TAXI.com

Hi guys, I'm new to Taxi and was wondering if I could get your opinions.

One of the first emails I got from Taxi were instructions how to create many simple instrumental cues every year. So I tried following the instructions (1st guitar whole note acoustic guitar strums + 2nd guitar simple and sparse melodies, quick mix, done) exactly as outlined. This is for no particular listing, I would just like to know whether you think something like this is usable for a reality TV broadcast. Seems way too simple to me but then again, I'm quite new to this world.

https://soundcloud.com/michalsinka/calm-guitars/s-LdpsW

Thank you in advance for your feedback!

Michal

Hi Michal,

I like what you have, I think it sounds good. I particularly like it when the lead guitar gets a bit busier at 1:04.
The thing you need to work on is your cue structure. What I would do is take what you have there, and edit it down into one 40 second (ish) section (A section).
Then have a B section, similar to the A section, but a deviation. Think of it as a bridge in a song (with the A section being your chorus). Maybe drop a whole note and go with a different chord progression, but keep the general feel of the cue.
Then bring in your A section again, but make it bigger and better. Maybe some light percussion, a smooth bass sound, a synth pad - there are no rules, whatever sounds good and BUILDS towards your stinger ending.
I think you'll have a very usable cue at the end of it.

Hi Steve,

Thank you very much for listening and for your feedback. I'm definitely going to think about how I could make it differently based on your advice.

That part starting at 1:04 was actually meant as the B section but I guess it's not different enough. I don't want to add any more instruments because the idea was to exactly follow the instructions from the Taxi email that I mentioned. It's an experiment - I'm curious if I can get anything usable by doing just that.

Thank you again, very much appreciated!

[highlight]- I'm curious if I can get anything usable by doing just that[/highlight]

The short response is "it depends on the music request".
The only advice I can give you is to read cue request listing carefully and listen to music references given for that listing. If these items are both comparable to your music, then you may want to submit your music to the listing.
Kudos - the guitar song sounded very nice.

Thanks Jannie, glad that you like it!

Of course, I understand that it entirely depends on the listing. I'm thinking about creating a full album of simple guitar moods just like this one that I could pitch to libraries but first I wanted to make sure that stuff like that is actually usable. Hence my question.