Postgraduate Taster Week
April 22th – 26th
Get a real taste of being a Masters student by joining our Postgraduate Taster Week, April 22-26. It's a unique opportunity to find out what it's like to study for our online Masters degrees in Film Scoring, Game Scoring or Music Production.
- Pick and choose sessions from the timetable
- Experience live webinars with industry professionals
- Meet our tutors
- Try assignments and attend review sessions
- Access course materials in our online campus
We highly recommend joining Taster Week if you are interested in studying one of our Masters degrees.
Taster Week Timetable
Join live webinars from different degrees
Through the week you'll be able to join live webinars on a wide range of topics – from music production to video game sound design. These are taken from our different degree courses. You can attend any webinar, no matter what degrees you are most interested in. You might be surprised at what you'll develop a taste for!
get pro feedback on your music and audio, or learn from others
You can also join review sessions to get constructive feedback, practical advice, and encouragement on your music or sound design from industry pros. You'll need to submit work at least 24 hours in advance. If you don't want your work reviewed, you can just attend these sessions and learn from feedback on submissions from others.
Monday April 22nd
10AM BST: Welcome to Taster Week (Early Session)
Hosted by Guy Michelmore and Tim Johnson: Join a welcome session to learn more about Postgraduate Taster Week, how you can access our online campus, and how to make the most out of the week ahead.
4PM BST: Hybrid Scoring:
Hosted by Arhynn Descy and Emer Landers: A whirlwind look at writing for samples vs writing for live instruments and then a look at how to inject realism and energy into sampled scores with the use of live elements.
5:30PM BST: Media Composition: Review Session
Hosted by Arhynn Descy and Emer Landers: If you’re interested in scoring for the media, then submit a piece of your work for this session and we will review it live with our tutors and other Taster Week students.
7PM BST: Welcome to Taster Week (Late Session)
Hosted by Guy Michelmore and Tim Johnson: Join a welcome session to learn more about Postgraduate Taster Week, how you can access our online campus, and how to make the most out of the week ahead.
Tuesday April 23rd
7PM BST: Shameless Appropriation: Learning From and Ripping Off Game Composers More Talented Than Us
Hosted by Mike Worth and Joel Grant: Join Mike (Farkle) and Joel as they show how to compose and mix original music for a real-world project by extracting musical and production ideas from existing reference music and adapting it to their own individual voices.
8:15PM BST: Game Music: Review Session
Hosted by Mike Worth and Joel Grant: If you’re interested in writing music for games, then submit a piece of your work for this session and we will review it live with our tutors and other Taster Week students.
Wednesday April 24th
6PM BST: Releasing Your Music with Ella Walker and Chris Rockall
Hosted by Ella Walker and Chris Rockall: Chris and Ella show you the key elements of releasing your music independently, be it a single, EP or album. Industry secrets, tricks of the trade, and advice to musicians of all genres.
7:15PM BST: Music Production and Songwriting: Review Session
Hosted by Ella Walker and Chris Rockall: Are you a songwriter or producer of any kind? Then submit your track for this session and we will review it live with our tutors and other Taster Week students.
Thursday April 25th
3PM BST: Taster Week Assignments: Review Session
Hosted by Guy Michelmore and Tim Johnson: If you’ve had a chance to explore one of the dedicated Taster Week assignments, then we’d like to review those assignments here. This way we can compare work amongst ourselves and look at the different ways you can approach the same brief.
5PM BST: Abstract Sound Design for Video Games
Hosted by Giorgio Vezzini and Sergio Ronchetti: Let’s create some sound design live with synths and layering material. Ask, suggest, comment, and we’ll create something together!
6PM BST: Sound Design for Video Games: Review Session
Hosted by Giorgio Vezzini and Sergio Ronchetti: If you’re interested in creating sound design for games (foley, SFX etc), then submit a piece of your work for this session and we will review it live with our tutors and other Taster Week students.
Friday April 26th
4PM BST: Danny Elfman’s Batman and Queen Nation’s ‘Show Must Go On’: Orchestral analysis
Hosted by Norman Ludwin and Allison Piccioni: Let’s analyse Elfman’s Batman score, concentrating on the orchestration, harmony, and thematic development of his material. We’ll also look at Allison’s orchestration work with Queen Nation, the largest Queen cover band in the US.
5:15PM BST: Orchestral Composition: Review Session
Hosted by Norman Ludwin and Allison Piccioni: If you’re writing orchestral music and want to learn how to write more accurately for these instruments, then submit a piece of your work for this session and we will review it live with our tutors and other Taster Week students.
7PM BST: Wrap-up Session
Hosted by Guy Michelmore and Tim Johnson: Thanks for joining our Postgraduate Taster Week! If you want to debrief on the week, and join us for a casual social session to say hello to Guy and Tim, then come along.
HOw to join taster week AFTER signING up
If you have clicked the Taster Week 'sign-up' button, and completed the checkout process, you will have a course on your profile called 'Postgraduate Taster Week'. This includes a selection of materials and assignments from our various postgraduate programs, as well as a schedule for our next Taster Week, complete with webinar registration links. If you already have this course on your profile, you do not need to pay again.
To sign-up to the webinars and access the course materials please:
- Log-in to your account
- Click on the 'Courses' tab in the left menu.
- Open the 'Postgraduate Taster Week' course
- Click on the 'Welcome to Taster Week' Module
- Click on the '[READ ME] Join us for Taster Week' chapter
- Scroll down to see the schedule and webinar registration links.
If you have any questions about this, feel free to get in touch at postgraduate@thinkspace.ac.uk.