Worked example · Music · Year 10
DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
A completed plan for the 16-bar brief, with the arithmetic done and both grids filled in. Part A has single right answers, listed below, so you can mark the class without reading music. Show this after Part B, or the whole room will hand in this arrangement.
| Question | Answer and working |
|---|---|
| Beats in 16 bars of 4/4 | 64 beats. 16 bars × 4 beats = 64. |
| Length of one beat at 120 BPM | 0.5 seconds. 60 ÷ 120 = 0.5. |
| Length of one bar | 2 seconds. 4 beats × 0.5 s = 2 s. |
| Length of one four-bar phrase | 8 seconds. 4 bars × 2 s = 8 s. |
| Length of the whole 16 bars | 32 seconds. 16 × 2 s = 32 s, and it checks the other way: 64 beats × 0.5 s = 32 s. |
| Sixteenth-note steps in 16 bars | 256 steps. 16 steps per bar × 16 bars = 256. Each step is 0.5 ÷ 4 = 0.125 s, and 256 × 0.125 = 32 s, which matches again. |
| Does it cover a 35-second titles sequence? | No — it is 3 seconds short. One extra bar gives 34 s, still short; two extra bars gives 18 bars = 36 s, which covers it. Musically I would add four bars, making 20 bars = 40 s, because the track is built in four-bar phrases and an 18-bar track ends in the middle of one. I would then fade the last 5 seconds under the dialogue. |
Evidences criterion 1: every figure is worked out, and the 32-second total is checked three different ways. The last row also shows the difference between the arithmetic answer and the musical answer.
| Track | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick drum | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||
| Snare and clap | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||
| Hi-hats | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Bass | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Chords (pad) | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Melody | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| Chord this bar | Am | F | C | G | Am | F | C | G | Am | F | C | G | Am | F | C | G |
| Section | Intro | Build | Hook | Break | Out |
Why it is shaped like that. Bars 1–2 are the pad alone, so the titles can fade up out of nothing. Bass and hi-hats arrive in bar 3, which is halfway through the first phrase and stops the intro feeling static. The kick lands on bar 5, exactly where the second phrase starts, and the melody enters in bar 7 so the build has one more thing to give. Bars 9–12 are the full hook — every track on. Bar 13 pulls the drums and the melody out for a single bar, which is the loudest thing in the arrangement, and bars 14–16 put them back for the run into the film.
Criteria 2 and 4: the plan moves in four-bar phrases, every phrase changes what is playing, bar 13 uses silence deliberately, and the chord row names Am–F–C–G in every bar — all four chords from the A natural minor scale.
Written out for whoever builds it: kick on steps 1, 7, 9 · snare on 5 and 13 · closed hi-hat on 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 · open hi-hat on 15.
One step lasts 0.125 seconds. One beat is 0.5 s and a step is a quarter of a beat, so 0.5 ÷ 4 = 0.125 s. Sixteen steps × 0.125 = 2 s, which is one bar — the same answer as Part A.
Criterion 3: the four main beats are steps 1, 5, 9 and 13, and the pattern is placed on them properly — kick on beats 1 and 3, snare on the backbeat of 2 and 4. The extra kick on step 7 is the "and" of beat 2 and the open hat on step 15 is the "and" of beat 4, which is what pulls the bar back round to the start.
| Track | The sound I want | Why it suits the opening titles |
|---|---|---|
| Bass | Soft sine sub bass, no distortion, one note per bar on the root | The titles have text on screen, so the bass has to hold the bottom without pulling attention. One note per bar leaves room for the narration. |
| Chords (pad) | Warm analogue-style pad, slow attack of about 0.6 s, long release | The slow attack means the chord swells in rather than jabbing, which suits a fade-up from black. |
| Melody | Plucked synth, short and bell-like, with a quarter-note delay | Short notes cut through the pad without competing with it, and the delay makes the sparse melody feel busier than it is. |
| Extra sound | Reverse cymbal swell, two beats long, landing on bar 9 beat 1 | It signposts the hook, so the picture edit has something to cut to at 16 seconds. |
Criterion 5: each sound is named the way you would search a sound library for it, with a setting or a length attached, so somebody else could find it. The cymbal swell is even given its landing point in seconds.