MUSIC AUDITIONS
CLASSICAL
ALABAMA, USA
28-12-2025 17:21 GMT
Gavin McMillan Fulmer
Current Score: ★☆☆☆☆ ☆☆
"I want to get more exposure. "
People also searched for: 2007 Mac Pro, Danny Elfman
Biography:
I started taking piano lessons at the age of six. This was in 1981, when I was in first grade. My teacher, Mrs. Caldwell, at that time, had a studio.
At first, Mrs. Caldwell, because I was so young, did no allow me to use her studio equipment. Several years later, when I was older (third grade), she gave me permission to use her studio. What was amazing about her studio was that it was way ahead of its time.
In 1983, the MIDI standard was officially revealed at the Winter NAMM convention. MIDI, which stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, allowed electronic music equipment (that had integrated MIDI support) to communicate with each other.
During this time, Mrs. Caldwell purchased a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer. What was interesting about the DX7 synth was that it was one of the first synthesizers to embrace the new MIDI standard. Both MIDI and the DX7 were released in 1983.
In addition to the Yamaha DX7 synth, Mrs. Caldwell also purchased Cakewalk, a music sequencing program that enabled her DX7 synthesizer to play her music through the MIDI protocol. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of the early versions of Cakewalk was that it was not graphical like Windows, but, rather, it ran under MS-DOS, which stands for Microsoft Disk Operating System, a command-line prompt interface, Essentially, it was text-base.
Another component to Mrs. Caldwell's studio was that it had an Atari 800 computer system. During my childhood, which was during the 80's and 90's, I was a huge fan of video/computer games.
One of the reasons why I liked video/computer games was because I could get immersed in controlling a visual character in a game world with a compelling story.
One of my favorite game series at that particular time was the Ultima RPG (Role-Playing Game) line of computer games. This particular game series piqued my interest in games because you could be a knight, wizard, or another type of character class.
Mrs. Caldwell's Atari 800 computer was graphical and had TONS of games on it! Even better, Mrs. Caldwell's Atari computer had most of the Ultima games on it. I did not know this at that time but Mrs. Caldwell LOVED the Ultima games! However, in order to play games on Mrs. Caldwell's Atari system I also had to spend time working with her Intel PC/Cakewalk setup.
The reason why I had to meet this prerequisite was because Mrs. Caldwell wanted me to learn the ropes on her Intel PC/Cakewalk system so that I could use it to compose music. Unfortunately, I was more interested in her Atari computer games, ESPECIALLY her Ultima games. However, Mrs. Caldwell required me to spend some time on her PC/Cakewalk setup every lesson. So, reluctantly, I did.
As I had stated at the beginning of this biography I was in first grade when I started taking piano lessons with Mrs. Caldwell. In diligently took lessons from her until my eleventh grade year.
I told Mrs. Caldwell that I needed to take a break from music lessons. I wanted to focus on computer technology and software, which included games. Mrs. Caldwell was saddened by this but she knew that I had spent a long stint of time taking lessons from her. She knew I was tired. So I rested.
In 1995, when I had just graduated from high school and my first semester in college (which was at Birmingham-Southern College), I transferred, with the help from a high school friend, to a local Birmingham University named Samford University.
When I transferred to Samford, I entered into the School of Music, and my declared major was Music Theory and Composition.
One of the things I gravitated towards at Samford's School of Music was the school's Macintosh music studio. It used a sequencing program like Cakewalk. It also had a program named Mac-Gamut, which taught things like harmonic progressions and aural skills.
As my formal University-level degree officially began I took two years of Tonal Harmony (Music Theories 1 thru 4), along with Counterpoint, Orchestration, and Form & Analysis. In addition to this, I took two semesters of Electronic Music.
During my early years at Samford I started working on campus in the Mouse Pad, Samford's official computer store. The lady that hired me, Mrs. Wilkerson, could not pay me in cash but she could purchase computer equipment and software as a form of payment.
By this time, I already had a lot of interest and exposure to music sequencing software and computer equipment. I read about a rather new sequencing program named Logic Audio for Windows. I had my boss buy this and a new Pentium 90Mhz Gateway desktop computer. This set the stage for doing the music for Samford's Step Sing competition.
Step Sing had different groups of music acts using different groups of students. There were sorority students, fraternity students, along with independent groups like Samford's Girls' Volleyball team and other independent acts.
Each Step Sing act had a main theme for the songs they sung. I had the responsibility to create instrumental tracks without the vocal using Logic Pro and my Pentium computer.
I had to make sure that each backup track flowed well from one song to the next. During the competition, the groups sang the vocals for the music accompanied by my instrumental track. What was cool about the different acts was that each act had different themes. One year, the guys from Sigma Chi had a theme centered on boy bands. They sang different pieces from different bands like N'Sync's "Bye Bye Bye" and Backstreet Boys' "Everybody." The Samford Girls' Volleyball team's theme one year was the Dancing Queens, which did various music from the 1970's. I was the composer for this particular theme. Overall, I learned a lot from these competitions. I did two years of Step Sing.
In late 1999, I found out that my beloved first piano teacher, Mrs. Caldwell, had stage-four brain cancer, and she was not expected to see in the new year come. My mother, my sister Robyn, and I went close to Christmas time that year to see Mrs. Caldwell.
When we arrived at her house, we were greeted by Jim Caldwell, her husband. He was very cordial but solemn too. Before we went into Mrs. Caldwell's room to see her we went into the kitchen to talk to Jim and Jim's sons. I told them that I was now back into music and I had a new piece of music on CD. They wanted to play this CD for Mrs. Caldwell in her room. We went into Mrs. Caldwell's room with a portable CD player and I played the track.
She smiled and I realized that God had me. mom. and sister visit her to let her know that I was back into music. I had stopped taking piano lessons in eleventh grade but I was now back into it. Even though no one told me this, I knew that God, through the CD performance, let Mrs. Caldwell know that her investment into me and my music was not in vain. She had sown into my life and it was flourishing again. Thank you Heavely Father!!
As I got older, I began focusing more on storytelling using music that I composed to immerse myself into a video/computer game or movie world like Tim Burton's Batman, Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda, etc.
In addition to this, I became interested in adding Hollywood-grade sound FX to some of my scores to further enhance the storytelling but also as a foundational musical aspect of the score.
As years passed, I became more skilled in adding sound FX to my music. I refined my music, using the FX, to "interact" the two components. A good example of this was "Becoming Spy Hunter" where a flutter-tongued flute idea dissipates toward the left speaker when Spy Hunter's corvette quickly passes, in stereo, from the right speaker to the left one. This is as if the speed of the corvette passing by affected the flute's sound, like wind blowing a mound of leaves on the side of the road.
As of now, at the age 50, I'm releasing a lot of early works that I produced in the early 2000's. Some of the works, like my piano concerto, Esmeralda, holds a special place in my heart. A tremendous amount of resources, like money, time, ad=nd high-tech equipment, was utilized to bring Esmeralda into reality. In addition to Esmeralda, Ive been working on an on-going project called "Mixlplix's Cube." Currently, I have released nine "sketch pieces" (which I was "portraits") for the project. These pieces reveal themes and ideas that aid the storytelling process. Once I finish my portrait pieces I will use the ideas and themes to weave, Lord wiling, my official soundtrack. This will be exciting!!
In closing, I want to let listeners know that my development over the years has been cultivated by the Lord. The progression from my early years with Mrs. Caldwell until now has been such as blessing from God.
He's helped me "make sense" of how every aspect of my musical training has come together to produce my current crop of works. It is remarkable what God is able to do if you will let Him. Just submit to Him and let Him change and guide you. I would not change anything from my life and the way my story has been written thus far, by God. God is TRULY GREAT!! I'm so fortunate...so fortunate.
Career Goals | Objectives:
I would like to work with SRL Networks to get more mainstream attention from fans and music aficionados. I want to sell my scores and score soundtracks to those specific individuals and businesses.
Music Education | Training | Qualifications:
Yes. I studied music composition and piano performance at Samford University from 1997-2003.
Musical Instruments | Studio Equipment:
2007 Mac Pro, Mackie MIDI Control Surface, Ensoniq TS-12 synth, early version of the Vienna Symphonic Library, Apple Logic Pro, MOTU MIDI Express XT, MOTU Traveler Audio Interface, and JBL 2005 Professional Speakers.
Influences | Sounds Like:
Danny Elfman, and romantic works from Chopin and Rachmoninoff. With Danny Elfman his predominant use of the minor mode, sonorities, melodies, and harmonic progressions. In 1989, Warner Bros. released Tim Burton's Batman. That was the first time I really paid attention to movie music. From the opening canon until the end credits, I fully took in this new discovery. I was an experience that forever changed the course of my music. Also, though it was closer to my later years with formal music training, my piano music was heavily influenced (as I said) by Chopin and Rachmoninoff. The Neo-Romantic movement helped guide my Esmeralda piano concerto. In addition to this, Chopin's Revolutionary Etude was the catalyst for my Clockwork Etude, which came about through studying of the Chopin Etudes.
Live Performance History | Residencies | Touring Experience:
No