Without the convenience of a live orchestra at my whim, I spent a while trying out different string sounds and coordinating the best MIDI sounds I could to put this Skyrim sample together. It showcases the many queues that a video game goes through, and switches scenes multiple times. I had a lot of fun putting this piece together, but had the most fun with the Bleak Falls Barrow entrance music. The more layers I added, the less I liked it. I started with trumpets, tried out

This opening trailer took some time to hash out. It's not every day that you're thrown back into the 1950's, when it's actually 2277 and the world has imploded on itself. The subway scene starts with a few images of toys as it pans out slowly, and I wanted to give the scene a "family" attribute in the beginning. I imagined a family traveling with their little girl and bringing her teddy bear along for the trip right before the apocalypse. It's a grim scene with some grim chil

I recently read Winifred Philips A Composer's Guide to Game Music and found it to be a huge help in developing music samples for video games. It offers a hollistic view of the entire industry rather than just hitting on the techniques used in creating video game music loops. The book starts off with a look at the tools every game composer should have in their bag before venturing into the world of game music. We each have a creative skillset and need to understand it before d

My first day of composing was back in 7th grade, and man were things a lot simpler. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Every so often I'd change from a minor chord to a major chord, but other than that it was nothing special. Off-chord notes sounded strange and I could barely grasp the idea of a minor 7th chord. Moving into high school and college, my ear grew sharper and honed in on the idea of chord progression and key changes. Listening to composer like Liszt and Rachmani

Music changes the way we perceive any given situation in media. We add emotion and layers to the message that is being conveyed. The most interesting part of this relationship between music and media is that the media affects the inspiration for the music just as much, if not MORE than the music's impact on the chosen media. One of the most enjoyable compositions I've written has actually been for my fiction novel "Civil". The above book cover inspires a lot of different styl