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Need Help On Music Theory

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Hello,

I am a self thought hobbyst and i really like film music, always trying to improve on composing but i think i lack in the theory part of it.

As an example : https://soundcloud.com/hasan-can-eker/hybrid2/s-y8gHn

I have been working on this track lately, the problem is... the musical side of it is not convincing? I know some basic music theory that i learnt from the internet but i feel like something is missing. So what i need is a mentor to move me to the next level. Someone who can teach me the theorical tools that i have to know strictly. 

Im less a mentor and more just a music theory teacher for hire. But I can point you in the direction of more theory help online and a few books if you want. 

*dementor joke*

There are a couple of threads on this forum already of people asking about good books for beginners.  Those might be a good place to start.  

You should also ask yourself, do you really need theory lessons or composition lessons. 

Keep in mind, theory knowledge will not always improve your creative output. 

Mentors are real people, not cyber people. There is no subsitute for real people.

  • Author

You should also ask yourself, do you really need theory lessons or composition lessons. 

Keep in mind, theory knowledge will not always improve your creative output. 

 

Thanks for reply, so what can you offer for composition lessons? What is the difference?

Thanks for reply, so what can you offer for composition lessons? What is the difference?

 

What I offer is in my signature. 

Music theory lessons teach you how to analyze music, understand its workings, and gives you the tools to delve deep into the music you study including your own. Though you can learn some useful tools through studying theory, it cannot, however, make you more creative musically.

A composition lesson is more a mentor relationship. In each lesson you present what ever you are working on and we discuss it, suggest things to make it better, and iron out various things that don't work or things that could use development. The teacher tries to learn your style and enhance upon that pushing your music to the next level. Some music theory, music history, and orchestration are discussed, but not at great length. All suggestions could be taken with a grain of salt if you don't like them.  

  • 3 months later...

I have been working on this track lately, the problem is... the musical side of it is not convincing?

 

If the musical side of your...music is not to your liking, maybe you have bigger problems than just needing a mentor. But I don't mean to discourage anyone from doing what they enjoy, so my advice is to really just study how other film composers did their thing. The difficulty I find with this direct approach is that getting scores for film music may be difficult (or impossible depending on the film,) so sometimes you just have to guide yourself just by listening to it. However, what I think is really important is to observe how film and music are used together rather than just focusing on the music. This will help you get the "ideas" part in some way much clearer since you will start to recognize patterns just by listening to them long enough in relation to visual cues (triumphant fanfares, sad mood music, etc etc.)

 

The other thing you should do is actually try to make your own score for random scenes from movies. Take a movie you like, strip dialogue/music out and write something to go over the visuals of it and play it all together to see how it looks! Keep working at it and I'm sure you'll improve much faster than you thought you could.

https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherShaverPrivateMusicInstructor

 

You can really tell there's true quality involved when the URL it links to is dead!

Works for me?

Works for me?

 

http://www.christophershaver.com/ ?

 

Redirects me to webhosting.

 

PLus this isn't really the place to post these things, y'know that right?

Yeah, my website is down right now. But that URL should link to a facebook page, not my website?

It did work (for me, at least).

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