I was wondering what steops you take when picking music for an act. I am currently in the process of doing this myself and I was wondering what meatods work for you.
Thank You,
Oliver

Oliver,

I think too many magicians create an act and then try and find music that fits it. I often find this to be very hard to do and instead I go the other route. I often will get a creative idea in my head for what I want the act to be about. I think of the character I am playing on stage, the emotional repsonse I want to leave the audience with, the storylines etc. Then I go and listen to music of various types and keep my ears open to what I feel reflects these ideas the best.

The idea is to find music that goes along and helps to tell the magical story that is happening on the stage. The music is as much a part of the act as the props are. They must work hand in hand to be very effective.

One thing I do is listen to music on the radio and just tune in to differnt stations to get an assortment of musical ideas. Another way is to listen to various music online. Your goal is to open yourself up to trying different music that maybe you are not even used to.

Just keep in mind and watch out for using music that is a bit too modern or "in the now". The reason for this is that the music can soon become outdated and out of fad and then your act suffeers with you trying to find replacement music to use.

FYI and other music stores, now allow you to listen to music at the store from almost every cd that they have. This is a great way to listen to a variety of different musical taste to find what might work for you.

Compilation cds and the best of cds are also good ways to listen to a variety of music that might work.

Hope this helps.

Kyle

Oliver talk to bill about it. he can point you in the right direction

graham

Same here Kyle, I was listening to Loreena MacKennitt's song Marco Polo and was inspired to do a Eastern India style act.

Good royalty free music can be purchased from Bill White. I have Ultimate Magic and it has a great variety of musical styles.

It is indeed interesting how a song can inspire an entire routine. It has happened to me many times in the past. Another great song writer for magic style music is Davif Guftason in the Philadelphia area. He had a royalty free albumn out a few years back called "Defying the laws of physics". He also does custom work as well for those working on acts or pieces to their show.

Kyle

Hey, one other question. What do you feel about music with words?

Thanks,
Oliver

The issue of music is such a personal one that it is difficult to give strong specifics.

Kyle brings up an excellent point, and that is trying to fit your music to the magic rather than the other way around. Many years ago I played Uncle Drosselmeyer in "The Nutcracker" ballet. Now, I'm no dancer, but I can walk in time to music, and I am a magician. So Drosselmeyer's segments were focused on magic. I began by listening to Tchaikowsky's music and just let it tell me what to do. I came up with a great dancing hank (work-bench rag) routine and zombie (christmas tree ornament) routine among others, by letting the music suggest the flow of moves etc.

I one time found a piece of music for my floating ball that was too long. So I listened to the remaining music and thought it might be nice for my levitation, so I combined both into one routine, using the ball to "hypnotize" the girl before her levitation. The music had a great build/stop/recapitulation of the main theme that was perfect, and I mean perfect for the hoop pass over the girl. It was timed so that right as I had finished the final pass I simply raised the hoop above my head right at the moment of the stop. Built-in applause cue!

As far as music with or without words, I think that's entirely a personal opinion, but I find it much harder to find lyrics that match the tone/feel/emotion impact that I am trying to accomplish than it is to find appropriate instrumentals.

Buy an MP# or music editor Program and then you can start to edit your own

in fact if you have a Video editor you can edit your own (it just a little more painstaking to do so)

I don't use words in my music other than a few odd screams in the yello sound track and Yma Sumac- has some really strange music pieces that are kind of funny to hear nowadays

I also look for movie sound tracks