This will be my last “Orchestra of One” post for awhile. It’s been fun, but I only have so much time available to me, and I want to put other things on Screenhog.com (comic updates, for instance, have been pretty sparse lately). However, before I go on my hiatus, I’d like to share a story.
Last year, I attended a concert in which an orchestra was about to perform Beethoven’s Symphony #5. Now, I’d already been composing music commercially for a few years, and I was feeling pretty confident about my own skills as a composer, thinking that I was a pretty awesome composer, if I said so myself.
However, any pride in my own abilities was pretty much crushed as soon as the orchestra started, though. The entire symphony was absolutely beautiful, and I sat in my seat amazed by the skill in what I’d heard. “Beethoven was able to come up with something this beautiful? 200 years ago? Without computers? WHILE DEAF?!?”
Clearly, I still have a lot to learn.
You do too. Beethoven1, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach… we will likely never get the point where we’re considered a master like they were. In some ways, that’s kinda depressing.
But on the other hand, we also have advantages that they could never have dreamed about. We have access to instruments that weren’t even invented when they were alive. Every major song created in the last 200 years can be instantly available to us to learn from. Musicians are paid more than they ever have been in history.2 And, most importantly, we have tools at our disposal capable of almost perfectly recreating the sound of an entire orchestra… by ourselves!
There has never been a better time to be a composer. I hope that the articles I’ve written so far have helped to inspire you, and I imagine I’ll be writing more in the future. If there’s a song you want to share, put it online3 and post about it in the comments! I’d love to hear what you’ve made.
Previous: Chapter 13: How to Get Noticed
Footnotes:
- It’s difficult for me to think of Beethoven without thinking of Schroeder from the Peanuts comic strip. So, here he is. ↩
- Yes, despite the high number of “starving artists” out there. It’s a frequently ignored fact that, throughout most of history, artists didn’t get paid (or if they did, it was in tangible things like room and board, not in money). ↩
- Getting a song online is actually pretty easy. There’s a lot of free webhosting out there. ↩
I’m kinda sad you won’t be posting any of these for a while, I really enjoyed reading them! If you ever get the time – or maybe I missed this part? – maybe you could cover copyrighting your works. That’s a subject I’ve always been curious about.
Here’s a couple of songs I recently composed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj9EScJOAtU
(Finite Boundaries)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIbfnjygvkQ
(Press Play)
The latter was originally meant to be private due to a downrating troll who ransacked my videos recently. :p
Comment by Soundragon — September 13, 2011 @ 10:05 am
Those are some great pieces Soundragon. One of the things I detest most in techno music is when the music is nothing but repetitiveness, but you have enough new elements throughout the songs that they flow really nicely. Were they created mostly from loops, or did you do most of the composing yourself?
Comment by Screenhog — September 13, 2011 @ 10:18 am
I did all of the composing myself, and thank you!
Comment by Soundragon — September 13, 2011 @ 10:31 am
Last week I did a lot of humming to myself, scraps of some possible songs.
Each one had a new beat everyday.
I think music is very awesome.
I hope to hear more music by you Screenhog!
Comment by Hunter Ashe is Feey1 — September 13, 2011 @ 11:21 am
I’d like to get started making some music, and I have most of the required skills, except the ability to operate professional music-making applications. Garageband doesn’t quite make the cut. Any tips?
Comment by Kulker — September 17, 2011 @ 5:32 am
heheheheh i like that comic that you made XD
Comment by jose — September 23, 2011 @ 7:37 pm
Hey Screenhog,
Your a pretty good muscian. So now you can do musical programming! Been a while since I read your blog. Glad to see you and Lance working together again. Keep up all the good work.
Regards,
ENS
Comment by ENS — October 27, 2011 @ 6:30 pm