Writing
Guides
Craft notes on writing cinematic music: the decisions behind an ostinato, the shape of a trailer cue, what the two hands of a piano part are for, and where the harmony of the idiom comes from. No software required for any of it.
Writing · 12 min readHow to Write a Cinematic OstinatoThe figure that carries a cue: how it is built in layers, why it needs a gap, and how to make four notes last ninety seconds.
Structure · 12 min readHow a Trailer Cue Is BuiltNinety seconds, four acts and a fixed dramatic shape. What an editor needs from your cue, and a bar-by-bar map of one.
Keyboard · 13 min readPiano Accompaniment: Turning Chords Into a PartA chord chart is not a piano part. The two hands, the pattern vocabularies, voice leading, and how the pedal really works.
Harmony · 13 min readChord Progressions for Epic and Cinematic MusicThe family of progressions behind the idiom, and the mechanisms underneath them, so you can build your own instead of borrowing.