Cluster Voicings

Cluster Voicings Cluster voicings are another possibility to add interesting harmonic structures to your music. As opposed to “normal” clusters that stack minor OR major seconds, cluster voicings follow a certain scale structure incorporating only notes of the current...

Scoring Big Hit Points First

Scoring Big Hit Points First When you need to score a scene that has one or even several big moments you need to hit and highlight, it is a quite effective way to lay out your sketch the way that you score or at least sketch these important moments first one by one...

Film Music and Emotional Extremes

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 violence, fatal decisions etc.) need special attention from the musical side. The...

Melodic Target Notes

Melodic Target Notes Melodic target notes of a phrase should be avoided for as long as possible before reaching that target. For example, if your melodic phrase has a target note of a c, you should try to not use that c (if possible also in no other octave) in the...

Scoring Kissing Scenes

Scoring Kissing Scenes Many inexperienced composers tend to score kiss scenes overly climactic and cheesy which almost always feels like a bad caricature of the whole scene. There are only few kiss scenes in movies nowadays that need the big orchestral sweep or that...