Something for Hitchcock Fans

Music is such an abstract, can’t-put-your-hands-on-it art form. I’m always find­ing it use­ful to com­pare music to visual arts. I recently came across this web­site which is a humor­ous attempt to explain how to be a bet­ter film direc­tor via the tech­niques of Alfred Hitchcock.

Or is it humor­ous? Many of the tech­niques can apply to any good art, and that means music, too. Keep the audi­ence in mind, frame for emo­tion, break cliches, remem­ber to use humor, two things at once, sur­prise and twist — all are valid con­sid­er­a­tions when you sit down to com­pose a piece of music.

Thanks to Jeff Bays for writ­ing this neat lit­tle web page!