Learning to play by ear will boost your musical fluency, but learning to transcribe is where it’s really at. Here’s how to do it… — Playing by ear is the starting point… …it’s one of the best ways to improve your skills as a musician, listening and mimicking what you hear without referring to musical score. Typically it involves a little trial and error before you find the right notes (in the right order!) but that’s fine because the process of working…

NFTs, tokenization, web 3.0 and more. — The music industry has transformed in under a generation. The methods of earning money have especially changed, which has prompted me to ask the question: how can the modern composer and sound designer earn money in the digital age? In this post I explore emerging technologies like NFT’s, tokens and…

What are they? How are they used? How do they benefit me? — Empathetic sound Empathetic sound is when the music or sound design added to screen complements the mood of the action that is occurring, such as the celebratory music that accompanies the victory scene in Star Wars episode VI: Return Of The Jedi. Anempathetic sound Anempathetic sound is the…

Understanding core concepts and techniques, and reflecting on how they can benefit my work. — Foley Art Foley is the process of recreating real-world sounds to be added to screen and is named after Jack Foley, the radio SFX artist who first developed the technique in the 1920’s. In the context of radio, where there is no visual aspect, foley sounds were added to help bring…

What is Diegetic, non-diegetic and trans-diegetic sound? How are they used in Extended Reality (XR)? How can sound help overcome the challenges of XR? — The basics of diegetic, non-diegetic and trans-diegetic sound. To define trans-diegetic sound we first need to understand diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Diegetic sounds are those occurring within a storyworld, inside of it, for instance the sound an on-screen character makes when putting on his coat, or the music played through the…

Sound healing, how it works, and the vital role of music in games and experiences that support wellbeing. — ‘With great power comes great responsibility’. Voltaire / Spiderman. As a composer who is interested in making sound and music for experiences that support people’s wellbeing, I agree wholeheartedly with this statement and want to gain more insight into ways that music can impact peoples’ physiology and behaviour. There is…

Music educator (and eternal student) explains what musical fluency is and how YOU can develop it. — What is musical fluency? When you first learn your native language you begin by speaking. Then you add reading and writing to your skillset, developing a more rounded understanding of your language. With time you reach the point where you can freely communicate what’s in your head to another person, at which point you’d…