New member introduction - Ryan Trebilcock

[Ryanmusic]

Hi!

I've been a member for about two months now and I haven't introduced myself yet.

My name is Ryan Trebilcock, I'm a composer and musician (mostly bass) based in London, the membership was included as part of a course I took on library music. I'm very much liking always having something to work on, which is a big change to how I previously worked! So many things to look at!

I wanted to ask a couple of things and if anyone out there could give their pennies worth I'd be really grateful!

On average, what is a good success rate for forwards for newbies here like me? So far I've only had two out of nine submissions forwarded which I'm pretty disappointed by if I'm honest. Am I expecting too much? I know the standards are very high here, but I'm being picked up on 'too repetitive' a lot when a lot of the references that I've been checking out for the tracks are mostly repetitive too. Matt Vander Boegh, successful TAXI member has an interview/lesson on the course and the tracks he breaks down that have been successful for him have had a degree of repetition in them too, kind of like ABA forms mostly.

And my second question is, do we always have the same screener? All nine of my submissions have been by the same person and although I respect the options of the screener, it would be nice to have others too.

Thank you for reading and I'm looking forward to connecting with others here,

Ryan

P.S. Here is my most recent rejected cue!

https://www.taxi.com/my/artist/songs/kZ ... en-my-load

[funsongs]

Hello, Ryan.
"Welcome!" to these Community Forums boards - from an old-timer lurker here.
Unfortunately, the link to your page needs to be updated/corrected in order for it to work.
Looking forward to hearing what you've got going on, once you get that fixed.
Cheers.

[Ryanmusic]

Hi Pete,

Thank you for your response!

I'm not sure what's happened to that link, I just clicked on it again and it takes me to the track on my TAXI profile, what am I doing wrong?

https://www.taxi.com/my/artist/songs/kZ ... en-my-load

on soundcloud

https://soundcloud.com/ryanmusicco/lighten-my-load

[Telefunkin]

Hi Ryan,
There's answers to many, many questions in the forum, so a quick search can often help. There have been lots of discussions on the same topic, for example...
how-long-it-takes-before-a-deal-tell-yo ... 9-110.html

Comparing forward rates and deal rates can be a bit misleading though, and depend on things like how great your tracks are, how well they match the listing criteria, what styes you submit for and whether that's your strongest genre, etc. One person might submit just one great track that's right on target in a year because they've waited for their ideal listing and it gets through; whilst another might have a go at anything that crops up whether or not they're good at that style and submit multiple off target tracks each time, most of which are returned. That said, 2/9 sounds like a pretty good forward rate.

It isn't always the same screener, but the fact that you got the same one suggests that you're submitting in similar genres each time for which that particular screener has expertise, and you probably do too. Good plan!

When you hear repetition in the ref tracks if you listen closely you'll probably find there is actually some difference each time, like another layer or some part variation every few bars that adds to the track's development and prevents it from sounding stale. Development ought to have been covered in the course that offered the Taxi membership, so its worth re-visiting your course material. If not, take a look at these 3 great resource books....
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Producti ... JFV1&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Demystifying-Cue ... krippaehne

https://www.amazon.com/Shortcuts-Songwr ... 0982004028

Hope that helps just a little. Good luck with your submissions!

[funsongs]

Hi Pete,

Thank you for your response!

I'm not sure what's happened to that link, I just clicked on it again and it takes me to the track on my TAXI profile, what am I doing wrong?

https://www.taxi.com/my/artist/songs/kZ ... en-my-load

on soundcloud

https://soundcloud.com/ryanmusicco/lighten-my-load

That TAXI link may work fine for you - but it takes me & the rest of us to the TAXI homepage. I'm not 100% sure how you need to change it (it needs the word 'member' in there somehow).
Maybe take a look at other member links that work for you - then change yours to look & work likewise.
Good luck.

[DexWilliams]

Hey Ryan,

Loving that track (SoundCloud link worked for me). I'm also a newbie to TAXI, but not library music. Also based in the UK (Cambridge) and my only thoughts were not to repeat that intro so it gets to the melody quicker and towards the end my ear wants to say it should keep going up, but it drops back to the original melody just for a couple of bars.

Cheers,

Dex

[Ryanmusic]

Hey Dex,

Cheers, thanks for the feedback! Good to have UK based users here as well as everybody else too! I'm really up for collabs too

[Ryanmusic]

Hi Ryan,
There's answers to many, many questions in the forum, so a quick search can often help. There have been lots of discussions on the same topic, for example...
how-long-it-takes-before-a-deal-tell-yo ... 9-110.html

Comparing forward rates and deal rates can be a bit misleading though, and depend on things like how great your tracks are, how well they match the listing criteria, what styes you submit for and whether that's your strongest genre, etc. One person might submit just one great track that's right on target in a year because they've waited for their ideal listing and it gets through; whilst another might have a go at anything that crops up whether or not they're good at that style and submit multiple off target tracks each time, most of which are returned. That said, 2/9 sounds like a pretty good forward rate.

It isn't always the same screener, but the fact that you got the same one suggests that you're submitting in similar genres each time for which that particular screener has expertise, and you probably do too. Good plan!

When you hear repetition in the ref tracks if you listen closely you'll probably find there is actually some difference each time, like another layer or some part variation every few bars that adds to the track's development and prevents it from sounding stale. Development ought to have been covered in the course that offered the Taxi membership, so its worth re-visiting your course material. If not, take a look at these 3 great resource books....
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Producti ... JFV1&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Demystifying-Cue ... krippaehne

https://www.amazon.com/Shortcuts-Songwr ... 0982004028

Hope that helps just a little. Good luck with your submissions!

Thanks for that Graham, I'll look into those posts and I've already gotten dean's books!

The main issue with some of the references is that they're heavily reduced and edited versions so it's impossible to get the subtleties of the arrangements.

Regarding the cues, I've done rock, chamber strings/neo-classical, 20s jazz, tension cues and hip-hop dreamed so far so i'm surprised that it's the same screener! It's always the same number that's given!

Btw how do I find the TAXI course?

[Telefunkin]

Sorry for the confusion, but the course I was referring to is the one you mentioned.

..... the membership was included as part of a course I took on library music.

[funsongs]

Regarding the "Faux Hummingbird" - for what it's worth: the Lyle was given to me by a lady in a home group thing about a dozen years ago...
she said it belonged to her father, but it had been stashed away in a storage closet. It was missing the classic pickguard, and the guitar was in need of repairs.
A local luthier fixed it up nicely for me.
I spent 16 hours... hand-sanding... to remove all the finish off of the top (ugly red paint) - and then just applied some floor wax to the raw wood. (in photo - link)
https://soundcloud.com/funsongs-1/pioc- ... stic-cover

Since it's a 'beater' guitar - it's the one I take to The Road Rally, to play/loan/pass around at jams. It's all good... well, it was, when we could do that sort of thing!
I imagine your Epi sounds very similar... but looks much more pristine.

Cheers.