New Course Out Now on Soundfly: Intro to Scoring for Film & TV

New Course Announcement!

Picture an eerie night street, illuminated by a single, flickering street light. A teenager walks briskly down the sidewalk, frequently pausing to look over their shoulder before continuing on faster than before. What do you hear?

The meaning of that scene can be completely transformed by replacing tension-filled, squealing violins with a mournful, nostalgic piano. From film, television, and commercials, to Youtube and TikTok, we’re producing more visual media today than ever before, and original music essential to bringing those stories to life.

If you’ve ever considered getting into scoring, but struggled to figure out where to start — Intro to Scoring for Film & TV is for you. Available today as part of our subscription library of creative music courses, this course will teach you everything you need to know to start scoring to picture, from how to compose your first demo to how to navigate the industry.

This expansive course features interviews with top film scorers working in Hollywood and on independent film and TV projects today, including Amanda Jones (Black Lady Sketch Show, Home, Adventure Time), Sherri Chung (Riverdale, Kung Fu), Gary Yershon (Mr. Turner, Happy-Go-Lucky, Peterloo), Ian Hultquist and Drum & Lace (Dickinson, Good Girls), and Andrew Orkin (Save Yourselves!, The Next Thing You Eat).

Plus, you’ll learn to analyze groundbreaking music cues from dozens of films, like Arrival, Dunkirk, Chernobyl, Psycho, and the history of scoring movies and picture shows. And you’ll get first-hand experience honing your chops writing to scenes from real films and video projects that you can include in your own demo reel.

By the end, you’ll have the knowledge, wherewithal, and skills to start building your own portfolio, as well as clear next steps for how to go out and tackle your first job in the industry.

Are you ready to get writing? Well then, let’s get started!

Scoring for film and other media is a massive topic. You can get a Bachelor’s degree in it, a Master’s degree, both. So we’re not going to be able to cover every single aspect of it in this course. 

Given that, our aim is to give you a foundation so you can start comfortably putting music to picture on your own as a DIY musician. We have essentially four goals with this course: 

  1. Make sure you understand common scoring terms and tools, 
  2. Give you a grounding in classic cues, motifs, and the techniques to create them,
  3. Help you start building your scoring portfolio, 
  4. Offer a few different approaches and pathways to get started in the industry. 

If you’ve ever wanted to score a film, TV show, ad, or video but didn’t know where to start, this course is definitely for you. Get started with the basics of scoring for picture, from the history and the processes to the music and the methods, and start bringing stories to life! 

Preview a full lesson in Intro to Scoring for Film & TV.

Meet Your Instructors

This course is hosted by Ian Temple, the founder and CEO of Soundfly, and was written and produced by Martin Fowler, John Hull, and the Soundfly Team, with contributions from Tim Maryon, Andre Madatian, Zac Zinger, and Ted Maniatakos. 

The course features interviews, breakdowns, and input from expert, working composers including: 

  • Amanda Jones: Amanda is an Emmy-nominated composer who has scored for shows like The Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO), Home (Apple TV+), Adventure Time (HBO Max), Twenties (Showtime), and more. She was the first Black American woman composer nominated for a Primetime Emmy in the scoring category. 
  • Gary Yershon: Gary is an Oscar-nominated composer who has worked in theater and films, in particular with the director Mike Leigh. He’s known for films like PeterlooHappy-Go-Lucky, and Mr. Turner, for which Gary was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. 
  • Sherri Chung: Sherri has composed for film and TV. She is perhaps best known for scoring Kung Fu (CW), Riverdale (CW), and Blindspot (NBC), as well as her work with collaborator Blake Neely on The Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman, and Arrow (all CW). She’s also a governor of the music branch of the Television Academy in LA. 
  • Drum & Lace & Ian Hultquist: Drum & Lace (a.k.a. Sofia Hultquist) and Ian Hultquist are a husband-and-wife team who have projects on their own and together. Together, they’ve scored Dickinson (Apple TV+) and Good Girls (NBC), as well as the Netflix film Night Teeth and Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer. Separately, they also have a variety of additional credits for film and TV. 
  • Andrew Orkin: Andrew is a composer and educator known for scoring the feature films Save Yourselves! and Materna, and TV shows like The Next Thing You Eat (Hulu). 

How does a Soundfly course work?

Great question! We offer two ways to experience our courses: on your own with an all-access subscription or with personalized coaching from a Soundfly Mentor.

It costs as little as $19 per month to subscribe to Soundfly. And with your subscription, you’ll get unlimited access to all of the premium course content on Soundfly.com, including this course, to go through at your own pace. This includes all the videos, tutorials, demos, quizzes, activities, downloads, and other materials that make our online courses one of a kind!

But that’s not all, subscribers receive an invite to join our private community Slack channel, exclusive perks from partner brands, and exclusive access to livestreams, office hours, and contests. Plus, you’ll be entitled to a 25% discount on custom mentorship sessions.

If you’d like personalized guidance, feedback, and support from a professional as you go through the course material, you can do that with one of our incredible Soundfly Mentors. Simply subscribe, and fill out a Mentorship Interest Form (found inside all our courses), or head here to learn more about what custom mentorship entails and to get in touch with us directly.

Are you ready?

Let’s get you signed up, so you can learn how to write, orchestrate, and produce cues for TV, films, and other media, and start building a professional portfolio..

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