A Brief-ish Introduction

[Matt]

Right, i'll try and be brief with this because i often get carried away when i start typing.

Ok, my names Matt, i'm 17 years old and currently living near Manchester. I have taken an interest in music all my life, and it was only 6 months ago that i decided to take on composing and try and aim for it as a career. I'm currently taking Music Technology as one of my courses at sixth form and i'll be starting my second year in a month or so.

My particular interest is orchestral music, particularly film music, classical music is okay but i do prefer film music. I decided that one day i would like to be composing and producing my own music for a film so once i'm done with sixth form i'm hoping to go on and do a degree in music production if i can afford the fees. Outside of the mainstream work though i am working on my composing heavily and trying to understand and improve on it constantly. I'm currently studying over the topics of orchestration and counterpoint which so far have proved to be a big help in improving not only my understanding but my practical skills also.

My influences are film composers such as John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson Williams, John Powell, Danny Elfman, the list could go on. But the main thing i'm trying to do is develop my own individual style and not copy somebody else's, i want an individual sound when it comes to my compositions. In fact, i haven't yet completed a complex multi-part composition, just rubbishy single part compositions, i have many ideas in the works but am finding the development part pretty difficult, but i'm working on it.

I would post a couple of my works but the site i host them on seems to be having database problems for the past couple of days and i haven't been able to access my account to get the links. But i'll get them and show you what i've come up with so far as soon as its back up and running fully, if i could get some criticism that would be awesome, i'm open to anything to help improve my ideas or what not.

Well, that's about it for me.

[waxxy]

hi matt welcome to the forums..if your having problems uploading then try using a safe upload site such as Secure free online storage solution & online backup over Internet | Diino.com free email included, blog, secure file sharing ive used them for quite awhile now and its free.hope this helps

[saxman]

Hi Matt

Best of luck with your composing and thanks for suggesting this "Introducing" section.

Originally Posted by Matt

My influences are film composers such as John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson Williams, John Powell, Danny Elfman, the list could go on.

I'll add a couple to the list; Mark Isham, Thomas Newman.

[Matt]

Thanks for the responses guys.

After much refreshing i managed to get through to the page and grab the links. Please excuse the names, they are terrible and don't really have any resemblance to the compositions.


[URL="http://media.putfile.com/Daily-Routine-Version-2"]Daily Routine[/URL] - Okay, this one is probably the most complicated composition i have done, aspects of it could be unrealistic in terms of the pizzicato string parts due to the speed of playing but i'm working with it to make it more believable. Its definitely by no means mixed, i just put a bit of reverb on and input it, i didn't even quantize it, its just a rough idea that i'm trying my best to develop. Also when listening to this i'd advise you to listen through headphones because i have noticed that through speakers you can barely hear the pizzicato cello's and double bass's.

[URL="http://media.putfile.com/Running-67-40"]Running[/URL] - This one was an idea i developed from a soundtrack composed by Trevor Rabin, i developed the idea and then expanded it. I don't know if i'll be continuing it yet but its just an idea. Please forgive the terrible drum parts, i'm limited on drum sounds with what i have and it sounds pretty bad in places, in my opinion at least. This is not mixed properly, just a bit of reverb, however it is quantized to be exactly on the beat.

I hope my compositions are not too bad, but i would really appreciate some feedback and comments on maybe how i could improve on things. These are both incomplete and i'm trying to develop them, so any advice or suggestions would be worth their weight in gold to me.