My Music Writing Style Through The Years
Recently, I decided to take a look through all my past music compositions to listen closely and discover what patterns there are in my music writing style and whether there have been any developments in the past decade.
MY COMPOSITIONAL WAY
In previous blogs, I've written about how I tend to write quite minimal and progressive pieces of music but I've never actually sat down and listened to my music in one sitting and analysed it. Furthermore, I realised I had not properly back-dated my music. By doing these things, I learned a few things about my music-writing style.
I've mentioned before how I take old music ideas that I've written and then left, sticking them together to make a complete song at a later date. I had not realised how often I leave half-finished works though... it's a lot. When I finish a song, I make the shorter edits and the loop, I register it for royalties with the PRS, upload it to the royalty-free stock music libraries, then make a note of the metadata in a Word document and add a number to the song's title so that I know where it sits in the order of my finished music productions.
Here's the thing though; in Logic Pro, when you create a new song, the file itself will save this date, the date it was last modified, and the date it was last opened. I decided to go back through the logic files and see whether the order of finished music correlates with the dates these were created. You can guess what I found but I was quite surprised just how different the order was. For example, the first song I uploaded to a royalty-free stock music library, back in 2017, is called 'Funk The Slap Down'. While it's number one on my finished music productions uploaded, it's actually the 24th song I created in Logic, back in 2011. A more extreme example is a song called 'Upbeat Saxophone Fusion', which sits at 168 on the 'finished music productions uploaded' list. This was actually the first song I ever created in Logic, way back in 2008, while I was still at college. It took me until 2018 to re-discover the song, remaster it, and upload it to the royalty-free stock music libraries.
MUSIC WORKS OVER TIME
Having made these discoveries, I set about writing a new document with the chronological order of music created (we're in lockdown so why not). I've made some tracks that have 15-second examples of 10 songs that I'd like to share with you. Each music track is from a different year. Let's see if there are any developments in my music writing style and whether I come back to the same ideas...
These first music production tracks feature a use of synthesisers and drum beats; jazz, funk, and pop styles; and the use of recorded saxophone. At this time, I had just started my first year at the University of Huddersfield, where there were music composition modules for explaining and using Logic Pro.
In this second set, there's still a use of synthesisers and drum beats, some modern styles of music, and the use of recorded saxophone but there's also more variety in genre. Now in my final year at Huddersfield, I am studying a module that focuses on how to score music to film. This influence can be heard in the classical and film music score styles used in a few of these examples. There also seems to be a heavy influence of 80s music in the electronic pop examples. This would make sense as I had started listening to 'synthwave' styles of music at this point.
Now halfway through my Masters course in music composition for film and media at the University of Bristol, I'm beginning to get a lot of music commissions for video game music, as well as a few student films. The use of more realistic-sounding musical instruments allowed me to better fit the music to the requirements of the directors and developers I was commissioning for. There's always space for synthesisers though!
A year after finishing my Masters, I'm still receiving music commissions for a mixture of video games and films but am now finding time to produce music for myself as well, which can be heard in the use of saxophone and the more ambient examples here. Again, I'm still enjoying the use of synthesisers.
This year, partly due to the pandemic, hasn't led to much music compositional work and has had more of a lean towards music teaching. Most of these examples, therefore, were produced with no real purpose. I'm still in the habit of using a lot of synthesisers, recording my saxophone, and I enjoy producing funky music but there are also more retro/electronic music tracks, as well as the choral music track at the end.
IT'S A COMPOSITIONAL HABIT
It's pretty obvious I have a favourite style I always return to when I don't have a music commission. I like to use my synthesisers and my saxophone. I enjoy producing jazz, funk, and electronic pop music with a heavy 80s influence but, having had the chance to learn how to, I can write a choral piece, an ambient film music score, or a driving action piece fit for a trailer or video game when commissioned to.
I would love to be able to compose richer, more textured pieces of music with differing sections and, with a little patience, I know I could but, for now, I'm still content with my progressive and, often cheesy, synthesised sound. If my music didn't sell, I would force myself to write differently more often but I'm glad to know that my style works for some people, is listened to, and enjoyed.
Do you have a style you tend to write in more often than others? P.S. I have 1000+ royalty-free stock music production tracks available to buy and am available for hire for original music compositions. Feel free to get in touch!
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