Jake Few is a multi-instrumentalist and course producer at ThinkSpace Education. He has worked as a musical director and composer for an Off West End musical theatre production and holds a degree in Music Composition and Technology for Film and Games. Jake is also a contributor to our new Practical Harmony 2 course, available now on introductory offer. It’s easy to get stuck …
Storytelling Through Sound: Bernard Walton on the Power of Music in Film and Documentary
For any composer aspiring to work in film or television, there is no greater teacher than experience, and few possess more of it than award-winning filmmaker Bernard Walton. Bernard has been a director, producer and editor on wildlife documentaries for BBC, ITV, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and PBS – and has worked with legendary figures, including Sir David Attenborough. In …
How to Write Music That Tells a Cohesive Story
Every great score tells a story — but how do you make your music do the same? Robert Rodriguez explores how to create music that feels cohesive, purposeful, and true to the world on screen.Robert Rodriguez is a composer, orchestrator, and educator who’s collaborated with leading sample developers like EastWest Sounds, Cinesamples, and Westwood Instruments. He’s also a tutor on …
Is AI going to kill off my career?
No, it’s not – for lots of reasons. ICC is the main one: Imagination Communication and Collaboration – three essential parts of the job that AI can’t even begin to do. But we’ll come on to that in a moment.Long story short…The jobs that AI music would have killed off went long ago. The Pond 5 music library has 2.5 million tracks …
Why Your Strings Aren’t Working Together (and How to Fix It)
Does your music often sound muddy, messy and is difficult to mix? Here’s how to fix it.Michael Baugh is an award-winning composer who regularly collaborates with Grammy winners and nominees. He’s also a ThinkSpace Masters degree tutor and hosts our on-demand course The Sound of Modern Sci-Fi.I struggled with this for years – piling on string libraries, doubling parts, and …
Is A Media Composition Masters Still Worth It In 2025?
(Updated February 2025) The short answer is yes – more than ever. The media industry is growing rapidly and almost every piece of new content requires music so there is more work about than ever. But the need to truly understand the market, your customers and deliver unique distinctive music has never been more crucial. That’s where a film scoring …
The Future Of Our Postgraduate Degrees (Open Day: Spring 2023)
If you were unable to attend our Open Day on April 1st, then here you can catch up on everything you missed! If you did attend, you’ll already be aware of some of the ways we’re building on our postgraduate degrees courses and the exciting new content we have coming throughout this year. Below you’ll find the recorded livestreams of …
Music Industry Monthly – Getting Started in 2021: Part 2
This is Part 2 of our ‘Getting Started in 2021’ blog. This is from a great conversation we had with Lewis Evans of ‘Black Country, New Road’ last year, discussing his and the bands entry into the music industry. If you want to check out the first part of this chat, click here. Video – Interview with Lewis Evans and …
What does a composer need in their toolbox?
Introduction Getting into composition can be daunting. Firstly, it can be a pretty big investment but even just figuring out what you need and where your money is best spent can be difficult. Here we will be looking at the top 5 things every composer needs to get up and running. This is somewhat focused on orchestral composition, but the …
Why does the music industry need professional management?
The Problem The last 20 years has been a rollercoaster ride for the music industry. Physical sales fell off a cliff, and piracy took great white shark-sized bites out of what used to be called profit before Spotify came to the rescue…sort of. Music businesses are often run by people who are passionate about music, which is absolutely essential. Unfortunately, …
Music Industry Monthly – Getting Started in 2021: Part 1
Welcome to Music Industry Monthly. In this series we are having conversations with leading experts in the contemporary music industry. This is for those of you who are interested in developing careers in music management, marketing, promotion, and many other related careers in music business. In this episode we are speaking with Lewis Evans, the saxophonist of the Mercury Prize …
Music Industry Monthly – Inside the Music Industry: Part 2
Welcome to Music Industry Monthly. In this series we are having conversations with leading experts in the contemporary music industry. This is for those of you who are interested in developing careers in music management, marketing, promotion, and many other related careers in music business. This is Part 2 of our first episode, where we are looking at a mish …
Music Industry Monthly – Inside the Music Industry: Part 1
Welcome to Music Industry Monthly. In this series we are having conversations with leading experts in the contemporary music industry. This is for those of you who are interested in developing careers in music management, marketing, promotion, and many other related careers in music business. We will be releasing follow up blogs with more interviews and texts, so stay tuned …
Chromatic Harmony in Final Fantasy VII Part 3
Part Three: Vincent’s ThemeThis is Part 3 in our harmonic investigation of music from Final fantasy VII. If you haven’t checked out Part 1 click the link HERE, and for Part 2 click HERE Continuing the trend, we shall be examining the theme music used for specific characters from the game, and seeing what we can learn. This week: Vincent’s …
Chromatic Harmony in Final Fantasy VII Part 2
Part Two: Tifa’s ThemeThis is Part 2 in our harmonic investigation of music from Final fantasy VII. If you haven’t checked out Part 1, click the link HERE. Continuing the trend, we shall be examining the theme music used for specific characters from the game, and seeing what we can learn. This week: Tifa’s theme. In last week’s blog about …