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. Startin with a chord
pro ression
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. Writin 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 bi 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 o at writin a melody to accompany your chosen

chord pro ression. Record or input the notes into your DAW.

You will then have a musical ‘Buildin Block’ which we are oin to extend
into a lon er piece o music in the next step.

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4. Addin 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 ori inal A section, so it repeats. Then
aim to chan e 3 or 4 notes in your A1 section to make it a variation o the
first.

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Addin 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 o at writin a contrastin ‘B’ section - remember

to chan e the order o your chord pro ression first.

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Finishin 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 rom your be innin ‘A’ section. Make
amendments such as chan in the order o the last two chords to
make the music eel like it is comin to a natural endin .

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Puttin it to ether:

A Section A1 Section

B Section A2 Section

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5. Addin rhythm as an accompaniment

Usin Ostinatos to ive 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 - havin chosen an ostinato, record or write in with the

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

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