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This week's stream will be on Thursday 2pm instead of Friday, so mark your calendars! 

boy dinner 

ANSWER THE ORB
This D20 I found floating in a bar tonight wants to know if you’re coming to the Roll for Song stream tomorrow to win a Toontrack production pack: 

Think you can write a better song than me? Tomorrow you get your chance! 1pm PST we Roll for Song, best song written on the stream wins a prize. I’ll see you there! 

On this podcast interview with  ‪@ModernMusicianOfficial‬ , I invented a new word that sums up how to best market yourself as a musician online - comment it below when you hear it. 

If you didn’t see, a teaser trailer dropped this morning for the upcoming Superman movie.

One thing you might have noticed is: The score for the trailer uses melodic motifs from John Williams’s original theme for the 1978 Superman film.

If you’re not familiar with John Williams, here are some of his most famous film scores:
- Star Wars
- Jaws
- Superman
- Indiana Jones
- Harry Potter

…and the list goes on.

This theme for '78 Superman (and basically all of his movies) is iconic. It’s sorta considered the definitive musical theme for Superman in general.

It’s so good that nearly 40 years later…they’re still using it to promote a Superman movie!

That’s how much it’s identified with the character.

And that’s how good John Williams’s film scores are.

But it brings up the question:

Why are his film scores so consistently good?

Not even just "good" - but memorable, moving, emotional.

I’d say it all comes down to one simple thing…

It’s something I talk about ALL THE TIME when I’m giving feedback on songs.

And yes this applies to METAL music too.

It’s…

The Hook.

Pretty much all of John Williams’s best film scores work around a main theme. A melody, or a "riff" if you will - in classical music it's called a "motif".

It’s relatively short. It’s catchy. Memorable. And most importantly, it immediately makes you think of a particular character.

So much information and meaning gets communicated with one small musical idea. That’s the power of a good hook.

Let’s look at that list again:

- Star Wars
- Jaws
- Superman
- Indiana Jones
- Harry Potter

You can probably sing most or all of these films’ themes right now.

In fact, there’s a video on YouTube where you can "Guess the movie from the score". And pretty much all of the "easy" ones are from John Williams.

Why?

Because his scores have a simple, highly memorable "main hook". In a sense, he’s the best because the hooks are so simple. NOT because of all the fancy, complicated stuff you can do with an orchestra.

So this is the power of a hook.

A simple, catchy, memorable, powerful hook.

So...make sure you're writing hooks in your own songs.

One of the most common things I say when critiquing a song is: "Where's the hook?" It should be obvious. If someone has to ask, you probably could have written it better.

And if you need help writing hooks and other catchy melodies + riffs, check out my course Complete Rock And Metal Songwriting here --->  https://howsongsaremade.com/p/complete-rock-and-metal-songwriting 

Or, if you’re interested in crafting symphonic elements around a theme, grab Making Symphonic Metal with Free VSTs here --->  https://howsongsaremade.com/p/symphonic-metal-with-free-vsts 

There’s a healthy dose of John Williams inspiration in this course.

Anyway that’s all I wanted to share today.

Happy songwriting! 

No stream today Gong Gang, got some work I need to catch up on, write me some bangers for next week! 

Today's Roll for Song stream opens the contest to YouTube members as well, and the winner gets a bundle of all 3 of my courses, so get in here! 

Which one will you be grabbing?

If you've been waiting to pick up my songwriting courses, you've been waiting for TODAY. 

All my courses are now 50% off for Black Friday, and if you get ALL of them in the bundle, I'll include a 1-on-1 songwriting coaching call with you so we can figure out how to make you the best songwriter you can be.

Level up your songs here:  https://howsongsaremade.com/courses/ 

I have heard your voices, and this coming Saturday at 1pm PST, I'm gonna be doing the first WEEKEND Roll for Song stream, where you can write a song with me and maybe win a sick prize!
Will you be there?