I was really looking forward to taking this class as it’s the introduction to my major. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped. I think I might have taken it too soon. Perhaps this feeling is due to my (currently) limited vocabulary in orchestral/symphonic music and not feeling up to speed as a “film composer”. Even though I did really well in the class, I imagine that it would have been much more enjoyable being able to do more in terms of orchestration and arrangements.

That being said there was plenty that I learned from this course. The key things for me were: Spotting, Cue Motifs, Thematic development, Sketches to Timings, Timecode Offsets, Cue Layouts, Free Timing, Bar/Beat layouts for sync, Sync Points/Dead Cues, Overlap of Cues, Segues, Underscore, and Source Music. 

Funny thing is that I have found myself using a number of things from this course in assignments for other classes. Particularly Bar/Beat layouts for syncing when writing pieces for video clips. The idea here is to find a tempo that fits while in a meter of 1/4, identify relevant events and sync/beats and see if they fall on down or upbeats (on the 1 or on the +). Then count the number of beats between sync points to determine meter of each section and you are set to start writing the cue(s).

Although I mentioned that I didn’t enjoy this class as much as I hoped, I did get a lot out of it in terms of knowledge and experience. Thanks Berklee!