Music can, of course, be extremely effective in telling stories.
Composers throughout history have been writing evocative and poignant music, navigating a variety of emotions and taking their listener's on musical journeys.
The top film composers in particular, are masters at weaving stories...
Thomas Bergerson, one half of the now recently disbanded Two Steps From Hell, has written his fair share of exhilarating, moving and dramatic cinematic music.
After analysing countless pieces of his, I've discovered that changing keys is a common technique that he uses in order to increase...
I know this will not relate to everyone but over the last two weeks (yes it takes me that long to make a video!) I have been working on my 'Top 20 Tips from 20 Years using Cubase' YouTube video. In it, I dive into my favourite tips and tricks, which I use on a daily basis.
Think 'hacks'...
I wanted to take some time to honour the composer and lyricist Richard Sherman, who sadly passed away at the age of 95 last week.
Richard, along with his brother Robert Sherman, were the legendary Disney Songwriters, who penned classics such as 'I Wanna Be Like You' and...
Structure and form are essential when writing a standalone piece of music. Without structure, a piece becomes a series of random ideas with no clear direction.
Using repetition is perhaps the most important aspect of structure - a careful balance between repetition and development/contrast is...
Imagine you’ve got your initial 8 or 16 bar main idea or A Section. Do you then find yourself stuck in a musical rut, unsure of where to go next?
When composing music, an effective contrasting B section can go a long way to helping you to ultimately sustain your listener's...
Let’s talk Digital Audio Workstations or DAW’s. Love them or hate them, they are the central hub of just about every recording or writing setup, helping us to get our ideas down and combining Midi and Audio to help us produce a polished audio file of our music.
There are numerous...
For many composers, their lifelong musical pursuit is trying to write that perfect melody.
When the Theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber first played his father (who was also a composer), the melody from 'Memory', apparently his father simply replied - ‘It sounds like a million...
Over the past couple of weeks it feels Hans Zimmer has been everywhere promoting his latest film Dune: Part 2. It is interesting to see how much of a household name he has become, especially in the UK. Even my in-laws have heard of him!!!
Along with the first Dune movie, Zimmer set about creating...
The percussion section is an extremely versatile family of instruments. Equally capable of adding a light sprinkling of fairy dust to a Strings and Woodwinds piece, or providing the rhythmic energy and movement to an action cue accompanying a car chase.
Many people struggle writing for percussion...
Without Rhythm, there would be no music.
I also strongly believe we all have rhythm inside us - after all we all have a pulse, (hopefully!) beating in a fairly regular manner.
So what happens if you have trouble coming up with a rhythm when writing a piece? It could be the rhythm of a melody, or...
Lots of my subscribers have asked me in the past about the use of unconventional instruments when scoring films.
So I thought I would put together some of my favourite examples.
Many films contain stories that take place in numerous countries or geographical areas. Composers will often use...