Yay! I just finished my first real-world project writing the theme for the Podcast "Artificer's Portal" by Pat and Andrew. First of all, I'd like the thank both of them for taking a chance on this new composer! It's still a little surreal for me that I will have an actual piece of music written and produced by me published for the whole world to hear.

I want to write this blog for a few reasons. First, I want to document both my successes and failures as I pursue my career as a composer both for my own retrospection but also for those who are thinking about becoming a composer. Maybe I will inspire someone who is thinking about it as has happened to me in my own journey. Second, I am not a good note taker nor was I ever good at keeping a diary more than a few days so this is an effort to build the habit as I see it as a useful tool the older I get! And finally, for posterity, really. I want my kids and maybe even grandkids to be able to read what I've done and hopefully they can learn from it....or at least be entertained!

This project came to me by way of my friend Pat. He and I had talked several times as I was first contemplating and then beginning my execution of starting up The Inspired Bard. We were talking one day about some ideas I had and he asked if I would be interested in writing the theme for a podcast he was planning on publishing with his friend Andrew. I did not hesitate to say yes. Why would I? This was actual work where I had an opportunity to be creative and show the world what I am capable of. It also helped that he is a friend and a brother-in-arms ;)

He laid out the requirements for the theme which had to have some mechanical/steampunky type sounds but beyond that, he basically told me to be creative and have fun with it. And to be clear, our arrangement was that he was not going to pay me for the music but rather promote me and my site on his podcast, which I also did not hesitate to agree to. I have a full time job and so right now, the money is not the issue, it's the publicity that is worth more. Granted, it's a new podcast and a bit on the niche side but it would get my name out there and all it takes is for one person to be interested and then I've got more work (crossing all my fingers and toes...and maybe my eyes occasionally).

Well, after that phone call I went right to work because I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted it to sound like in my head. It was now a matter of transferring that to the keyboard. My first hurdle was the sound design side of things. I was not setup for that initially so I looked around the internet to see if I could find some royalty free sounds that I could use and it was very much miss rather than hit. I finally settled on a site that only charged $4 for a month and they had some pretty good sounds (www.zapsplat.com if you're interested). I found some steam sounds, clock/gear clicky clicks and some other things that I felt met the requirement and went to work.

It was such a whirlwind at the beginning but I believe I had a first draft to him either that night or the next day and I was excited to see what he had to say. I knew I wouldn't hit the exact mark right out of the gate but I felt I was in the ballpark.

I think I'll end it here today and pick up the rest of the story in a few days to keep this blog at a digestible length. Stay tuned....