I coach Stage Hypnotists. Every year, I do one or two sessions where I bring future stage hypnotists to a county or state fairgrounds and I put them on stage and I coach them in a very personal, intimate setting. (http://stagehypnotist.co) I encourage the students to ask questions before the class and am there to answer questions anytime they need me after the class as well. The following is an answer to someone asking me how to "Find the Right Music."
Finding and adding music to your act:
I am going to make this sound worse than it is, but I want to give you all the variations, then we will work on getting you up and running as simple as we can, and enhance it as we go. OK?
One of the things that "evolves" over time is your music choices and putting them together into a show. When I started, I had no music. It is one of the reasons why I think I do so many vocal sound effects now in my act, even though I have 30-40 sound cues now.
I have an endless variety of music that others have given me, including recordings made just for hypnotists with popular sound effects and popular songs. I also collect sound tracks from major motion pictures and sound effects libraries.
One problem you will run into is if you use copy written music, when you go to post your videos on youtube, you may have problems with copyright infringement. Sometimes they are only blocked in certain countries (Enya music can't be played in Germany) or they will put advertisements on your youtube videos without asking permission - but the music rights dictates they have the right to do this.
Because I am a Macintosh user, I use iTunes for my music purchases.
• I do a lot of iTunes searches. One BIG advantage to using iTunes is I get the album cover art with the download, and this makes it easier for me to see the song on my iPod as I look for the sound bite.• I have purchased copyright free libraries of music (these are filled with a lot of junk, but if you find that right sound for something, the price does not matter.)• I have software on my computer and can pull Youtube and Vimeo files off the internet and strip out the music or sound effects from the video.
My most recent example of this is my "Scary Movie" sound track. I have been doing a scary movie for ever, but my music corrupts itself all the time. I loss the songs I use, or it begins to sound bad. I looked on youtube and found "The Scariest Movies Recorded" with a great sound track to a movie short. I then added a wind track behind it in GarageBand (a music editing program that comes with Macintosh) I bought on iTunes. I love this new creation.
One needs to write the routine, then find the right music, not the other way around.
My nephew, Malcolm Fife, does post production sound for major motion pictures. he works for major SF Bay Area Studios including Lucas Films. Lucas is now owned by Disney, so he does Disney films as well and his credits are endless. He is the LAST person to see a film and add his enhancements before the film is released. I share this because understanding that music and sound effects added to the show is the LAST thing you add. You can't write a show around sound, you need the show to be written, then add the sound enhancements afterwards.
You would not take the sound of a horse drawn wagon crossing cobblestones, then try and create a movie about the sound. Instead you film the wagon crossing the stones, then add the sound track in.
One of the things we do at The SandMan's Stage Hypnosis Boot Camp is I will show you my show on a computer, stopping as it plays and I will give you a "director's cut" of what I am doing, how my show evolved, and what my intentions are - the good and the bad of it all. I may also show you other people's shows and do something similar with them.
However, if you need my direction before we get to class to help you find something in my libraries, or help you find a good example of a sound effect - let me know your routine thinking, and I will do my best to help you find the effect before we get to Wyoming August 13-19.
