COMPOSER

Scoring for Film and Television

As a composer/bassist, writing music is always at the heart of things, wheather scoring for visual media, writing material for the jazzmutants, or spontaneously composing (improvising) a bass line or solo. Choices in compositional techniques, as with bass playing techniques, are vast, and limited only by a lack of experience, education, and research, or a narrow focus, stylistically. Writing experience, playing experience, life experience, and emotional awareness are all essential elements in writing good music, but by far the most important skill is ability to remove the ego, in order to allow the free flow of creativity.

In film music there are many factors to consider. ... The film itself dictates all the music written. It is of the utmost importance, to first fully understand the filmmaker's vision and goals. After understanding the clients needs, and after a study of the story, feel, and look of the film, the proper musical choices become apparent.

Budget then determines the production process. Suffice it to say, production ranges from computer generated, to full live orchestra, including choir, and any other specialized groupings of musicians, soloists, programmers, rock stars, you name it, the budget is the only limiting factor.

Though I have a great deal of experience playing popular music (rock, funk, jazz, etc.) on bass, my composed music, with the exception of the jazz mutants material, is primarily designed to accompany visual elements like film and television. This composition work breaks down into three basic categories and they are as follows:

Score - Music scored to picture. This represents the bulk of the music presented on this website. After a film is edited, a work print is used to compose music directly to a film or other visual element. This is a collaborative effort with the director, producer, and whoever else has the clout to dictate the needs of the film overall.

Custom Library - Music composed and produced for a specific film, or other visual, as a "cue library". This is a commissioned and licensed body of music, and is edited to picture, and used for the picture as needed.

Library Licensing - Pre-existing music from a vast library, accumulated through previous works and unused works, available for licensed usage.

BASSIST

Touring

long term, short term, locally, regionally, and worldwide.

Recording Session Work

4, 5, and 6 string electric fretted and fretless bass, on-site studio work, as well as remote tracks from home studio via protools etc..

Local Gigs

original bands, cover bands, church gigs, sub gigs, reading gigs, etc.. all styles.

Product Demonstrations

demonstrations/shows of gear covered under endorsement agreements, demonstrations/shows with other endorsing artists, providing there are no endorsement conflicts, often combined with guest appearances, lectures, clinics, etc..

EDUCATOR

Private/Classroom Lessons

one on one private lessons or classroom lessons. subjects include: (bass) left and right hand techniques, fingerings, exercises, (bass and composition) chord-scale construction and structure, chord-scale relationships, chord progression, modern harmonic concepts, division and subdivision of all rhythmic values, polyrhythm, feels within grooves, styles, time signatures, dynamics, improvisation, reading, listening and hearing, harmonic and rhythmic analysis, transcription, etc..

Guest Appearances

guest appearances, lectures, clinics, etc., often combined with endorsement agreements and product demonstrations.

Video Series

bass video series, composer video series.

Publications

bass curriculum, harmony and theory curriculum, rhythm curriculum, jazz mutant blog

JAZZ MUTANTS

The Jazzmutants Band

"The Jazzmutants are the embodyment of differing styles of music, and represent the type of music closest to my natural expression of musical language. The band is based in Austin, TX, led by me, and is a vehicle for my bass playing and writing. I consider myself a mutation of a jazz musician of sorts. Though I studied classical double bass and jazz string bass in school, I soon gravitated to electric bass, and the fretless bass became my favorite way of expressing what was inside me. My skills in, and love of, playing rock and funk and rhythm and blues, as well as my time studying harmony, composition, jazz arranginging at the prestigious Dick Grove School of Music, and most recently the film music I've composed, have all expanded, "mutated", my jazz sincibilities, and it all inspires the writing for the Jazzmutants."

"I have found that there is much beauty and love, as well as deeper spiritual connections, in music, once the ego is removed, and a person is at peace with one's self. I strive to convey and recieve the great love, emotions, and power that the human spirit posesses when connected by the spiritual forces and beauty music offers. If I can connect with the listener, and convey to them the joy I feel when playing, to the extent that the music falls directly on their hearts and in their souls, I am fullfilled and forever greatful."

The Steven Schoen Jazz Trio
Uptown Austin Cover Band
The Jazz Mutants Trio
Royal Velvetee
Amy Q Band
Mark Ambrose Band
Kim & Her Bad Habits
Neal Ford
Johnny Rogers Band
Jazzmonger Quartet
Michael Coleman Band
Castile King
Kind Of Cool Jazz Quintet
Jamal Jackson
Jose Cabriales
Will Gullatt Ensemble
Big Money Gators

OTHER SERVICES

Arranging, Orchestrating, Conducting, Consulting, etc.

Arranging: An arranger deals with the reworking of a musical composition, sometimes for a different medium from that of the original. He also tailors music for specific artist, style, form, and key. An example of an arranging job was what I did for the movie Brick. This also entailed a great deal of midi-orchestration, as the score was not produced with live orchestra. The Jazzmutants requires a great deal of arranging as well.

Orchestration: Orchestration is an important and necessary aspect of composition. Orchestration sets music in score form, assigns music to designated instruments, and finalizes nuances of performance. An orchestrator gives support and takes a certain amount of stress and work off the shoulders of the composer. The most rewarding moments in my career have been the collaborations with musicians, composers, and orchestrators.

Conducting: I was fortunate enough to have studied conducting with the venerable William Kettering. For about six years on a weekly basis Bill thought me the intricacies of classic music literature from Beethoven to Debussy. It was excellent composition study as well. A conductor basically helps the orchestra interpret the music properly and to it's full potential.

Music Consultation: This category involves everything musical that doesn't have an exact title. For instance on the movie Spiderman 2 I worked with the orchestrator in my studio and combined previously recorded material with newly composed, arranged, orchestrated and midi-orchestrated material. This was classified as "Music Consultation." Another description of the job is more specific; Read the score during a recording session; listen for mistakes, orchestral balance, and check timings. Basically a liaison between the composer and the conductor. Another type of consultation is Technical Consultation, which is simply assisting composers in the technical aspects of the studio and the scoring session.

Music Editing: The full scope of the "Professional Music Editor" is vast, highly skilled, integral to the process of film scoring, and beyond my experience. Having said that, there are aspects of music editing within my experience and I offer those services with confidence. My Pro Tools skills combined with highly proficient and evolved compositional understanding qualify me to edit temp scores, fix poorly recorded tracks, edit cues which have been recorded prior to a changed film edit and more.

Midi-Orchestration: With today's' sample libraries and samplers, midi-orchestration is a highly valuable skill and necessary skill. I look at this craft almost exactly the same way as orchestration for live instruments. The difference is in the transparency of the sampled sections. The trick is the choice of samples, the layering of the samples, and the use of reverb. The basic job is to translate a sketch or incomplete midi file into workable preliminary or final scores or fully produced final recordings. Anothe midi skill is Midi-Clean up, which entails emoving unwanted artifacts from and translating midi files into workable sketches or preliminary scores for the orchestrator.

Copying: The copying work I do is done with computer software. I use Encore, Logic, and Sibelius. The job entails the extraction of individual parts from a score and putting the in notation specific to designated instruments and suitable for performance. I offer package deals in orchestration and copying since I can use the same software and files for both.