Necessary Knowledge for a Music Composition Career
Posted on: July 26, 2008
Posted in: Video Marketing
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In order to be a music composer for film, television, and media one needs to have audio skills beyond instrumental and composition ability. While being able to compose music beautifully on an instrument is a fantastic talent, it is not enough in terms of creating a career in music composition. There are many other audio related skills which follow that are vital to a working music composer that should be mastered by any newcomer looking to break into the game.
1. Learn the theory of music including tempos, time signatures, and scales. Its great to be able to play the saxophone, for example, but becoming an expert music theorist will enable you to alter your compositions to fit the requisites of any media project.
2. Gain expertise in all musical genres so that you can accept all proposals for work. Preferring one type of music is fine and dandy but a killer when hoping to be a professional music composer in which you will want to be able to accept all types of offers for work in all music genres. A composer who cannot write in a requested genre is useless to certain paying clients.
3. Own and learn to operate a digital audio workstation (DAW). There are plenty of great software based DAWs on the market which allow you to record and edit your material at will, an awesome and necessary power for any effective music composer who needs to deliver under tight deadlines.
5. Become a master mixer of your music. In the long run, it is inefficient and costly to pay some other studio or audio engineer to mix your tracks. Save money and time by studying audio production and become the fastest composer on the block.
5. Become a mastering ninja. As with the initial audio mixing of your music, finding and hiring an audio house to master your tracks for deliver is wasteful in terms of time and money. Taking classes or studying the mastering of audio on your own will tease out the sweetness and power of your tracks and make your clients very happy and keep them coming back for more!
6. Get a grip on contracts and basic music licensing agreements. Be able to respond quickly and intelligently to a proposal from a potential client by learning the ins and outs of music licensing.
These abilities will enable a hopeful music composer to gain the professionalism, efficiency, and flexibility vital in the competitive career of music composition.