Jun 30, 20182 min read

Day 4: The Asssignment.

Updated: Mar 28, 2020

Hello again! Boy, boy, yesterday was an important day for the course. It was the day that Christopher Young gave us the main assignment - our orchestral composition which will be recorded by a live orchestra this Thursday!

We started off with a class by Nigel, as we do every other morning, focusing on interviews; the importance of being ready, as well as writing an effective and concise CV. This subject seems to be covered time and time again by so many teachers, yet improvement is definitely always possible in this subject. Plus, Nigel makes pretty much any subject entertaining to listen to.

So, do you remember the 'simple melody' assignment we were given yesterday? Let me tell ya, it is anything but simple, to write simply. I personally come from a contemporary-classical style of composing, so composing for films using simple but memorable melodies...is basically a whole new mentality to have about music composition. That said, I'm very open to this new mentality, I think every style is relevant, depending on the audience.

We all came in with our assignment, some of us playing the melody for others on the piano (since not everyone is a pianist), while some of us playing our own piece. It was pretty scary at first and most of us seemed quite nervous, but then it got relatively easier as the time passed and we started having more fun with it. We basically had to 'test' our melodies by playing them in an AABA format, then seeing if everyone could sing the whole melody back to us. It was waaaaay harder than any of us thought, but it was pretty fun, and we learned a lot.

After a short break and some more playing, we moved on to the main assignment. We not only have to compose for orchestra, but we have to compose to a title scene, from one of the many movies that Christopher Young has composed for. Many of the participants of the course have quite some experience with this, while others have less. I personally only have very slight experience with this, (I am the youngest of the group, after all), but have always wanted to give it a shot. I mean, this is waaay bigger than 'just giving it a shot' - but go big or go home, right? Well, my home can wait!

Some of the title tracks include Jennifer 8, Shipping News, The Man that Knew too Little, Creation, Hellbound and Drag Me to Hell. Can't wait to compose to the scary shtuufff! I only hope to creep the hejebus out of everyone when they watch the title scene and listen to the music I compose. Hopefully it all works out for anyone since we only have a few days to do this.

Nevertheless, can't wait to record! See ya later for day 5, keep readin', cause we'll keep composin'!