I know this month’s theme is about technology and all the hot new gear out there, but I wanted to step back from all that and share a bit of wisdom I’ve learned the hard way: when you’re composing, compose.
Don’t orchestrate, arrange, record or mix at the same time. Writing, orchestrating, recording and mixing are four independent processes which use different skills and different parts of your brain. Trying to do even two of them at the same time is distracting and counter-productive. It takes you out of the moment and diverts you down numerous paths that beckon seductively but will ultimately waste your time and weaken your finished product.
Separate the Processes
Nobody writes their best work sitting in front of a DAW loaded with samples and plugins. It’s simply too easy to get lost in the details. I’ve done it more frequently than I care to admit. Invariably I end up spending an hour trying to make the horns sound amazing, only to realize the part doesn’t fit, it obscures the melody or that I should be using cellos instead. You know the saying about carts and horses? Composition is the horse, and it should always come first.
Nowadays it seems terribly old-fashioned, but I much prefer writing at the piano. The only technology present is either my Zoom recorder or Sibelius running with my three-line piano template. If I’m at the stage where I’m writing to picture, I’ll use Logic with a piano sample loaded. In all cases, I’m working with a diminished sound set and don’t have the ability to orchestrate, choose sounds or effects or make anything sound great. I actually find this liberating—I don’t need to worry about the finished product, I can focus on writing a great melody and interesting chords and rhythms, and leave all of my other decisions until later.
Why use this technique?
Why use this technique? The simple answer is that composition and orchestration are two very distinct activities. Composition is about melody and accompaniment and writing with clarity. While composing, you want to be focused on creating an ear-catching melody and devising an accompaniment that supports it and moves the piece forward. You need to make sure the melody has plenty of breathing room and that none of the other lines obscure it. You want to craft an interesting bass line that anchors both the melody and the harmony while being rhythmically interesting and flattering to the other elements.
Focusing on these tasks is paramount—without great writing you’re going to have a much harder time orchestrating and mixing your piece, and you’re liable to get frustrated in later stages because your piece has problems that are difficult or impossible to fix at the 11th hour. These are often those unfortunate moments where you say to yourself, “Well, it’s not my best work but it’ll have to do.” Wouldn’t it be nice to always write your best work?
The other problem with writing, orchestrating and mixing simultaneously is this: with the plethora of excellent sample libraries, effects and soft synths out there today, it’s easy to make anything sound amazing, even if it’s musically bland. When you write on piano, you don’t have those sonic crutches. It has to be well-written. If not, you’ll know instantly. You need to rely on your sense of melody and harmony rather than amazing-sounding samples to wow your audience. This may seem out-of-date, but I guarantee you, even if you’re writing the most thunderous, Hans Zimmer-like score, a few beautiful melodies and interesting harmonies will make your score 100 times better.
Final Thoughts
I had a composition teacher once criticize a piece I wrote because the piano sketch was too repetitive. And it was. Of course, it sounded great in my head with all of the orchestration ideas I had, but musically it was monotonous. His point was that the music itself needs to go somewhere. Even if you start with a stripped-down ostinato and gradually embellish it, it will still be much more engaging than the same ostinato repeated verbatim for 24 bars, even if the orchestration is magnificent.
Do I write with a stripped-down setup all the time? No. Sometimes it’s inspiring to start with a rocking drum track or a beautiful synth patch. Some pieces are so reliant on sonics that you need to hear those sounds in order to write. But even with these pieces, I always try to avoid getting lost in the trees and not seeing the forest. I try not to worry about the right reverb, the perfect bass sound or whether to use banjo or mandolin. And sometimes, once I’m inspired, I’ll step back from my DAW and figure out the melody and harmony at the piano where I’m not distracted by details.
Most of us need to spend time as part-time orchestrators, sound-designers and mixers, but we also need to remember that our primary job title is composer, and composing starts with great music.
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Even though writing with a pen is great, there is very little that beats working the score together with production and arrangement. The sound is the first thing that reveals emotion in music – and that should be as primary as the composition.
Absolutely true and well written! Thank you for a great article Jeff and fantastic advice. Best wishes!
Great truth Jeff. I definitely agree with you. Probably is just because it’s been 8 years since I’ve been studying in a Conservatory of music that I really understand the importance of the harmony, and the study of the masterpieces of the past; and if one can put in his compositions all the knowledge he got from these great teachers, then he’ll be above the 80% of the other composers.. I’d like to ask you one thing Jeff: recently I’ve found out that many famous current film composers have an orchestrator.. well i’ve to say that my admiration for them now just extinguished. Don’t you think that a great composer should be a great orchestrator too? I mean.. is not just too easy to write smth with piano or a few instruments,get all the glory for it while someone else did all the hard work behind it?
Love the fact that most people here think HZ “has the best works”. Seasons change.
But if HZ does like that, it’s because he has a strategy right? Doens’t he has the best works ?
[...] a little slow on the uptake this week, but my latest SCOREcast Online post went up on Monday. This month’s theme over at SCOREcast is technology, but I always like [...]
Exactly. HZ does it that way….hehe.
“Nobody writes their best work sitting in front of a DAW loaded with samples and plugins.”
don’t be so absolute about it… HZ does that way
do you recommend, doing sound the design for a film first or composing the music for a film ?
Assuming you’re doing both… I suppose it depends on the film. Do whichever is going to have more prominence or be more important in the overall project, then score or sound design around that. Or do whichever you’re most comfortable with first to get you immersed in the project–then you may have an easier time with the other.
Great article Jeff!
Well put and a good reminder. I know I regularly fall into the trap of spending so much time getting the initial sound right that the original idea slips away. As you say, if the basic melody and harmony aren’t right to start with, something will always seem not quite right.
Yes, good point, Diederik–sometimes you can get too immersed in finding the “perfect” sound and suddenly the inspiration is gone. That’s why I always get ideas down as quickly as possible–scribbled on a notepad, as a voice recording on my iPhone, or quickly played into my Zoom recorder. Likewise, while scoring it often helps to stay focused on the music for as long as you’re inspired instead of getting sidetracked by choosing snare drum sounds and sorting through reverb presets (as I sometimes do!).
Great article Jeff! I’m always favoring different hats for different tasks too
The organization you talking here can be very rewarding at the end of the day.
Hi Jeff! I’m glad you wrote what you did in your conclusion about the fact that some pieces are actually so reliant on the “sonics” that you do need to hear them (or at least imagine them) when you are writing.
The reason it struck a chord with me today of all days is because I’m currently in the middle of scoring my first low budget horror film. Now, while the film does have it’s moments where the music is thematic/harmonic and the general advice you give would definitely be the right way to approach it. In fact what I tend to do is have a piano part deliberately in my orchestral template in Sibelius exactly so I can work up the entire thematic outline there before transferring to the other staves.
It’s true that I do find myself writing a lot of “tension” music as well though (in fact I am right at this minute). As might be expected these tension scenes tend to rely a fair amount on strange orchestral/percussive effects as well as other sound effects and it’s certainly a massive help to me if I can hear those while I’m writing/shaping the cue.
Both approaches have their Place I feel, but I agree that it certainly doesn’t do any harm to step away from the technology once in a while and remind ourselves what composing is really all about.
Thanks Terry. Indeed, both approaches have their place, but it does always help to step back from the sonics and think about music once in a while. We are composers after all!