The Blog

One of my pet peeves is when people don’t respond to emails or phone messages. It seems to have become common these days to simply ignore people. If someone has taken the time to contact you, clearly he or she think highly enough of you to reach out for whatever reason. The least you can do is respond.

There’s an old saying “be nice to people on your way up because you’ll nee them on your way down.” I think this applies even if you’re already at the top of your profession.  You never know when someone who contacted you when they were on their way up might be in a position to help you or provide some opportunity down the road.

If you’re too busy or uninterested, it only takes a few seconds to send an email reply, even if it’s a simple “Thank you for your email. I’m afraid I’m unable to help you at this time. Good luck.”

If you have the time and are able to respond more substantially, by all means do so! If it’s a fan, your kind response will stick with them for a long time.

Either way, they will always remember whether you ignored them or took the time to respond.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.  I promise I’ll respond.

String-O-Graph Set

Ever wonder if double, triple & even quadruple stops are possible on a string instrument? There are a variety of resources and books that’ll list various common variations or offer finger charts. Years ago, I was introduced to the String-O-Graph, which I love and find useful when writing tricky string passages.

The String-O-Graph is simply a life-size fingering chart for violin, viola & cello, which you can print out and then physically feel where the fingers would be on the neck of the instruments.

You can order them here.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

I’m very lucky that when I watch a film without music, I often start hearing ideas for how to score the film in my head. I can imagine a score as I watch it, and feel like I know exactly what to do. Sometimes I can envision multiple approaches to a given scene.

But sometimes I watch a scene and… nothing. Crickets. No clue what to do. I’m at a compete loss for how to handle the scene musically. Sometimes this is a sign that the scene doesn’t need music. But sometimes it’s clear the scene needs some musical help, but I just don’t know what to do.

Whenever I experience this situation, whether cutting a temp-score or composing original music, I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. The first thing I try is grabbing some cues that work elsewhere in the film and putting them up against picture to see how they feel. Even if an idea seems ridiculous, I try it. Even the worst ideas can provide clues to what the music should be.

By trying different cues against picture, I get a sense for why a certain piece doesn’t work. Is it too fast? Too slow? Too dark? Too light? The wrong feel? The wrong style? The wrong instrumentation? The wrong size? The wrong energy? I may not yet know which path is the correct one, but I have just eliminated one wrong path.

If none of the cues used elsewhere work, I expand my search and look for music from other films, or sometimes even songs. With each track I try, I can eliminate wrong musical paths and the experiments inform me as to what isn’t working, and why it isn’t working. Usually after trying just 2 or 3 things I have a pretty good idea of what the music needs to be, and find the right path to solving the musical challenge of the scene.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

Welcome to my blog. This is where I will endeavor to share some of my personal thoughts, stories, links to sites and article that interest me, tips & tricks I’ve picked up over the years and whatever else comes to mind. On occasion I will include guest posts by friends and colleagues.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best to respond in a timely manner.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

Check out the new album Black by my friend Kari Kimmel.