Step 1: Look at the concept art for the level you are going to be creating background music for. Stare at it. Drill it into your brain through your eyeholes. Try to imagine what the music should sound like. I’d recommend listening to some music you admire for inspiration.
Step 2: Select your canvas. This doesn’t have to be too specific yet. Just know the general gist of the instrumentation you want to use. This can also change later. (For example, I knew I wanted something orchestral and Celtic sounding for the Desert Theme I wrote for Bitsy’s Bustup, so I started with strings, a solo fiddle, Irish whistle, brass, and percussion. The mandolin and guitar came later, as I was writing the piece. I also had a full woodwind section at first, but I ended up getting rid of them because I didn’t feel they fit). Either write the instruments down or prepare a session in your DAW with the appropriate instruments selected.
Step 3: Play around on your keyboard (or other instrument of choice) and try to come up with a short melody (some people do this before step 2. They are wrong). This part is hard. You might be able to come up with something quickly, which would be awesome and I would be jealous and hate you. You might also not be able to come up with anything and hate yourself and give up. That’s fine. Go do something else for awhile. A melody will pop into your head at some point, probably sometime inconvenient like while you’re on a date, and you’ll have to pretend to need to use the bathroom, and then go hide in the back of the bar and write the melody down before you forget it. This may or may not have happened to me before. I’m just saying, it’s probably a good idea to carry staff paper with you at all times.
Step 4: Now that you have finally come up with a melody, it is time to overthink it. Convince yourself that you must have actually heard it somewhere else, that you couldn’t have possibly come up with it on your own, and that you accidentally stole it like some kind of terrible, accidental thief. Scour your music library and the internet for the melody. Eventually realize that you did, in fact, come up with the melody yourself. Rejoice. (This step isn’t actually necessary, but I do it every time so I thought it would be best to include it.)
Step 5: You now have a solid melody and an idea of the instrumentation you want to use, so you can finally begin harmonizing, arranging, prolonging the melody, etc. Grab some tea and/or whiskey, open the DAW of your choice (if you don’t have a DAW of choice, I recommend Logic for Mac and Cubase for PC), wrap yourself in a fuzzy blanket, and get ready for several hours of sweet, sweet productivity.
