Reply to: What's motivating you?

[wantacontract]

To be mortgage free within 5 years once I buy my house this year.....

To be able to buy things without worrying...

To eat out and go on holidays when we choose to...

I use to really want a super car - used that as my motivation, but now that I am older, I just want an easy life....settle for normal sports car now...

[voodooflux]

I don't find it hard to get motivated since I'm doing exactly what I want to.

Work from home
Get to play with the latest cool music software
Get paid to write music
Plan B is doing very well

Good for you Cliphead.

WHS. Would love to be able to spend more time tinkering on the guitar and putting together some stuff with Ableton.

[Cliphead]

Many thanks for the advice - all very useful advice and yes connectiona are probably of greater value than talent in your field.

Ive been composing on the Piano since 1980 and acquired various synths (first been the Moog Prodigy through to the Roland JD800) that said Ive always been inspired by Melody and Thematic music - perhaps Vangelis was one of my key early influences - and in fact it was my interest in Electronic Music that paved the way to a job in IT back in 1984 - but thats another story !

I do indeed tune and restore pianos - I learned the trade 25 years ago via a Piano company in London named Piano Renaissance in WandsWorth then worked Freelance after I had shown a particular talent for tuning - which is just as well as Im pretty hopeless at French Polishing !

However Im not in London any more but I do visit from time to time - if you can wait then Im happy to oblige - but if its urgent then perhaps another time.

Finally some say the Art of Life is to be paid for Playing - sounds like you are on the right track !

I'm in Renfrewshire which is perhaps a wee bit closer if that helps. A baby grand and an upright that both need tuning and maybe a little bit of work on the upright, got one key buzzing slightly which I've not been able to fix.

One other thing I should have mentioned. Producers now expect you to be able to create the finished music using your own facilities i.e. studio. Gone are the days when you could do all the pre production at home and finish in a commercial studio, your home studio should be capable of doing everything even sometimes including video editing.

[AlfredJPruffock]

Me too - love film scores, even have CDs of Sci-Fi classic soundtracks, Blade Runner, and of course the great Enio Morricone (spl.).

Vangelis being the composer of BladeRunner - still sends a shiver down the spine - pity that the Directors Cut of Bladerunner cut out a lot of the incidental music from Vangelis as I thought it was a superb score.

After that just to show he meant business the amazing Chariots of Fire was released - if you enjoy Vangelis and would like to hear more from the Maestro I would also reccomend 'Spiral' and 'Heaven and Hell.'


Too bad she won't get to live forever - but then again - who does ?

[AlfredJPruffock]

I mostly work for a US based sample developer looking after their servers, some dev work and customer support. The fun part of the job involves writing demos to showcase the various libraries. Getting this kind of exposure has led to commissions to write music for corporate video projects, TV and one pending A list cast movie.

Not sure what advice I can offer if you're looking to do work of this sort, it's very difficult to break into the soundtrack arena and who you know seems to be more important than any talent you might have. You need to get your music heard as much as possible so it would make sense to join some of the sites where you can upload music like last.fm and similar. Get a showreel together of your music used as a soundtrack to video, perhaps get involved with student productions and do a couple of freebies to get the experience. Be prepared to write in a number of styles and to deadlines, a producer won't choose from a stock of music that you have already written but expect you to write to his spec (likely to change every time he turns on the car radio).

If you can crack it it's a fun place to be and very rewarding.

PS Do you tune pianos? Got two here needing tuned.

Many thanks for the advice - all very useful advice and yes connectiona are probably of greater value than talent in your field.

Ive been composing on the Piano since 1980 and acquired various synths (first been the Moog Prodigy through to the Roland JD800) that said Ive always been inspired by Melody and Thematic music - perhaps Vangelis was one of my key early influences - and in fact it was my interest in Electronic Music that paved the way to a job in IT back in 1984 - but thats another story !

I do indeed tune and restore pianos - I learned the trade 25 years ago via a Piano company in London named Piano Renaissance in WandsWorth then worked Freelance after I had shown a particular talent for tuning - which is just as well as Im pretty hopeless at French Polishing !

However Im not in London any more but I do visit from time to time - if you can wait then Im happy to oblige - but if its urgent then perhaps another time.

Finally some say the Art of Life is to be paid for Playing - sounds like you are on the right track !

[Doggy Styles]

I love the cut and thrust.

Oh, and luckily I never have to use Cannon Street station.

[ace00]

blooming heck. Totally impressed by youse guys.

Me too - love film scores, even have CDs of Sci-Fi classic soundtracks, Blade Runner, and of course the great Enio Morricone (spl.).

[EternalOptimist]

I mostly work for a US based sample developer looking after their servers, some dev work and customer support. The fun part of the job involves writing demos to showcase the various libraries. Getting this kind of exposure has led to commissions to write music for corporate video projects, TV and one pending A list cast movie.

Not sure what advice I can offer if you're looking to do work of this sort, it's very difficult to break into the soundtrack arena and who you know seems to be more important than any talent you might have. You need to get your music heard as much as possible so it would make sense to join some of the sites where you can upload music like last.fm and similar. Get a showreel together of your music used as a soundtrack to video, perhaps get involved with student productions and do a couple of freebies to get the experience. Be prepared to write in a number of styles and to deadlines, a producer won't choose from a stock of music that you have already written but expect you to write to his spec (likely to change every time he turns on the car radio).

If you can crack it it's a fun place to be and very rewarding.

PS Do you tune pianos? Got two here needing tuned.

blooming heck. Totally impressed by youse guys.

[Cliphead]

Good for you Cliphead.

Whilst I have a wee side business as a piano technician I have for quite some time composed various ditties for keyboards/guitar , so I was interested in your comments that you are paid to write music.


Can you tell us a wee bit more about that - any advice most welcome !

I mostly work for a US based sample developer looking after their servers, some dev work and customer support. The fun part of the job involves writing demos to showcase the various libraries. Getting this kind of exposure has led to commissions to write music for corporate video projects, TV and one pending A list cast movie.

Not sure what advice I can offer if you're looking to do work of this sort, it's very difficult to break into the soundtrack arena and who you know seems to be more important than any talent you might have. You need to get your music heard as much as possible so it would make sense to join some of the sites where you can upload music like last.fm and similar. Get a showreel together of your music used as a soundtrack to video, perhaps get involved with student productions and do a couple of freebies to get the experience. Be prepared to write in a number of styles and to deadlines, a producer won't choose from a stock of music that you have already written but expect you to write to his spec (likely to change every time he turns on the car radio).

If you can crack it it's a fun place to be and very rewarding.

PS Do you tune pianos? Got two here needing tuned.

[AlfredJPruffock]

I don't find it hard to get motivated since I'm doing exactly what I want to.

Work from home
Get to play with the latest cool music software
Get paid to write music
Plan B is doing very well

Good for you Cliphead.

Whilst I have a wee side business as a piano technician I have for quite some time composed various ditties for keyboards/guitar , so I was interested in your comments that you are paid to write music.


Can you tell us a wee bit more about that - any advice most welcome !

[gingerjedi]

nobody mentioned yet the number with lots of zeroes appearing in your bank at the end of the month?

Not needing lots of zero's coming in is the new having lots of zero's coming in.

Do keep up!

[bobhope]

zeroes at the end of course.

[bobhope]

nobody mentioned yet the number with lots of zeroes appearing in your bank at the end of the month?

[BrilloPad]

The pensioner ?
I took your advice and she gave me a massage last night, with this hand held infra red vibrating thingy. It made a massive difference.

She did not just send you down the local massage place then? There seem to be loads of those at the back of local newspapers : guess there must be loads of people with muscle issues around?

[EternalOptimist]

Is it because Mrs EO booted you out?

The pensioner ?
I took your advice and she gave me a massage last night, with this hand held infra red vibrating thingy. It made a massive difference.