The Hook

Catchy rhythms and melodies

"Pattern Recog" (recognition) with some commonly memorized patterns and symbols (A-B-C, 1-2-3, Pi, phone numbers, yin yang symbol, etc.)

Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman quickly disagreed with an interviewer who said film music shouldn't be too noticeable. By nature, music grabs our attention. It entertains us. If a score has stage freight (boring music), people get bored and the film suffers for it. Being bold, deliberate, and recognizable has helped many great scores employed by Ford, Hitchcock, Spielberg, Nolan, etc. The Lord of the Rings, 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly', How to Train Your Dragon, Pirates, Titanic, Corpse Bride, The Lion King, Zelda, Mario, and JAWS... they all have bold melodies. So how do we write that theme that grabs people?

Melodies call us to action and engage our memory.

Harry Potter

Hedwig's Theme has a simple core rhythm, employs musical transformations, and benefits from the composer's practice writing various musical forms (rondos, sonatas, etc). These forms teach us to repeat, connect sentences, and help us tell a story with music. The motif is repeated dozens of times in the first 12 minutes of Harry Potter. Even children without musical training have learned many iconic themes by ear on the piano, especially this one. That speaks volumes.

sheet music rhythm example: dotted quarter, 8th, dotted quarter, 8th

For younger ears especially, melodies deliver story and establish something to remember. Several different themes in Indiana Jones use the same core rhythm. It builds familiarity. Every time Indy starts a chase, the theme accompanies him. When the question of the arc's power is introduced, the theme accompanies it. When the power is unleashed, the same theme accompanies it. That realization changed me. Lightning had struck my brain. How do we not get bored of the idea and move on? How do we embrace one idea over and over?

Stay true to core ideas, themes, and the story

Eventually I wrote an experiment. My first Rondo (ABA-C-ABA) is full of problems, but it helped me write sentences, paragraphs, and to order what I was saying. I wrote a 2nd (ABACA), then realized why Sonata followed. Sonata form is music's 3 act story structure. Then it was all clear. Find a core idea that's accessible, that anyone can identify and understand what you're saying with it. Then tell the story. It's not enough to learn about core rhythms and voice leading. Form is how we establish and return to an idea.

Building A Memorable Idea

Core Rhythms
Stick to a simple rhythmic pattern. Always? No. But be able to. Get good at keeping it simple.
Transformation
Experiment with inverse, retrograde, both, half /double tempo, fragmentation, permutation, etc. Use a partial melody to pickup to the next phrase.
The Unexpected
Fux told early composers to ignore large interval leaps and non-diatonic intervals. E.T. starts very safe this way, then surprises us.
Repetition
A chromatic melody takes more repetition to become familiar. 334455 is memorized fast. 23509867438 needs repetition for most people.
Write a Rondo, then a Sonata
It's worth restating. Form trains us to write while thinking about how our music will be heard throughoug a piece.
Keep Writing
Focus on one principle at a time. Like any other skill, it's learned step by step.