I've noticed recently that some of my biggest jumps forward in developing my composing style has happened whilst demoing for films I didn't end up scoring. Loads of techniques I first tried out in failed pitches are now staples of my workflow that I use across almost all the jobs I get. Perhaps it's because there's less pressure on a demo than on a finished score, so there's added freedom to experiment in the first place, but it's an interesting phenomena.
Has anyone else had this? Any other times you've seemingly failed, but really have learnt and grown and developed as a composer because of it?
I agree Joanna. I find the best music I've composed is the music I didn't have a project or client for. I was able to create music for me and be the artist to experiment without the pressures of deadlines etc. This is where we can take the time and enjoy learning our craft.
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I agree with one difference, I would not use the term 'fail'. Writing music is always a win for me in one way or the other. During the year I had off between scores in 2020/2021, I wrote 19 tracks of music covering about 44 minutes (https://soundcloud.com/joelirwin/almost-alone ).
I keep every version of every track I create because not only do I occasionally get taken off a project but often, scenes are changed or I have to write multiple versions of a cue which are totally different from each other.
Here is a prime example from 2017 - this was the first time I was writing score material for a cop / BLM oriented film. You can hear it from the beginning until about 1/3 through when I was removed because the filmmaker wanted to go in a 'different direction': https://soundcloud.com/joelirwin/door-bell.
And here is an interesting story - the first time I was ever in a studio was on June 26, 1963. I was 12 and part of my elementary school choir. Our choir was merged with another school's and we recorded an album at Menorah Records in Brooklyn, NY - a cantata about a "Trip Through Israel" written by our choir leader. Fast forward to my next trip to a studio in the Fall of 2002. I had gone back to learning music from scratch. At that point I was in semester 3 of theory/ear training. I had just purchased a DAW (Sonar) and sampler (Gigastudio) and the Miroslav Orchestral set. I had no idea what to do with it. A friend of mine from the non-profit I was volunteering for had passed from cancer and a bunch of us decided to record an original song in his honor. This was 11 years before I started film scoring. The song has never been used. Was it a waste or failure - not on many levels. I was just thinking about this song last night in composing class since it was also the first track I ever had mastered and we were discussing mastering. It features both electronic instrument samples, two live singers and a couple of live musicians. As you can hear, if you listen to it, I learnt many things not the least of which was sequencing and sampling, syncing instruments and singers, how to use two vocal tracks to effectively create a duet, etc. https://soundcloud.com/joelirwin/shining-face,
But there is one thing I do not currently do - I do not create demos. I have so many score extracts/selections and other tracks such as studio and live jazz performances, I pitch with them.
Good read and I agree with Joel I see no fail but only growth. I’ve experienced this myself with creating custom sounds not used for the projects they were designed for but being a perfect fit years later for other projects.
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Joel and Martijn, I completely take your point- perhaps fail was the wrong word. To clarify I don't personally see those rejections as failures, but the use of the word was to describe how it may appear from the outside. No fail, only growth is a good mantra!
Interesting about not demoing Joel... I won't get into it here as it's off topic but perhaps that's another subject we can chat about in here soon.
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I agree with Joanna and Mike, music I probably would have never composed had it not been for the pitch I needed to do. It's very freeing and creative.