“Bridgeing” Hit Points

When you need to score a scene that has several important points you need to hit and highlight, it is a quite effective way to first create a proper tempo map for the entire scene. So before you write a note, you should have the cue and hit points laid out tempo wise. You might even consider sketching your ideas for the important hit points first so you have some fixed melodic/harmonic targets to connect.

The reason for this is that it happens quite easily to get lost when “bridging” such moments when you don’t know where exactly you’re aiming for and the “moment to be hit” might come a bit as a surprise (and feel that way when listening to the music as well). The other extreme would be the danger of writing music to “bridge” which clearly feels like it is waiting for the next hit point. So it is much easier to know what targets you need to hit and write that “bridge” music with that in mind.