How to Write Music - Keeping It Simple

hello everybody here's something I bet you can relate to do you find that your life is just getting too complicated there's too much to do there's too many things too much technology too much traffic too many balls to keep in the air at the same time it's just exhausting you want a good example for this okay I come into work in the morning and I open up my Gmail and how many unread emails have I got yes eighty-nine thousand two hundred and sixteen how is that possible you say because life is too complicated and this can be true of your music as well we have so much choice in terms of instrument plugins and tracks and everything else sometimes it sort of gets in the way of making the music and so my friends what we're going to do today is simplify we're going to enjoy the joys of nature hello nature we're going to cast out all those complicated ways of writing music all those complicated ways of setting up templates and things so welcome to my new template okay it's a completely blank canvas there are no thousands of tracks there's no complicated routing and everything else what you see is what you get so we're gonna have a little simple idea which we're just going to put in instrument after instrument and see how we get on this is an increasingly popular way of working because if you work with a big template and you know if you're gonna do big you know knock-down-drag-out trailer music and things like that a templates a good place to start and for a lot of film stuff it is but the trouble is it's a little bit like being a chef and always using the same ingredients that it can sound very similar each time you come to it so we some composers let us find out okay let's start with an instrument I know that's an audio instrument that wouldn't be okay so let's start with okay contact I will go to contact if you insist pretty good start really absolutely okay I'm gonna go to an old favorite does that I'm gonna start with a harp I like and I tell you what you think you need all these new instruments and everything else this is a vesl harp which was originally from gigas studio so it's about ten years old I'm just going to add an effects track track in here with some lexicon on it and then we because I BSL stuff is a bit on the dry side and tends to need a bit help so we'll add that in and we'll go to that and we'll turn on the sound and we'll have about half okay that's not too bad right now I've actually got a right subbing isn't it do I have to kind of just go have some breakfast though I've got a rising - okay so listen um actually in the spirit at the moment I'm not going to have to click click on to start with I'm just going to work because sooner or later you just have to sit down and work [Music] this is the pet have to pretend you're not there I have to pretend you're not there and just go go into mmm clear your mind mode [Music] that sharp 5 is really nice ok now we have to turn the click on it's it's a lot slower than 120 though it's more like I'll give it a 90 nailed it [Music] okay that's a perfectly decent place to start now we need another instrument okay it's different instrument this time let's try the owner instrument there's a vendor instrument just a simple one that'll do that's what I want is I'm hearing a bit of woodwind going on in here and I cannot tell you how good the absolutely basic woodwind in special edition is it's absolutely great where's my clarinet it's gone just a straightforward b-flat clarinet that'll do but again it is SuperDuper dry so we need some reverb okay so it's put a bit of that on it's also the via the old style via not synchron the old style vienna instruments sounded great any instrument which you would mike about they're fantastic and actually the woodwind and the some of the other solo instruments worked super extra duper bit loud it's met a lovely legato as revos too long they're mine it's gonna come in now isn't it [Music] but it's not coming in like that [Music] I quite like that I can hear an answering phrase in there though listen it goes like this [Music] do you think or something like that uh you know okay this is very traditional piece of music I know it's a very traditional piece of yeah look I'm just having a bit of fun I'm enjoying myself yeah I'm not writing something weird and demanding and interesting I'm just doing the thing okay let's go for this is quite an intimate little sir Oh God you've got a love to chamber strings look at this you know if you want chamber strings from spitfyre have more articulations than whatever has an awful lot but they're now fleet of articulated tracks it's ah look I mean all this stuff ATO does a good line in this as well actually when it comes to Malta so this is really flat and own legato cello I don't think I've ever played this instrument this is a premier let's hear what it sounds like I want something it's not quite right for this one um is it sound too small let's I tell it so let's let's try switching it up for the Symphonic one simper notice i'm using the search facility and this latest version of context really good actually performance Lagarto that would do don't you think load up load up [Music] whoa it's working okay I did record it Gor blimey good for me okay so that's not bad what else are we hearing here I tell you what I'm hearing a key change when we get to bar 10th now what's happened here is the lagarto to work properly they have to overlap and they're not overlapping enough and also I'm going to play with the mix [Music] that one okay now what's going on here let's go back to what is basically our harmonic sting so it's going from a second diversion of D major you could either view that as an Augmented b-flat or you can see it as an Augmented D which would make no sense into the sharp five so so we want to go to a really different key we don't want to go to something closely related that's a bond chord isn't it so and it's pivoting around the no a so it's good so our choices are we're starting our choices are a minor [Music] I am ager no F major because whatever this new cord is is gonna have to have the pivot nation how about F sharp minor [Music] yes that is good so that's what Hawtrey now I've got to [Music] and here owls okay now at that point we're gonna go all kind of quasi okay let me split me up the pace here a bit let's not mess about quite so much and that's we're gonna go for to go to them diffident to put them to condemn them dumb let's I have let's go for some tram alone below tremendo I like this um oops there we go it's over here somewhere there we are and we add the reverb always use bus based reverb because you wouldn't wanna put reverb on all of these absolute ton of CPU and you wouldn't like that right so now I'm gonna start it earlier off in this piece actually how am I gonna arrange this no because that's what the harpes doing I could do that I can do that let's try that okay root position might work [Music] okay now obviously we want a bit of a norm coming in where that where we change key so we're gonna add one of my favorite sounds from back in the day come on down Albion 1 yay okay Albion I'll be in one ok go into the low strings this this is a killer patch I bet you've all got it I hope most of you know about it because is what it is so good Asher domine you know as Christian who's prone state worth the price of entry and he's absolutely right ready it goes [Music] if I had app and every time I've used that for a low brooding bass that's sometimes you need to go from beginning just because you're not quite sure in terms of the arrangement where it goes hello [Music] obviously there's a lot more going on in there like what guy [Music] like this is a lot of order I'm always a bit picky about everything being score orbits this is very very army Wow that's not very out of order is a bit okay that's okay let's have another VSL instrument we're going to put some flute in okay sorry sorry sir I was just doing my own thing that frees Ensemble no flute one I prefer okay let's now we have to add the old rebirth to these because it's dry as the proverbial bone [Music] this is starting to sound a little bit like sort of John Barry it's got a sort of John Barry esque kind of thing going on for it here okay I'm gonna start up I need to up the pace because I want to finish this now I have enjoyed doing this I've enjoyed through this is fun okay though here is I which one should I go for if we if we're having a trip down memory lane when it comes to instruments Sony Vox Esprit Revo strings where is it it's in its again this is one literally from I mean it's so long ago it is sewn on it doesn't actually work ok it now you may say why do you like that I don't know why do you always like playing on your granny's piano or whatever it's because some of these things you're just used to and you love them just you know walks naw it's a very warm useful patch it sometimes gets stuck though [Music] okay now if I'm gonna do [Music] strings of clarinet [Music] okay sauce immediate Berlin brass absolutely great love it you see where I'm going to bring this in this has come to come in on the key change which is up there summer isn't it [Music] tell you what Adi I could I don't have to add instruments like this like like they're free because they are but I could use multi articulations inside one which would be a bit more responsible frankly I need a decent tuba I need something on the bottom [Music] how about hmm cello how about this principle simple strings in go for the [Music] [Music] [Music] okay it's not bad I tell you why it keeps going up to the top of the thing but I found I switched in January every turn come down it works I'm just going helpful leather here as you can see we're gonna put a bit of viola in because you've got to have a viola line in there to make it sound lovely okay you may also notice I'm not so fast about the reverb on these [Music] [Music] okay now we can add just a couple of a little bit of a little percussion thing actually I'm going for no but what's it called perk one of the ones I like best is Cindy brassiness any boat see any strings oh okay I'm not seeing poke in there I thought I had ok spoke it it's been fun percussion that'll do I'm looking for a actually the easiest way of doing this would be to just drop in some audio of the symbol medium okay let's go [Music] so that [Music] that's the one there we go swell MF these percussion libraries are quite hard to find your way around there's no sort of rhyme or reason about where the things go and everybody does it differently so yeah [Music] [Music] not sure I needed that second one yeah that's what you're saying as well [Music] what about the placement do we track it earlier so it hits the or does it impact is it better [Music] I prefer it later for two reasons [Music] I just gonna put one more thing in because I like them I just want is it is it very cheesy to put some choir in is it very very cheesy instrument arcs [Music] [Music] okay we'll have a performance now ladies and gentlemen I would like to introduce you to a piece called what's gonna be called suggest I don't know Sleepy Lagoon or some other non sir no it's not it's anyway okay let's line it up so you can sit look so how many tracks we got going on and we got 13 tracks on one reverb so let's have a little performance [Music] [Music] there you go so look I hope you found this entertaining and enjoyable and remember if it's the kind of thing which you know lights your fire and gives you a bit of inspiration then remember to subscribe because then you'll get notified when I put a new video up and invited along to live things when we do that and all that kind of stuff so look you know what have you got to lose absolutely nothing thank you very much indeed for your company again today remember there's lots of sort of free stuff to download below this so click on the link and you'll get free stuff and I'll be back very soon you

Channel: Guy Michelmore

Views: 282,649

Rating: 4.9524155 out of 5

Keywords: thinkspace, education, music, film, scoring, games, television, composition, composer, how to write music on piano, guy michelmore, spitfire audio, kontakt, how to write music, music theory, thinkspace education

Id: feBjmBXlU0Q

Length: 29min 24sec (1764 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 17 2019