Pop/Rock Intrumental lengths?

[watksco]

Hey guys,Was thinking of submitting to this type of listing...CONTEMPORARY POP INSTRUMENTALS - OF ALL STYLES - including Dance/Pop, Pop/R&B, Pop/Rock, Mainstream Pop, etc., are being sought by a Production Company/Music Library (with clients such as the Discovery Channel and MTV and film credits such as American Gangster and Bourne Ultimatium) for inclusion on their roster to pitch for Film and TV song placements. Excellent arrangements, performances and recordings are a must. They offer a non-exclusive publishing deal with a 50/50 split on any upfront license fees as well as back-end performance royalties (meaning you will keep the writer share, the publishing share will go to the company). Broadcast Quality is needed (excellent sounding home recordings are fine). Please submit one to three instrumentals online or per CD. All submissions will be screened on a YES/NO BASIS - NO CRITIQUES FROM TAXI - and must be received no later than Thursday, August 13, 2009. TAXI # Y090813PO Questions:Anyone have any experience/ideas on length and arrangement requirements for this sort of thing?I did see some discussion around this sort of idea a while ago, but I couldn't find it.Cheers,Scott

[slideboardouts]

I generally keep them between 2 and 3 minutes, usually sitting at around 2:30. That seems to be about how long most libraries want their instrumental cues.Arrangement for these types of cues are a little more difficult to tackle. But you can start with this:a short intro (no more than about 10 sec.)directly into the hook or meat of the cueinto a verse - somewhat sparse, but add little things here and there to keep it interestingthen build with a prechorusback into the hook but maybe add a little something extrago into another verse but make it different than the first - add something that makes the cue build for the final hookgo back into your hook, double it, and add a stinger (a quick little musical pass that brings the cue to a close)Make sure it is a BUTTON ENDING, NO fade outs.Pop instrumentals for film and TV can be difficult to arrange in that you are so used to the genre being more or less loop based, with the song being carried by the vocals. But for TV instrumental cues, the track needs to stand on its own and have a little more movement. It doesn't have to be big, sweeping changes (in fact, you probably want to avoid that in most cases), but there needs to be some variation to help the cue and scene progress and grow to the end.HTH,-Steve

[watksco]

Thanks for the info Steve - much appreciated.I'd love to hear some of your music - do you have a website or revernation page?Scott

[slideboardouts]

Hey Watksco,I don't really have much of a site, but here are some links to a few recently forwarded cues. These aren't really "pop" instrumentals, but I think they will illustrate the points I was making about arranging:The Man:http://www.taximusic.com/stream/227714/The_Man.mp3This is a hip hop cue that I think is a good example of the type of arranging that I was talking about. Notice I jump right into the cue, no long intro. Then at about 10 seconds in I add a west coast synth lead and add a slight variation to the staccato string melody to keep the cue from getting too boring too quickly. At :20 I go into a sparse verse and then build back into the hook or "main theme" of the cue. At 1:07 I go back into a verse but this time it is a little different and serves to keep the momentum building and growing into the last hook. At 1:54 I start the stinger that would be used to end the scene.http://www.taximusic.com/stream/239358/ ... ss.mp3Just to show a contrast, here is a world cue that was recently forwarded. For this I was going for a bit of a different arrangement since it isn't a popular music cue (by popular music I mean hip hop, rock, R&B, pop...anything that would typically have vocals). I was going for more of an "arc" so to speak, not sure that I achieved it exactly but it seems to be good enough.Keep in mind that there isn't a set "formula" that you have to stick to when you are arranging these songs. The most important things IMHO are (1) set a mood, (2) get the listener's attention FAST, and (3) add some variation so that the editors have something to work with and even be creative with. For me, arranging popular music cues for film/TV has been one of my biggest challenges and I'm still learning myself. I was very fortunate to have been able to collaborate with a composer who has much more film/tv experience than me, and that coupled with writing for a daytime talk show (thanks TAXI!) has helped me tremendously. I hope that passing these tips on will help you and others who are trying to figure out how to arrange such music for film/TV.HTHSteve

[watksco]

Awesome...seriously, thanks for taking the time Steve - I really appreciate it. I especially like the 3 point summary (1) set a mood (2) get the listener's attention FAST, and (3) add some variation so that the editors have something to work with and even be creative with. - I'll put that on my wall Great tracks BTW - I could hear 'heart of darkness' in Survivor - very nice.Thanks Again,Scott

[fullbirdmusic]

I've submitted to a similar listing with my songs, Running Sante Fe and Highway 101 : www.taxi.com/fullbirdmusicI think Running Sante Fe fits the listing the best, but I'm still hoping to get both forwarded. I try to keep my instrumental rock songs (for cue placement) between 2-3 minutes, but never longer than that. Variation on a theme is the best recipe, in my experience. Good luck!

[watksco]

Thanks fullbird,Great track - good luck with it. Thanks for chiming in, I've got a couple of tracks on the boil that I'm going to finish and submit soon. Appreciate the help.Scott