teaching

January Lesson Materials

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Throughout the month of January, there were many resources for my lessons that I worked on. They can all be found under the recently-streamlined “FOR MY STUDENTS” tab.

I started work on a method book for mallets. So far, I have unit 1 which is note-reading exercises in the key of C Major, unit 2 in the key of G Major, and unit 3 in the key of F Major. On the topic of note-reading, I started a ukulele note-reading method book and a guitar note-reading method book. Also for guitar, I created “Beginning Finger-Picking Patterns”, “Beginning Riff and Solo Exercises”, “Which Pentatonic Scales and Modes to Play Over Chords”, “Common Chord Progressions”, and “Reggae Strumming Rhythms”.

I also made a big addition to my Composition/Songwriting page. I included “Which Pentatonic Scales and Modes to Play Over Chords” and “Common Chord Progressions” from my guitar page, and also added staff paper of varying sizes, staves, and orientations. I created an entirely new document, “Composing Phrases, Periods, and ABA Compositions” so that I have a workbook to use with composition students, teaching them how to use common chords progressions found in major and minor scales and modes.

Please let me know if you use any of these teaching materials with your students, and if you find them helpful, or if you have any questions or comments.

Film Music

New Arrangement of “Hero Theme”

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With the new year, I wanted to get back to also focusing on my music, in addition to all of the method books and other lesson materials I had been previously posting. This month, I worked on a new version of my Berklee project “Hero Theme”. It was one of my first assignments that I posted, which was an exercise in using parallel harmony. When I originally did the assignment, we had to hand it in as a PDF of sheet music, since it was just an exercise, and not something where we needed to have a perfectly polished finished product. Even though I already posed it as-is, I always wanted to see how much better it would sound if I did a mockup of it in Logic using better sample libraries. Once I did that though, I started thinking of other little things that I could tweak here and there to make it even better. I ended up writing an intro, and also changed the orchestration a little in order to create more of a build. I hope you enjoy it!

teaching

Wrapping Up 2023

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Here’s a summary of all of the projects I worked on at the end of 2023.

In my Guitar Method Book I added Unit 7 (Minor Bar Chords, Root on the E String) and Unit 8 (Major Bar Chords, Root on the A String). I also started working on some basic riff exercises which I will post once I’ve tried them out with some of my students and revised them. In my Ukulele Method Book I added Unit 6 (The Key of A Major), Unit 7 (The Key of E Major), and Unit 8 (Progressions in Minor Keys). I also started working on a Bass Guitar Method Book with a focus on note-reading.

With my previous set of Practice Tracks, I realized there were two problems: (1) it was taking me forever to make them since I had to be very specific about the bass guitar part so that it would exactly match every chord progression, and (2) if the tempo was too fast for a student then they couldn’t use them at all. In my new Practice Tracks I used just drum set (no bass guitar) so that any chord progression can be played with them. They are organized by number of measures, so you just have to find the right amount of measures and the right musical form for the exercise or song that you want to play with them (four-measure phrases with repeats, 12-Bar Blues with repeats, and even full songs like Jingle Bells which is 32 measures in AABB form). To better accomodate a student’s gradual progress throughout the week, each Practice Track is now at seven different tempi, from slow to fast: 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135, and 150 beats-per-minute. I recommend starting with the middle speed (105 BpM), then adjusting from there (if it’s too fast, go to the previous one and if it’s too slow, go to the next one). Also, they used to be on separate pages (one for ukulele, one for guitar) but now they are all on the PRACTICE TRACKS page in the FOR MY STUDENTS drop-down menu, because they can be used with any instrument (ukulele, guitar, piano, bass guitar, etc.).

My big end of the year project was to create a songbook of winter holiday music. Since all of my private students celebrate Christmas it is mostly Christmas songs, but there are also two popular Hanukkah songs. There are 50 songs total, and each one is in both the keys of C Major and G Major (to accommodate ukulele and guitar chords as well as different voice ranges). Eventually I am going to split it into four separate books (easy songs in C Major, intermediate songs in C Major, easy songs in G Major, and intermediate songs in G Major), but for now it is just one big book. Even though it was originally intended for ukulele and guitar, it can be used by anyone who knows how to read notes on treble clef and/or anyone who knows chords. It can be found on the METHOD BOOK pages for guitar, ukulele, and piano.

Please let me know if you use any of these teaching materials with your students, and if you find them helpful, or if you have any questions or comments.

Film/TV Music

Black Metal and Nightwing Returns Season 2

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I haven’t posted any new music in a while because I’ve been working on the scores to my two biggest projects yet.

The first one was the score to Black Metal (“A black/Asian teen is determined to make it as a heavy metal artist in defiance of his father, a failed jazz musician”), written and directed by Michael Johnson.

As soon as I was finished with that project I had to jump right into the score for Nightwing Returns Season 2, directed by Preston Manee. It will be released as a four-part YouTube series which I will post this links for as the episodes are released. In the meantime, you can listen to the “Episode 1 Intro” in the media player.

teaching

Strumming Rhythms and Practice Tracks

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I recently made some changes to the layout of the “For My Students”  page. It now has a drop-down menu so that you can select the specific instrument that you are looking for.

I started creating Practice Tracks for guitar and ukulele using bass guitar and drum set. You can find them in the new drop-down menu under “For My Students”. Go to the Practice Tracks page for your instrument, look for the lesson you are working on, and match the chord progression from your book to the corresponding audio file. The drums will give you a two-measure (eight-beat) count-off, and then you start playing. So far I have added all of the lessons from Unit 1 (in both books), but I will keep adding more weekly, so keep checking back once you’re caught up.

I also made some changes to my Guitar Method Book and my Ukulele Method Book. I simplified the strumming rhythms throughout the lessons, but I added a Strumming Rhythms Index in the appendix, so that each student can learn new rhythms at their own pace. These advanced rhythms can be applied to previous lessons that they’ve completed, current lessons that they are working on, or any songs they are learning or writing outside of the method book. (If you previously printed the Strumming Rhythms Index for Ukulele, this is an updated version. You don’t need to print the whole thing all at once, maybe just the first few pages to start off with.)

 

teaching

Method Book Updates

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I recently made some updates to my Ukulele Method Book. I combined the Practice Instructions and Fretboard pages into one document so they are easy to print onto one double-sided page that can be used as a bookmark and reference throughout the book. I added the scales and chords used for each key, and I integrated “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in the corresponding key as its own lesson into each unit.  I also added three new units and the Strumming Rhythms Index. I also added a new unit to my Guitar Method Book.

Check out the links to free PDFs on the “For My Students” page.

teaching

Music Lesson Method Books

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Since I’ve been teaching more private lessons lately, I took some time to work on my method books.

In my Guitar Method Book I made the chord symbols bigger and more detailed, added some minor key progressions, and started to incorporate bar chords. I also included a fretboard and practice instructions.

Guitar Chord Practice Instructions
Guitar Method Book 1 Fretboard
Guitar Method Book 1 Unit 1: Major and Minor Chords
Guitar Method Book 1 Unit 2: Common Chord Progressions
Guitar Method Book 1 Unit 3: 12-Bar Blues
Guitar Method Book 1 Unit 4: Sus2 and Sus4 Chords
Guitar Method Book 1 Unit 5: Major Bar Chords, Root on the E string
Coming soon: Unit 6: Minor Bar Chords, Root on the A string.

I also created some Advanced Guitar Exercises.

Advanced Guitar Exercises Introduction: “Chromatic” Exercises
Advanced Guitar Exercises Unit 1: Major Chords, Scales, and Modes
Advanced Guitar Exercises Unit 2: Minor Chords, Scales, and Modes

I recently started writing a Ukulele Method Book.

Ukulele Practice Instructions
Ukulele Method Book Fretboard
Ukulele Method Book Unit 1: The Key of C Major
Ukulele Method Book Unit 2: The Key of G Major
Ukulele Method Book Unit 3: The Key of F Major
Ukulele Method Book Unit 4: The Key of D Major
Ukulele Method Book Unit 5: The Key of Bb Major

I also transcribed some simple songs that can be played on ukulele or guitar.

Frosty the Snowman (in C Major and G Major)
Jingle Bells (in C Major and G Major)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (in C Major and G Major)
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (in C Major and G Major)

Finally, I cleaned up my Music Theory Method Book and sectioned it into units like my other books.

Music Theory Method Book Unit 1
Music Theory Method Book Unit 2
Music Theory Method Book Unit 3
Music Theory Method Book Unit 4
Music Theory Method Book Unit 5

Links to free PDFs of all of these materials (along with my Snare Drum and Drum Set method books) can be found on the “For My Students” page.

Nerds That Geek

Movie Mumble Theme: Hybrid

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From August of 2017 through all of 2018 I had composed/arranged custom themes for the Movie Mumble podcast (hosted by Nerds That Geek). Since January of 2019 I’ve been using an orchestral version of the theme (Movie Mumble Theme: Orchestra) for almost all of the episodes. Now that it’s been four years, I figured that it was time to write a new version of the theme. I wanted to incorporate my influences and personal style preferences, as well as utilize what I had learned at Berklee in my Film Scoring Masters program.

I used elements rock music, percussion ensemble, orchestral music, world music, and electronic music. For “rock music” I used distorted electric guitar, bass guitar, and drum set. For “orchestral music” I used low woodwinds, horns, low brass, timpani, tam-tam, choir, and strings. For “world music” I used wind instruments (zurna, xiao, ney, duduk, and didgeridoo), tanpura, and various percussion instruments (from India, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia). For “electronic music” I used a bass synth with an arpeggiator and wavetable synthesis.

Movie Mumble Theme: Hybrid can be heard for the first time in this month’s episode (January 2023).

Concert Music

A Winter Carol for piano and orchestra

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Seasons Greetings!

I composed A Winter Carol a few years ago for a contest, and I recently cleaned up the orchestration and made a new mockup. If you are interested in performing it with your orchestra, let me know and I can send you a score to look over (if you don’t have access to a piano, we can figure out an alternative). If you have a concert band (or some other ensemble), let me know and I’ll do an arrangement to suit your ensemble.

A Winter Carol showcases the two best parts of winter: sitting inside where it’s warm (maybe with your favorite warm drink) while watching the falling snow, and playing outside in the snow.

Happy Holidays!

Film Music

Berklee Online, Summer Semester, Final Projects

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These next two tracks were the final projects from my Berklee Online Summer Semester.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Fight Scene was the final project in Synthesis, Sampling, and Sound Design in Film Scoring to score a three-minute film clip. Previously I’ve only done action scenes with orchestral instruments (and on those I’m probably guilty of Mickey Mousing), so I wanted to score an action scene with intense electronic sounds that is relentless (as opposed to having an orchestra hit on every punch). All of the percussion sounds and most of the synthesized sounds I used in my score are samples from the clip. For the Winter Soldier, the synth rhythm and percussion groove are based on a paradiddle (RLRR LRLL) which is reflected in the sound choices as well as the panning (his robotic left arm is stronger and metallic, so the right-hand part is a sample of him punching Captain America with his human hand, panned to the right and the left-hand part is samples of two different “metallic punch” sounds panned to the left). I also used filter cutoff automation to lighten and darken the sounds as he moves around (also at one point both sounds go to a higher octave). Black Widow’s percussion sounds are made up of the two footsteps she takes as she is running up to him, the sound of her kicking, and the fast repeated notes are the sound of the little disc that she throws on his arm. I used a reversed sample of the sound of the shield being punched to lead up to the actual sound in the clip. Captain America’s rhythm was made from different sounds made by the shield. When their fight starts, I panned of all Winter Soldier’s rhythms to the left, and put Captain America’s on the right so there was a clear separation of those two parts. I added chords on the right with my “distorted guitar sound” that I used in a previous lesson, and I added a bass line on the left. I kept the music mostly going relentlessly except for a few key moments where I stopped, and every time I did, I used automation to bring all of the filter cutoffs down and slowly bring them back in leading into the next downbeat. Since there was some music in the clip that I had to work around (sections with three slow bass drum hits, a whailing sound when Winter Soldier jumps up onto a car, a big BRAAAAAM as Captain America is running up, some soft staccato strings during the fight, and something like a zurna during the fight), I brought down the original volume of the clip, so that all you can hear is my music, except for a few key sound design moments that I was consciously working around as I was scoring (The explosion at the very beginning, Winter Soldier cocking his gun, Black Widow’s decoy phone conversation-the explosion-Black Widow running up to Winter Soldier, Winter Soldier firing his gun as his arm is temporarily deactivated-pulling the disk off-reactivating his arm, Black Widow getting shot, Winter Soldier punching Captain America’s shield, Winter Soldier punching the ground, Winter Soldier’s knife cutting through the side of the van, the shield hitting Winter Soldier’s arm, Winter Soldier hitting the ground after Captain America throws him).

Iranian Scenario was the final project in Stylistic Adaptations in Film Scoring to score a scene that takes place in a country of our choice. Once we chose a country, we had to research the native music of that country in order to incorporate it into our cue. I wanted to use a mix of Persian and Western instruments because it takes place in Iran but the main character is a Western woman who works in the American Embassy.

This movie takes place in Tehran just before the 1979 revolution.
0:00: MX in on a LS of a Western woman walking down a busy city street.  She doesn’t look totally out of place, but she doesn’t look like she belongs.
0:21: She goes through the gate of the American Embassy, which is guarded by two Marines in dress uniform.
0:27: She sits at her desk and looks deep in thought. She is obviously either a diplomat or an intelligence operative.
0:36: We hear the sound of a large angry crowd chanting what are apparently anti-American slogans.
0:41: CUT to the crowd.
0:49: The woman rushes out of her office and goes out a side entrance to a back street. She runs down the street avoiding the crowd and…
1:05: enters a local coffee shop (think hookahs) and meets a man wearing traditional Arab robes. He is agitated, but glad to see her, and they have an intense conversation.  During the course of this conversation…
1:19: his robe opens slightly to reveal a 9mm Beretta in a holster.
1:26: They leave the coffeeshop and go hurrying down the street away from the mob.
1:33: Dissolve to sunrise over the mountains in Northern Iran, and the woman and the man are looking out over a deserted valley.
1:44: MX OUT.

Composer for Film, Television, Video Games, Theatre, and the Concert Stage. All content Copyright © 1994-2025 Timothy D. Girard. All Rights Reserved.