“Love Rock” by Emi’s Eve: A Composer/Arranger’s Perspective

About 2 years ago, I wrote some music for Emi Waterson, lead singer and songwriter of Emi’s Eve (an original and covers band from Australia). Fast forward to today, the result of that collaboration is now here for your listening pleasure:

 

(“Love Rock” – Copyright 2012, Emi Waterson/Mark A. Galang/Jeni Wallwork)

 

“Love Rock” is a song that started out as a melody that Emi wrote. She sent me a recording of her singing the melody and I wrote music to accompany that melody. It’s a product of my first musical collaboration with somebody from outside of the Philippines, something that was unimaginable for me prior to the advent of the Internet.

The intro where the strings are sawing away was originally a guitar riff. I even wrote a shredding guitar run in the upper register prior to the part where the vocals kick in. The whole idea that I had in mind for the music was sort of a hard rock song for a pop singer. At the very least I was trying to put some hard rock integrity into the song in the same manner that a J-pop song would have a surprisingly technical twist that you would typically expect from a speed metal piece.

The great thing that I love about this recording is how Emi and the rest of her collaborators have tweaked the arrangement. I think most of the notes I wrote are still there, the most important ones being the riffs, the chord progressions, some of the licks and the basslines. The most surprising thing for me was how the Emi and the other arrangers  turned the main riff and some of the passages into something useful for strings. The string passages gave that sort of chamber music appeal like a Vivaldi concerto.

Since the record is intended for a mass-market/radio audience, I wasn’t really surprised that the guitar solos I wrote were edited although a semblance of which appeared as a lick towards the end. Maybe Emi’s guitar player wrote it himself and could have been influenced by the solo I wrote: I’m not really sure.

To sum it all up, I’m very happy to have worked with Emi on “Love Rock” and a few other songs (regarding which I’ll keep my mouth shut for now). I was really glad how the whole recording turned out. It is a pop song, that’s for certain, but it’s one that requires a good level of musicianship to perform, a rarity in today’s music scene where garbage can produce millions of dollars. Give “Love Rock” a listen and you’ll be happy to hear how amazing Emi and her band are.

To get to know more about Emi and Emi’s Eve, visit http://www.emiseve.com.

Six String Madness Interviews Mark Galang

Just this week, I was interviewed by Scott of Six String Madness regarding my work and insights as a music transcriber for Steve Stine and GuitarZoom.

Read the interview via the links below:

http://www.sixstringmadness.com/exclusive-interview-mark-galang
http://www.stevestine.com/exclusive-interview-with-mark-galang/

For more tips about playing guitar and info regarding getting the best blues, rock and metal guitar lessons on the net, go visit sixstringmadness.com.

Steve Stine’s 96 Blues Licks Now Available

After two weeks of hard work, I’m proud to announce that Steve Stine’s long anticipated 96 Blues Licks course for guitar has already been released by GuitarZoom. If you’ve ever dreamed of playing the blues and all sorts of its derivatives like blues rock and Texas blues, this is the course that you’ve been waiting for.

Steve Stine’s 96 Blues Licks course can be seen as part of a continuity of lead guitar instruction courses by the guru himself. If the first Solofire installment and Music Theory Made Easy provided you with the “how” of guitar soloing and music making, 96 Blues Licks provides you the “what”. You can say that it’s going to form part of your ever expanding vocabulary of lead guitar lines.

One of the most awesome aspects of 96 Blues Licks is that it provides some insights into the music theory behind playing the Blues. The introductory material provides a good method into how any guitar player would approach using the licks and putting them in the context of any song. Rather than just being told how a lick is played, the introductory materials actually provide more by helping learners expand the licks into things more than just soloing.

The sheet music provided (transcribed by no other than yours truly) is in the usual standard notation and guitar tablature format. It covers all of the materials in the DVD and we even went far as including all of Steve’s jam track improvisations at the end of the course so that learners can actually gain insight as to how Steve approaches playing the Blues.

So, to cut the long story short, if you’ve ever dreamed of being like Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Chuck Berry or Stevie Ray Vaughn, check out Steve Stine’s 96 Blues Licks. If you’re a blues guitar fan, I guarantee that you’ll get more than your money’s worth just listening to how Steve gets you going with the Blues.

Kidoteca’s Magical Music Box: iPads and Android Tablets as Instant Mega-Music Boxes

Have you received a music box as a gift during your childhood years? Now you can go back to those sweet childhood memories filled with wonder and excitement through Kidoteca’s Magical Music Box. I would be quick to admit my bias when m writing this review (I worked on its music after all), but I just can’t contain my excitement over it. Truth of the matter is that I really love it, and I think most of you will too.

I just received a complimentary copy of the software from Stanislas Hauptmann of Kidoteca. As soon as I had it installed in my iPad, I couldn’t help but be filled with awe and excitement as all of the 16 piece of music that I arranged for this instrument came to life.

The present version of the Magical Music Box gives you a total of 6 different music box styles. Instead of a single diorama you might find in an actual music box, you can actually “dress up” your music box depending on your mood or whatnot. However, (again, here’s my bias going off), the most important thing about the Magical Music Box is the music itself.

I arranged a total of 16 pieces for this instrument. These piece range from the most serious of classical music pieces like “Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5”, children’s classics like “Old MacDonald” and others. Of all the selections in the Magical Music Box, “Swan Lake”, “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Invention No. 8” are my favorites.

One more great thing about the Magical Music Box is the interactive interface. Upon opening the music box, you can start cranking it up to produce sounds from it just like the real thing. If your iPad has a folder-style case, you’ll see that if you cover up the screen, the music box is going to stop playing. Again, this is the same as real music boxes where closing the lid would stop the mechanism from playing. If you’re not in the mood to crank up the music box, you could just press the gramophone icon so that it would play as if it was a player piano. Another cool thing about it is that you can access tiny bits of history regarding each piece of music in the Magical Music Box.

At the present time, there are two versions of the Magical Music Box. You can try out the Lite version for free before you decide to purchase a copy. I think you can get way more for your money if you purchase the full version, which is only $0.99 on the App Store at the present time.

You can get a copy of Kidoteca’s Magical Music Box through the following links:

iOS Users

Android Users

Kidoteca’s “Magical Music Box” to be Released on Apple’s AppStore Tomorrow

About a few weeks ago, I was working with Kidoteca, a publisher and developer of iOS and Android apps aimed at children, on a project called the “Magical Music Box”. My job consisted of arrangement and transcription of various pieces of music from standard notation or audio and into a special worksheet that Stanislas Hauptmann (one of the top guys at Kidoteca) and his crew developed. I can’t wait to be able to try out on the iPad and hear for myself the results of my work.

To give more details about my experiences while working on this project, Mr. Hauptmann provided me with a list of various pieces of music that he wanted for the app to run. The challenge for me was to rearrange a variety of music with varying complexity into versions that would work for an instrument with barely 3 octaves in range (C3 to C6). This component of the job is indeed challenging, especially when I had to slim down complex pieces like Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Act 1 Finale and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 into simple 1-minute pieces with a maximum of just 2 parts. It’s hard to do justice to such classics with those conditions, but I’m guessing I was able to pull that off.

The second challenge of the job was that I had to convert what I hear in my piano and read in the sheet music into Mr. Hauptmann’s specific code. He supplied me with a worksheet that essentially became a vertical step sequencer. I had to input notes according to scientific pitch notation, set a tempo and set a note value per beat. Seems easy on first look. The difficult part, however, was that I had no way of verifying by audio the results of my coding unless Kidoteca renders the worksheets as MP3s. I had to kiss the expectation of working like I do with FLStudio or Sibelius goodbye and instead try my best to accurately write down on the worksheet what I was hearing whenever I sight read or listen to the pieces that are assigned to me.

The third challenge was to curb my urge towards making complex arrangements. Complex arrangements do not work well most of the time when writing for the Magical Music Box as the notes tend to get muddy. There is a great emphasis on making the melody prominent and writing a simple yet driving bass line. There are at times when Mr. Hauptmann and I had a few differences over how the arrangements should go. Fortunately, we were able to settle things and figure out what works.

I also had the opportunity of writing descriptions for the pieces of music I arranged. It’s kind of like writing program notes for a recital except that this time it’s for an iOS app.

It seems to me that things are working out well as we’re going to see the release of Kidoteca’s “Magical Music Box” tomorrow. I just watched the YouTube promo video and it seems to have a really stunning interface. Of course, the music is *ahem* wonderful as well. Do check out the “Magical Music Box” by Kidoteca at the AppStore and Google Play. Turn your iOS and Android devices into a lullaby station or a mesmerizing kid’s music machine.

P.S. With this music box, you never have to wind it up to start playing plus it’s always at a constant tempo so the music doesn’t die down slowly.

The iPad as an Amazing Musical Tool

Just last week, my wife and I bought a new iPad from one of the shops at the SM Mall of Asia. I had been contemplating about getting a tablet computer or e-book reader for years given the advantages they have. I always thought that I could at the very least have one as a library or sheet music stack on the go. Upon getting an iPad, it opened up a whole new world to me.

The first thing about the iPad that was obvious to me was that I can use it as a musical instrument. This is due to Jordan Rudess’s influence, having seen him on many Dream Theater videos that feature the iPhone and then the iPad as an alternative to his Haken Continuum. Taking cue from that influence, my first app purchase was Wizdom Music’s Tachyon and MorphWiz. These two apps simply blew my mind away as it transformed my iPad into a new musical instrument, sort of like a fretless instrument with more controls. More toys for me to make a noise with then.

The second obvious application for the iPad was as a sheet music reader. I have plenty of sheet music in PDF format and so I got Adobe Acrobat Reader installed in the tablet, loaded up some of my sheet music in it, and there I go. I now have most of my sheet music with me in just a small package. No more folders or extra envelopes to bring with me then.

Reading all over the web, I realized that I can do more with it that those things I’ve mentioned. I have GarageBand in my iPad so theoretically I can perform multitrack audio and MIDI recordings with it. I have most of the things required to make that happen such as a couple of keyboards (from the massive Kurzweil PC88 to the Korg Nanokey), my trusty Technics digital piano, some guitars, and my Zoom H4n recorder. All I lack now is the digital camera connection kit for the iPad (essentially an iPad port to USB adapter). Since the Zoom H4n and the Korg Nanokey has been confirmed to work with the iPad, if I get that connector then boom! A recording studio on the go that’s more mobile than my laptop rig.

Since I’m a music transcriber, I’ve also thought about how the iPad would work as a scorewriter. It’s unfortunate that Sibelius for iPad hasn’t been written yet. However, there’s Symphony Pro and Notion for iPad. Since I’ve been reading reports about how both iPad scorewriters are prone to crashing, I held off the decision to purchase one or the other.

The iPad’s WiFi connectivity can turn it into a remote control surface for DAWs like Sonar, Logic Pro, Cubase, etc. This I haven’t tried yet but I’m assuming that it would be a good alternative to getting an actual control surface. I would have to admit though that nothing beats the actual hardware. But if you’ve got an iPad, it maybe worth trying out.

Having spent only a few days with the iPad, I now have an understanding of why a number of musicians prefer to use the iPad, iPhone, Mac Books and other Apple products for their music production needs. It’s easy to use, and it’s already optimized. I didn’t need to do any tweaks of sort to get things like MorphWiz running. With my PC-based music production gear, I had to spend hours tweaking various aspects of it to get them running smoothly. The big turn off for Apple products is the price. The iPad is not cheap, though I got mine lower since the New iPad just got released and I got the iPad 2. If I’ve already seen that much from just spending a few days with the iPad, I suppose there’s still a lot of exciting things for me to look forward to as this new device helps me in creating new music.

Music Theory Mastery for Guitar on Guitarzoom

A good knowledge of music theory allows any guitarist to vastly improve his or her skills, and one of the best courses out there is “Music Theory Mastery for Guitar” by Steve Stine. I have started working on this new project as a music transcriber and chart maker for the past couple of weeks, and I could definitely say that Steve is one of the best teachers out there. His new music theory lesson is currently hosted at Guitarzoom.com.

Music theory can be a daunting subject to tackle. However, Steve breaks it down to practical tidbits that are most useful for any guitarist. It follows a kind of hear-before-you-read approach in that his theory lessons emphasize hearing and recognizing notes, scales, chords and patterns and practical performance advice over reading sheet music. I know that teaching sheet music first could easily turn off a lot of people, especially those that want to get some practical music skills fast. It appears that this approach to learning music theory offers easy transmission of knowledge and skill that learners would eventually want to learn how to read sheet music as soon as they get better.

The main benefit any guitarist can get from Music Theory Mastery for Guitar is that it provides an overall understanding of how music works as it relates to guitar without having to read sheet music. I can say that it’s a very suitable course for guitarists who learned how to play by ear and would want to advance their skills further. If you are interested in enrolling for Music Mastery for Guitar, sign up for the course at Guitarzoom.Com. It’s an ongoing class and week 4 of the course starts next week. Even if you missed the following weeks, you can go and backtrack the previous weeks as many times as you want with your subscription.

P.S. if you’re a Guitarzoom member and you have any questions about the courses, music theory or guitar playing in general, you can send in your questions to me and I’ll gladly offer my help in the Guitarzoom member forums. That’s because I’m the new guitar Q&A guy as well.

Again, if you want to push your guitar playing skills to another level, go sign up for Steve Stine’s “Music Theory Mastery for Guitar” at Guitarzoom.com.

Getting Your First Freelance Job as a Music Transcriber

So, if you think you are qualified to be a music transcriber, the next question you will ask is, “Where and how do I get some jobs?” In many ways, getting a job as a music transcriber can be difficult. Given the advances on the Internet, however, it’s never been easier to promote yourself as a music transcriber and apply for jobs.

The Two Most Important Items in Applying for the First Job

The two most important items you will need in your attempt to bag a music transcription job is your portfolio and your resume. Your portfolio should contain a variety of samples of sheet music. You should have at least one of these:

1. A piano score
2. A lead sheet (For the uninitiated, a lead sheet only contains melody and chords)
3. A full score
4. Guitar notation + tab

I would consider these kinds of sheet music as the most universal. Here are some reasons why you need to have these kinds of

Piano scores can easily demonstrate your attention to detail as well as how well you can translate a way a pianist plays music into the written format.

As for lead sheets, I would say that they can be used by all sorts of musicians. Some groups (such as one of the organizations I’ve worked with named MSE Music Services, an entertainment/orchestra provider in the Philippines) even prefer lead sheets as they are faster to read along. I would call a lead sheet the Swiss knife of sheet music as any musician with considerable sight reading skills can play along, even if it’s just reading the chords.

Full scores tend to serve well in showcasing your transcription skills. It gives the impression that you are knowledgeable with writing and transcribing for a wide array of ensembles.

What I think is the most popular now are guitar notation/tablature and lead sheets. The reason for that is the guitar is a very popular instrument meaning that there are many guitar enthusiasts who’d want to learn how to play like their heroes.

As far as writing your resume, be honest. You don’t want to give your potential clients false impressions. Just show on your resume that you have the skills. If you have a degree in music, you can showcase that to attract clients.

Applying for Freelance Music Transcription Jobs

One of the best (and probably the safest) ways of applying for music transcription jobs is by setting up an account in a freelancing website like oDesk or Elance. Upload your portfolio, write a good description about yourself, set up a profile, look for music transcription jobs and then start applying.

When you start applying or bidding for a transcription job, remember to write a good cover letter. It should be brief but it should highlight your skills, experience and qualifications. Make sure to direct your potential client to your portfolio in order for them to see the quality of your work.

You can also put up your own website or place you ads as a music transcriber in online classifieds. You can get a few leads by putting in some time for that task.

Financial Matters Concerning Your First Music Transcription Job

You should expect that your first job would only have a price of about a few dollars. Remember that at this stage you are trying to establish yourself and so you will need to build up your reputation first. As your reputation improves, you’ll gain some leverage to charge more.

Despite saying that you should try out first some cheap jobs to gain experience, don’t work for free. If a potential client asks you to transcribe a whole song as a test, you need to get paid for the time you spent. If they’re not willing to pay for the test, bargain with them that you will transcribe perhaps a few bars as a sample. If they insist, tell them to take their business elsewhere. Working for free cheapens the profession and gives people the wrong idea that music transcription is easy. Music transcription is definitely not easy and you don’t want to be treated like a slave as they profit from the hours you’ve spent trying to nail those weird piano chords into standard notation.

Final Words

Do some research about transcription rates so that you can set up a competitive rate for yourself. In determining your rate, you have to establish one that will shoulder the costs of your operation and other things while providing the best price possible. In these times, you’ll be lucky to find someone give you a job that allows you to charge your hourly rate, especially if you’re a freelancer on sites like oDesk. There are numerous cases of clients getting ripped off by unscrupulous freelancers, so my advice is do not go that route. If you’re lucky enough to get a transcription job that pays by the hour, make sure to deliver your goods on time and with excellent quality.

That’s all of what I can think of for now on how to bag that first job. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

The Qualifications of a Music Transcriber

Since music transcription is a very exciting field, there are those who ask what are the qualifications of a music transcriber. If you haven’t had the opportunity to understand how that works out based on my previous entries, this entry will tell what I think are the qualifications for a freelancing music transcriber.

If you’re expecting to say that you need a music degree to be a music transcriber, then I will tell you that I am living proof that you don’t have to have one. I certainly didn’t attend a conservatory, and all the knowledge that I gained in music transcription and music in general is through practical means. However, let me say that in all sorts of jobs in the music industry, having a music degree is an advantage but it does not guarantee that you’ll be a pro at music transcription or any music job. So, if you’re planning to take up music in college or are already taking up music, by all means try your best to complete your degree. Again, it’s definitely an advantage but it’s not required.

Now, in any sort of job or occupation, the most important thing is that you can demonstrate that you can do the job well. Unlike in the healthcare sector where having a license is necessary, music jobs in general do not require that. It all boils down to whether you can do the job or not. One of the best ways of demonstrating that is having a portfolio of your works. Now, the question would be, “What if I don’t have a portfolio?” You can always try to transcribe some samples on your own first, save them as PDF files and then you can use them as samples when you try to hunt for music transcription jobs.

Another qualification you’ll need is good working knowledge of music theory. You have to understand how standard notation is written down. You have to be able to read standard notation. This is absolutely necessary as a music transcriber. When you jot down notes onto piece of manuscript paper or input them in a program like Sibelius, you have to be able to produce sheet music that’s neat and very easy to read. No matter how complicated the music might be, the simplest manner by which you can interpret musical ideas into paper is the best way, and you certainly need to be grounded on music theory for that.

If you can already transcribe music and have a portfolio, it’s already enough evidence that you have a good ear for music. Most people offering transcription jobs would be convinced that you can handle it. There are also those clients or employers who want to make sure that you can really pull it off, and so you will be subjected to a transcription test. A transcription test is something you shouldn’t be afraid of. By all means, go for it. If you already have a portfolio and enough chops to produce a quality transcript, then I’m sure you can tackle such tests.

If you plan on being a music transcriber, have a good understanding of how music is arranged and played. You should be able to at least sing in tune and play an instrument, preferably a keyboard instrument. The more you know about how instruments work, the better you can become a music transcriber. Other than trying to learn how to play musical instruments, listen to a variety of music. It will definitely help you become familiar with all the sorts of genres you might have to transcribe.

So to sum it all up, your qualifications as a music transcriber are the following:

1. A portfolio
2. A good ear for music
3. Good working knowledge of music theory
4. Knowledge of musical instruments and various genres of music

As long as you can demonstrate that you have all the qualities of a good music transcriber, I don’t see why you can’t get a music transcription job if you don’t have a music degree.

How to Become a Music Transcriber

There probably is no single way about how to become a music transcriber.

One would say that every serious musician in the planet has had to do some music transcription in one way or another. A good examples would be one of my guitar heroes, Steve Vai, former music transcriber for Frank Zappa. Jazz musicians have been known to do this in order to figure out the improvisation methods of their influences. It’s easy then to say that to be a music transcriber one should start by having great love and dedication for music.

Let me tell you a little story about how I became a music transcriber. As far as growing up as a musician, I had limited access to sheet music and so it was helpful that I relied on my ears to learn new songs. What I would consider my first entry into music transcription would be jotting down chords of various songs I wanted to play while I listened to my cassette tapes. Being able to transcribe music came out of necessity. I am not very good at memorizing pieces (I must have some sort of memory deficit) and so transcriptions of music became great memory tools for me. That was the start of being a music transcriber, the desire to learn new songs.

When my playing skills and my knowledge of music theory further improved, I transitioned from just jotting down chords to actually transcribing songs, whether it be in MIDI or in a scorewriter such as Sibelius. Sometimes, I still do it by hand, especially when an idea for a composition starts popping into my head.

Going back to the topic “how to become a music transcriber”, one may be able to simplify it in a few steps:

1. Learn and practice how to play a musical instrument – Before you can transcribe, you will need some basic knowledge about how to play a musical instrument or be able to sing in tune. If you are confident in being able to discern that you can follow rhythm and melody, that is a start. You will also need to constantly practice how to play your instrument. You need to develop considerable technique that will make you understand how songs are composed and how they are arranged.
2. Learn and study music theory – By studying music theory, you get to have a better understanding of what exactly is you are playing or what you are hearing. Studying music theory also helps a lot in how to jot down your transcripts to paper or an application like Sibelius properly.
3. Start transcribing – Once you have some skill on musical instruments and have a good working knowledge of music theory, you can now begin to transcribe. Start out with transcribing the rhythms of the piece, and then followed by the bass line (to have a good understanding of the piece’s harmonic structure as well as provide a “skeleton”) and the melody.
4. Practice transcribing – Practice always makes perfect, and so just like playing an instrument, music transcription requires practice.
5. Keep a portfolio – If you want to earn some money from music transcription, you need a portfolio. Try to select the very best from your  collection. This portfolio would serve as a great way to prove that you can do it.
6. Be patient – Any aspiring transcriber has to be patient. Imagine having to listen to the same song over again for more than 20 times. I can tire out your ears but it really is part of music transcription.

There’s not a lot of steps, but just as I said in my previous piece about music transcription, it takes a great deal of patience.  If you have a music degree or currently studying in a conservatory, music transcription will always help as an additional skill. If you do not have a music degree, don’t fret. I don’t have one but I sure can transcribe music and play an instrument relatively well. Whether your goal is to be able to study and analyze your favorite artist or composer’s works or to become a professional sheet music provider, the knowledge of music transcription will always be helpful.

So, why are you still reading this? Prepare your manuscript paper or your scorewriter and start walking the path on how to become a music transcriber.