Year 9 Film Music

Composition 1: Star Wars Film Music Composition

Composition 3: Free Composition

Composition Brief:

1. Choose 1 of the 4 film clips to compose to.

2. Draw up your own cue sheet to help you plan your soundtrack. Divide the clip into sections of time.

3. You may use sound effects, incidental music and underscore.

4. Compose memorable motifs: short melodies which use distinctive patterns of pitch and rhythm (such as dotted notes).

5. Repeat these motifs at the same pitch (type 'R' for repeat) or at increasingly higher/lower pitches (hold shift, press up or down arrows) to create sequences.

6. Develop the texture and harmony of your composition using notes from the same chord played simultaneously by different instruments (for example, use the notes CEG / DFA / EGB / FAC / GBD / ACE) simulteanously. Repeat higher/lower in pitch (hold shift, press up or down arrows) to create sequences.

7. Choose chords which use the same/similar notes as your motifs and vice versa.

8. Vary the texture between many / few simultaneous notes and silence (rests) for dramatic effect.

You may create your film music composition using Noteflight or Bandlab.

To use Bandlab:

1. Login using your Google account (do not create a new account).

2. Join the correct classroom by following the link given by your teacher or the class code displayed on the board.

3. Click on the classroom and click 'Start Assignment' / 'Start Teacher Assignment'

4. Click 'Browse Loops' (the loops button also appears in the bottom right). These can be filtered by genre such as 'film and soundtrack'. Drag and drop them onto your project.

5. To use midi instruments, click 'add track' in the top left then double click the blank track to create notes using the midi editor. Change the instrument using the menu in the bottom left.

6. Notice the key of the loops you are using (e.g. A minor, D minor etc.). Consider matching notes played by your midi instruments to these keys (e.g. A minor chords ACE, D minor chords DFA etc.)