Here is a new mix of Toys in the Attic just in time for Halloween! I also created a video from footage taken at the remote recording session with Budapest Scoring. This was written as a score for the following scenario: “Teen ghost hunters searching the attic of an abandoned mansion, looking for signs of a young changeling poltergeist that’s been encountered by several late-night visitors. All of a sudden, every toy in the attic springs to life, and the kids run for their lives!” I ended the piece with music that is supposed to signify that the kids have been turned into toys by the changeling poltergeist.
Tag Archives: Berklee Online
New Arrangement of “Hero and Lyrical Themes”
This month I updated “Hero and Lyrical Themes” which was another Berklee assignment that I originally did in Sibelius, but I wanted to put it into Logic to see how much better I could make it sound. For the original assignment I wanted to write a piece in sonata form, using a heroic A theme and a lyrical B theme like many film score do (Star Wars, Superman, etc.). To keep it short and sweet, I didn’t use any transitions between the themes, and I had a very short development. For this new version I wanted to expand upon the development since it feels a little rushed in the original. While I was at it, I also cleaned the partwriting in the harmonizations of the themes throughout the piece. I did all of my composition in Sibelius, then transferred all the parts over to Logic.
In the Exposition there is a “heroic” A Theme for the brass (the melody is in the horns and trombones over a C pedal) in C Major, and a contrasting “lyrical” B Theme for the woodwinds and strings in F minor. The new Development more than doubles the length of the entire piece (the original version is about 2:00, the new one is 4:30), because I wanted to think of it as music I would write for the middle of a film where I would write a lot of music that references the themes, but doesn’t give them a full statement until the end. It starts in the same key as the B Theme (F minor), with a rhythmic pedal in the timpani and low strings. The rhythm is meant to be a complement to the A Theme, and then the low woodwinds (opposite of high brass) play a chromatic reference to the A Theme. The next section modulates to Bb minor with a new rhythmic pedal that is a complement to the B Theme, and then the low brass (opposite of high winds) play a chromatic reference to the B Theme. There is another modulation to Ab minor where the ideas based on the A and B Themes are used together, both to create chaos, as well as to foreshadow the end of the piece. The Development ends with a big move from an Ab minor chord to a G Major chord to start to pull the piece back to C Major. The Retransition is made up of chromatically-rising fragments of the A and B themes over a G pedal, leaving the brass out to complement the next section. The Recapitulation starts with the expected return to the A Theme in the brass in the key of C Major, however this time the melody is in the trumpets (first time we hear the trumpets) and horns, and it is harmonized in the low brass (as opposed to just a C pedal). The B Theme is also in C Major, as expected, which gives it a refreshing brightness as opposed to the darker F minor version at the beginning. The piece ends with both themes played simultaneously, showing that they were tied together from the very beginning.
New Year’s Resolutions
For this post, instead of writing about the latest additions to my method books, or the most recent piece of music I finished composing, I’d like to write about something different. Now that it’s Pumpkin Spice Season and almost Spooky Season, I’ve been thinking about how at the end of every year the topic of “New Year’s Resolutions” comes up, and usually they are associated with initial optimism, followed by disappointment by around January 3rd. Why do we do this to ourselves? Is it the appeal of a “new year, new me” or is it out of guilt because of all the things we haven’t accomplished so far? I’ve found that the best way to look at New Year’s Resolutions is to not expect to be successful within the first few days of January, but instead to implement them throughout the entire new year. I wanted to share what I’ve done in the past, and what I’m planning to do this year, in order to have success with my New Year’s Resolutions.
STEP 1: MAKE YOUR RESOLUTIONS (PREPARE AHEAD OF TIME)
I am posting this in September because too often it sneaks up on us and we feel the need to throw something together at the last minute. Brainstorm a list of all of the things you would like to change, remove, or add in your life (at this point be optimistic). Add a priority scale to each of your items, but then arrange them by difficulty, with the easiest to accomplish first (at this point be realistic). Start with some easy things (even if they aren’t that important) in order to build confidence, but also include some long-term goals (some of which you might not even start for a few months). It can be difficult to start new things in the middle of winter when it is dark and cold and we just want to stay inside and keep warm, so start with things you can do at home. Plan to save some of your resolutions until spring when it is starting to get warmer and the sun is rising earlier (like leaving the house at 6am to go to the gym for example). Not everything has to start on January 1 and continue uninterrupted. Spring is still part of the “new year”.
When I make my list, I think about any previous projects that I should finish first, and which new projects I want to start. I think about any routines I want to start or improve on, like practicing more ukulele, guitar, and bass guitar. Also what I want to do for my mental and physical health, like less time on social media, more time reading books, more time with hobbies that don’t have anything to do with music (building LEGO sets, building puzzles, playing board games, playing video games, and watching movies), more time going outside and taking walks, or at least riding my exercise bike. In addition to how I want to spend my time on my own, I also want to try to spend more time with family and friends: spending quality time with my wife, hanging out with local friends, calling friends and family in Rhode Island, and also flying out to visit them.
STEP 2: CREATE SPACE FOR YOUR RESOLUTIONS (FILL YOUR TIME WITH HOBBIES AND ACTIVITIES)
I think that this is the most important part of being successful with New Year’s Resolutions. Come January, you won’t be able to cram a bunch of new things into an already packed schedule, you need to make room in your schedule in order to be able to do all of those new things. The best way to do that is to add a bunch of things to your schedule leading up to the end of the year (especially in December) that you can stop doing on January 1st. What fall/winter holidays do you celebrate? What can you do to enjoy them more? What are some things you could do at home (put up decorations, holiday arts and crafts, watch holiday themed TV shows/movies, read books/stories, listen to holiday music, etc.)? Where are some places you could go (apple picking, haunted hay rides, etc.)?
Here’s what I add to my schedule in order to enjoy the end-of-the-year holidays more. In October I watch Bob’s Burgers and The Simpsons Halloween episodes, and maybe a few horror movies. In November I watch Bob’s Burgers Thanksgiving episodes, but I mostly use this month to catch up on any projects that might have fallen behind and to hopefully get ahead on a few things before December. In December I watch the Christmas episodes of many TV shows including Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, The Office, Schitt’s Creek, and Hawkeye. I also watch many Christmas movies, some of which have been a tradition since I was a child (Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Batman Returns, etc.). I also have a number of Christmas-themed LEGO sets that I build throughout the month. Last year I compiled a Christmas Songbook for ukulele and guitar that I use with my students, but I also play at home for fun and with any friends and family who want to do a singalong.
STEP 3: PREPARE TO START YOUR RESOLUTIONS (THE LAST WEEK OF DECEMBER)
If you celebrate Christmas, the week after can be about getting the last little bit of Christmas enjoyment, relaxing/recovering, or getting some last minute things done before the end of the year. Take stock of all of the seasonal/holiday things you have been doing throughout the end of the year that are about to fall away, and how much extra time you will have as a result. Remind yourself of all of the easy, indoor resolutions you are about to start, and reassure yourself that you are saving some for the spring, so you don’t have to worry about those.
I like to try to do a mix of finishing any projects that are almost done so that I can get them out of the way, but also taking the time to relax and enjoy my only real time off, before I hit the ground running for another year.
STEP 4: DO YOUR RESOLUTIONS YEAR-ROUND (FOLLOW YOUR PLAN, BUT BE KIND TO YOURSELF)
Once the new year hits, replace all of the time you spent on holiday activities with your New Year’s Resolutions. Start with the easy ones to get the ball rolling and gradually move to the more difficult ones. Remember that not every resolution has to be completed in the first day/week/month. Also, don’t require yourself to start on January 1st. Be kind to yourself and if you slip up a little bit, don’t get discouraged. The “New Year” in “New Year’s Resolution” should refer to the entire year, not just New Year’s Day or the month of January.
For 2024 my big New Year’s Resolution was to “finish things”. I wanted to finish my score for the Noghtwing series, finish polishing and posting the rest of my Berklee assignments, and finish some of my method books. I did finish the Nightwing music, and I am almost done with my Berklee music (I have a few more to post before the end of the year). Where I needed to be kind to myself was with my method books. Because of the needs of some of my students, I ended up having to start a bunch of new method books (note-reading for ukulele, guitar, bass guitar, mallet instruments, etc.). While I didn’t reach my exact goal, it wasn’t because I was being lazy, because I still did a ton of work on all the new method books instead. Pivoting my expectations helped me to not feel like a failure. In 2025 I’m planning to actually finish some of the method books that I didn’t get to finish this year, and also start the process of publishing them. Whereas 2024 was about finishing old things, I am mostly looking at 2025 as a year to start some new things. New practice routines, new projects, new revenue streams, new hobbies, and also just looking at how I am moving through life in a new and different way.
I hope all of this has helped in some way, and please feel free to let me know if it has. Good luck with your New Year’s Resolutions!
“Town Music” (New Arrangement of “Pastoral Theme”)
This month I worked on updating “Pastoral Theme” because it was originally written in Sibelius, and I always wanted to see what it would sound like if I gave it the DAW treatment. It reminded me of the style of music you might hear when playing a video game and visiting a town, so I changed the name to “Town Music”. Before taking it out of Sibelius I rewrote the end of each phrase and changed the bass rhythms, because when I originally did it as an assignment, it was good enough and I was trying to learn how to write things quickly and move on from them. I think the rewrite is a little more interesting and flows a little better, so I’m glad I made the changes.
I also thought this would be a good opportunity to compare my different string libraries. The music is meant to repeat (like video game music would), but instead of an exact repeat, I switched to a different string library, using five of them, one right after the other. I fiddled with them as little as possible, to see which ones sounded best right out of the box, so I would know which ones to use if I’m under a tight deadline. I used the same modulation and expression on all of them, mostly just to create the overall subtle dynamic contour. I also didn’t do any panning, because I wanted to just rely on each of their seating positions when they were originally recorded. I had to do some balancing, because the ranges of their default volumes were all over the place, and for the most part I used the same reverbs (as well as a few other effects) on all of them, with a few slight adjustments when necessary. On one of them I also had to do some pretty drastic surgical EQ because a few notes had some crazy overtones piercing through. Which one(s) do you like most/least (A, B, C, D, or E)?
New Arrangement of “Hero Theme”
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!
Berklee Online, Summer Semester, Final Projects
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.
Berklee Online, Summer Semester, Week 11
These next two tracks were from my Berklee Online Summer Semester, Week 11.
Haunted Spaceship was the assignment in Synthesis, Sampling, and Sound Design in Film Scoring to “create a one-minute evolving ambient soundscape using granular synthesis and ring modulation … use any of the devices, processes, and/or techniques from this lesson that interest you most in your soundscape.” I used Logic’s Flex Time to slow two drum loops down to 5 BpM. I staggered them and then panned them on either side and added a little Ringshifter which gave them a buzzing quality. My center line is from Alchemy with two simple lines moving back and forth chromatically. I used automation to control the size, density, num taps, and tap spacing to gradually go from all the way up to all the way down so that the sound gradually degrades throughout the piece. I also added Ringshifter to this line to give it extra bite.
Medieval Scenario was the assignment in Stylistic Adaptations in Film Scoring to “Adapt the … Kyrie VIII from Mass VIII, Gregorian Chant (Brébeuf Hymnal) … and create a cue to the scenario given … create your own variation of the chant melody by extracting a phrase or by doing your own melodic variation and developing that … the resulting music should have a contemporary sound, but incorporate some element of the musical styles of the late Middle Ages or Renaissance … the ensemble should have a large, big-budget sound, and must use some element or elements of Medieval music.” I wanted the opening to be pretty big and mostly high, since it’s an aerial scenery shot. Throughout the cue I used mostly open perfect 4ths and 5ths with an occasional triad (especially at a half cadence). For the travelers I used timpani quarter notes to represent them walking, a men’s choir (three part harmony) for the three monks, a men’s choir melody for the lead monk, one of each woodwind for the family, and harp playing arpeggios for the jongleur (I used harp instead of lute or guitar because I figured they might get buried in all the orchestration). At this point they are tired and possibly starting to give up hope that they will ever find their destination so I used the relative minor. When they see the spire I went full tutti with the orchestration (including chimes for church bells) and returned to the relative major because their hope is renewed. The music dissolves and becomes more peaceful as they arrive at their destination. I used the three-part male voices singing reverently as the monks walk down the main aisle in the cathedral.
0:00: MX IN on an establishing aerial shot of the moors in central England. It is the fifteenth century. The camera pans down to a dirt track and at…
0:17: we see a handful of travelers. It is a diverse group of people walking behind a cart pulled by two oxen with a horseman guarding the rear. As we get closer, we see the group is led by a monk with a shaved head. There is a family of parents and two small children, a jongleur carrying a stringed instrument, and three more monks.
0:31: they come over a rise and in the distance we see the spire of a large cathedral, indicating their destination.
0:40: cut to the group arriving at the gates of the walled city
0:47: cut to the monks entering the cathedral, walking down the main aisle and kneeling at the altar.
1:03: MX OUT at as they pray.
Berklee Online, Summer Semester, Week 10
These next five tracks were from my Berklee Online Summer Semester, Week 10 in Synthesis, Sampling, and Sound Design in Film Scoring.
Eye was an exercise to “create your own vocal chop … put any other instrument parts along with it if needed to help us feel the melody … make sure the vocal chops are the feature.” The source sound was from a vocal track a friend of mine did for a secret project I’m working on, and I sampled a section from when he says the word “eyes” (I cut the ‘s’ off, so the sample is just “eye”).
Tormented was an exercise to “process your sample with a variety of effects … apply modulation … use any tool that we have covered so far to process the sound … create a short sequence with the sound by itself.” I used a different part of the previously-mentioned project with my friend where he sings “tormented”.
KtFA BTAS was an exercise to “take a vocal sample and use any combination of Pitch Shifter, Pitch Correction, and Vocal Transformer to create a new and compelling sound … use any additional effects to make the sound even more interesting … create an eight-bar sequence using your new sound.” I used a longer clip from the same project, and I reversed the words so they wouldn’t be recognizable. I put it on four different tracks (SATB), each with different combinations of extremes of changing the pitch and formant and combining those with Robotize.
De Profundis Excerpt was an exercise to “create your own vocal or choose a vocal sample … set up your vocoder … create a MIDI chord progression … create an eight-bar sequence with your vocoded vocal part.” I used a recording of my wife speaking the first four lines from De Profundis (from a previous project). I had automation gradually move the Formant Stretch and Formant Shift from low and narrow to low and wide to high and wide to high and narrow. I also added a “cathedral” reverb because it seemed fitting.
Alien Religious Service was the assignment to “Create a one- to two-minute piece using vocal synthesis and processing as the main feature … use any of the devices, processes, and/or techniques from this lesson that interest you most … use your own perspective on composing with vocal synthesis, sampling, and sound design.” I used a verse and chorus (or chorus and verse since it plays in reverse) from the same project that I’ve been using. I have one instance running through the vocoder at the center. I used the chord progression from the song (also in reverse) for the MIDI notes for the vocoder. I added some effects (chorus, phaser, reverb, and delay), and used a “middle of the road” setting for the vocoder. Since the melody has a lot of space, I created a “call and response” effect to fill in the gaps. I created far-left and far-right parts, and used automation to bring those parts in during the rests. The reversed vocals, vocoder, and the call and response created the overall effect of a religious service for aliens.
Berklee Online, Summer Semester, Weeks 8 & 9
These next four tracks were from my Berklee Online Summer Semester, Weeks 8 and 9 in Synthesis, Sampling, and Sound Design in Film Scoring.
Two Beats was a Week 8 exercise to “load a preset kit available within your drum sampler … tweak at least four of the individual sample’s settings to your taste … create a 16-bar drum loop in the four-on-the-floor style … add a drum fill in the eighth and sixteenth bars with your new version of the drum kit featuring the newly affected sounds … duplicate your drum kit to a new track … create another 16-bar drum loop in hip-hop style using syncopation in the kick drum … remember to add drum fills at bar eight and at the end of the 16-bar loop to help with the loop’s turnaround.” I added a fadeout to the snare/rim shot because it was ringing out way too long and I like a dryer snare drum. I used the EQ to fatten up the bass drum and snare drum a little bit. I brought the levels of the toms up and the snare down so they would match a little better. I reversed the clap sound and used it to lead into the snare hits on 2 and 4.
My Amen Brother Edit was a Week 8 exercise to “import the audio file of the “Amen Brother” drum break … chop up the sample on the downbeats of the music … lay out the slices on the separate pads … change at least four of the sample slices … create a 16-bar loop, remembering to add drum fills around the eighth and sixteenth bars.” On my main bass, I boosted the low end, on my main snare I boosted the middle. I also used EQ on everything to bring down the ride (since it’s in every sample and can get grating). I took one of the snare samples and one of the bass samples and reversed them (and used those for one of my fills). I took another snare and bass sample and did a low pass filter with some resonance and used those for another fill. I added stereo delay and a phaser and added them to one of my “Ride and Snare ghost note” samples and used that in another fill.
Winter Soldier Groove was my Week 8 assignment to “construct a 16-sound sample drum kit, which can include any sounds you find inspiring and interesting … you may include drum sounds, synth sounds, found sounds, etc. … create an eight-bar drum loop … create three variations of the eight-bar loop, making a total of 32 bars.” Since I wanted to start working toward my final project (scoring a fight scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier), I decided to make a kit that relates to the film clip and the music I’m planning to do for it. I went through the entire clip and sampled all of the sounds that I thought were interesting. I ended up with over 60 samples of punches, kicks, crashes, and other sound effects. Eventually I picked out four bass-like sounds that I liked (mostly punches), then I found hits that had more treble in them, so they worked better as snares/drums (some of them have a metallic aspect to them because of the Winter Soldier’s robotic left arm). Then I picked four small metallic hits for hi-hat type sounds. The last four sounds are specialty sound effects (a gun cocking, electricity, a whirling sound, and the sound of the Winter Soldier’s arm). It was interesting creating the groove, because first of all I had a variety of basses and snares to use. It was also great to have four different hi-hat like sounds to use simultaneously, and make rhythms that one person alone on a drum set couldn’t do by themself. I also liked utilizing the sound effects for most of the fills, as opposed to traditional toms.
Alien Zombies was my Week 9 assignment to “create a one- to two-minute piece using wavetable synthesis and distortion.” For this assignment I wanted to get away from thinking how I normally do and just focus on timbre and tension. I was inspired by a synth patch shown in class where the LFO was drawn to produce a “short short long” rhythm, so I created some LFOs of my own for different variations and speeds. I started with a patch that reminded me of sounds I’ve heard in the “Annihilation” soundtrack and then added a higher “bubbling” synth sound. For the transition I added a driving bass part that gradually fades in and a Shepard tone to create a build into a suspenseful cutoff and a bar of silence. The B section starts with a distorted guitar-like synth sound, then the bass from the end of the A section returns, followed by a higher synth sound, a “robotic” wobble bass sound, and a high “glassy” synth for more contrast to all of the lower sounds. The Shepard tone returns, leading to another suspenseful cutoff, and the very first low “Annihilation” pulse returns momentarily before fading out. I wanted to go for a horror vibe, that would work in a story about aliens, but since the second half reminded me of the music from the first “Resident Evil” movie, it turns out that the aliens are also zombies.
Berklee Online, Summer Semester, Week 7
These next two tracks were from my Berklee Online Summer Semester, Week 7.
Acoustic Guitar Build was the assignment in Synthesis, Sampling, and Sound Design in Film Scoring to “create a one- to two-minute sample-based piece … choose a sample or multiple samples that are of importance to you … create a multi-layered instrument … manipulate the sample using filters, LFOs, envelopes, detuning, reverse, or effects.” I sampled my acoustic guitar by recording one note from each string all at the 2nd fret (low to high, F#, B, E, A, C#, F#), and then then bent the pitches up or down to fill out the basic chord-playing range. I wanted to capture the individual timbres of the different strings (without having to sample every chromatic note), which adds to the sound of voice-leading when playing chords. I recorded them each at soft, medium, and loud dynamics, as well as snap pizz I kept one version of this “instrument” unedited so that it would sound more like an actual guitar, but I also made a version with just the snap pizz sound reversed. For the bass part I used the technique I had used before where I added an arpeggiator to play quarter notes on a repeated note with stereo delay, but this time I had 8th notes on the left and dotted 8th notes on the right so it creates an “8th and two 16ths” rhythm. I added my clean multi-layered acoustic guitar with an arpeggiator, and I voiced the chords the way they would be on an actual guitar. Next I used a “vocal ah with harmonic sweep” pad that I had made for an earlier exercise (a sample of my wife’s voice from a piece I wrote years ago). The next layer is the reversed guitar snap pizz sample instrument with a ping pong delay to create some syncopation and complexity. In the B section the chords change and the bass rhythm in the stereo delay switches to 8th note triplets, the guitar arpeggiator switches from 16th notes to 16th note triplets, the reversed snap pizz guitar switches from dotted 8ths to quarter note triplets, and I took out the harmonic sweep pad and replaced it with a layered sample (consisting of a vocal ah, a clarinet and viola swell, and a low brass hit instrument I created for an earlier exercise). The first phrase is softer so the brass hits don’t get triggered until the second phrase. The return to the A section has the chords from the A section, but with the triplet rhythms of the B section, the “harmonic sweep” pad from the A section, the layered instrument from the B section, and in the second phrase the sampled guitar has now reached the velocity level where all the notes are triggering the (unprocessed) snap pizz. samples, for a percussive, climactic ending.
Deadwood Main Title was a two-part assignment (completed in Week 8) in Stylistic Adaptations in Film Scoring to rescore the opening main title sequence from the HBO series, Deadwood: “prepare an audio draft of your cue outlining the basic themes, instruments, and groove (if any) and receive feedback … for the following week you will submit a final version with a full score … watch the main title several times, and if you have never seen the show, watch at least the first episode in order to get a sense of the story, tone, and pacing of the action … then decide if there are any specific instruments that you would like to use, such as acoustic guitar, fiddle, banjo, harmonica, jaw harp, mandolin, etc.” Since the tone of the show is very dark and serious, I didn’t feel like piano would fit as well as it does in other westerns (piano works well in WestWorld, especially because the player piano is a metaphor for the hosts, but this is a very different show). I also thought that banjo would be too “light-hearted” and I didn’t have access to harmonica, jaw harp, or mandolin, so I focused mainly on acoustic guitar and fiddle. The A section uses the chord progression Dm Em Am Dm, and the B section uses E minor blues. In my first draft the A section (Intro) had a picked acoustic guitar playing arpeggios, a second acoustic guitar playing low power chords, and the bass played by a low string section. At the B section I added “guitar percussion” (hitting different parts of the guitar to get percussive sounds) and the fiddle played the melody. At the return of the A section (Interlude) I added a strummed acoustic guitar, and for the final B section the fiddle melody went up an octave, and I added a lower rhythmic fiddle part. After the climax (where the Deadwood title card is shown), I removed the fiddles, strummed acoustic guitar and the guitar percussion for the final B section (End). Since one of the comments in my professor’s feedback was that the “melody is a bit static … it could use a little more interest (shape) in choice spots … pay attention to how often it comes to rest on the note E, which on the one hand anchors it, but on the other hand makes it a bit static.” I re-wrote the melody and gave it more of an arc, and made sure that E was only used once at the very beginning of the melody, once for the climax of the melody, and then to end the melody. I also added a second fiddle harmonizing the melody underneath, which was another of his suggestions (the second fiddle part uses E a few times). He also said that I should add more instrumental colors and textures. I added some fast string arpeggios in the A section, and for the bass I took out the low string section and instead used an acoustic bass that doesn’t come in until the second A section. In the second B section I added a body percussion rhythm and at the climax when the title card is shown I added a vibra-slap and bass drum hit for extra emphasis.
Tim Girard 