MAX MUELLER
Film Scoring & Composition Lessons
Programs Offered:
PIANO & COMPOSING - This program offers students who play non-keyboard instruments a chance to build up their keyboard dexterity, navigation and notation literacy for the purposes of being able to organize composition ideas and improvise more fluidly. There are three levels for this program that students may test into.
PICTURE BOOKS IN CONCERT - Students will compose original chamber music scores to accompany the narration of a beloved children's picture book. Students will get to develop themes for characters as well as highlight physical action and settings with musical gestures. This is a perfect preliminary program for students who eventually want to score film and other media.
GENRE SAMPLER PLATE - Students will select four different film genre that they're interested in composing music for. Students will be able to study the conventions of composing for these genre and be able to use that foundation to compose their own contributions to the canon. This program focuses on composing orchestral music separate from the element of film.
MUSIC WITH FILM - Students will get to select a short self contained film scene to compose an original score with. Students will work with a Digital Audio Workstation (Logic, Cubase, etc.) to sequence music for a scene, while notating the score as if the music was going to be recorded by a live symphony orchestra.
*ALL PROGRAMS ARE 16 LESSONS IN TOTAL. ADDITIONAL LESSONS CAN BE ADDED A LA CARTE AS NEEDED.
RATE:
$85 per 1-Hour Lesson
Lessons can be held weekly or bi-monthly.
MAX AND HIS MUSIC
Hi everyone, Max here! Learn more about me from my animated 10-year-old self in "Meet the Composer".
Also featured is an introduction to one of the composition projects I offer to students entitled "Picture Books in Concert".
After you've watched the introduction video, check out the sample final product: my score to the picture book "Ocean Meets Sky"
Finally, enjoy "Dream" and "Cowabunga", two animated shorts I scored for veteran Disney directors Aaron Blaise and James Lopez.
Meet Your Instructor
Meet the Composer: Max Mueller
"Dream" (Music by Max Mueller)
"Cowabunga" (Music by Max Mueller)
ABOUT MAX MUELLER
Max Mueller is a Los Angeles based film composer, educator and performer who has been involved in music education for the past 2 decades. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Max began to establish himself in the film music world by assisting Academy Award nominated composer David Newman on reconstructing and re-engraving older film scores for live performance purposes with various symphony orchestras. Max has also recently orchestrated Newman’s scores for the movies "Girls Trip" and "Night School" and the Netflix show "Green Eggs and Ham", produced by Ellen DeGeneres.
Max has composed music for the short films for two veteran Disney animators: Pixote Hunt and James Lopez.
Max has orchestrated and arranged music for such artists as Mike Garson (pianist for David Bowie), concert violinist Sarah Chang, and events such as the Grammys and the Kennedy Center Honors.
As a film composer, Max won best score at the New Orleans Horror Film Festival in 2015 for his score to "Trace". Max also organized and crowd funded the first ‘film music’ orchestra ‘flashmob’ at Universal Studios, Hollywood in tandem with American Youth Symphony and Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. The performance highlighted the great Universal Pictures film scores.
Max is a graduate of the Commercial and Media Writing Program at California State University, Northridge, and continues to look for new ways to combine the practical side of music found in performance with the creative side of music found in composing and arranging in music education. Max also continues to bring awareness to the importance of young musicians balancing private instruction and their participation in a community ensemble experience in music performance.
STUDENT TESTIMONIALS
"Working with Max Mueller was a fantastic experience. His lessons gave me the tools that I needed in order to develop my voice, and always adapted to what I was passionate about." - Arturo Orso (Bachelors in Music Composition at Oberlin Conservatory '24)
"I've always had a passion for writing music, and Max has truly showed me the wonders and excitement in film scoring. All the things I wanted to say became less distant. With his guidance in composition, orchestration and score preparation, my confidence has grown immensely." - John Li (Winner in the Leicine Annual Scoring Competition)