Daily Film scoring bits
Welcome to the Daily Film Scoring Bits. On this page I post on a more or less daily basis little tips, tricks and advices about film scoring in general but also more specific topics like orchestration, composition, working relationships, business advices etc.
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Voice Leading is King
Good voice leading beats any other rule. This was already valid in Bach’s times where there were fifth parallels and doubled thirds in the chord because…
Scoring Intensity
It might be very tricky sometimes to find the right level of “musical intensity” on a cue. With inexperienced composers you sometimes get the feeling…
Writer’s Block
Writer’s block is something that is extremely annoying especially when you are under heavy deadline pressure. At certain moments, if you let yourself…
Balance of the Harp
In a real orchestral tutti, there’s hardly any chance for the harp to be heard. The only thing that might have a chance to cut through are quite strong…
Mockup Quality to Justify Real Orchestra
The quality and also availability (more sample content creators, smaller price tag) of orchestral samples has increased dramatically over the last 10-15..
Expanding Your Comfort Zone
Deliberately move out of your comfort zone from time to time. Even if you feel highly uncomfortable writing music in a different style or for a…
Overstretching the Possibilities of Film Music
There’s just a certain range of how far you can musically push something in a movie that is not there but is supposed to be there. At a certain point…
Career Dependency on Someone Else
Don’t make your own career depending solely on someone else’s career. Don’t feel like you have your foot firmly on the ladder just because you have a…
Vibrato
The amount and intensity of vibrato as a default playing style is highly depending on the instrument and also location of the orchestra. While string…
Modern Score Sound Esthetics
Some sound esthetics that are practically not possible to be reproduced by acoustic instruments are nowadays “style defining” for a lot of film music…
Movement of Inner Voices
Most of the time, when arranging chords, you should try to move the “inner voices” (=all voices except for bass line and potential top melody line) by…
Musical Entrances in Films
There should always be a noticeable reason why a film cue enters at a specific point, which usually is a cue that is being given by the movie itself…
Strategically Rejecting Jobs
As soon as you can financially afford it, start rejecting jobs that don’t fit into your personal profile and that you wouldn’t enjoy at all and just do…
Compose With Orchestration in Mind
When you’re writing music, at least have a basic idea about the orchestration while doing so. Writing something completely disconnected from the…