Creative Vision for the Track
I am trying to expand both my styles and my repertoire of demo pieces, one area I haven’t spent a ton of time in that I want to really increase my abilities is the Epic genre. I created this piece with that in mind, although I didn’t have any one specific scenario in my head other than something tension-filled which builds toward the end.
Composition Details (Tempo, Key, Main Chords etc)
Tempo throughout is 100 bpm. I used the following chord progression throughout: Am, B♭M, CM7, EM, Am. Em7, Bm.
Main Instruments used
As most of my pieces do, I used East West libraries for my primary orchestral instruments: strings, brass, some percussion (cymbal, timpani, snare), and piano. I also included a synth, electric bass, and brass section from Air Xpand2, as well as some of the Storm Drum libraries from EWSL. As far as effects, I used a basic compressor, equalizer and light reverb.
For the choirs, I used both men and women choruses from EWSL, from the vowels selections as well as the Word Builder, where I made use of a few Latin phrases including “Carpe Noctem”
first of all, i like your work. There are so many different themes in it, i wish i could compose like that.
But somehow it doesn’t sound really epic to me. Its more like Salsa with Choir don’t get me wrong please.
To get this epic feeling, it needs some more long notes, so instead of da, dadada, da, di, dididi, di, try more to work like da, dada, da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa pause, di di diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii pause… (in the melody line)
I miss some breaks between the phrases, so i can memorize them. Actually there are so many phrases close to each other, that i lose orientation, and don’t get into an epic feeling.
Its just some tips, what i would have done, and of course only an amateur advice, how i like to here epic music.
Take care and keep up your work!
Sincerely yours,
Michael
BTW, you’ve given me an idea for practice - check back here in a bit and I’ll post an excerpt to see if it is “closer”. I assume there is a place for the type of piece I originally composed, just not an “epic” perhaps?
So my next attempt will be at “Extended Release Choral Salsa”.
OK, just a quick creation not intended for publishing, just let me know if this is more like what you would expect. If so then “epic” is the genre equivalent to Wagner, in my view (I never did like Wagner!)
I took my horn melody and basically halved the tempo with a few mods. Maybe this isn’t quite there but hopefully closer?
Yes absolutely.
Another important point with brass is the pause. Imagine a player. He need to breath. So dont just fill in every note in a bar. Still let some pauses. Maybe in a 4bar phrase you go 4/4th, then 2/2 then again 4/4th and in the last bar you play only a half note. Then maybe a whole note and then you let half a bar empty again for breath and so on…
Also think about bridges. Maybe you can do a bridge every 8 bars (i.e. only with percusion, a string run etc…)
There are so many tutorials on youtube on how to create epic / cinematic / trailer music.
i think you should give yourself (depending on what time you have), everyday maybe 1 hour to learn and practice. (I saw a very good video in how to improve yourself… @jlx_music )
Excellent work! Love some of the details and puts me a little in mind of a more modern version of an old classic like King Kong on the island with that percussion. Just the feel. I see you’ve had some sound advice, so I’ll give you something a little different
As you said, you didn’t have a specific scenario in mind, which is great that this piece gave me a little visual. I’m a great believer in holding visuals in your mind as you compose, so it tells a story, whatever that story is. This Is my little inspiration trick, but maybe not for everyone - to place a picture or event in your head for this sort of epic/cinematic venture… Hero’s coming together… a woman setting out on a quest… Bad guys ambush in a forest…
These are the sort of one line sentences I think of, picture, then think of how they got to that place in the story… As I form a kinda mini story (nothing grand, just a couple of images), the music often comes from there, usually just because I love a great soundtrack to picture. It’s quite fun to hear other people’s thought on what they imagined and see if it matches… sometimes it doesn’t at all, which is fantastic! But it does help with a running theme.
Don’t know if that’s any use or not and the first time I’ve shared, but hey… everything should be considered
I actually collect Fantasy/Sci-Fi artwork from games/anime/movies and use it as my inspiration. I really love writing to visuals. I’m doing this currently for the action music contest, so I’ll post the artwork as well when I put the music up!
I really like the ideas Randy. I think it has a more Golden Age of Hollywood type of feel to it, which is closest to my style, rather than the more modern ‘epic’ style. Check out the link I put at the bottom. If you’ve never heard this, it’s the OST from the SoulCalibur 5 video game, which is what re-inspired me to get back to orchestral composition. It’s the style I’m shooting for and I think your piece sounds quite similar if you were to refine the instrumentation and orchestration a bit.
Hey Randy, great work. It brings me Zelda or even Street Fighter II. A few things i can say: same melodies are played really marked, maybe some legatto would make them more emotive and memorable. I’m using the “picture method” to focus and it works for me. Another thing is that, for me, one of the most important things on a piece is to drive the listener emotions. It means that you need to care the transitions between parts and softly keep the interest adding surprises but wrapping it all. When using many phrases, they need to be introduced properly. The listener need time to focus and digest. Powerfull phrases need a nondisturbing background, and there will be moments for the background to be under the lights. You must lit the fireworks one by one to really enjoy them.
Having said that, I like you piece. Good job
don’t get me wrong please.
