HOW TO COMPOSE

CINEMATIC MUSIC IN

5 EASY STEPS
A beginner’s guide to composing cinematic music

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Intro
Welcome to this beginner’s guide on how to
begin writing cinematic music. The aim of this
guide is to show you a very quick step by step
process for composing some simple, yet
‘cinematic’ sounding music. Although
‘Cinematic’ can be a very broad term, I am
defining it as music which you might hear in a
film or television program.
This guide assumes that you have some basic
knowledge of music such as simple
chords/scales and have at least
experience playing an instrument.
About
Composing Academy was set up by Simon
Stevens, a composer for films starring Kevin
Hart, Christian Slater and Donald Sutherland. He
has a degree in Composition from the Royal
College of Music, London and is also an alumni
of the world renowned Screen Scoring program
at USC, Los Angeles. He has also been
mentored by film composer James Newton
Howard.
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1. What equipment
do you need to
compose?
Computer with a DAW or Notation
Software

Most composers will use either a DAW such

as Cubase, Logic or Reaper, or notation Cubase
software such as Sibelius or Finale.

A DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is a piece

of software which will let you compose, record
and edit music. DAWs handle both audio and
midi, enabling you to use virtual instruments
to produce a sonically high quality version of
your music. Reaper has a generous 60 day
free trial and then has a purchase price of
$60.00

Notation Software such as Sibelius or Dorico

are like word processors for music. They
enable you to compose primarily using
notation, especially useful if you are used to Dorico
reading music.

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Audio
When using a midi controller to play the
samples, a good audio interface will also help to
reduce Interface
the latency (the time it takes to hear a
sound once you press a key on the keyboard).
Good audio interfaces for beginner composers
include the Focusrite Scarlett Solo (around
$135) or the Native Instruments Komplete Audio
1 interface (around $100).
Midi Controller
Finally, if you have keyboard/piano skills, you
may wish to use a midi controller to quickly
record your ideas into the computer.
A midi controller is a keyboard with no in built
sounds which connects to a computer via USB
or Midi (via an interface). They come in different
sizes ranging from 25 keys, up to a 88 keys (the
same as an acoustic piano).
Recommended models include Native
Instrument’s Komplete Kontrol A25 ($170) or
Novation’s Impulse 49 ($300).
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Samples/Virtual Instruments

When composing in a DAW, you need to have

sounds installed in order to hear your music. A
sample library is a collection of sounds, often
featuring real recordings of individual notes played
by actual instruments.

Spitfire Audio are a very well known Sample

Library Developer and they have a library called
‘Discover’ which features sounds from the BBC
Symphony Orchestra. The best part about the ‘Discover’ by Spitfire Audio
library is that it is free!*

Another great company for sounds is u-he. They

make virtual synthesizers and also have a free
instrument to download called ‘Zebralette’.

‘Zebralette’ by U-HE

*In order to get the free copy customers have to 5

fill in a short survey and then wait 2 weeks.
 2. Starting with a chord
progression
Let’s start our piece by choosing a suitable chord progression.

If you are using a DAW, load up a plugin such as Spitfire

Audio’s ‘Discovery’ Sample Library and select a long string
sound. Tip
If using a DAW such as
Cubase or Logic, you can
As we want our piece to sound rich and cinematic, start by
either draw these notes in
choosing one of the following chord progressions and manually within your
recording it into your DAW or Notation program. software’s midi editor, or
record the notes in using a
midi keyboard.

1.

2.

3.

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3. Writing a 4 bar
melody
The next stage of the composition process is to add a melody to our chord progression.

Writing a melody can be a little bit more involved than coming up with a chord progression.

Begin by loading up a sound such as some French Horns or Trumpets in your DAW.

Limit Pitches
One of the more easier ways of coming up with a suitable melody is to limit your chosen
pitches to those which make up each chord.

E.g. if your first chord is A minor then the notes you have to choose from will be A, C and E.

You can see in the example below, a melody has been added to the first chord
progression. Notice how the melodic pitches in each bar are only those pitches which are
found in each chord.

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Repeat a Rhythm
Notice that the rhythm of the melody is essentially made of up two 2 bar phrases, which repeat
the same rhythm, but using different pitches. Try to come up with a melody which repeats
rhythmically.

Avoid big leaps

You can also see that there are no big leaps between consecutive notes in the melody.
Although we have limited ourselves to using just the notes of the chords, try not to have any
gaps larger than 5 notes.

Contour
Giving your melody a shape or contour can also help to take the listener on an emotional
journey. You can see that measure 3 contains the highest pitched note (a high G),
before ending lower on a D in bar 4.

Your turn - have a go at writing a melody to accompany your chosen

chord progression. Record or input the notes into your DAW.

You will then have a musical ‘Building Block’ which we are going to extend
into a longer piece of music in the next step.

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4. Adding Structure

You should now have a 4 measure musical ‘Building Block’ which we are going to extend into a
16 measure piece of music.

Repeat and Vary

A good melody is one that balances repetition as well as adding some variety to keep the
listener engaged.

We will call our first melody an ‘A’ Section.

Lets have your ‘A’ Section play twice, but on the 2nd time, change some of the notes to add
some variation. We will call this new block ‘A1’

A Section A1 Section

Your turn - copy and paste your original A section, so it repeats. Then
aim to change 3 or 4 notes in your A1 section to make it a variation of
the first.

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Adding contrast
Now we have added another ‘A’ section, it is time to add some contrast in the form of a ‘B’
section. Adding contrast helps gives the listener a break from our ‘A’ material and also helps
the music to progress forward.

Let’s begin by changing the order of the chords in your progression to add some variation.
In my example, instead of Am - F - C - G, I have now chosen F - C - Am - G

Next add a melody, again using only the notes of each chord. Try to vary the rhythm, compared
to the A section:

B Section

Your turn - have a go at writing a contrasting ‘B’ section -

remember to change the order of your chord progression first.

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Finishing with an A section
Now you have your ‘B’ section, it is time to conclude the piece by returning to the ‘A’ section to
finish.

In order for the music to feel like it has come to a natural ending, it makes sense to reorder the
last two chords of our ‘A’ section, so that the final chord is C major. This will result in the
melody notes changing as well, so let’s call this section ‘A2’

A2 Section

Your turn - copy the material from your beginning ‘A’ section.
Make amendments such as changing the order of the last two chords
to make the music feel like it is coming to a natural ending.

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Putting it together:

A Section A1 Section

B Section A2 Section

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5. Adding rhythm as an accompaniment

Using Ostinatos to give movement

Ostinatos are repeated patterns of music. They can be used to great effect in cinematic music,
adding movement and energy.

Let’s begin by loading up a staccato string patch from Spitfire Audio’s Discover plugin.

As a starting point, we will again use the notes that form each chord as the notes to include in
our ostinato. All of the examples below use notes from the A minor chord (A, C and E)

Choose one of the following patterns:

1 4
Tip
You could change
ostinatos to reflect the
structure of your piece,
2 5 e.g. change during the ‘B’
. section to add further
contrast.

3 6
.

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Example:
Below is an example of all 3 elements, having chosen Ostinato 2 to accompany the first ‘A’
section.
Note that for the F, C and G major chords, the notes of the ostinato have changed each time.

Your turn - having chosen an ostinato, record or write in with the

mouse, an ostinato for the duration of the piece. Make sure to use only
the notes which are present in each chord.

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Next Steps
Congratulations on achieving your piece of cinematic music! Feel free to
experiment with the orchestration of all 3 parts - you can even add some
more elements if you are feeling confident.

If you are ready to continuing learning about how to compose cinematic

music, please subscribe to the Composing Academy Youtube Channel
for new composing videos each week.

Happy Composing!

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