Tim Rohwer: Composer

This week I decided I would try my hand at trying to score for a movie.  I went on to YouTube and found a video I liked, turned it on mute, and then started writing.  It's been interesting so far.  I've contacted the owner of the video and hope to have a response soon as to whether I can put the video with the music on this blog, but if not, I'll showcase my attempt sans video. Some interesting dilemmas so far:  trying to find the right orchestration to fit the background and trying to line up the music to correspond with the video.  Also, though at the beginning stages, I'm hoping to make something that could stand on its own, with a discernible melody and form that does not get boring or repetitive as the piece/video goes on.  We'll see soon how I've done!

The results are in for this new way of composing for me, and I can already tell that it is going to be an effective change in my compositional technique.  Several things I noticed: When I felt that the piece I was working on was "just for fun," and wasn't expecting the piece to be a masterpiece, it freed up my creativity and helped me feel comfortable to try out things I wasn't as familiar with.  For example, I tried several unusual ostinatos, different special effects, and some chord progressions that I haven't used as much in the past.  When I've been composing "official" pieces, I've been somewhat hesitant to use any of these neat but currently difficult for me to use techniques. Because I wasn't thinking as much about a final result, I was also able to let the form take on whatever shape it seemed to need, and the piece I worked on didn't feel contrived or fitted to a specific pattern.  I also was having fun and feeling as...

I have been struggling lately in finding time, energy, will-power, etc. to compose.  Dealing with this frustration and a desire to move on soon to grad school, I've been pondering what's been inhibiting me from composing.  Several different things have come to mind: 1) I've been trying to compose often when I get home from work after working sometimes more than 8 hours.  I'm too tired by this point to want to do much but sit back and not do anything. 2) I've been working on official pieces, ones that I'm hoping to use for grad school, and there has been too much pressure to get them all "perfect," each one needing to be a masterpiece. Several solutions have come to mind: 1) Work in the morning when I'm not tired and I still have energy left to compose; 2) Spend time pondering as I'm going about my day about what needs to come next on certain pieces; and (most importantly) 3) Spend time every composition session (hopefully this will turn ...