Daily Film scoring bits
Welcome to the Daily Film Scoring Bits. On this page I post little tips, tricks and advices about film scoring in general but also more specific topics like orchestration, composition, working relationships, business advices etc.
Use the search bar on the right to find specific topics or click on the tags to filter posts by specific topics.
Please don’t hesitate to comment on the bits, a lively discussion with different points of view is desired 🙂
You can follow these social profiles to be notified every time a new Daily Film Scoring Bit is posted. Make sure to adjust your notification settings on these platforms accordingly.
If you want to get more in-depth articles, exclusive content like composition walkthroughs and extensive articles, please consider joining me on Patreon.
Strategies for Writing Music to Unfinished Edits
Unfortunately, there are quite often situations where you need to start writing music to an un-locked cut in order to be able to hit the deadline. While…
Working for a Friend
Working for a friend and especially negotiating a deal with him/her is very often a delicate matter as very often both parties are reluctant to go…
Mutes on String Instruments
Using mutes on string instruments has some important things to consider and remember. Mutes as seen on this picture have no influence on the…
Loops, Prerecorded Phrases and Presets
The use of loops, presets and prerecorded phrases is seen very controversial among the community of composers with some people using only their own…
Chord Arpeggios
Arpeggios or respective broken chords can be a great tool for accompaniement patterns or sources for melodic gestures. On accompanying figures they…
Disguising Tempo Changes
On rhythmically active music, tempo changes are quite obvious and can drag so much attention on themselves that they might not be appropriate in certain…
The Composer’s Solitude
Being a composer very often is a very lonely profession. The combination of projects that require long hours, working in a home studio, being a…
“Leggiero” and “Pesante”
Italian “score sheet poetry” that extensively describes the desired feelings of tempo changes or interpretation is rather uncommon in the scoring…
Recording in Two Minute Chunks
Recording action passages and music that demands a lot from your players is best to be split into approx. two minute chunks and later edit them…
Alternative Bass Notes of a Chord
Altering the bass note of a chord to a note different than the root note can create quite new harmonic impressions than the original chord. If you…
Film Music and Emotional Extremes
Scenes and situations that are emotionally hardly bearable (major characters dieing, catastrophic plot twists, portrayal of gruesome psychic or physical…
Project Hierarchy
Before you start working on any project, try to determine the hierarchic structure of the people who work on it. On most film projects, the director…
Study Instrument Registers
Just as important as knowing the ranges of the instruments that you are writing for you should also have a clear idea about the registers of the…
Fingers Off the Pan Knob
The standard panning knob (or balance on a stereo signal) works in a way that it simply changes the levels of the right and left channel according to…