# "Pillars of Composition" by Ryan Leach



## nik (Jul 13, 2022)

Hey everyone!

We are very happy to announce that Master The Score's newest course "Pillars Of Composition" by Ryan Leach is now open for enrollment.
The course will be on intro pricing until August 3.

Watch the trailer:




For more detailed information check out the course page here (click the picture):










All the best,
Nik


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## nik (Jul 13, 2022)

Here is a little preview with Ryan talking about the sentence form:


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## muziksculp (Jul 17, 2022)

@nik ,

This is a Very useful course, but the price is a bit steep for me at this time, even with the Intro. discount. 

Thanks.


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## nik (Jul 17, 2022)

muziksculp said:


> @nik ,
> 
> This is a Very useful course, but the price is a bit steep for me at this time, even with the Intro. discount.
> 
> Thanks.


Hey @muziksculp,

thanks for sharing your thoughts! I can totally understand but would love to point out a few points.

Pillars of Composition contains over 13 hours of content presented by Ryan Leach who is not only a professional film composer but also an amazing teacher. This would be about 26$ per hour, for content you will always have access to. In addition the course contains assignments and recommendations for further studies. We are also constantly improving our courses with free updates based on our students feedback and questions. Furthermore, by purchasing our courses students will have access to:

1) our private discord community where teachers and students are happy to give feedback
2) loyalty discounts for our future courses which even work on the intro prices
3) and a growing list of student discounts for various companies:

Heavyocity 30%
Fallout Music Group 35%
Musio – complete license for 84$ a year
Cinesamples 30% off
Black Salt Audio 25%
Soundiron 20% off
Strezov Sampling 30% off
Soundtheory 50% off Gullfoss
LiquidSonics 30%off

All in all we really do our best to offer a lot of value to our students.

Thanks again, all the best
Nik


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## ALittleNightMusic (Jul 17, 2022)

Having bought 3 of these courses now, they are incredible values in my opinion. Cheaper than many sample libraries people here don't hesitate to buy - and, those hold attention until the next flavor of the week is released, while education will last a lifetime.


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## muziksculp (Jul 17, 2022)

Hi @nik ,

I totally understand the high value this course offers in terms of amount of content, and quality. I have to think about it though due to the extra expenses on my wallet this summer. 

OH.. when do you expect Benny Oschmann's course (The Art of Virtual Orchestration Professional Mock Up Productions) to be released ? 

Thanks,
Muziksculp


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## nik (Jul 17, 2022)

muziksculp said:


> Hi @nik ,
> 
> I totally understand the high value this course offers in terms of amount of content, and quality. I have to think about it though due to the extra expenses on my wallet this summer.
> 
> ...


I totally understand, just wanted to share my point of view regarding the pricing  

Benny and Rico are currently working on the course. I can't promise a specific date yet but it will be happening this year sooner lor later!

best ,
Nik


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## Awoo Composer (Jul 17, 2022)

Ryan's videos are some of the easiest to understand, and I've been binging them a bit, so I decided to see what this course is about. If it's anything like his YouTube videos, I'll learn a lot with relative ease.


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## nik (Jul 17, 2022)

Awoo Composer said:


> Ryan's videos are some of the easiest to understand, and I've been binging them a bit, so I decided to see what this course is about. If it's anything like his YouTube videos, I'll learn a lot with relative ease.


Thanks a lot @Awoo Composer! I am sure you will not be disappointed


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## muziksculp (Jul 17, 2022)

@nik ,

Do you know which Notation software is Ryan using in his course ? 

Thanks.


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## nik (Jul 17, 2022)

muziksculp said:


> @nik ,
> 
> Do you know which Notation software is Ryan using in his course ?
> 
> Thanks.


Sure, he is using Dorico


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## robcs (Jul 17, 2022)

I’m still working through Mattia’s excellent course, and still paying the 3-pay, otherwise I’d have jumped on this. If it had just been a month later…


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## nik (Jul 17, 2022)

robcs said:


> I’m still working through Mattia’s excellent course, and still paying the 3-pay, otherwise I’d have jumped on this. If it had just been a month later…


Thanks @robcs! Feel free to reach out when the time has come. I am sure we can figure something out


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## robcs (Jul 17, 2022)

nik said:


> Thanks @robcs! Feel free to reach out when the time has come. I am sure we can figure something out


 will do!


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## szczaw (Jul 17, 2022)

The only courses I've ever bought were Verta's, because I could pick the topic of interest (and second half of each video is a good rant). Going through 13 hours of videos, is a daunting prospect.


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## muziksculp (Jul 17, 2022)

@nik ,

Do you offer a 3-Pay payment option ? I read @robcs used it to buy another course.

This might help me buy it if it was possible to split the payment using 3 payments over three months.

Thanks.


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## muziksculp (Jul 17, 2022)

Hi @nik ,

OK, I went forward, and purchased this course via your 3-Payment option. I wasn't aware you offered this option. This made it possible to buy it, with less strain on my wallet.  

Thanks, and I look forward to benefit, and learn a lot from this course. OH, and I subscribe to Ryan's YT channel, and find his videos to be very professional, and easy to understand, and digest. That's why I didn't have any doubts that this is a very good investment in my musical education. 

Cheers,
Muziksculp


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## muziksculp (Jul 17, 2022)

robcs said:


> I’m still working through Mattia’s excellent course, and still paying the 3-pay, otherwise I’d have jumped on this. If it had just been a month later…


Hi @robcs ,

Thanks for mentioning the 3-Pay option in your post above, I wasn't aware they offered that, so I felt more at ease buying Ryan's course using the 3-Pay option. 

Cheers,
Muziksculp


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## nik (Jul 17, 2022)

muziksculp said:


> Hi @nik ,
> 
> OK, I went forward, and purchased this course via your 3-Payment option. I wasn't aware you offered this option. This made it possible to buy it, with less strain on my wallet.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the kind words! Looking forward to chat on discord, let me know how it goes! 

And sorry for the confusion about the 3x payment option. I will make sure to make that option more obvious on our course pages!


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## muziksculp (Jul 17, 2022)

nik said:


> Thanks for the kind words! Looking forward to chat on discord, let me know how it goes!


Thanks.  

Yes, I will surely join the discord channel. See you there.


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## HarmonKard (Jul 17, 2022)

If Ryan can teach me how to be how writes @ :41 - I am in!


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## ka00 (Jul 17, 2022)

Are the lessons very applicable generally to orchestral writing? Or is it specific to “cinematic” or “epic” genres. Thank you.

Also, I am placing no judgement on those terms. Just want to know if it’s geared to writing what’s heard in the trailer or not.


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## Awoo Composer (Jul 17, 2022)

nik said:


> Thanks a lot @Awoo Composer! I am sure you will not be disappointed


Definitely looking forward to it!


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## SimonCharlesHanna (Jul 17, 2022)

ka00 said:


> Are the lessons very applicable generally to orchestral writing? Or is it specific to “cinematic” or “epic” genres. Thank you.
> 
> Also, I am placing no judgement on those terms. Just want to know if it’s geared to writing what’s heard in the trailer or not.


Ryan Leach imo is very geared towards standard orchestral fundamentals. So I'd imagine the classes lean into that strength.

Also based off the demo vid he put out of the lesson.


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## NuNativs (Jul 17, 2022)

szczaw said:


> The only courses I've ever bought were Verta's, because I could pick the topic of interest (and second half of each video is a good rant). Going through 13 hours of videos, is a daunting prospect.


Ya but Verta didn't break his hours of material down into categorized chunks in case you wanted to go back to a certain spot, it's just one long diatribe, though entertaining especially as the scotch bottle got emptier


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## nik (Jul 17, 2022)

ka00 said:


> Are the lessons very applicable generally to orchestral writing? Or is it specific to “cinematic” or “epic” genres. Thank you.
> 
> Also, I am placing no judgement on those terms. Just want to know if it’s geared to writing what’s heard in the trailer or not.


Actually the content is not cinematic music orientated. Ryan teaches about melody, harmony , form , accompaniment and counterpoint which can basically be applied in all music styles. I would say he uses a rather classical approach with influences like Caplin. In the bonus section he writes 3 pieces: main titles, a video game loop and a production music cue. Our goal in the last section was to show how developing basic skills can help in writing all sorts of tracks.


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## ALittleNightMusic (Jul 17, 2022)

nik said:


> Actually the content is not cinematic music orientated. Ryan teaches about melody, harmony , form , accompaniment and counterpoint which can basically be applied in all music styles. I would say he uses a rather classical approach with influences like Capplin. In the bonus section he writes 3 pieces: main titles, a video game loop and a production music cue. Our goal in the last section was to show how developing basic skills can help in writing all sorts of tracks.


The Caplin book is waiting for me on my bookshelf. Looking forward to use Ryan’s course as a bit of a cliff notes head start.

And let me say that you’ve managed to line up the best teachers of any other music educational platform (and I’ve tried them all), so stick to your current strategy IMO. Those that value the quality of content (plus the updates and access the platform also provides) will pay the commensurate prices.


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## nik (Jul 18, 2022)

ALittleNightMusic said:


> The Caplin book is waiting for me on my bookshelf. Looking forward to use Ryan’s course as a bit of a cliff notes head start.
> 
> And let me say that you’ve managed to line up the best teachers of any other music educational platform (and I’ve tried them all), so stick to your current strategy IMO. Those that value the quality of content (plus the updates and access the platform also provides) will pay the commensurate prices.


Yeah Caplins book is really great. Bought it when Ryan recommended it to me a few years ago.

And thanks so much for the kind words! They are really appreciated


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## cqd (Jul 18, 2022)

Hey @nik ..

I picked up Mattia's course a while ago, but managed to log into it through teachable, and now it seems like it's the only way I can log into it..
Would it be at all possible to switch to being able to log in through the main site?..Thanks..
(Going to pick this course up sooner rather than later too..)


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## ka00 (Jul 18, 2022)

Hi @nik just curious, what sort of loyalty discount can students who buy subsequent classes expect? Is it consistently a certain percentage?

Thanks


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## nik (Jul 18, 2022)

cqd said:


> Hey @nik ..
> 
> I picked up Mattia's course a while ago, but managed to log into it through teachable, and now it seems like it's the only way I can log into it..
> Would it be at all possible to switch to being able to log in through the main site?..Thanks..
> (Going to pick this course up sooner rather than later too..)


Hey @cqd, when using the login on our main site you should be able to log in with your teachable account. Youcan also log in with your school account. I just read in teachable knowledge base that school accounts are created by default. This is what teachable states:

Log in using a school account​
School accounts are created by default when purchasing a product or signing up for access to a school on Teachable. To login with your school account:



Navigate to the school's homepage. If you don't remember the URL, check your email for a confirmation message (subject line may include “Confirm your Account” or “Redeem your copy of x”.)
Click *Login* in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage.
Enter the email address and password you used to register your account and click *Login*.
You'll be taken to the school site after logging in. The page you see will vary depending on what the school owner has set for a landing page. If you'd like to see the products you're enrolled in, you can click the *My Products* link in the homepage header.
Let me know if that helps @cqd , if not please send me a pm and i will solve this with you. 

best,
Nik


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## nik (Jul 18, 2022)

ka00 said:


> Hi @nik just curious, what sort of loyalty discount can students who buy subsequent classes expect? Is it consistently a certain percentage?
> 
> Thanks


Hey @ka00. Between 10-15% at the moment.


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## muziksculp (Jul 18, 2022)

nik said:


> Yeah Caplins book is really great. Bought it when Ryan recommended it to me a few years ago.


Same here


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## nik (Jul 18, 2022)

muziksculp said:


> Same here


Oh great, I don't have this one yet! Have to get it sometime


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## muziksculp (Jul 18, 2022)

nik said:


> Oh great, I don't have this one yet! Have to get it sometime


Oh, I got confused with Caplin, and Belkin  

I don't have the Caplin book, will look into it.


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## nik (Jul 18, 2022)

muziksculp said:


> Oh, I got confused with Caplin, and Belkin
> 
> I don't have the Caplin book, will look into it.


haha no problem, yeah its really good!


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## jbuhler (Jul 18, 2022)

muziksculp said:


> Oh, I got confused with Caplin, and Belkin
> 
> I don't have the Caplin book, will look into it.


Caplin is very good and something of a standard (I blurbed the textbook version—Analyzing Classical Form—and have been teaching his theory for more than 20 years in my day job) but the repertory is very narrow, even by the standards of music theory.


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## nik (Jul 21, 2022)

A new short excerpt of the course on our Youtube channel:


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## WalterB (Jul 22, 2022)

I notice in the curriculum there is a Project Assignment at the end of each module.
Any more detail on these? Are they short exercises or complete pieces?


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## szczaw (Jul 22, 2022)

NuNativs said:


> Ya but Verta didn't break his hours of material down into categorized chunks in case you wanted to go back to a certain spot, it's just one long diatribe, though entertaining especially as the scotch bottle got emptier


It's definitely a different, less of a class lecture, more of a casual talk format. I don't remember any drinking on the videos he sells. If there is some, it's not much. There's drinking in his YouTube videos.


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## nik (Jul 23, 2022)

WalterB said:


> I notice in the curriculum there is a Project Assignment at the end of each module.
> Any more detail on these? Are they short exercises or complete pieces?


So there are two kinds of assigments throughout the course.

First there are assignments after every block inside a module. In each module Ryan expands on melody, form, harmony, accopaniment and counterpoint. After each of those blocks there is a little assignment which contains reading recommendations, analyzing recommendations and writing execrices.

Secondly, there are bigger assignements at the end of each module. This is where students take everything learned into practice and write actual music. It starts with 8 bar forms and expands wiith each module. For example module 1 concludes with an 8 bar piece. Module two suggests writing four 8-bar pieces using sentence and period form. Module 3 expands to a longer piece with small ternary and an ABA structure. As final projects students will be assigned to write a library cue, a video game loop as well as a piece suited for main titles. 

Hope that helps, let me know if you have further questions!
Best 
Nik


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## nik (Jul 28, 2022)

Another little quick tip by Ryan Leach on our Youtube channel:


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## ed buller (Jul 28, 2022)

szczaw said:


> It's definitely a different, less of a class lecture, more of a casual talk format. I don't remember any drinking on the videos he sells. If there is some, it's not much. There's drinking in his YouTube videos.


there's quite a bit of drinking. well a glass or too, but it's great stuff nonetheless, but definitely NOT structured. Some are better than others, the good ones are fantastic , lot's of useful tips but it's nothing like what Ryan is doing. 

best

e


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## szczaw (Jul 28, 2022)

ed buller said:


> there's quite a bit of drinking. well a glass or too, but it's great stuff nonetheless, but definitely NOT structured. Some are better than others, the good ones are fantastic , lot's of useful tips but it's nothing like what Ryan is doing.
> 
> best
> 
> e


Alright, he's drinking in both. I need to watch again a dozen of videos I have. I do find this course interesting, more so than some others I've seen.


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## nik (Aug 2, 2022)

Only 24 hours left to grab Ryan Leach's wonderful course "Pillars Of Composition during our intro sale!









Pillars of Compositions


Basics and Beyond




www.masterthescore.com


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## Tilt & Flow (Aug 2, 2022)

nik said:


> Only 24 hours left to grab Ryan Leach's wonderful course "Pillars Of Composition during our intro sale!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Can download the courses for off line viewing? There are a couple of courses I'd like to buy...any summer sales coming up?


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## nik (Aug 2, 2022)

Tilt & Flow said:


> Can download the courses for off line viewing? There are a couple of courses I'd like to buy...any summer sales coming up?


Hey, unfortunatly it's not possible to download our courses. Most of the courses do have additional material for download tough like notation, PDFs and charts. At the moment we do not have a summer sale planned. If you want to buy mutliple courses tough you can PM me and we can figure something out


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## muziksculp (Nov 9, 2022)

Hi @nik ,

Can we expect a BF sales pricing on your courses this year ? 

Thanks. 
Muziksculp


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## LostintheBardo (Nov 9, 2022)

I'm trying to decide whether to get this or the 20th Century Composing course (when I have the money). I already have Christopher Siu's Cinematic Music Creation course which I think might have a lot of overlap with this one so I'm leaning towards the latter.


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## ALittleNightMusic (Nov 9, 2022)

LostintheBardo said:


> I'm trying to decide whether to get this or the 20th Century Composing course (when I have the money). I already have Christopher Siu's Cinematic Music Creation course which I think might have a lot of overlap with this one so I'm leaning towards the latter.


Do what I did - get both  I think you'll find both more advanced and in-depth than that other course.


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## LostintheBardo (Nov 9, 2022)

ALittleNightMusic said:


> Do what I did - get both  I think you'll find both more advanced and in-depth than that other course.


Even at the opportunity cost of the 20th Century course? I only ask because the 20th century one looks really good to me.


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## ALittleNightMusic (Nov 9, 2022)

LostintheBardo said:


> Even at the opportunity cost of the 20th Century course? I only ask because the 20th century one looks really good to me.


It is very good. As is Ryan’s course. Hence, get both.


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## LostintheBardo (Nov 9, 2022)

ALittleNightMusic said:


> It is very good. As is Ryan’s course. Hence, get both.


My apologies, misread your comment completely. Seems like a good plan to me.


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## muziksculp (Nov 11, 2022)

Hi @nik ,

I Just wanted to let you know that I went ahead, and purchased the other course by Ryan Leach 'Wizard and Witches' I have his first course as well, and plan to buy more courses during the BF sales. 

I really wish that the Benny Oschamann course would be released soon, and maybe if possible, to Pre-Purchase it during the BF period. But I don't know if that will be possible. 

Thanks,
Muziksculp


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## nik (Nov 11, 2022)

muziksculp said:


> Hi @nik ,
> 
> I Just wanted to let you know that I went ahead, and purchased the other course by Ryan Leach 'Wizard and Witches' I have his first course as well, and plan to buy more courses during the BF sales.
> 
> ...


Hey, thanks for the support, very happy you enjoy our courses.
Unfortunatley we will not have a pre sale on the course you mentioned. Its still in the making and altough i know its pretty common these days, personally i am not so comfortable collecting money for an unfinished product.

We will keep you posted about everything tough. Thanks and stay tuned


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## LostintheBardo (Nov 13, 2022)

nik said:


> Hey, thanks for the support, very happy you enjoy our courses.
> Unfortunatley we will not have a pre sale on the course you mentioned. Its still in the making and altough i know its pretty common these days, personally i am not so comfortable collecting money for an unfinished product.
> 
> We will keep you posted about everything tough. Thanks and stay tuned


Is there any plans to ever release a transcribing related course?


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## nik (Nov 14, 2022)

LostintheBardo said:


> Is there any plans to ever release a transcribing related course?


Can you explain a little further what you have in mind?


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## musicalweather (Nov 15, 2022)

muziksculp said:


> and plan to buy more courses during the BF sales.


Will there be a Black Friday sale at Master the Score? Haven't been able to find any info on that.


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## LostintheBardo (Nov 15, 2022)

nik said:


> Can you explain a little further what you have in mind?


Attempting to transcribe orchestral scores is a real weak point of mine and it'd be great to have courses showing you how to improve at this. Maybe a bit of ear training as well or something.


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## nik (Nov 15, 2022)

LostintheBardo said:


> Attempting to transcribe orchestral scores is a real weak point of mine and it'd be great to have courses showing you how to improve at this. Maybe a bit of ear training as well or something.


As far as i know Mattia planned on adding a section about this in his course. But i am not entirely sure. I will keep you posted on this!


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## nik (Nov 15, 2022)

musicalweather said:


> Will there be a Black Friday sale at Master the Score? Haven't been able to find any info on that.


Yeah Black Friday Sale will be announced later today. It will start Friday 18th with a 35% discount on all courses except Wizards and Witches.


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## MartinH. (Nov 15, 2022)

I just did a forum search for Ryan Leach and to my surprised he has been mentioned quite a lot, I just never noticed any of those threads because they get drowned out from all the noise and hype around unreleased sample libraries from "the big ones". And I think that's a fucking tragedy that I had to randomly stumble over him on youtube, because what I have seen so far from his videos is GOLD!

At the moment I don't have the resources (mostly time) to commit to a big course purchase, but I absolutely have this on my radar now for next years black friday. If I could retroactively trade in my Metropolis Ark 3 purchase for this course, I would do so in a heartbeat.

@nik What percentage of the Pillars of Composition course would you say is already covered in the videos on Ryan's youtube channel?


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## nik (Nov 15, 2022)

MartinH. said:


> I just did a forum search for Ryan Leach and to my surprised he has been mentioned quite a lot, I just never noticed any of those threads because they get drowned out from all the noise and hype around unreleased sample libraries from "the big ones". And I think that's a fucking tragedy that I had to randomly stumble over him on youtube, because what I have seen so far from his videos is GOLD!
> 
> At the moment I don't have the resources (mostly time) to commit to a big course purchase, but I absolutely have this on my radar now for next years black friday. If I could retroactively trade in my Metropolis Ark 3 purchase for this course, I would do so in a heartbeat.
> 
> @nik What percentage of the Pillars of Composition course would you say is already covered in the videos on Ryan's youtube channel?


That's really hard to say since i don't know every single video of Ryan's Youtube Channel. The value of a good course lies in the way all that knowledge is codensed, presented and how well a student is guided towards the goal of the course. I think one reason why people like this course so much is because it's presented in a fun and practical way. Ryan explains concepts and immediatly puts them into practice. A big plus are the assignments students can take. There is a very lively Pillars Of Composition channel on our Discord Server where students exchange and get feedback from Ryan. Hope that helps.


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