Oct 3, 2018 | Composition, Daily Film Scoring Bits
Composition Speed Many composers are concerned about their output rate and feel intimidated by hearing that composer x wrote the score for feature film y in just a few weeks or something like that. However this whole issue shouldn’t be bothering you too much. The more...
Sep 26, 2018 | Composition, Daily Film Scoring Bits
Repeating Pitches in a Melody When writing a melody, many inexperienced composers tend to overuse certain pitches, their melody kind of gets stuck at a pitch and keeps on using it over and over again. For a certain length it is okay to hover around one pitch but it...
Sep 19, 2018 | Composition, Daily Film Scoring Bits
Highest pitch in a Melody One common property of many successful melodies is that the highest (and lowest) note of it only occurs once in the melody. This is a pretty essential thing in order to give it a proper dramaturgy. Also, the highest note shouldn’t be a...
Sep 12, 2018 | Composition, Daily Film Scoring Bits
Doubling in thirds or sixths Doubling melodies in thirds or sixths (e.g. first violins playing the main melody while 2nd violins double in a third below) is in general something that is musically quite effective as additionally to providing melodic information it also...
Aug 29, 2018 | Composition, Daily Film Scoring Bits
Rhythmic Variety The rhythmic placements of notes can be just as important as their pitch. Unless you’re writing a march or something compareable, avoid monotonuos rhythmic figures. Hitting every downbeat of a bar makes melodies very firm but also quickly feels...
Aug 22, 2018 | Composition, Daily Film Scoring Bits
Rhythm of Secondary Melodic Lines When trying to find a secondary melodic line to a main melodic line (e.g. you have your main melody in the strings but want an independent horn line as well to support it) try shaping that secondary melody in a way that it moves on...
