Great, so you’ve got your project in front of you and you need music to go along with it. You decide to pick up some royalty free tracks.
But what?
Even musicians sometimes play hit or miss with their choice of music for a particular medium. Trust me, I have been to movies with some dreadful musical scores.
So just how do you go about picking a piece of royalty free music for the project you’re working on? Well, while this article can’t possibly be a comprehensive tutorial on musical mood matching, I’m going to try to give you some meat and potatoes ways to go about picking music that will be just right for the particular project you’re working on.
Probably the best way to “learn” how to pick music for a project is to watch the movie greats. You won’t learn anything from watching bad movies but if you concentrate on the classics, you’ll learn a lot.
Why?
There is a reason why almost all movies have musical scores. Music helps convey the emotion that the film is trying to get across. That is why with so many scenes where there is no dialogue you will find the music carries the scene.
Take the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie “Psycho.” and the famous shower scene. It may very well be one of the most famous scenes in all of movie history. Part of the reason for that is the musical score.
You will note that at the beginning of the scene when Janet Leigh is getting into the shower, there is no music at all. In fact there is just the sound of her getting in and turning on the water. No dialogue, nothing else.
Then Norman Bates comes in, opens up the shower curtain and starts slashing her with the knife. Just at that moment, we hear the “slashing” strings which have become almost a staple in horror movies since. This continues until Bates runs out of the bathroom and we see Janet Leigh starting to slump down the shower. At this moment, the music changes to low ominous “death” strings that finally stop just before she dies.
This is classic movie scoring. Could you imagine if instead of this music Hitchcock had chosen some circus music out of something like “The Greatest Show On Earth?” It would have been laughable and turned a tense, shocking scene into a comedy. And a bad comedy to boot because the music wouldn’t have fit at all.
Why is it that we associate a slow violin with sadness or a flute with a child skipping through the woods or a sax with a stripper or sex scene? For whatever reason, these instruments convey certain emotions.
So is it just instrumentation that determines what’s good for a particular mood? Well, instrumentation is part of the equation. The other part is musical key.
There are essentially two musical keys, major and minor. The main difference between the two is the third note in the tonic. In the key of C Major, the third would be E natural. In the key of C minor, the third would be E flat. That half a step makes all the difference in the world.
For whatever reason, emotionally, major keys evoke feelings of happiness and joy while minor keys evoke feelings of sadness and heartbreak. Of course how the music is played (fast or slow, quiet or loud) will also factor into this equation.
Then there is the instrumentation used in the music. While a violin in a minor key might evoke feelings of sadness, a cello section might evoke a feeling of ominousness or dread. A tuba, on the other hand, will probably still sound funny even in a minor key.
A piece of music in a minor key played with lots of horns and at a quick tempo might make one think of Romans going off to war. Certainly nothing sad about that. in fact, such an instrumentation might be majestic sounding.
Point is, there are a lot of factors that go into just what a piece of music will make us feel. But make no mistake about it, music does bring out emotions no matter how it’s used or how subtle it is. So picking the right kind of music for your project is critical to its success.
So just how do you go about doing this?
If I were looking for a piece of music for a project of mine and not a composer myself, this is the process I would go through.
1) I would put my project into some kind of category. Is it a trailer for an epic superhero movie? Is it an opening for a sports talk show?
2) I would go to YouTube or pull out DVDs or watch TV or do whatever I had to do in order to find examples of other projects that were of the same type so I could hear what kind of music they used.
3) I would make note of the kind of music used and put IT into its own category. Is it rock? Is it orchestral music? Fast or slow? Major or minor?
Why would I do number 3? Because most royalty free music sites break their music down into categories as I’ve done on my site. This way, it makes it a little easier for me to find what I’m looking for as I can just go right to that category.
And of course finally you select the piece of music that you think is best for the project you’re working on based on the research you’ve done.
But what if you have a project that isn’t popular? What if there are no examples? In that case I would sit down and decide what it was I wanted my audience to feel when listening to this music. That will at least help you in choosing a musical style. Some differences in music are subtle but others are so drastic that a simple “I want my audience to walk away from this project feeling uplifted” completely eliminates that solo violin playing its sad, heartbreaking tune.
Once you have eliminated the obvious tunes that couldn’t possibly fit into what you are trying to accomplish, that leaves you with a lot less to weed through when you actually start your musical search.
And of course if you’re in doubt, you can always contact the site owner and ask them for suggestions. My contact info is right on my site and you can contact me at any time with any questions that you might have. I will always respond promptly to all inquiries.
Choosing the right kind of music for your project is an important part of the project creation process. Don’t guess. Use the tips I gave you above or, if in doubt, contact a professional.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim