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Guerrilla Film Scoring documentary released

My book Guerrilla Film Scoring was released in 2015, and it was almost immediately adopted by universities across the country and many aspiring film composers. Today, Amazon released the feature-length documentary in 9 episodes.

The documentary is entirely segments from celebrity interviews which contributed to the book, so for those of you who aren’t likely to read it’s now streaming! It’s free to Amazon Prime members and very affordable to everybody else.

Guerrilla Film Scoring explains how to create a great film score quickly and cost effectively in the current industry climate, and it fills a much-needed hole between the study of music and a career as a composer. To create the book I built a team of 20 celebrity composers and other experts, and their insight and wisdom is shared in quotes throughout.

If you want a mentor for your composing career, now you have twenty!

The book is also on Amazon, and it has even more content.

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Sheet Music, the map to your score – article in The Score

I have written another front page article for The Score, the quarterly journal of the Society of Composers and Lyricists. This article is a quick how-to guide about the fastest ways to get music out of a sequencer or DAW and into printed notation as quickly as possible. In it I share some tips and tricks from my two decades of experience in sheet music preparation that may help to improve or streamline your processes, hopefully resulting in more free time and better art.

You can read the whole magazine online.

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GameSoundCon video game sound and music conference

GameSoundCon is one of the premiere conferences and educational opportunities for those looking for highly specific education in the areas of video game sound design and scoring. Every year it’s a pleasure to attend and rub shoulders with my colleagues, since the vast majority of us work separately on different projects for most of the year.

Pictured here is Li Xiao’an, the head of East Coast Scoring in Boston, and Chance Thomas, a fantastic composer and fellow book author. Chance’s book Composing Music for Games is a fantastic companion to my book Guerrilla Film Scoring, and we will most likely collaborate in some educational events or seminars in the future.

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ASCAP publishes Guerrilla Film Scoring article

ASCAP published an article which I wrote today. It’s in their We Create Music publication titled Finding Work As A Composer. Based around some of the material from my book Guerrilla Film Scoring, it gives a few little nuggets of wisdom for surviving the industry.

There are no guarantees in any culture in the world that art is going to be sustainable and provide you a good living. As a composer you might become well-paid eventually, but you will never have a steady or predictable career path. (read more…)

Presenting at the ASCAP Expo

The ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO is the first and only national conference dedicated to songwriting and composing. Today I was on the “Composer’s Survival Kit” panel, moderated by the awesome Joel Douek. The panel was very much like my book Guerrilla Film Scoring, basically a survival guide about how to navigate our insane media music business. I was in great company with composers Joey Newman and Didier Rachou, and entertainment lawyer Brad Shenfeld.

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Team Building in an Indie World – article in The Score

I’ve published another article in The Score, the quarterly journal from the Society of Composers and Lyricists. This one is about how to build a team around you in the current music industry environment, which is constantly trending towards lower budgets and shorter timeframes. The schedules mean that teams are required, but the budgets mean it’s often difficult to hire the help you need. It’s a difficult nut to crack, but there are many ways around the problem. The solutions come from myself and many of my colleagues who contributed to my book Guerrilla Film Scoring.

You can read the whole magazine online.

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Guest lecture – Teaching at UCLA

Today I taught film scoring at UCLA, taking over professor Fletcher Beasley’s class for a day. The class is using my book Guerrilla Film Scoring as a required text, and the topic of the day was team building in an indie world. It was great to dig in deeply with them and show them portions of the 90 minute Guerrilla Film Scoring documentary.

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My book is #1 Hot New Release on Amazon

In the first two months of its release (April & May 2015) Guerrilla Film Scoring was in and out of the #1 spot on SIX of Amazon’s “Hot New Releases” lists . (Music Composition, Film & Television, Music Textbooks, Songwriting, Music Theory, and Performing Arts) At one time it even occupied 3 out of the top 6 positions in Songwriting (hard copy, paperback, and Kindle). What an honor!

Visit GuerrillaFilmScoring.com for Guerrilla Tips and documentary excerpts

Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Rowman & Littlefield, Walmart, Target, and every other major bookseller.

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Guerrilla Film Scoring release

I’m extremely proud to announce that as of today Guerrilla Film Scoring is officially released! It is both a book and a feature length documentary.

Get Guerrilla Tips and watch documentary excerpts on GuerrillaFilmScoring.com

A straightforward do-it-yourself manual, this book will help composers at all levels create the best-sounding scores quickly and cost effectively – without jeopardizing their art. With access to rare and extremely useful input from the best in the business, Guerrilla Film Scoring will benefit not only students but also professionals looking to update their game.

Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Rowman & Littlefield, Walmart,Target, and every other major bookseller.

See the official press release for more info.