Back to the Future - 4X4 (Transcription Excersise)

Sounds really good to me! One thing that stuck out a little was at 0:06 -- I'm not entirely sure but it sounds like a trombone comes in. The release on the first note is a little too abrupt, IMO, and makes it sound a bit synth-y in a way I couldn't pinpoint at first.

Which sample libs are you using? Really liked the sound of the horns.

 

Hey good job! sounds pretty on point to me. (it sounds like you did, but did you check your transcription against the score? I saw they had it for sale on omni publishing that's why I was wondering.) Doug, and some other people here gave me some advice on a "next step" after transcribing a while back. Now that you've absorbed some of the language of that cue, try and write some short variations using the same style. try out the same orchestration quirks on your own stuff, even if its just small little pieces and excerpts. its a lot of fun, and it definently helps cement the stuff in your brain. (Also learning the piece on the piano will put the voicing's and all that under your fingers. so when your writing something it can naturally influence your music.)
finally, I would try and write the music down while you're transcribing. this for me is the hardest part but it's very rewarding, and you learn a whole other aspect of the music that you might have missed.
After that you can Read it, Write it, Play it, and Recreate it. Then it's REALLY stuck in your brain. keep up the good work man.

 

So do I! it looks like you're in the same position I was in two years ago. I come from a pretty non traditional musical background (Metal, Pop, Rock) where I never learned how to read music and just taught myself how to play guitar and write songs and stuff. After learning a lot about recording through making demos, I got interested in writing orchestral/cinematic music. This is when I realized I didn't know a godamn thing about writing music that wasn't in a Pop song form, and when I would try and look at sheet music I was totally Fucking lost. didn't know what the notes were, rhythm made no sense, Totally illiterate.
I decided that if I was going to learn this stuff I needed to know how to read and write, so I enrolled in two semesters of music theory, piano, and classical guitar classes at this community college next to where I live. the summer before it started I found this "Music theory note trainer app" and would just practice identifying notes on the Treble and Bass clef for hours at work. once the classes started I was forced to read, write, and play music every day for like 32 weeks. It was really hard at first because your basically sitting alongside kids who have been sight reading music since they were like 6 years old, and here's me in my mid twenties not knowing which way the damn note stems go lol.
After just doing it every day for a while it gets way easier. I still can't sight read worth a fuck, but I can finally look at sheet music and figure out what's going on after staring at it long enough.
all that said, I don't think you need school to learn this stuff at all. you just need practice and consistency. If your interested in learning how to read and write, I would first off learn the notes of the Treble and bass clef (this will make everything else soo much easier). then get yourself into a routine where your reading, writing, and playing music consistently. a piano teacher would be a great idea for this because it forces you to practice. Then when your transcribing music you can check the score and see the correlation between what you're hearing and what's on the page.
Sorry for the whole life story lol. I just remember being in the same position and how frustrating notation always seemed to me. The awesome thing is that you can already write music without it, so once you get the hang of the notation it will only make you better.
Good luck!

 

Duncan and Alex, are you sure you're not brothers?