instrumentation for a Western film

[Mr_GoodBomb]

I'm working on a short film, set in the West. Gun fights, cowboys, horseback, XXX bottles, the whole nine yards. I want to do the title sequence before the film starts shooting to motivate the cast and crew. For this, I need music.

 

In my head, I can clearly hear the sound I'm going for... Spanish horns, acoustic guitar, that spaghetti Western tictac bass sound... However, if I were to get a local guy who does a lot of composition stuff using sampling and digital instruments, I'd have no idea what instruments to tell him to use.

 

Anyone here more familiar with this kind of music or soundtrack? Any suggestions on what instruments to use and how to work it out? I can clearly hear horns, the acoustic, and the bass, and I can write out the chords for the guitar and the notes for the bass, and the basic notes for the horns... but no idea what's needed and how they function together tonally. Anyone more familiar here?

[Ralph onion]

You have to capture that "clippity clop" sound first.

[Surfdude]

Los Straitjackets have a few songs that I always thought would be just right for an old western.

 

Surfy

[Mr_GoodBomb]

More the Good the Bad and the Ugly... I'm mainly hearing the bass and the horns/brass, and lots of em.

[Baddass]

A tele running thru a deluxe reverb with alot of reverb.And a baritone guitar . That would be a good start. And a nylon string classical guitar.

[El Glom-o]

 

Los Straitjackets have a few songs that I always thought would be just right for an old western. Surfy

 

 

Indeed. Their album "!Viva! Los Straitjackets" includes three tunes that are perfect movie soundtrack material.

 

 

"Lonely Apache" - Western

 

"Espionage" - Spy

 

"Lurking In the Shadows" - Private Eye

[Surfdude]

And don't forget ZZ Top's "Asleep in the Desert". I think it is on the Tejas album.

 

Surfy

[faberbz]

Brad Paisley's "Spaghetti Western Swing"

 

You can edit out the "dialogue" and have some great (horse) chase scene music.

[Stackabones]

Anything that Ennio Morricone did for the spaghetti westerns will be a good sound source.

 

Also check out Greg Edmonson's work on Firefly. It's a sci-fi/western series that ran for only one season, but the music is brilliant and captures the western vibe quite well.

[JoJo68]

Ennio Morricone

 

[Mike Fiasco]

 

More the Good the Bad and the Ugly... I'm mainly hearing the bass and the horns/brass, and lots of em.

 

 

Don't go cliche with this, though. Brass and horns in a Western could either be mariachi or big-budget-John-Ford Western.

 

My favorite Western soundtrack is the Neil Young work on "Dead Man".

[Greg.Coal]

 

In my head, I can clearly hear the sound I'm going for... Spanish horns, acoustic guitar, that spaghetti Western tictac bass sound... However, if I were to get a local guy who does a lot of composition stuff using sampling and digital instruments, I'd have no idea what instruments to tell him to use. Anyone here more familiar with this kind of music or soundtrack? Any suggestions on what instruments to use and how to work it out? I can clearly hear horns, the acoustic, and the bass, and I can write out the chords for the guitar and the notes for the bass, and the basic notes for the horns... but no idea what's needed and how they function together tonally. Anyone more familiar here?

 

 

"Spanish horns": maybe you mean "Mexican" and by that you might mean Mariachi? Mariachi is some of the coolest and most complex (rhythmically) music I've heard - and I've heard quite a bit live when I lived in Arizona. I doubt you could write out a convincing take on Mariachi. It's pretty hard to wrap your mind around it even while you're listening to it.

 

There are cliched nylon string sounds bordering on Flamenco in the western genre. But, as someone else was saying, I would think Telecaster on the bridge pickup with reverb and either tremolo or a string bending system.

 

This link:

 

 

was a commercial I grew up with. It is meant to be like a Western ballad, telling a story of a hero. Mostly in minor key, Chorus in major; includes a whole step modulation and classic male voices singing the chorus (like "Sons of the Pioneers").

 

I'd like to know what you think,

Greg

[rockstrongo]

Fender Bass VI:

 

 

 

 

 

A good Jazzmaster with flatwounds will get you there, too. We had an original '65 Jazzmaster here the other day, with the original flatwounds on it. It had the PERFECT spaghetti western tone. My god, it was dead on.

 

 

 

 

 

The horn sections should be present, but the notes minimal. So much of the tension in that type of Morricone-esque music came from drawn out sections and the space between them.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Inspiration for you.

 

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[YOUTUBE]zD-J8O2fLf4[/YOUTUBE]

 

And really, anything by Calexico

[Uma Floresta]

 

More the Good the Bad and the Ugly... I'm mainly hearing the bass and the horns/brass, and lots of em.

 

 

Trumpet solos

String section

Acoustic guitar

Jazzmaster with lots of reverb

Male choral voices

A talented whistler

Jaw harp

 

That's the basic instrumentation for a Morricone western soundtrack.

[Uma Floresta]

 

Don't go cliche with this, though. Brass and horns in a Western could either be mariachi or big-budget-John-Ford Western. My favorite Western soundtrack is the Neil Young work on "Dead Man".

 

 

Dead Man has a brilliant soundtrack - though in the film the melody does get repetitive.

[BAXANDALL]

You'll need the sound of a hawk screeching too.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

 

Dead Man has a brilliant soundtrack - though in the film the melody does get repetitive.

 

 

I've only seen the movie once, but I don't remember it bugging me. I should watch it again.

[Jayers]

"All the Pretty Horses" score is a great Western soundtrack, one that I listen to all the time. Everything that has been mentioned so far, and including:

 

Fingerpicked classical guitar

Strummed steel string.

Piano with lots of reverb.

Bells, you know, like, from the town square kind of bells.

Marraccas, shakers, other quirky rythmn instruments.

And choral voices, doing a lot of "ahhs" and "ohhs".

 

But then again, mix it up some, throw in some rockabilly, some punk, maybe some chanting to add spice to it.

[Uma Floresta]

 

I've only seen the movie once, but I don't remember it bugging me. I should watch it again.

 

 

Maybe it's because I listened to the soundtrack so much before I ever saw the film.

[FoonkySteve]

Outta tune Piano and a fiddle;)

[Mr_GoodBomb]

 

Don't go cliche with this, though. Brass and horns in a Western could either be mariachi or big-budget-John-Ford Western. My favorite Western soundtrack is the Neil Young work on "Dead Man".

 

 

I kinda wanna work with the cliche. It's only a Western because it's set in the West. It's actually a horror theme.

 

I can hear it so well in my head, but nothing I can find as far as other soundtracks to use as examples is "big" enough.

[Mike Fiasco]

 

Outta tune Piano and a fiddle;)

 

 

That's the winner.

[lollygag]

what about the guitarron. you could use the mariachi sound without the mariachi style. gritty trumpets, hollowbody electric guitar sounds...

[Hard Truth]

If authenticity is important and your budget is tight you are more likely to get what you want by buying pre-recorded production music. (although its great to give some work to your local composer/musician.) The larger libraries will certainly have exactly what you want. Google "production music" to find them.