Composing : Wrote a small cue in 3 hours, let me know what you think? by Cesar Suarez

Great small cue. Only thing I would suggest from 'my perspective' (i.e., if I had written it), would be more supporting percussion which was not merely holding the rhythm. This sounds to me like an action cue and if you think of it, the on screen action is rarely 'symmetrical' or 'in perfect rhythm' so neither should the cue. Use off beat / upbeat hits as well as rhythmic patterns that cause the listener to temporarily loose the rhythm. As far a 'pace' - that varies on the project and complexity of the track. Also a faster tempo piece uses more bars and often takes longer to write for the same length than a slower tempo / less bar cue (because we write less notes/piano roll bars). Another factor IMHO that can impact the composing speed is the content of the track - if it is a single or one or two chords with little to no melody, it will take less time than say and melodic multi-part track with a lot of 'horizontal movement' for each instrument (say an 'end title' track could be like that). Some composers have learnt to score from inception to completion very quickly because as you know, we are often given the film after it has fallen behind schedule and we don't want to be held responsible for holding up the release. The timetable I often hear for full feature scoring is often 2 to 3 weeks (with a total of about 30 to 60 minutes of music for a 90 to 120 minute film). For me that puts me in the 'ballpark' of having a scoring pace goal of 3 minutes a day from inception to delivery for a fully orchestrated track (at least 12 to 15 staffs or piano bar rolls). It obviously takes less time, say if I scored a string quartet or even added a piano. I have never personally achieved that goal - but it's out there in front of me to move toward. Two 'recent' fully orchestrated pieces I did conception to delivery under a tight deadline was "Roberta Through The Years" (http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=186073, 8m10s in 4 1/2 days) and "Gift Of Grace" (4m14s in 3 1/2 days). For me currently, when I am scoring 8 to 12 hours with a couple of breaks, I am creating music when I am really grooving at just over 2 minutes. If you really want to practice in the real world - get into a competition. Some a really short and some are longer. You will get the smallest part. The shortest I have done (last 5 years in a row) is the 48 hour film project competition. You will not find a tighter schedule than that. They begin working on the film around 6pm Fri night and have to deliver it by 6 pm on Sun night. You will be very lucky to get anything to write cues for until sometime on Sun (you hope Sun morning). I 'dream' that someday I'll get scenes after the shooting is over Sat night. If your music is not delivered by say 3 pm on Sun, the film will get turned in late. About the only thing you can do ahead of time is the end title (which must be 60 secs or less) but you won't know the 'genre' until 6 pm on Fri. What I did (since music is the ONLY thing that can be created before the competition) was a week before the competition, I wrote 8 different 60 sec end title themes for different genres and let them pick during the competition) (http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=202759). Should I mention that 3 years ago, I was given the 5 min short to score with NO instructions at 2 pm and was told I had an hour. So for that ask yourself the question, what would you do? You have never seen it before though you may have read the script (though no guarantee the film matches the script). If you want a competition with a slightly slower pace, check out the www.168film.com competition. They have a week. Its christian based. I was given just over 3 days to score that film - an the film won (GIft Of Grace - see above).