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    The Commercial Composing Handbook
    The Commercial Composing Handbook
    The Commercial Composing Handbook
    Ebook65 pages27 minutes

    The Commercial Composing Handbook

    By Sean Gordon

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    About this ebook

    Learn how to write and compose music for commercials. Kill writer's block and find out how to see "The Matrix" as you become a power player in such a lucrative musical field. A must-have for every songwriter, instrumentalist, composer, and musician looking to get into commercials.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSean Gordon
    Release dateJan 2, 2016
    ISBN9781310068485
    The Commercial Composing Handbook
    Author

    Sean Gordon

    Sean Gordon has been working in the music industry professionally for over 15 years and has been composing music for over 20. He has composed and produced music for NBC, Discovery, Nintendo, X-Box, Shell, Bank of New York, Franklin Templeton Investments, Kikkoman, Redd’s Apple Ale, Spy Gear, Bay Club, Philips, Underworld, Wasteland, Urgency, Red Robin... and many more. His earlier years were spent in touring rock band “Burning Tree Project” as the lead guitar player. After four albums and even appearing on MTV, he quit the band to pursue his own music. He then got his big break in licensing via a phone call from an old friend who was working behind the scenes in the music business. As a hobby Sean would record and posts videos on his YouTube channel as "Shonsta". As a result of posting his first video “Simpsons Unplugged” way back when YouTube first started, he was invited to several Simpsons scoring sessions where composer Alf Claussen (Composer for The Simpsons) helped transform him into the composer he is today. He then opened his own recording studio (Digital Dungeon) and began producing bands and artists in North Hollywood, CA. This would lead to film score and the very secretive world of custom commercial cues. In 2011, Sean moved to San Francisco, CA and opened a post audio house with a business partner for several years. He has since been solely composing music for commercials and finally retired from the composing business to pursue his other life passions.

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    • 4/5
      This book is much about the "old" way of composing for commercials. These days they mostly want real songs, full 3 minutes length not 30 seconds and they choose which part of the song to use themselves. By using the stems they can make the music and vocals fit to the commercial and voiceover if used in that commercial. But still there's enough to learn from reading this book full of little gems. And it's a quick read, so no time wasted:)

    Book preview

    The Commercial Composing Handbook - Sean Gordon

    Introduction

    Welcome to this guide to composing music for commercials. I designed this book as a counterpart to my first book, "Money 4 Music. This book is all about the actual creative process behind commercial composing whereas the other book focuses on the business side and what to do with the music. Make sure to pick up both to maximize your potential. To maintain the essence of the word handbook" I will do my best to keep things very short and to the point without too much fluff or padding. Alright, enough chit chat. Let's dig in!

    Overall Perspective

    Take Notes

    Turn on the tv and instead of tuning out the commercials, start listening to what type of music is being used. Take note of the feeling it gives off. Is it optimistic? Epic? Busy? Simple? Take note of the tempo. Take note of the instruments that were chosen. What genres do you hear? Take note of any dynamics or if it is just a loop that plays over and over.

    It won't take long to realize that the music being used is almost laughable. So simple and unimaginative. You will probably think to yourself I could have made that or I could have done better. And you are probably right. That's the beauty of all this. You don't need to be a genius or even that good. You can say what you want about that but at the end of the day, someone got paid for that little piece of music because it fits the visuals.

    Keep It Simple

    The key to almost all commercial music is simplicity. Save your genius for when you score a film. When you get a commercial gig, think of it as that chill job where you get paid a ton of money to do little-to-no work. Don't try and make overly busy music and hog all the attention.

    Understand The Purpose

    The music in commercials usually serves one purpose. To back up the voice over and the visuals. The voice over is simply the voice you hear talking about the

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