Need Help Writing Song for School Project

[dominator5000]

Hey guys.

For a project in one of my classes I have to write a song based on one of the characters in a novel. I guess it's going to be sort of like a movie sound track, with different themes describing how he's feeling at a certain time. I'm going to be playing and composing the song on the piano, which I would say I am fairly good at playing, and I also have a decent understanding of theory. It's also going to be only instrumental by the way, no vocals.

However, I'm not all that good at composing, and I don't really know where to start with my piece. I need to describe different moods such as saddness, depression, drunkeness, bravery, heroism etc, but I don't really know where to start. I'm also not too sure about how to structure my composition. I'm not really good at writing this kind of thing.

Any suggestions would be appreciated,

Thanks

[zfmt]

well, what i would do is watch the movie. write down the different mood changes; for example, if the movie starts up beat, play a high tempo energetic piano rift. if it then changes to sad play something slow and low.
if you want a good example of this high tempo and sad sounding thing i mentioned, get the song 5:15 by the who; the beggining is sad and slow, the main part of the song is energetic then for like 15 seconds it gets calm, then the energetic, then sad again.

btw: i dont mean to be rude, however, i think if you credit yourself as a good pianist you should understand me. and i dont play piano

[kevbud187]

well, what i would do is watch the movie. write down the different mood changes; for example, if the movie starts up beat, play a high tempo energetic piano rift. if it then changes to sad play something slow and low.
if you want a good example of this high tempo and sad sounding thing i mentioned, get the song 5:15 by the who; the beggining is sad and slow, the main part of the song is energetic then for like 15 seconds it gets calm, then the energetic, then sad again.

btw: i dont mean to be rude, however, i think if you credit yourself as a good pianist you should understand me. and i dont play piano

lil' tip that is an add on to his post.

Use Major Keys for "upbeat" sections & Minor Equilzants for "sad" sections. Just in case you didn't know that.