What a typical day is like - Composer Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
What a typical day is. I'm going to do this one a little bit differently because I don't really have a typical day because I'm just a part-time songwriter. I don't go and sit at my desk and write and write and write every single day. In fact, that's not how I write at all. I write things when I'm on a bike ride. I write things when I'm in my car. I write things when I'm vacuuming. These kind of things come to my mind more readily, but I will say I do have a process and people ask about my process all the time. Number one, start with a title. That keeps you focused. Number two, write the lyrics first. Write good lyrics. Make them the very best you can and then start putting a melody to your lyrics. And then once you start putting a melody to your lyrics, sometimes you'll want something different in the melody and your lyrics will change to fit the melody. But I think it's more important to say what you want to say first.
Video 2 Transcript
A typical day in the life of a composer, it's honestly not a lot of composing. There's just, you know, once you get to a certain stage in your career, all the demands on your time are significant. Everyone needs to get your approval on this, you know, artwork for their next release, or you need to, you know, meet with this new client, or you got to talk with this new A&R person at your record label, or you need to have this meeting, or you're doing this PR event, or you're going to this screening of a film you just scored, or this wrap party for another film you just scored, or you're doing interviews for new apps like Lifey that are popping up. I mean, there's just so many things that you wind up doing once you reach a certain level of establishment that aren't musical. So if I'm lucky, actually, I'll get maybe two or three hours of composing a day out of my schedule. But for the most part, you know, social media, right? Reading this contract that's just been handed to me. There's just so much busy work, and it's a real challenge to be creative through all of it.
Video 3 Transcript
I remember one day I had a piece I was trying to write. I couldn't come up with an idea at all of how to score that scene. And I started about nine o'clock in the morning and nothing would come. I mean literally sat there all day not writing a note. Evening was fast coming and and I thought I am, I'm a failure. That's, this is terrible. And then at that very moment some idea popped in my mind and it would drive me and I would hurry and write it all down. The other part of it is is I have lots of musical ideas and I'm writing furiously. I hear it in my mind before I put my fingers on the keyboard. I try to hear exactly what it's going to sound like and then I try to duplicate that sound acoustically with my equipment. It was fun. It's challenging and sometimes disappointing. Sometimes I could write four or five minutes a day. Other times I'd write 30 seconds a day. But it was fun.
Video 4 Transcript
You've got a film, you're ready to write the music for it, you've already hired the orchestra and the studio, and you have x number of days to write the music. Well, you got to get to work. Sometimes it means writing around the clock. I remember times where my wife would bring me a sandwich and I'd wake up and my head would be leaning against the keys of the piano and she said I'd have little indentations of the keys in my forehead. Then I'd eat, start writing again, because I had to deliver the film that day to record, or I'd lose the money. Ultimately, it was my money, it was a budget that I had responsibility for.
Video 5 Transcript
Here's what a typical day looks like for me. Now, I teach piano lessons three days a week. At one time, I was teaching piano lessons six days a week. I had almost 100 piano students. No one should ever do that. But as I started coming out with more and more books and albums, then I started having fewer students. I'll always teach piano students, and I love it, but many of the music books that I come out with, with original compositions I've created, are specifically for my piano students. So I'll compose during their lessons to teach them how to compose and show them how to compose. And then I'm teaching them how to orchestrate as well, and I love it, and it's wonderful. And most of my 40 plus music books that I've come out with have compositions that were composed either for piano students or during lessons. So it's something I enjoy. Each day is different though. You never know what to expect.
