A few years ago my family and I moved to Canada for a short period.
Knowing how much maple syrup comes from Canada, I wanted to learn how it’s made. (I can’t help it, everything fascinates me!)
Don’t worry, I’m not going to write out the entire process! But there’s one important film scoring lesson we can learn from how maple syrup is made…
To get syrup, you start with sap.
A lot of sap.
It takes about 40 litres of sap to get just 1 litre of syrup.
But what does this have to do with film scoring?
Well, many composers are obsessed with “more”
How can I extend this piece?
How can I add more layers?
How can this be developed?
Now, don’t get me wrong, learning how to augment, develop, layer, expand, etc. is a vital skill to learn.
But often times we actually need to reduce.
To get to that final, sweet syrup, we sometimes have to start with a lot of ideas.
A lot of material.
And only then do we start to boil it down, bubbling the sap down until we’re left with the perfect result.
Our aim isn’t to create more, it’s to refine.
But you can’t chisel a statue without starting with a BIG ROCK, so before you start refining, you need to make sure you have plenty to work with.
So there you have it, composing lessons from maple syrup!