How are movie scores written? In this class, we will study the basics of film score composition, including which instruments usually communicate different emotions, the distinction between melody and harmony, how to follow the action in the movie, and orchestration, or arranging their music for a variety of instruments. By the end of the course, learners will be able to open, load, and edit instruments in either GarageBand or ProTools Intro, write music that lines up with the movie, and put their music into a movie!

NOTE: because of the nature of writing music, learners will need one of two computer programs to compose their music. I recommend GarageBand for Mac users and ProTools Intro and Kontakt Komplete Start for PC users. More information and links to these free software downloads are linked elsewhere on this page or can be found by contacting me after registration.

In Class One, we will discuss the purpose of a film score—to supplement emotion in the story. I  will demonstrate the emotions different instruments and musical keys can help us feel. We will also watch a demonstration video I made showing how to load, play, record, save, and export music in GarageBand and ProTools Intro. The assignment for this week is to record and export a melody in either program and upload it to me.

Class Two is about harmony. An important tool, harmony supports the melody by adding variety to it, making it sound right, and creating an interesting rhythm. The assignment this week is to add harmony to the melody from Class One.

For Class Three, we will talk about how music follows the action in the movie (visual action). Should it fully mimic the action (Mickey Mousing), should it copy a little, or should it just do its own thing? We will listen to and discuss some examples in class. For the rest of the meeting, we will talk about editing musical scores, including adjusting the length and volume of the notes, instruments used, and adding reverb to make it feel real. The assignment for this week is to pick a final project video and write a melody for it.

In Class Four, we will jump into Orchestration 101. Orchestration is how we arrange music for multiple instruments, including making the melody change between two or three instruments, moving the harmony to several different musical sections, writing music within an instrument’s range, and repeating the melody and harmony with additional changes. The assignment for this week is to write a harmony for the final project melody and orchestrate both the melody and harmony.

For Class Five, we will review and apply the Film Score Checklist, specifically the parts about editing. Polishing a musical score is just as important as writing it in the beginning! The assignment for this week is to finish writing and editing their own musical score.

Our final class, Class Six, is the presentation day! Learners who have submitted their final revisions by the day before class and have approval from me will be able to share their projects with the whole class! Any additional time we have will be spent doing a group scoring project.