Cinematic Break Intro, Part 1

I'm going to make a minor song, in D. The progression is one, three, four, five, and then one, three, six, five. On the five chord I change it from minor to major. That's a modal change I think, or a modal interchange, one of both. It should be a minor chord because the fifth chord is minor, but I make it major, and that's the kind of change you want.

It's really simple. Create a chord progression of four to eight chords, then include a five chord or a modal change so you can really accentuate a dramatic feeling.

Think about the main chord progression you made, then add inversions and extensions. The chord progression is pretty cool, but it's not getting you anywhere. It sounds really bland and it doesn't have a theme. The moment you add these extensions and inversions, you get a general feeling of where you want to go and it gives a much more emotional experience.

An inversion is taking a note from the chord and putting it down, so it becomes the bass note. I also work on the velocity immediately. You won't get inspired if you try to visualize what it's going to sound like. You make something, and during the process of making it you get inspired to add other sounds.

There are multiple ways to make these, but one cool way is to make tension. You create it on a harmonic level, where you go higher and higher, include more high notes and let the melody come alive. Another way is just adding more volume, opening your filters, including claps and more bass. On every level it should give a rising effect of getting more stuff in there.

So the first part of the break, the intro, needs to be a little bit soft, and the second part much more dramatic. I accentuate that with more bass and more low notes. The further we go into the break, the more notes and the more volume.

For the melody I take a soft piano from LABS. I immediately add some OTT and reverb, and I do this before I make the melody, because I want to get inspired. It sounds really boring if there are no effects.

Then I just play whatever comes to mind and follow the notes of the chords. It's really helpful to do this after you have the chords, because you accentuate the notes. It becomes more memorable and easy to listen to if it follows the chords a little bit.

A tempo automation is something that is pretty cool to add. Just make it start at 110 maybe and let it go to 150. It's just so the break takes a little bit longer.

Watch your vocals when you do this. These vocals are in 180 BPM, and since our BPM is changing, we need to define that this is 180 so it doesn't change the rhythm.