TV and film composer Shawn Patterson
sees the big picture with Sibelius 4

Years ago, bringing a project such as Nickelodeon’s series The X’s (www.nick.com/x) to life would require months of work, reams of score paper, the help of copyists, a large soundstage with many studio musicians—and even more time for revisions.

Times have changed.

Composer Shawn Patterson works alone in a small studio one hour north of Burbank, California, in the beautiful mountains of Los Padres National Forest, surrounded by computer-based music production programs, sample libraries, and his notation tool of choice, Sibelius 4.

“I’ve been writing for film and television since 1991, and used to write pretty much everything by hand,” he explains. “Although I still do that from time to time, when it comes to mass copying or just getting some ideas generated, I tell everyone that Sibelius smokes all the other programs.”

After earning a degree in jazz composition from the Grove School of Music, Patterson began to score professionally on international film trailer campaigns such as The Fisher King and Misery, gaining the attention of directors Terry Gilliam and Rob Reiner. He then moved on to composing and ghostwriting for feature scores, series, films and commercials. While scoring for the Nickelodeon series Oh Yeah! Cartoons, Patterson became the most requested composer on the series, and has since taken on additional projects for the network—including his current series, The X’s. While doing all of this, he is also completing a doctorate in composition at California State University.

Although he has been an official endorsee since 2003, Patterson has worked with Sibelius programs directly and peripherally throughout his career as a guitar player, writer, and music editor/consultant for both Line 6’s Guitarport product line and Sibelius’ G7 program. He has used Sibelius since Version 2, but finds Version 4 to be an even more incredible tool for notation and creation alike.

“It’s not only a notation program - it’s a time-saver, and a real springboard to creativity,” he says. “I like to experiment with the arranging tools, where you can take a portion of a score and alter it based on another compositional style. But hands down, it’s the video feature that makes Version 4 a winner. When you’re writing for film and TV, having that integration of picture and music cuts out a lot of the slowness associated with writing by hand and backing up. You just throw in a QuickTime video and the program locks to it, which is incredible.”

Patterson describes his style as primarily orchestral, running the gamut “from Bernard Herman to Sousa to moments of Stravinsky to funky techno-backbeat,” and he’s able to incorporate Sibelius easily with other time-saving elements such as Sonic Implants and GigaStudio. He explains that although his composition process is often dictated by what is happening visually, a project such as The X’s is very character-driven, which can provide a constant source of musical ideas.

“Sibelius 4 is integral for the development and variation of musical ideas,” he says. “For instance, if you’ve got a specific melody or shape, you can take that and instantly have Sibelius do an inversion or retrograde. That alone just inspires a variation and creativity.

“Even though this show runs on Nick,” he continues, “the material requested is very dramatic, and can be very dark and dissonant. Each of the principal characters has their own identifiable theme, which I write out or input directly into Sibelius, then print physical copies and keep them beside me on a music stand while I work. As I’m going through the weekly episode, when a main character comes into the scene, I can generate what is really a ‘virtual lead sheet,’ based on what had been previously created. If the scene calls for a minor or whole tone variation on one of those motifs, I’ll add the appropriate notation right into Sibelius and print it out. So by the end of the episode, I’ve got several variations on a pretty straightforward existing motif or character or melody. Obviously, Sibelius is a huge aid in getting that process going. You can take an original idea, print it, play it, and inspire more ideas. It allows me to work faster—and smarter.”

For more information, visit www.shawnpatterson.com.

To date, there are more than 100,000 Sibelius users worldwide, including television composer Alf Clausen, musician Pat Metheny, composer Sammy Nestico, choral composer John Rutter, guitarist Andy Summers and conductor Michael Tilson-Thomas.