Fingerstyle Film Scores

I’m a fingerstyle guitar enthusiast! So much so that I volunteer to write the Toronto Fingerstyle Guitar weekly newsletter. I’ll post my articles here for your musical pleasure. Be sure to check us out online at http://www.fingerstyleguitar.ca

It’s festival time here in Toronto: The Toronto Film Festival is in full swing.  I was downtown last weekend, counting limos and people watching.  The City sure does explode with a variety of interesting things to see during The Toronto Film Festival (and I’m not just talking about the 100’s of movies!).  I counted 10 limos, all chauffering Brad Pitt and George Clooney I’m sure! (hey, a girl can dream!) and an endless stream of characters.

All this movie action got me thinking that I don’t really know of any Fingerstyle movie music.  I know of a collection of arrangements and adaptations based on movie scores but I don’t know of any original movie scores written primarily for the fingerstyle guitar.

It’s been said that music can make or break a movie.  Good music can take a mediocre film and make it great.  Bad music can leave the viewer lost and confused.  Music helps set the mood and the pace of a film.  It helps a movie move forward and lends its power to the emotional context of a scene.  Think about your Fingerstyle repetoire - I bet it full of pieces that vary in pace and style and evoke different emotions when heard.

Why can’t Fingerstyle guitar music score a film?

If you’re ready to take up the challenge, here are two great articles to get you started:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2066915_write-movie-soundtrack.html
http://brickfilms.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_to_write_a_film_score

Be sure to let me know what limo you’ll be in at next year’s Film Festival.

All kidding aside, as musicians we should all look to other styles of music for inspiration.  There’s something to learn from all genres that can be taken back to our main instrument and our preferred genre.  Some of the best players I’ve heard can play several different styles extremely well.  And they do that by becoming a student of all styles of music… maybe even movie music.