All language subtitles for MasterClass Danny Elfman Teaches Music For Film - 20.Advice to New Composers

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I'm frequently asked
about my musical education,

and most people already know
that I'm basically self-taught.

But I just want to
clarify that, that

doesn't mean I don't
believe in the value

of a musical education.

And now, you have to realize,
the son of two school

teachers-- not one, but two--

going off into a street
group is not a happy moment.

There was this-- this thing that
tends to happen in your 20s,

where you get these lofty
ambitions of where you think

you should be at every
moment in your life,

and you're not there.

And I go, there's a
certain point where

I think I just had to realize,
I'm not going back to school.

It just isn't going to happen.

So I've described how I began to
teach myself to write and teach

myself to
transcription of music,

and I taught myself many things.

And I really was committed
to teaching myself

what I could do, and then I
would try to take lessons,

and it was just--

my brain was a sieve.

I showed no propensity,
but if I could

dig into a piece of music, I
knew that I could carry it.

I could hold it in my head.

I could write it all down.

I knew how to take
that piece of music

apart and put it back
together, and yet I

couldn't read a fucking
scale to save my life.

I would do it, and
I would learn it.

And two weeks
later, it was gone.

I had an equal problem with
lyrics, and I was in a band.

I was like, I can't
remember words.

I could remember melodies.

I could remember tunes.

And so I learned to work with
my strengths and my weaknesses.

And my weaknesses
were vast and many,

but I knew I had some strengths.

And so I tried to find those
and focus on those that--

that can carry me through
a narrow path in life.

Unfortunately, it didn't
leave open many options,

and probably, that
was a good thing.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I remember being interested
in gamelan music.

I love interlocking
rhythms, and Willie Winant,

the percussionist that I grew up
with, he used to do exercises.

And this is stuff that Steve
Reich and many composers

I've learned to love since then
did-- a thing called phasing.

And he would say, OK, play
this on the wood block.

Just play this
rhythm and hold it,

and I'm going to slowly speed
up, but don't you speed up.

I'm going to slowly
speed up, and we're

going to constantly
shift the interlocking

position of these two
rhythms against each other.

And it was an exercise I loved,
and it was also an exercise

that I learned, I can do this.

I can do this really well.

I can hold this in
place and not get

distracted by something
else that pulls me off.

I can hold my place here.

And phasing was
something I loved,

so the complex interlocking
of the gamelan instruments

became something I was really
fascinated in and, I think,

because I've always
been fascinated

and loved complex
interlocking rhythms.

So I wander into--

and my apologies to Cal Arts
and Disney for the story

I'm about to tell because
it's not anybody's fault,

but my own.

And I'm apologizing in
advance because I wandered

into the gamelan
room, and I sat down,

and I started to play and learn.

And I continued going
for almost three years,

and I was never a student.

Nobody asked me, and
I just kept going.

I didn't have any access
to tuition at that point,

and there was no
way I would've got

accepted into a music school.

I knew nothing about music even
though I was in this theater

group, and I was playing stuff.

But I knew nothing
about music, and to get

into a music school--

there was no instrument I
could have auditioned on, and I

certainly--

even what key I'm in, it
just made no sense to me,

and I never cared.

And I studied gamelan and
developed a love of it,

so I tried to incorporate
that and use that in my work.

There was something
that I was good at.

Something I'm good at!

I could actually do this thing.

Even though I stole
some of that knowledge--

to this day, that's actually the
only musical training I've ever

had was those couple
of years doing gamelan,

but it served me well.

Now, do I do a lot
of gamelan in scores?

No, I don't.

That's not the point.

The point is, I
was honing a skill

to be able to write tight,
interlocking patterns,

and those just
feel natural to me.

And so it's like,
ultimately, whoever you are,

whatever your training is, I
hope that training is deep.

I hope you went
to a film school,

and you picked up a
great knowledge base.

Because the more you
have, the more you're

starting out with, and
the fact that I didn't, it

was a problem for me.

It did not make things easier.

It made things harder,
and it was a problem

that I had to find and
invent ways around.

I hope you don't have to do
that, but some of you will.

Some of you are
going to be coming

from different backgrounds
and different places,

and whatever it is that
you do well enough to make

you want to get
into film scoring,

you're going to have to
learn a lot of shit that's

completely contrary to
everything you knew.

So you're both going
to have to learn vastly

new amounts of things,
but you're also

going to look for
the things that you

do know, those things that you
go, I'm kind of good at this.

Maybe it's tunes.

Maybe it's something
rhythmically.

Maybe it's some kind of
harmonic relationships

that you're good
with, or you're just

really good with atmosphere
and tone and things

you could do with
instruments in a small group

or with synthetically.

And you're going to
have, I could do that,

and now, I want to expand.

So it's finding that bit
that you have in your past.

If you're lucky, it's a lot.

And if you're not, that doesn't
mean that you have to give up.

So that's the point
of my education,

my lack of education,
my faulty brain,

and my reaching into the
bag to find a few things

that I could do well with
my faulty brain and make it

work to my advantage.