Hawkins Music Is Now Hawkinsmusic.com

The sweet siren song beckoning me to become more professional has come. All musical updates and a much larger array of film and music samples can now be found at my new site at hawkinsmusic.com. Come on over and enjoy the party over there.

My Very First Scoring Session to Film: March 25th 2013

Note: If the video above doesn't play, here is the link to it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiAvmKhKJo0&feature=youtu.be


Since enrolling at the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program, I've written countless pieces and prepared for a real scoring session where I would decide the important points of the scene, decide the musical materials, tempo, and the like, then write the music, compose a pad pre-record, write the parts, sync it all up for recording, mark up the video for synchronization, and conduct the thing, making all the final decisions. Well, here is my first real output.

This movie is "Cane". We are to score the opening sequence that you see here. Consider this the finished project. I will soon produce a version with the timecode and streamers.

Special thanks first and foremost to Hummie Mann, Tim Huling, Reed Ruddy for engineering the recording at Studio X in Seattle, WA, all of my colleagues who provided immense feedback, and to Claire Hawkins, without whom none of this would have taken place.

Brass Percussion Piano Session Final Edit

We have now covered editing, mixing, and effects sends in PRO-TOOLS and here is my improved version of my most recent recording session. The score calls for 7 brass and 3 percussion: 2 trumpets, 2 horns, 2 trombones, 1 piano and 2 percussionists. I conducted the piece and it was recorded at Studio X in Seattle, WA on March 6th.

It's a chase scene in a virtuosic, 50's-60's style. Lots of piano, lots of brass effects and lots of extended percussion techniques. It may not get my hired anywhere but it was super fun to write and I learned a lot about these instruments, having made a few adjustments on the podium.

Brass, Percussion, Piano Chase Music: Recorded March 6th, 2013

My newest piece written for 2 trumpets, 2 horns, 2 trombones, tuba, 2 percussion, and piano. It's spooky mood music followed by a chase. This time, I conducted it. It was recorded at Studio X on March 6th, 2013.

Woodwind Session Final Edit

Here is the same recording with some stereo placement of the room mics and a touch of reverb added to make everything groovy. You are welcome to compare this recording to the previous post. This one is a little faster due to some sample rate snafus in the previous version. It's more of what I had in mind.

Enjoy the listen!

Woodwind Recording Session: February 6th, 2013

Here's my new piece for Woodwinds. It's a cue called "Travel Music" from an imaginary documentary called "Stephen A. Douglas: An American Portrait".  It was recorded at Studio X in Seattle, WA. The Engineer was Reed Ruddy. Hummie Mann was the conductor.

It calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, and 1 bassoon. The players were awesome and I was tickled with the outcome. Of special note is that all of the chords are related chromatically. They don't have a classical relationship to each other but are related often by thirds. Some jazz players refer to this as chromatic mediant progressions, but in this case it's not always by a third. I've included the score in the video and it follows the notes on the track.

Special thanks to Sean Osborn, Robin Peery, Alicia Suarez, and others whom I didn't see because I, for work reasons, couldn't even be there! Special thanks also to Hummie Mann and my fellow students who did production work in the booth on this one.

First Film Score Recording Final Edit

Here is the final edit that I'm turning in for the assignment. Once again, special thanks to Hummie Mann for musical direction and conducting, Tim Huling for score study during the session, awesome Seattle players such as Steve Schirmer, Tom and and Virginia Dzeikonski, Arthur Zadinsky, Scott Logocki, John Kim, and others who played wonderfully. Special thanks too to Claire Hawkins, without whom none of this would have happened.

Special changes include a different ending, an edited fast section, additional room mics, reverb added to the spots, and some other magic.

First Film Scoring Recording Session

On January 16th, the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring School held its first student recording session. The session was held at Studio X in Seattle and each student was assigned to write for string orchestra and clarinet solo.

We had to write an introduction, 8 measures of a clarinet melody, 4 measures of modulation, 8 measures of the same melody in a new key, and four measures of coda.

This is a rough cut of take 6 with a little reverb and added spot mics on the clarinet and bass. Further editing for mistakes and balance will come soon, but this is what I've got as of Thursday, the 17th.

The cue is from an imaginary movie called "Biker Chick III: Home On The Range" and the cue is "Into The Storm". I think that she (the biker) makes it out nicely but not unscathed.

Musical inspiration is coming from James Horner, Hans Zimmer, Henry Mancini, and a whole lot of Hummie Mann. Special thanks to Hummie, who serves as my graduate advisor and who contributed greatly to the style and output of the piece.

Hummie Mann conducted and Tim Huling sat in the booth, running the score study. Thanks to all.

Enjoy!