Composing

A theme isn’t just a melody — it’s a constraint.

It tells the story what it cannot do without breaking its own emotional physics.

Upstream composers define this constraint early:

- What behavior must the protagonist abandon for the score to resolve

- What emotional shortcut the music refuses to allow

- What tonal “escape hatch” the harmony closes off

- What false identity the instrumentation exposes under pressure

When you identify the behavior your score makes impossible, the theme becomes:

- a governing condition

- a narrative boundary

- a pressure system

- a structural truth

This is how a score stops reacting to the story and starts shaping it.

PART 1 — BEFORE THEME: WHAT EMOTIONAL BOUNDARY DOES THE SCORE ENFORCE?

Most composers think their job is to express emotion.

Upstream composers understand their job is to enforce the emotional boundary the story cannot cross without consequence.

Every score creates a perimeter — a line the audience can feel but not articulate. When you define that boundary before writing a single cue, three things happen:

- the theme stops being decorative and becomes structural

- the harmony stops wandering and starts enforcing identity

- the instrumentation stops being aesthetic and becomes narrative pressure

A score doesn’t guide emotion.

A score polices it.

Once you name the emotional boundary your music enforces, the entire sound world becomes inevitable.

Motifs don’t create meaning.

Meaning comes from consequence — what the music enforces every time it appears.

A motif can enforce:

- truth

- danger

- inevitability

- longing

- transformation

- corruption

- hope

When consequence is undefined, motifs become decoration.

When consequence is upstream, motifs become narrative law.

Upstream clarity question:

What consequence does your music enforce every time it enters the story?

This is the decision that gives the score authority.

Harmony is downstream.

Upstream is behavior — the way the sound world moves, reacts, and evolves under pressure.

Behavior determines:

- rhythmic identity

- harmonic tendencies

- textural density

- dynamic shape

- emotional volatility

A sound world can be:

- restrained or explosive

- fragile or unyielding

- unstable or grounded

- human or elemental

When behavior is undefined, cues feel inconsistent.

When behavior is upstream, the score becomes a coherent organism.

Upstream clarity question:

How does your sound world behave under pressure — and what does that behavior reveal about the story?

This is the decision that gives the score identity.

PART 1 — BEFORE THE FIRST NOTE: WHAT FORCE IS THE SCORE RESPONSIBLE FOR REVEALING?

Most composers begin with musical ideas.

Upstream composers begin with narrative force.

Every story contains a force the audience must feel but cannot see:

- the protagonist’s internal engine

- the world’s governing pressure

- the emotional truth beneath the dialogue

- the threat that never speaks

- the longing that shapes behavior

The score is often the only department capable of revealing that force.

When the force is undefined, the music becomes decorative.

When the force is upstream, the music becomes structural.

Upstream clarity question:

What invisible force must your score reveal so the story can function?

This is the decision that gives the score purpose.

Are you someone who hears the cue before touching an instrument…

or does it reveal itself note by note?

I’ve noticed both approaches lead to very different results.

Instrumentation is not a palette.

It’s a world‑building decision.

Every sound world has a nature:

- organic or synthetic

- intimate or expansive

- fragile or imposing

- human or elemental

- stable or volatile

This nature determines:

- harmonic language

- rhythmic behavior

- textural density

- dynamic architecture

- the emotional physics of the score

When you define the nature of the sound world upstream, the entire score becomes self‑consistent — scenes stop feeling like separate cues and start feeling like one authored musical universe.

Upstream clarity question:

What is the inherent nature of the sound world your score lives in — and what rules govern it?

This is the decision that gives the music identity.

PART 1 — THE DECISION BEFORE MELODY: WHAT IS THE SCORE RESPONSIBLE FOR IN THE STORY?

Most composers begin with musical ideas.

Upstream composers begin with narrative responsibility.

A score is not “music that fits the scene.”

A score is a structural function inside the story’s architecture.

Every score must answer one upstream question:

What is the score responsible for stabilizing that nothing else in the film can?

It might be:

- the protagonist’s internal engine

- the governing pressure of the world

- the emotional physics of a relationship

- the tonal spine of the narrative

- the unseen threat or unspoken truth

When you define the score’s responsibility first, melody becomes inevitable instead of guessed.

Upstream clarity question:

What narrative function must your score hold so the story doesn’t collapse without it?

This is the decision that gives the music purpose.

PART 1 — The First Structural Choice: Are You Composing a Moment or Designing a System?

Most composers begin with melody, harmony, or emotion.

Upstream, the real beginning is a structural choice:

“Is this piece serving a single moment… or supporting an entire system?”

A moment‑based composition is built to heighten a specific beat, emotion, or scene.

A system‑based composition is built to generate multiple cues, variations, motifs, and expansions.

These two identities behave differently in:

- thematic development

- orchestration

- motif design

- stem strategy

- collaboration with directors

- long‑term catalog value

When a composer doesn’t name the identity upstream, the music drifts — too small for a system, too broad for a moment.

Upstream clarity begins with naming the scale of the composition before writing a single note.

⭐ PART 2 — The Functional Role: What Job Is the Music Actually Doing in the Project?

Music doesn’t just “support the story.”

Upstream, every piece of music has a functional role inside the project’s architecture:

- Emotional Anchor — defines the project’s emotional vocabulary

- Rhythmic Engine — drives pacing and momentum

- Atmospheric Frame — shapes tone and world identity

- Character Signature — marks presence, intention, or transformation

- Structural Glue — binds scenes, sequences, or acts together

If the composer doesn’t declare the function upstream, collaborators will assign their own — and the notes will reflect their assumptions, not the composer’s intention.

Upstream clarity is simply this:

Define the job of the music before you compose it.

Once the function is clear, the creative decisions downstream — motif, instrumentation, dynamics, texture — finally have a stable foundation.

A Fun Composing Exercise

I posted a "sister" exercise in the screenwriting lounge, and it was so much fun I'm posting here too.

Ok, In my day job, have access to new names every single day. Sometimes, when I need to blow out the creative cobwebs (especailly after SIX WEEKS of non-stop holiday madness) I give myself a creative writing exercise. I thought I'd share it with you. BTW I only ever grab first or last names, never both so no privacy issues ever. I'll even do this as I watch film credits sometimes. I grab a first name, and a last name and then I create a song for them. Ready for the NAME BANK?

FIRST NAMES

Justus

Kynzi

Kenrick

Armetrius

Laiken

Brendalen

Roy

Wyatt

LAST NAMES

Possa

Morehouse

Dupuey

Razer

Stanberry

Latour

Wiley

So, the idea is something like this. Write one of two:

1. Describe a theme based on a charater name like this one: Kynzi & Kenrick Razer who's parents started the scooter empire in the early 2000s are over their parents' invention. They just want to try roller skates- their parents refuse (bad brand optics) until zombies appear in their town and all ride Razer scooters. The brave 12 year old twins must roller skate to saftey along with their Great Pyrenese Dupuey.

2. Write lyrics based on a name:

Roy Possa loved Laiken with alll of his heart

She never knew he existed, right at the start

He'd gaze at her longingly through windows at night

Wondering if ever she'd put up a fight

For love

For the sake of their hearts

Could they risk

For love

Laiken was moving to Richmond the next afternoon

Roy was broken his love going way too soon

Cause he'd never told her the depth of his heart

And soon she'd just leave him alone in the dark

Let's see what we can come up with :) Yep- the lyrics are pretty bad AND I only give myself 5-10 minutes to try to come up with something and get the creative juices flowing! So no judgment- let's try something new!

Most conversations in composing focus on the sound:

- melody

- harmony

- orchestration

- plugins

- stems

- workflow

- delivery formats

All important. All necessary. All downstream.

But upstream, there’s a question almost no composer asks — and it quietly determines whether their music becomes a project, a catalog, or just a file on a hard drive.

“What is the actual identity of the thing I’m creating?”

Because here’s the clarity:

A cue is not automatically an asset.

A track is not automatically a deliverable.

A composition is not automatically a project.

Most music collapses downstream because the upstream identity was never defined.

⭐ THE REAL DISTINCTION: MUSIC VS. MUSICAL ASSET

When you write music, you’re creating sound.

When you build an asset, you’re creating something that:

- has a clear owner

- has defined rights

- has predictable behavior

- can be licensed, reused, or scaled

- can survive collaboration, revision, and production

The difference isn’t creative — it’s structural.

A cue that behaves like an asset moves differently in the real world than a cue that behaves like a file.

⭐ THE UPSTREAM CLARITY

Before you compose, ask:

“Is this a piece of music…

or is this a component of a larger system?”

Because the answer changes:

- how you structure your rights

- how you deliver your stems

- how you collaborate with directors

- how you negotiate your usage

- how your catalog grows

- how your work survives beyond the project

Composers who think upstream don’t just write cues —

they build containers that their music can live in.

Most conversations in composing focus on:

- melody

- harmony

- orchestration

- sound design

- workflow

- plugins

- DAWs

All important.

All necessary.

All downstream.

But there’s an upstream question almost no composer asks — and it quietly determines whether their music becomes a project, whether that project becomes a deal, and whether that deal survives the real world.

Here it is:

“What exactly am I creating — a piece of music, or a usable asset?”

Because if the answer is unclear:

- cues get reused without clarity

- rights drift across collaborators

- producers misunderstand what they’re licensing

- composers lose leverage

- backend evaporates

- the music becomes harder to protect, monetize, or scale

Most composers never see this upstream layer because the industry trains them to focus on the notes, not the identity of the thing the notes create.

So here’s the clarity:

A composition isn’t just sound — it’s an asset container.

If the container is unstable, everything downstream becomes unstable.

The composers who understand this move differently:

- they negotiate differently

- they deliver differently

- they protect their work differently

- they collaborate differently

- they build catalogs instead of isolated tracks

So I’ll leave the room with this:

When you compose, are you creating music…

or are you building an asset?

The answer changes everything.