Film Music Notes

Understanding the art of film music

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What’s New

Professional Content

Courses are based on original research of professional-grade techniques used in well-known film scores.

Organized Teaching

Former university professor, Mark Richards, breaks complex concepts down into easy-to-follow lessons.

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Receive timely and detailed feedback from the instructor on all the work you submit in the site forums.

What’s New

New Course Launch – 20% Off

Learn common orchestral textures for scoring different types of terror in film. The course covers 6 broad types of terror with over two dozen textures. The techniques apply not just to the horror genre, but to any genre that includes a scene with terror.

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Our Next Course…

From sweeping romantic themes to more intimate expressions, we’ll explore the many facets of orchestrating music for love and friendship. Sign up to our mailing list to find out when this course is released. Our current goal is early 2027, possibly a Valentine’s Day special!

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We’ve Got a New Look!

We’ve redesigned our main pages to streamline the site and make it easier to navigate the Home and All Courses pages. Also check out our new About page, which emphasizes our philosophy of learning music and gives updated info about the site and its founder, Mark Richards.

What Our Students Say

Film Music Notes is absolutely fantastic. This information is simply not available elsewhere. Your teaching methods are very precise and clear. I particularly love how you implement the concepts in the composition lessons. This, for me, is gold dust!!

— Steve Batcup

from the United Kingdom

You share amazing knowledge and information with us in a super clear way, which I truly appreciate. And all your efforts help us to become much better composers and expand our palettes and imagination. You are a fantastic teacher!

— Piero Lombardi

from Germany

I’ll go straight to the point, because that’s exactly what I absolutely love about your courses. Having tried other courses (and YouTube tutorials) I really appreciate the efficiency with which you lay out the topics. Short videos, few slides, all in bite-size chunks of very well explained (and paced) information.

— Marcos Muñoz

from Chile

I have purchased a few of your courses and am absolutely loving them! I’ve learned a ton so far and have been able to immediately apply the techniques and concepts to my compositions. Your teaching style really resonates with me and I’ll definitely be buying more courses of yours in the future.

— Jason Williams

from the United States

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