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Composing

Discuss, share content, offer tips and advice on hardware, software, style, strategies, process, work-flow and the business of scoring a film, video or theater production

Anna Henry Jan'26 Historical Fiction Lab
Libby Wright
How often do you compose?

Hi there, I'm pretty new here and I'm curious... how do you compose?I tend to go in spurts and then step away for a while. Is this a discipline you do regularly or as the mood strike or both?

Alexander Diaconu

Everyday. But for different projects. One day is for musical theatre, another for film, animation or theatre. And each is very different from the other which is great bbecause it keeps me tinking out of the box and definitely pushing my limits.

Adriano Martorana

I'm a composer specializing in film scores. I create original music ranging from romantic and epic to emotional minimalism, always with a particular focus on the film's narrative and visual identity....

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Libby Wright

Wow- thanks everyone for the great responses!

Libby Wright

Adriano Martorana I love it "Whisper of the soul"

Adriano Martorana

Many thanks

Wyman Brent
Why I Write Songs

Today reminded me why I write songs.

I was on the bus heading out to the farm when a mother and her young son sat across from me. We started talking, and when I mentioned I was a songwriter, she said her son loves music. I decided to play Let’s Drink Up for them — my whimsical little tune about ducks...

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Alessandro Sicardi
"In the Mood for Trailer"

I wrote this track, called "Evolving", a couple of weeks ago, and I thought its romantic melody could fit a movie like one of my favorites, "In the Mood for Love". I edited my track using a clip from that masterpiece, and this is the result. What do you think?

Libby Wright

Very dramatic and cinematic. Love the sweeping strings!

Alessandro Sicardi

Lee Barbour I understand you!

By my side, I try to be as accurate as I can with dynamics and tempo (accel., rall., rit.) when I write them, so that when I export the MIDI file, I have to adjust it with...

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Alessandro Sicardi

Libby Wright I'm very happy you like it...!

Emmanuel Obiejemba

Very nice. Fits the scenes on the short clips perfectly well.

Alessandro Sicardi

Emmanuel Obiejemba many thanks!

Wyman Brent
Rules vs. Flow in Songwriting

I’ve watched a few YouTube videos where songwriters talk about the writing process like it’s rocket science — chord progressions, rhyming schemes, and all the rules you “should” follow. That works for them, and I respect it.

But I’ll be honest — I have zero desire to learn the “proper” songwriting...

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Libby Wright

Remember, @Wyman-- there's no "wrong way" to make music. It's been around long before any rules, and it will last past them. At least to me, it's the most pure form of expression.

Wyman Brent

Libby Wright, you are right. Still, I wonder if some will think my song Didgeridoo Dementia is the wrong way to make music.

Wyman Brent
Writing Names

I’ve noticed something interesting in my own songwriting — how much the choice to use names (or not use them) changes the entire feel of a song.

Take “Southern Gothic” for example. I grounded it in specific characters: Mister Jones, Bobby Hollander, Sheriff Thompson, Judge Ellerbee. That concreteness...

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Libby Wright

One of the most interesting habits of modern singer/songwriters picking random titles is Dave Matthews. Like Samuri Cop- it's a song about birth and early childhood. The name could either throw you off or make the song memorable.

Wyman Brent

Libby Wright, I will have to look for that song. Actually, in my songs, I give no thought as I write them. Southern Gothic came out with specific characters because that is where the words wanted to g...

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Wyman Brent
When the Floodgates Open

Yesterday was one of those rare days where the songs just kept flowing. By the end of the day, I had written 12 new songs.

What stuns me is not just the number, but the range and quality. Five of them formed a cohesive Southern rock suite that feels like it could have been pressed onto vinyl in the...

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Randall Scott White

I used to grab my guitar and keyboards a lot more in the past - good to see you still have your muse at the ready

Wyman Brent

Randall Scott White, you are an actual musician which is really cool. I have written around 300 songs, but the vocals and music are a.i. generated. I actually only started on this journey in April of...

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Wyman Brent
You Move Backwards

“Sometimes it’s the very last line that makes a song timeless.

In You Move Backwards, I almost didn’t add the closing line: ‘And I am moving backwards.’

But that one simple phrase tied everything together — the love, the loss, the memory — and ended the song exactly where it needed to.

It reminded me t...

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Kat Spencer

Wyman Brent Beautiful!

Koby Nguyen

I feel your words very well Wyman, it's very pretty.

Wyman Brent

Kat Spencer, thank you. I created five different versions of You Move Backwards. The first sounds like it could have been sung by Spandau Ballet. Here is a link to the version done as a ballad with fe...

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Wyman Brent

Koby Nguyen, thanks a lot. Here is the link to the original version I created.

https://wymanbrent.bandcamp.com/track/you-move-backwards...

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Koby Nguyen

I created my BandCamp Wayman account. Thank you for introducing me to your music. I subscribed to you and maybe I will post my music on this application too.

Wyman Brent
Growing as a Songwriter

Back in April, I didn’t even know I had this ability in me. Then came What the Mack? — the playful little song that opened the door to an entire creative world. Since then, I’ve been writing every single day, and the songs just keep flowing.

At first, most of them leaned into humor and quirkiness (...

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Wyman Brent
Inspiration

Today was one of those days where the songs just arrived.

Dancing Through My Mind came from a single phrase that popped into my head while walking through a parking lot. It turned into a heartfelt love song with zero revisions — it simply poured out.

Judge Mental was sparked by nothing more than a Yo...

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Maurice Vaughan

It's both for me, Wyman Brent. Sometimes my best work comes from inspiration I can trace, and sometimes the ideas appear without explanation.

Wyman Brent
To Be Beautiful

Not everything has to make sense to be beautiful.

Some of my favorite songs I’ve written are built on made-up words blended with real ones — Yopa Topa, Wassa Wassa Way, Yalla Yalla Ho. They don’t follow a dictionary. They follow the music.

There’s a real beauty in letting sound and rhythm carry the fe...

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Wyman Brent
No Boxes For Me

I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a songwriter.

Some writers specialize — pop, country, blues, folk. They carve out one lane and stay there. I’ve never been able to work that way.

For me, songs just arrive. Sometimes it’s protest and conscience (If I Had a Dollar), sometimes it’s tender nos...

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Wyman Brent

Kerry Kennard, thank you so much. I have an incurable lung disease though I never smoked. I do not worry about it much. Still having fun in life.

Kat Spencer

Wyman Brent I definitely don't stay in one lane....But I don't have quite the variety you do. No boxes for me either. Let the words or music flow as it desires....

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Koby Nguyen

Hello Wyman,

I also shared recently how music affects me and how it inspires my work. I wanted to share with you a note I wrote here on Stage32.

I’m deep...

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Wyman Brent

Kat Spencer, I am happy to hear that. No limits.

What kind of music do I write? The honest answer? Almost everything.

My catalog covers a spectrum so wide that no box, no matter how huge, can contain it...

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Wyman Brent

Koby Nguyen, thank you very much. I believe that kindness is so much better than hatred. Kindness is so much better than indifference. I would much rather spread joy than darkness. May the best also c...

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Wyman Brent
How do you do it?

I am curious what is your process regarding songwriting. Where do you find inspiration? Do you follow all or any of the so-called songwriting rules? When is a song complete? Do you run it past others first for critique before releasing your tune into the wild?

Libby Wright

For me, it tends to be 50/50 inspiration and perspiration. Usually I get a lyric first, then a melody appears. I don't tend to follow rules-- it's about the flow for me.

Wyman Brent

Libby Wright, I live with what I can only describe as creative synesthesia. For me, inspiration doesn’t arrive after hours of searching or tinkering. It comes from everywhere — a shop sign, a statue,...

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Libby Wright

Wow Wyman Brent what a gift! I love that you give your songs room to be whatever they are!

Wyman Brent

Libby Wright, you are right. I do not try to shape the songs. They already know what they need to be. I only started in April of this year. Three hundred songs in that time is not too bad....

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