Scott Skinner

Musician/Composer
Primary instruments - Guitar, Bass Guitar, Guitar Synth
Secondary instruments - Keyboards, percussion
Worked for a number of years playing music for a dramatic improv theatre ensemble in San Francisco Bay area. This particular form of improv was not comedy improv, but rather a more dramatic form of improv based on real stories from audience members lives, which the ensemble would reenact in either an abstract form or a more straight forward form, using the underlying emotions of the story to play it back to the teller/audience. I would also create the music for the piece on the spot, using guitar, guitar synthesizer or percussion, either solo or with fellow musicians. This experience gave me the following insights towards creating/composing music:
1. Composing from the perspective of conveying emotions primarily with just instrumental input, sometimes with vocals
2. Keeping the music “underneath” the action/dialog happening on stage, while also understanding the the music functions as another “actor” in the scene, adding to emotional impact, or sometimes providing emotions the actors on stage could not directly express.
3. Anything goes approach to creating music, starting with something simple and allowing it to develop using emotion as the driver. This gave me a musical freedom/creativity that I had not developed as far in playing in bands.

Took online courses in Orchestration and Arrangement though Berklee College of Music.

Played in various bands as a guitarist or bass player for a number of years. In many cases I took on the role of music director in the band, as that skill set was something that came somewhat naturally to me.