The Trailer Music Composer's Podcast

In today's episode we get a question from Stephen Tallamy , in fact it is a string of excellent questions about what composers should expect in terms of timelines; of releases, first placements, receiving royalties, and track performance. A ton of great info and of course I get sidetracked along the way talking about purpose, meaning and self care. ⭐ Download the FREE blueprint to craft a pe...

About five years ago I was asked to write some music for an album aimed at TV spots. Each rack was to be full of character, weird sounds, and all manner of stops. One of those tracks just landed on a Halo trailer (gasp!) I want to share with you exactly how I created the music; what I was thinking at the start and how I developed it into an entire piece of trailer (production) music. 📖 Read the f...

I wrote a piece of music for a trailerized string quartet last year. It recently got used on the trailer for The Lost King. As you know I am a huge fan of sharing, especially sharing my knowledge, experience, and process. I want to share with you exactly how I created the music; what I was thinking at the start and how I developed it into an entire piece of trailer (production) music. 📖 Read the...

I am a huge fan of Marvel and the MCU. Marvel Studios has just released the trailer for Secret Invasion and I wanted to take a look at it and do a breakdown of the trailer music.  It’s what I would do anyway as a matter of professional development and thought it would be cool to do it properly and share with you all. You can read the full article here: https://thetrailermusicschool.com/ secret-inv...

In this episode I wanted to give you the most detailed breakdown of trailer hits and impacts so that you could better utilise these amazing tools in your music. For a very long time I did not properly educate myself on hits & impacts thinking that they were "gimmicky". Little did I know I was missing one of the key ingredients to a great piece of cinematic music. ⭐  FREE Blueprint t...

In today's episode I talk about the life of a creative person. What it can feel like when you are pursuing something intangible like art. This is a gentle reminder that the creative path can feel frustrating and lonely, but you are not alone. We are all in this together [teary high fives all round] ⭐  FREE Blueprint to the Perfect Trailer Cue 🎙️ Ask Rich a question he will answer on the show...

In this episode I answer another question from one of my amazing listeners, Darin. The question he wants me to answer is, "Should I end the first act of my neoclassical trailer cues on the fifth chord or should I return to the tonic?" ⭐  FREE Blueprint to the Perfect Trailer Cue 🎙️ Ask Rich a question he will answer on the show 🖥️ Visit The Trailer Music School 🏫 Get an exclusive 10% o...

I decided that I wanted to create a guide to our wonderfully overused but still incredibly useful friend, BRAAAMS. In this episode of the show I run through the origins of the Braaam, how we can use them, and how we can get the most of them. ⭐  FREE Blueprint to the Perfect Trailer Cue 📖 Rich's Guide To Braaams 🎙️ Ask Rich a question he will answer on the show 🖥️ Visit The Trailer Music Sch...

Hooray, the first episode of 'Ask Rich'.  In this episode I answer a question from one of my listeners called Rob. He asks if I can explain how to leave a review of The Trailer Music Composer's Podcast and if I am planning on launching a TMS version of Pianobook - a place where members of our community can upload their own sample libraries to offer for free to the whole community. I...

I know what you are thinking (well I assume at least), "Is Rich really gonna do an entire episode about DRONES in music!?" Yes, yes I am and for good reason. There are one of those things that often people completely overlook as they are pretty basic. I would suggest otherwise. You need to be making some time to get to know your drones and to give them their own life and identity because...

I am launching a new service for the podcast where you can record your questions as an audio file that I will include in the show and answer it to the best of my ability. I'm really excited about this as I have already had a few questions recorded and it is so much fun having this interaction with the community. If you do want to ask me a question then follow the link to ASK ME A QUESTION ABO...

In today's episode, I answer a question I received from one of my awesome TMCP listeners (and TMS customers). The question was simply, "How to I establish genres in trailer music?" As this kind of covers two distinct areas of the job I decided to cover both in the episode. As you know I love helping people with this output so that is exactly why I have started asking for questions t...

In this episode I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Christian Henson (@christianhensonmusic). An absolute legend of a man and a super nice dude!  Once I got my initial fanboying out of the way Christian and I had a fascinating conversation about his earliest memories as a composer and how he got into the business, the origins of Spitfire audio, dealing with his anxiety and his "secret...

❤️ Grab your FREE blueprint to the perfect trailer cue. I have been a working composer for almost 15 years now. I started in custom; it was exciting, it was fast paced, it was way out of my comfort zone. I LOVED IT. Fast forward all those years and I am only now realising the effect that the custom way of life has effected me, not just as a composer but also as a human bean! This episode is a bit...

Grab your FREE blueprint to the perfect trailer cue. You know I love walkthroughs and you do too (I know you do). This one is a different one today. It's another trailerised "solo" violin track. This was one of thirty tracks I composed aimed at (pretty unashamedly) HBO promos, BBC dramas, and other thrillers alike. IF you struggle to complete your trailer tracks or run out of ideas...

In today’s episode I talk with composer Jon R. Mohr. Jon reached out to me on Instagram about coming on the show. He was keen to share his story of going from nothing to now writing for trailer publishers all whilst dealing with his speech impediment. Jon is a cinematic composer and producer from Ohio, specializing in cinematic music ranging from film scores to epic trailer music. He is completely...

In today's episode I talk about the origins of my pseudonym, Richard Schrieber, and why I am no longer going to be working under that name. Basically it is not necessary anymore and still very confusing for me and everyone else. Hee hee. Craft the perfect trailer music cue with this FREE trailer music cheatsheet . If you have a question about anything regarding trailer music or being a compos...

In this episode I walk you through my experience of recording strings and brass at Abbey Road Studios for an action adventure trailer music album. As you can imagine I was super excited about this so I thought it would make an amazing podcast episode where I talked you through what was going through my head before and after the recording. The great thing is that there were 6 clear lessons that hav...

In this episode I talk to the award winning trailer music composer Kati Falk-Flores. Kati shared how she went from studying the French Horn (among other instruments) to learning the ropes of writing trailer music. We talked a lot about the importance of a positive mental attitude and how it can help not only get you out of a funk but also lift those around you. Kati Falk-Flores is a composer known...

In today’s episode I walk you through the Trailer Music that was used in A Very British Scandal. This was a bit of a double win for me as this track was a track that I wrote when teaching how to write Emotional Solo String pieces for the Protege Pro students. I’m gonna be totally honest here, I still suffer from bouts of imposter syndrome and fears of it all falling apart (ie not winning any more...

Hey Guys, In today’s episode I talk to trailer music and video game composer Sigurd Jøhnk-Jensen. A few months ago he reached out to me on Instagram to tell me about his journey.  I was so inspired by Sigurd’s story that I had to get him on the show.  Sigurd is a composer and live musician. Having toured Europe multiple times most recently with Blindstone and Walter Trout. Music composition credit...

In this episode I show you how I composed the track ‘Monument’ that was featured in the trailer for the Netflix show, Archive 81. This track was one of the ten tracks written for Elephant Music’s album, Throat 4. The focus of this album was to bring throat singing to the fore and let vocals replace the cello that had become so popular. I sketched out the entire album using only my voice and then s...

In this episode I talk about feeling like I had lost my passion for writing music and how I re-ignited my spark. Recently, maybe even over the last couple of years, I have been feeling a bit meh about writing music. I didn’t really want to openly admit it, especially on my show/blog, but as you know I think being open about these types of struggles we all face is incredibly important to keep the m...

In today’s episode I take you behind the scenes of a track of mine that was used in the trailer for Netflix’s special, Britney vs Spears. The track was a track I wrote for a two album release from Mammoth. The albums were solely epic drum intros aimed at action comedy trailers. The effect of each track was to give the editors percussive tracks that started small, gave them good cut points, and als...

In this episode, Richard talks with digital nomad, Richard Graham. Richard Graham is the lead educational consultant with Genki English and is the world’s leading authority on teaching in a fun, exciting and “genki” way. Through his Genki teaching, Richard Graham has sold millions of dollars of CDs and music downloads He has provided training sponsored by Ministries of Education, universities, boa...