The Golden Rule
I start every lesson for songwriters looking to write music for film and television with the same piece of advice: Stop focusing on your story and start focusing on their story.
This blog will focus on the core concept of my Music 2 Picture course. It’s the secret of my success, and one of the most valuable tools I use every day when I am writing for film and television. Make sure you’ve downloaded the e-book Getting Started in Music For Picture, and worked through those exercises first. They are the foundation you will need to understand the concepts here, as I explain how I combine my skills as a composer and music supervisor in every song I write and produce.
I begin by thinking of a specific show, or shows that I want to target for music placements. I have already analyzed the work of the filmmakers and understand the creative vision. I have already made all of the mental notes on style, storylines, and characters. Now I enter the writing phase, and I use my iPad or laptop to loop episodes for visual reference to explore my craft.
My process starts by exploring the countless ways I can approach that first chord of the song. I can strum it, pick it, stack it, imply it over a root, whisper it with vocals, distort it, arpeggiate it, pluck harmonics lush with delay, voice it as a perfect interval or color it filled with tensions, and on and on. The possibilities are endless. As you first begin to experiment, I encourage you to explore as many ideas as possible, at multiple tempos, and in multiple key signatures. This exploration process is the most valuable hour or two you will spend in the song production process. Starting off, it may seem like you are just lost in the world of hunt and peck, but over time, you will build a mental library of these approaches and they will begin to flow out as soon as you lay eyes on the footage.