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Thank you so much, especially for the detailed response! I believe around this time I been studying a handful of 80s film scores which of course were rife with a hybrid mix of synthesizers and the traditional orchestra. I'm a really big fan of Jerry Goldsmith and have taken a great liking to the Total Recall soundtrack, which is a great example of this mixture. I've also always been inspired by Twin Peaks and Angelo Badalamenti's work on that soundtrack, so for me the synths and saxophone is a little bit of a wink and nod to that. In the coming year I will probably involve synths a little bit more too - the trick is finding the right balance with the orchestra, utilizing sounds which serve to augment and uplift the acoustic instruments but never detract. More experiments to come - Cheers!

Glad you liked it, thank you! 🥰

haha love that, if I recall I was actually considering an alternate title which was "the ant's life" or something similar, it totally makes sense 🐜😂

Justifiable Tom and Jerry episode memories

I've never heard of that before, just looked it up and it sounds cool - thanks for the rec!

Thank you!

Thank you, glad you think so 🥰

Do it! Even if simply sketching an hour a day. I learned a lot this year by doing it consistently!

Hi Emil, thanks for listening and enjoying my journey! 🥰 I get asked often about the score animations actually, so much so that I'm thinking after the project finishes and I have a little free time in the new year, I'll post a tutorial on this channel! The short answer for now is that I export a PDF from my notation software (Dorico) and then animate it scrolling in After Effects (though I believe basic video editing programs will have this functionality) set to an export of the music. And then I add a background and text elements where needed. Unfortunately it is a bit manual and time-consuming which is why I generally got behind with the renders - the longer the song and more notes in the composition, the more I have to manually keyframe pauses so it syncs up. I wish there was a more automatic or simple answer for that part but unfortunately I haven't found one. Hope that helps for now, and Merry Christmas to you as well!

⁠@@jonathanwingmusicThanks for the very thorough response! That’s very creative. It works very well and looks awesome. I starts composing myself not long ago and might try out something similar. Good luck with composing the rest of the year! Looking forward to number 365 😉

Thank you! 🙏

Thanks! I grew up as a drummer and love polyrhthms and going against the meter, so I'm glad when it works out! :)

Thank you so much! 🥰

Haha nice, glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you! 🙏

Thank you so much! It's been a whirlwind, I have so many video renders backlogged (I find them to be the most challenging part of this project) - so now with some holiday time you're gonna start seeing many more very quickly 😅 I'm glad you're enjoying it, thanks for your support! 🥰

Thank you! ✨

Thank you!

Most of the time I don't approach the score with a specific idea in mind - they usually come out after noodling around on the piano for awhile until I find a melody or group of chords that clicks with me that day. I pretty much always start on a piano and then orchestrate from there. A few other resources though which have helped are this book called 1001 Composition Prompts (Amazon Kindle) which are literally a list of random ideas, could be a few chords or specific instrumentation, which usually spark something new. Also the website Orchestration Recipes is good. Most important lessons I have learned is being consistent and not judging myself, even if an idea is bad - to just keep going and eventually something comes out!

Amazing, I love that scene description! It's very vivid and detailed, and I can picture it too. Very dreamlike. Also I've always been fascinated by the mystery of caves and underground worlds, so I'm glad my music evoked such images... 🔮✨🙂

@@jonathanwingmusic I really love it when something inspires a scene in my mind. Your art is amazing, Jonathan. Stay determined, my friend, and Merry Christmas!

@@GuilhermeSantos-jj7le thank you, and Merry Christmas to you as well!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thanks - the more complex compositions like this one are also usually the days I had off from work or obligations, so I had plenty of time to dig in!

@ ooohh so you make more in your free time?

@@thyllebettermilk7460 oh sometimes but no not really I just meant the more free time I have the more complex these compositions are. Some days they are very simple if I don't have much time ;)

@ oooohh keep it up jonathan! I’m sure you’d reach the 365th day

@@thyllebettermilk7460 Thank you! 20 more to go :)

Thank you! Honestly I surprise even myself - I think it's truly a testament to the human spirit and possibility when we commit to something (which prior to this project I had difficulty doing!). Learned a lot of tricks and shortcuts along the way to speed things up. But I'm also pretty exhausted, and looking forward to a short break next year, haha!

Thank you! I use Dorico with NotePerformer

Thank you! I love hearing that, because I'm a huge fan and very inspired by Joe Hisaishi who has composed most of the Ghibli movies. Spitired Away is one of my faves 🥰

Thank you! 🎻🥰

Aww, thank you!

Thank you!

Thanks! Funny thing is in the very beginning I was so focused on orchestration and size, but I was much slower at writing and the software, so looking back all the earlier pieces were around 20-40 seconds and they took me four times as long to create! I eventually learned there is more value in letting things breathe and develop, and using repetition to my advantage too - where 1-2 mins tends to be the right amount. I'm grateful I've gotten a lot faster by doing it - and next year I intend to comb through some of these sketches and spend more time expanding them into longer pieces, which I think will be super fun getting to apply what I've learned without a daily deadline lol. Cheers!

thank you!

Thank you, and will do haha!

Thank you! For the animations, I export a .PDF from my notation software (Dorico), set completely wide without any system breaks. I then bring it into After Effects (though most video programs can do this), add the audio, animate the score left to right manually, and add different colored backgrounds. Next year I will probably do add a tutorial on this channel, stay tuned :)

Thank you! I remember being really tired the night I wrote this so the falling part was almost a way of trying to find an exit ramp out of this piece (when in doubt, morendo and fade out slowly lol) - but it seems in hindsight that it worked itself out naturally! 😅 Glad to hear you're writing, keep going man! 🙏

@@jonathanwingmusic yeah definately worked 👌

Thank you! I just composed 340 last night, but these video renders are pretty time consuming (lesson learned) so I have a big month ahead of me with uploads lol. I'm looking forward to that finish line!

Thank you! Some pieces are a harder to keep smooth than others, especially faster pieces with a lot of notes in each measure you have to scroll so quickly that sometimes it can get jerky for me, which I haven't found a solution for! Anyway I animate a PDF in after effects and did a lot of testing early on with different frame rates. I found the smoothest possibility is to set the video to 60fps. Unfortunately it takes longer to render but it's a lot smoother than the standard 24 or 30fps. Hope that helps!

You've inspired me to try something similar

Thanks! Honestly I have surprised myself, I don't know how I've done it either haha. I think it's between committing myself to a challenge where I simply have to do it every day, and the act of doing something every day has made it easier over time too. Oh yeah, and lots and lots of coffee 🤪 I took a break from video uploads due to some work and life stuff so although I still composed every day, I have about a month's worth of videos to catch up with - so yeah, needless to say I'm exhausted lol.

@@oscarllywelyn and yeah, do it! If I were to do it differently I would actually focus on longer works, writing a little bit every day making progress on one longer piece rather than a new small piece every day. I think that's much more sustainable and you still get to practice daily. But I'm glad I tried the daily smaller piece approach, I learned a lot.

@@jonathanwingmusic that's what I was thinking - maybe 2/3 tracks a week or something like that. I feel I need something like this to really improve my composition as I always struggle start tracks or finish ideas but forcing myself to write anything everyday might be the best way forwards 😁

@@oscarllywelyn I have a little sign right by my computer of this quote I love from Pablo Picasso - "Inspiration Exists, but it has to find you working." It has been a helpful reminder when I feel like I have no ideas or struggling to start (or finish). Rather than waiting for that great idea for inspiration to strike, just working on literally anything is better than nothing at all - at least that's what I've been discovering! Just show up even without any ideas, and let the rest sort itself out 💪🤓 Speaking of here I am procrastinating on RUclips - I need to go write today's composition and I literally have no idea what it will be lol... I guess we'll see 😅 Anyway I'd love to hear whatever you end up working on and I'll be cheering you on! Do ittttt!🎉

Thank you!

I have several approaches! 1. Noodle around on a piano until I find something interesting. It might be chords, it might be a melody - and then I build around that. 2. When I noodle I will put it into the computer and try variations as well - sometimes I make mistakes and embrace that as a direction for the piece, instead of getting caught up trying to fix things which would only slow me down. 3. Score study - I look at scores by composers I enjoy (you can find so many for free on IMSLP and also RUclips score videos) - I will take notes and then try to write something in the style of that composer. Obviously I don't copy anything but I will analyze something about the harmony or instruments used and borrow ideas to start my own. 4. "1001 Music Composition Prompts" - a cheap eBook I found on Amazon (kindle) - it's literally just a bunch of prompts, flip a page and get some inspiration. I often use only part of the prompt or even combine prompts, there are no rules - whatever gets me writing. 5. "Orchestration Recipes" (website). A little pricey but each "recipe" has a general suggestion of instruments, and sometimes ideas for a scale to work from. Of course I have to write my own melodies and harmonies but it does inspire new directions to try, as with the book above I sometimes combine recipes too lol. The most important part for me has been to even start with a fragment of an idea and just keep working on it, eventually it takes shape. I try not to judge any ideas - just keep moving forward - and I think that is really helpful for letting ideas flow and spark new ones!

​@@jonathanwingmusic i see, thank you so much!

@@jonathanwingmusicI believe you said a while ago that you were thinking of joining ScoreClub. Did you ever get round to it, and if so what do you think of it?

@@zorkmarble I did join it actually, for a few months out of this year. The classes have a lot of content which is good. He recommends everyone still review with his fundamentals course, which was generally pretty basic for me but there were some good things in there. Sadly I didn't have a chance to get to the meat of the program (most of which I believe is called "Orchestrating the Line") before having to pause my account for work and financial reasons. I'll probably come back to it next year, but I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything major. This year I think the greatest lessons I've received were from orchestration books + score study (and then applying those lessons directly to writing every day!). Between IMSLP and RUclips score videos and cheap or free orchestration PDF books, basically everything you need to know is already out there ;) Scoreclub is nice though because they have a private forum where people can respond to specific questions, but I think for awhile I'm going to stick to either things which are already available to me, or courses which are a one time purchase rather than a subscription. For that, I really like FilmMusicNotes, which are excellent courses on focused on film music (less on orchestration though, mostly on composition and harmony). Those are quite long and deep too, and so far I feel I've gotten a bit more out of them and it's nice that I own them for life. Oh and also look up Robert Davis' Composer's Mastery Course, really great videos and a one-time purchase. Subscriptions are killing me! ;)

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you! You should definitely get back into songwriting as a regular practice - it only gets easier the more you do it (though truth be told, I'm exhausted and looking forward to a week off lol) :)

Haha thank you!

Thank you! When I have time early next year I think I will post a tutorial on it... but in short I export a wide PDF from my notation software (Dorico), and then I animate that left to right in After Effects (but most video editing type programs can do this). Then I add a background and usually tweak the colors a little. Stay tuned for that tutorial, I'll go through in more detail :)

I export a PDF from my notation software (Dorico) which is totally wide (no system breaks), and then I bring that into After Effects and animate it left to right. When I have time after my project finishes early next year, I am probably going to do a tutorial on this channel because many people have asked me about it! Stay tuned :)