scoring to Film, Part 1

It was about a month ago that I was first approached about writing an acoustic guitar score for an indie documentary film. I was very excited about the possibilities but also, a bit nervous as I had never attempted to do that before. I got the opportunity thanks to my friend Lydia Ashton, an incredible composer that I met via the TAXI online forum site (see, ANOTHER reason to consider TAXI). She and I had been working on another project together (which I'll blog about in the future once it's all finalized) when she asked me about assisting her with a documentary that she was working on.

Before I could start on it, I had a phone call with the producer of the film. We went over some of the things he was hoping to hear music-wise in the section that I would be working on, as well as some general background info. It was a great conversation and I was excited to get started right away.

Later that night he sent me a video with the time code display box of the section of the film that I would be scoring, along with some examples of songs/sounds that he was looking to hear for various sections. I also had a copy of the entire film with the temp tracks in place so that I could hear a general idea of what the producer had in mind.

Before I actually spoke to him, I did some research to try and get a gauge on the types of questions I should be asking. I wanted to be prepared. So based on that research, one of my first questions to him was "How married are you to the temp tracks that you used?"

I had read a few stories where some producers had gotten so used to the temp tracks that anything else that was used, just didn't work for them, and they would end up licensing the temp tracks in the end. So I wanted to know what kind of battle I was in for. And while he did like the feel of the temp tracks, he was certain that he wasn't married to any of them.

So armed with the freedom that knowledge provided, I began the process of writing the score.

More to come in Part 2!

Until next time...
- Big Blue