Piano Cue PART ONE: Sketching

In this episode Espen sketches out a piano trailer cue. Stay tuned for the next parts where we’ll show the orchestration. Cheers!

How I sketch a cue on the piano

For me, sketching on the piano might be the most important step of the whole process. It takes the pressure off structuring, it makes orchestration much easier later on, and it keeps you focused on what really matters, which is harmony and melody. I believe the best tracks can be whittled down to a simple piano part and still have the magic.

I start by choosing a tempo. For a slow, emotional cue I might pick something like 80 bpm. That feels slow, but it still gives any ostinatos room to feel fast without going completely bonkers.

Then I write the harmony first. I play the chords in with close voicings and try to keep them moving in steps rather than leaps. I don’t worry about the sustain pedal data at this stage, I just clear it out so the sketch is tidy.

Once I have one pass of the chord sequence, I copy it out to fill the length of the cue. With a slow, repeating sequence I like to introduce a small change when we reach Act 2 and Act 3. It doesn’t have to be big. Swapping one chord, or turning a minor chord into a major one so you get a dominant feel at the end of the phrase, is often enough to make the next section feel new.

A nice trick for the intro is to strip the chords back to just the bottom notes, so you’re playing open fifths. Then, when Act 2 arrives, you add the thirds back in, and that gives you an easy step up into the next section.

Finally, melody. In this kind of cue I treat the melody as an extension of the chords. It’s not fast or ornate, it’s more like a long ostinato built from the chord tones. I also try to make it ascend rather than descend, because rising lines tend to feel more hopeful.

If you want to keep going, Piano Cue Part Two picks this sketch up and orchestrates it. Creating A Dramatic Trailer Cue Using Only A Piano and 6 Easy Ways To Write For Piano are good next reads too. My Uplifting Orchestral course goes from piano sketch to full cue step by step.

Happy composing!Rich