New guy, With a few questions about chasing the dream.

Hello,

I'm James, I'm a working comic book artist but lately I've had a bit of a change of heart.

I'm sure I'm crazy but I have been wanting to work my way towards making music for indie movies, or games.

Not my first time taking on an "Impossible" job. I went from loosing my job to being a fairly accomplished comic artist with no skill in art what so ever in a little under a year. I have tapped into some part of me that pushes me to relentlessly improve at what I'm doing and a weird ability to stay hungry.

Sadly though art feels a bit off for me, storytelling is the goal in this life, but it seems like I'm using the wrong set of tools. I have always played alot with music since I was about 3 and I have now moved onto 6 string, bass and keyboard a bit. I've always been around music and been in bands, had bands in the family and a few local recording studio hookups.

My studio is eh fairly modest but I'm learning everyday to get the most out of what I have. My goal for music despite if I can turn a profit from it is to have the lowest overhead I possibly can until it starts paying for it's self like my art has.

I scored an M-Audio Ozone with , Reason and Recycle for 50 bucks. A Washburn pro series bass for free from a buddy. A pretty decent Samick Acoustic Electric from my uncle for 75$ and Ii use Reaper a bit and do a lot of midi work with my Ipad.

I guess my biggest question as a noob is if it's possible to start making any decent money from small games or video gigs or possibly even mobile games? I have trolled alot of big music forums and the universal message has always been NO, don't even try it, just kill yourself and save yourself the trouble. =/

It is this way in art as well, and I cracked the code in a few months, so if nothing else it is a challenge. I don't need much, and I don't expect to get hollywood rich. I live in the middle of a field in Ohio, so 2-3k a month around here is decent money.

Also I guess it's worth noting that I'm already full time freelance and have a lot of time to work at this and learn.

So yea, that is my story and quite a novel =/ but I figured some background would give a better idea of my situation.

Looking forward to hearing what the young and more optimistic side of the fence has to say!

Thanks!

A few questions for you: How well do you know your counterpoint? What genre of music do you write in (jazz, classical, rock, pop etc.)? How accomplished are you at musical composition? What are your inspirations? And finally: Do you use computer notation softwares or good old fashioned manuscript paper?

A few questions for you: How well do you know your counterpoint? What genre of music do you write in (jazz, classical, rock, pop etc.)? How accomplished are you at musical composition? What are your inspirations? And finally: Do you use computer notation softwares or good old fashioned manuscript paper?

I won't lie I'm not a true composer, well at least not yet, so I'm just getting into proper music theory and plan to go back and do things the right way.

I never did take band in Highschool or anything, I was always more into rock/punk/metal so all of my music then was 6 string and messing with some drumming and such.

Lately I have made a good amount of orchestra style music that I guess you could call classical though any true composer would probably just call it rubbish, lol. I love the feel and sound of big epic movie and game soundtracks and love to create atmosphere in my tunes.

As far as inspirations I listen to a ton of different kinds of music, but here lately Coheed and Cambria have been a huge one, and Rush, and Protest the Hero, though these aren't composers they do tend to be pretty theatrical bands. As far as composers I have always loved Danny Elfman's work and I think the first score that I ever noticed was the famous Batman theme music for the first Burton film. I also listen to the Vitamin String Quartet quite a lot as well.

I guess I'm not very classically trained and come from the punk/rock/grunge side of things but I'm more than willing to put in the work to better enlighten myself.

Also I use midi input and music notation software, I write my own guitar stuff from time to time but that is all in tab. ><

To give you an example, here is my first ever attempt at a game music style piece, also my first time writing to video.

http://youtu.be/cQoFZe13jF4

In hindsight I see that I didn't really nail the mood and the vastness I should have in the action scene but I think independent of the video it is a semi decent little bit of music for a first attempt.

Thar music that you wrote isn't at all that bad. I would suggest maybe adding in some more instruments to give it a more dense texture and maybe make it a little more fast-paced. It is after all Mortal Kombat. From that YouTube video I would say that you have the makings of a pretty good composer for video games.

I'm not sure if you'd really be into it, but check out Michael Nyman's music for some of Peter Greenaway's films. Michael Nyman is one of my favourite composers who have written movie (and video game actually) soundtracks.

I'm not sure if you'd really be into it, but check out Michael Nyman's music for some of Peter Greenaway's films. Michael Nyman is one of my favourite composers who have written movie (and video game actually) soundtracks.

Thanks for the kind words!

I will also check Nyman out and let you know my first impressions, I'm open to pretty much any composers at the moment, it's kind of a whole new world I'm just starting to explore.

First of all, I would suggest you browse through froglegs' post history before you take anything he says seriously. He's not exactly our most informed member. Or brightest. He's stupid is what I'm trying to say.

Secondly, I like your optimism and perseverance. There are some members who have written stuff for things and know a lot about music. Maybe one of them will give some good advice. Be wary of the pile of theory and technical knowledge ahead of you though.

First of all, I would suggest you browse through froglegs' post history before you take anything he says seriously. He's not exactly our most informed member. Or brightest. He's stupid is what I'm trying to say.

Secondly, I like your optimism and perseverance. There are some members who have written stuff for things and know a lot about music. Maybe one of them will give some good advice. Be wary of the pile of theory and technical knowledge ahead of you though.

Thanks for the heads up, it's been a while since my forum days ;)

Also I welcome any and all help I can get, I've also been stock piling some bookmarks from around the forum on various subjects, mainly Music Theory.

Gonna be a pretty exiting week, New keyboard and software is shipping, a lot of fun stuff to read up on, and Skyrim drops on Friday full of amazing music and visuals!

Well , there are a few methods to learning composition -

Write first and acquire the theory as you go, or

Do both simultaneously

Withold from composing anything serious or ambitious and get down your theory.

I am in favor of doing both simultaneously. But the music business is a difficult one. If you really want to get a perspective from a young but experienced composer of game music and small films look up Marius Malthazzar. He isn't around here much - probably has projects but he may have to offer sound advice. Also check some of his posts.

In the meantime post your stuff here and find in your area the nearest composer community by you. Ohio is home to a few top classical music schools in the US and even in the world. Here are some Oberlin College in Oberlin is one of the top music schools in the US and its Conservatory is internationally recognized for v ery high quality instruction. Other schools - Cleveland Institute of Music and Dana School of Music, Youngstown State University and Case Western Reserve have good to great music programs. Study try to get private lessons with composers who attended one of these schools. Another option is take course through extension programs or adult offerings thru a school with a good music department.

Other things to do - look for film composer websites and attend gaming conventions.

Good luck.

Well , there are a few methods to learning composition -

Write first and acquire the theory as you go, or

Do both simultaneously

Withold from composing anything serious or ambitious and get down your theory.

I am in favor of doing both simultaneously. But the music business is a difficult one. If you really want to get a perspective from a young but experienced composer of game music and small films look up Marius Malthazzar. He isn't around here much - probably has projects but he may have to offer sound advice. Also check some of his posts.

In the meantime post your stuff here and find in your area the nearest composer community by you. Ohio is home to a few top classical music schools in the US and even in the world. Here are some Oberlin College in Oberlin is one of the top music schools in the US and its Conservatory is internationally recognized for v ery high quality instruction. Other schools - Cleveland Institute of Music and Dana School of Music, Youngstown State University and Case Western Reserve have good to great music programs. Study try to get private lessons with composers who attended one of these schools. Another option is take course through extension programs or adult offerings thru a school with a good music department.

Other things to do - look for film composer websites and attend gaming conventions.

Good luck.

Thanks for letting me know!

Checked out his website and love his work!

Maybe we can summon him forth with some magical musical god soul stone or something.

First of all, I would suggest you browse through froglegs' post history before you take anything he says seriously. He's not exactly our most informed member. Or brightest. He's stupid is what I'm trying to say.

Secondly, I like your optimism and perseverance. There are some members who have written stuff for things and know a lot about music. Maybe one of them will give some good advice. Be wary of the pile of theory and technical knowledge ahead of you though.

Not ALL of my posts and stuff are stupid.

I totally agree about the large scale compositions. In fact, I would even recommend starting off with just unaccompanied woodwind or string; it forces you to make the best possible use of what you have.

Thanks for the reply's everyone, and also thanks for the great advice.

Looks like I'm going to start hammering on Theory, might as well do it right the first time.

If anyone has any good links for that kind of thing, I would love to check them out. So far I've been poking around a bit on http://www.musictheory.net/lessons and I'm liking that a good deal so far.

Thought I would throw this in here real fast. Some hardware came in the mail today so I pretty much tore my studio apart and re did it all. Now it's 1/2 art and 1/2 music.

Nice studio! I would say that being from a pop/rock background isn't really a disadvantage for the type of music you want to write. A lot of film and game music is in these styles, so if you learn about classical music it will be an expansion of your knowledge rather than going back to square one.

My advice would be: firstly to remember that composition is like anything else: you have to practice to get good at it. So write as much music as possible. You'll laugh at it in a few years when you've improved, but then remember that you had to write bad stuff to learn how to write good stuff. Don't worry about comparing yourself to others at this stage; the important thing is to have a work ethic where you constantly demand the best of your ability. And I agree with the advice to forget about writing huge orchestral masterpieces for now. I had to have several abortive goes at a symphony before I realised writing for choir and string trio and doing orchestrations of other's pieces was a better way to learn. Now, ten years down the line, I have the technique to compose for orchestra with confidence.

There is a lot of theory and specialist knowledge to learn and you can to some extent choose how much of it you want to learn. However, I find if you're really interested in something then seeking out new knowledge becomes a pleasure not a chore. To some people, reading orchestration books must seem like forced exam revision. For me, it's a delight to discover new things about instruments and appreciate the craft of others. Don't be put off by the long haul.

If you want to write film music then find a film-maker who is looking for a composer. It's always to good idea to try and collaborate with somebody a with a similar level of ability than yourself. They will not expect absolute perfection as they know they haven't achieved it themselves but they will be grateful for your efforts and you will both get experience from the project. And you'll feel good from having done something publicly and completed a project, which will offset the fact there is no money involved because the guy making the film isn't doing it to make any. Networking is essential, at any level.

Finally, surround yourself with the thing you want to study. Listen to as much music as possible, read books, play your instruments, write, noodle, see what others are doing. I've become increasingly aware of the fact that doing music seriously has to be a lifestyle choice and not just a job. You will learn most by copying what others do and then making it your own, but you have to be immersed in it.

Danny Elfman was pop/rock before he started writing film music. Sometimes it might possibly be an advantage starting like this (but I'm not entirely sure though)!