User:Dmbsaxboyz

dmbsaxboyz (born 1984) is a Berklee College of Music student.

My Musical Background and Outlook
I’ve found that I’ve spent most of my life immersed in just about every aspect of music; writing music, performing music live, teaching music, recording music, running live sound for music performance. Simply put, music is who I am. When I first enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston, I was determined to become a Music Production Engineer. But in time, I found my true passion, writing songs. I wanted to communicate my feelings and ideas, and to really connect with people – must be the oxytocin. Songs have a way of bringing people together by sharing ideas and emotions that are universal, but that everyone experiences differently. When changed my major to Songwriting I decided to add Film Scoring as a second major, in the hopes that the skills that I would learn in my Film Scoring courses would benefit my songwriting. The techniques I’ve learned from scoring to picture as well as the tools I’ve gained from studying traditional and contemporary composition have proved to be invaluable to my writing. I usually write the music first on the guitar. I hear the melody and lyrics in my mind and then I write the rest of the story from that idea or emotion. The music and melody come easily but the lyrics are often a challenge. I usually know what I want to say, the hard part is getting the words out with the rhythm, phrasing, and rhyme. I’m always looking for a strong lyricist that I can learn from.

My Music
In March 2010 I released my first EP featuring five songs recorded in Berklee’s studios. I wrote, arranged, and mixed/mastered the tracks myself. For just five songs it took a tremendous amount of time and effort which proved to be a great learning experience. Since then I’ve arranged my songs and many covers for my band, and I’m preparing to return to the studio to record my second EP. I love performing music live. I play gigs around Boston with my band as well as a number of solo gigs. I’ve posted videos of my gigs on YouTube and Myspace. I’m working on developing my stage presence and character to really help convey the emotion of the songs. I’ve been involved with live music since I was young. At Church I would sit at the sound board. Eventually the sound man realized that I had a natural ear for sound and he trained me on the sound board. I worked for a live sound company for a few summers, setting up and running the sound equipment for local fairs and events. I believe a crucial step in learning a craft is to teach it to others. I work with teenagers in a local program called Plugged In. We put together bands, write original music, and perform concerts to benefit local charities I have participated as a teacher in the last two Songwriting Workshops. These are special weekends where we focus on writing original songs to put on a benefit CD. The results are wonderful!