According to established composers and their experience in the field, there are numerous ways to become a better composer and more precise when it comes to storytelling with music. Sadly most practice tips are a bit too general to follow, too obvious, and sometimes impossible ways like working as a conductor or studying film scoring at university.
The best ways to get better at scoring for Film are practice and observation – both categories can be subdivided into more practical approaches and techniques to fit the composer’s needs. Among the fundamentals are writing for practice footage, critically thinking of the scores you admire, and sustaining a habit of frequent music writing. Still, they can be accompanied by more subtle and personalized methods. Being able to know your weak spots and where you want to approve, as well as having critical thinking about your work, are the most fundamental basics.
I am generally not a fan of writing articles about such topics, where the only practical input you get is “practice more,” “listen to music,” or “read a book to be inspired.” I, therefore, tried to be as critical about myself as possible and implemented feedback I got on my own scores, be it from judges, fellow composers, or directors (even if it was just my friend with whom I make a few smaller side projects). From what I learned, the best ways to improve are a critical analysis of your projects and spot them for the absolute most crucial aspects of film music: Storytelling, Fitting the scene, and Emotions. Every other criterion, be it orchestration, sound quality, mixing, or complex harmonic structures, they don’t matter if your score doesn’t deliver the emotion it should.
But now, let’s dive into ways to step up your game and have a practical practice approach:
Table of content:
1. Understanding your own weak spots
In theory, this sounds quite logical. The reality, on the other hand, is that beginners tend not to understand precisely what they need to improve on. I am no exception to this, and I think the problem often lies in the happy hormones filling your brain by completing such a challenging task as writing a score. Whenever I reach the end of a project and can see the goal in front of me, I notice that I care less about my musical decisions than I want it to be done. I lack a bit of critical analysis for my own actions, as I am simply proud of what I have achieved at that point.
In the end, the score might be good, but it sometimes lacks a bit of – “I don’t know what”.
If I compare my initial scores now with a bit more practical experience, I notice some parts that are actually not bad. Still, they don’t deliver the emotion they should, don’t fit the pacing of the footage, or somehow seem to be a bit out of place.
I think the most crucial step actually to improve from project to project is by critically analyzing your own work and finding an exact point you want to improve.
Give it a name!
Sometimes we tend to say: “I need to learn to write better melodies,” for example. Yes, being willing to do so is great, but what do you actually want to learn about it? Why do you think your last melody was that good? Was it too repetitive? Do you want to implement a more vital rhythmic interest? Or were you not sure how to divide the melody from the harmony?
Being able to understand what exactly you want to improve on is undoubtedly a really difficult task. Especially if you are at the beginning of your journey, it sometimes simply lacks a bit of structural understanding of orchestral music. It is therefore an excellent approach to highlight a specific task you want to improve on: be it advanced harmony structures, more impressive tutti parts, or the right usage of synthesizers. Then you can follow these leads to gather information around this topic and find suiting instructions or learn new techniques.
2. Finding Guidelines
If you are entirely new to this field, a general course taking you by hand through the main principles is undoubtedly a highly beneficial thing to do. In my case, I knew a few bits about orchestral music, but nowhere near enough to start. Once I discovered for myself that this is a hobby I want to invest time and effort to get to an actual point of being able to write solid orchestral music, I booked a membership at Event. Regarding how my general approach to scoring and the knowledge around skyrocketed, I think it was the best investment in myself I ever made. It not only made me do things I couldn’t imagine, but it also kept me motivated for the last two years.
My primary source of composition learning was YouTube, right from the beginning till today. Especially composers like Alex Moukala and specifically Guy Michelmore have just a clear, easy understanding and sometimes hilarious (yes, I am looking at you Guy) ways to teach you a very very good solid base.
The next step would be to find an actual program dedicated to the type of music you want to create – it might be trailer music, music for horror scenes, using digital sound sources, or film music in general. I would always try to find something that focuses on you understanding what you do – not a blind step-by-step instruction where the goal and the purpose aren’t clear.
3. Knowing the terminology
I’m not a big fan of music theory, not that I don’t see it as necessary, but I think the term alone is often a massive barrier for beginning musicians, as it is a floating cloud above the head, which it shouldn’t. Apart from the absolute basics, and I mean the real fundamental basics, I know from my own experience that pure terminology is sometimes all you need to know. If you want to create one of those string patterns you hear everywhere in the background, it’s easier to find helpful resources if you know that you are looking for Ostinatos. The same goes for production terminology, such as equalizers, compressors, synthesizers, or threshold. Once you get your hand on the basic terminology, every further research is more valuable and easier to find.
Of course, you can learn a lot by completing a music theory course, but it also helps just to be active in this scene and follow a few YouTubers or Bloggers. A lot of this comes with time, but it is valuable to name the things you struggle with correctly.
4. Focusing on Story and Emotions
I can tell you that I struggle with this point the most. Initially, it wasn’t even that clear that this might be the point holding me back the most. At the start of my journey, I wrote what I thought might fit the ambient. That’s nothing wrong, but the more crucial aspect is to focus on the emotions the music should evoke:
Ambient
Some scenes don’t need that much individual music underlay, as the story and the emotions we should get are told perfectly by the screenplay. In these cases, I tend to write music to fit the atmosphere simply. A good example here would be the music for a calm fantasy setting right at the beginning of the adventure. I can already hear the fantasy tavern music in the background, lush strings, and maybe a whistle. Once a general theme is built, most composers decide to stick with it for the length of the theme with a few variations, so it doesn’t get boring.
Adding Emotions
But what emotion should the score provide? If you look closer at the footage, you might be able to divide the scene into diffrent emotional phases. Usually, it isn’t such “happy” throughout the entire scene. It might vary from playful to loving to hopeful and peaceful. Each phase can be enhanced if the score reacts to these more minor changes. Discreet changes in instrumentation, pacing, or textures work brilliantly and really bring the music up to the next step.
So instead of varying the theme, just to not become repetitive; use those changes to highlight the actual emotional progress.
If you struggle with depicting diffrent emotions, I wrote an article where this is a crucial step, and you can find more helpful guidelines: What does it take to enter a contest as a beginner?
5. Invest in tonal quality and signature sound
Apart from the focus on structure, emotions, and pacing, tonal color is the crucial element of magnificent orchestral cues. The orchestra provides us with a ton of diffrent timbres and colors, and with the addon of digital sound sources or self-recordings, the possibilities are near endless. I personally tend to reuse the same constellations a lot, but I try to break down this habit to actually make my score sound the way I want it to be. Some basic guidelines for sure are good to keep in mind, as these more classical structures are built on the actual physics of sound waves. Therefore higher -pitched instruments can use a lot more variety of the notes in the scale as the bass lines for example, without sounding muddy. But instead of a violin, a viola with a darker timbre, or a similar ethnic instrument as a taglharpa (commonly used in scores set in the Viking-ambient) are absolutely fantastic.
To actually let them pop out more, my basic rule here is to reduce instruments instead of adding new lines. Especially beginners tend to write a line for each orchestra instrument, but it is enough to cover your base, harmony, and melody. Texture and rhythmic aspects can easily be implemented in those lines, resulting in a much clearer and varying sound. So instead of having a full orchestra at every key point, I now try to bring out the color I want and reduce the rest to the bare minimum. This opens up much more possibilities and makes even subtle fractions clear and exciting for the listener.
6. Observation of scores you admire
This is a point that’s easier to say than actually to do. Everyone has his own favorite soundtracks or composers, and those, of course, influence the type of music we want to write. I had a project where I needed to write music for an ad campaign for a botanic garden. Together with the director, we immediately thought of a score like the BBC Planet Earth, Our Planet, or Seven Worlds in One Planet.
These are top-of-the-line scores written by composers like Jacob Shae or Hans Zimmer. Of course, I can’t match them in terms of experience or anything, but I dived into those scores and made a few notes for details I want to have in my own score. Both parties agreed not to use temp tracks so I can go with my own pacing and not fall into a trap of leaning too much into the existing score.
The next steps were to look for scores into those albums that would fit the general ambient. I really struggled with the calm parts and noticed a few general rules on how they used drones, at which point they implemented ethnic instruments, or how they assembled the build-up to the big touching moments.
I ended up with a score that made me do a lot of things differently, that I wouldn’t have done out of habit or because of a restricted understanding and skills at that time.
7. Recreation of sounds
I learned this trick from Alex Moukala; if you don’t know him, he is one of my all-time favorites on YouTube. To learn from the big masters, he simply took a score he really liked (in his case Pirates of the Caribbean) and rewrote the entire track in his DAW by ear. This might seem like an absolutely brutal task, but I think this is the best exercise you can do if you want to get new input, understand the structure and learn more about the tonal color from a specific composer or score.
I have completed this exercise with two tracks so far, and it is actually not as challenging as you might think initially. It is enough to get the proper chords and melody line right on the piano, as the rest usually is just an orchestration process from this piano line. If you struggle with playing music by ear, you can always look up sheet music or one of the various piano tutorials on YouTube.
Another brilliant point of this method is, that you are not drawn away by the composing process of finding melodies and so on. Writing music on a daily basis surely is a fine habit, but to be real: Comming up with original ideas every day is a very difficult task at the beginning. Finishing a track takes even more time. So with this technique, you can set up your DAW and start right away with a solid orchestration practice.
The big benefit of this exercise is that you open up your horizon in terms of orchestration. It is a similar approach as the observation and study shown above, but it has a much more practical and in-depth focus. If you want, you can check this article, where I recreated a small part of the Inception Theme “Time” by Hans Zimmer, to show the process of chord voicing.
