Preface

Think about your favorite movie or video game. Each of these had a soundtrack created for them, a score carefully designed to set the tone and emotional experience. Whenever you sense the intensity of a film or game changing, this is largely due to how the music makes you feel.

Now imagine you were the person that created that music? How exciting it must have felt when composing? The fun, adrenaline rush, and sense of achievement. Masterfully crafting music to take listeners on an adventure. Music that tugs at their heartstrings, bringing them to the edge of their seats in anticipation, filling their thoughts with joy or sorrow. You can be that musician. You can dream up music and bring it to life to entertain listeners around the world.

If you're reading this book, it means that you want to create music that makes your audience feel something. You want to curate an experience for your listener. Perhaps you have a film or a video game you want to cultivate music for. Perhaps you need music for a live event and are wondering how to design the music to fit the setting. Or perhaps you're an aspiring musician and want to make more impactful songs. If any of these apply to you, you're in the right place. This book will take you on a journey from the ground up to build emotional soundtracks.

There's a huge array of topics that can be included in the composition of music. It's very easy to veer off in an interesting direction yet have very little to show for it. This book is designed to help cut through all the time-wasting mumbo jumbo and get right to the practical stuff you can use.