 ♪ (GAME OF THRONES THEME SONG
PLAYS ON GUITAR) ♪
 My name's Ramin Djawadi,
 and we're in my studio
 in Santa Monica
where I write all the music
for Game of Thrones.
♪ (THEME SONG CONTINUES) ♪
 I started out on the organ
 when I was four years old,
and then when I was 13,
I picked up the guitar,
and that's when I really
got serious about music
and started practicing a lot.
 And it was the movie
The Magnificent Seven...
 Elmer Bernstein's score
 triggered something in me,
and the recognizable themes
that you could hum
when you turned off the film.
 ♪ (GAME OF THRONES THEME
PLAYS) ♪
I knew that that's what
I wanted to be, a film composer.
 The beauty about
 music in film is that
without any dialogue
on the screen,
you are able to guide
the audience.
 And with Game of Thrones,
 we are able
 to guide the audience
 either in the right direction
 or the wrong direction.
 And that's something
 that's been fun.
By moods or by playing
a certain theme,
you are able to tell a story.
 ♪ (GAME OF THRONES THEME
CONTINUES ON GUITAR) ♪
 The biggest challenge
was just finding the right tone
for the show, that when
you hear the score,
that you know this is
 Game of Thrones.
 From the beginning,
 we knew we wanted themes,
 but we also knew that
we couldn't have too many themes
right away, because
there's obviously
a lot of characters.
 There's a lot of
 different houses,
 there's a lot of plots.
 And if you convolute it
 too soon,
 I think it actually would have
been confusing for the audience,
 so we actually, on purpose,
 held off with themes
 for certain characters.
For example, Theon,
or the Greyjoy theme,
didn't exist until season two.
 Arya, for example,
we used the Stark theme for her,
but she also has
her own theme
once she got on her own.
In Game of Thrones,
we always laugh
because every season,
we sit down and we say,
 "Okay, which instrument
 haven't we used yet?"
(HORN BLOWING)
Most of the orchestral
instruments I've used,
so strings, french horns,
trombones, percussion,
 the didgeridoo we've used
 for the Wildlings,
so that's kind of an
interesting instrument
that's different.
 There's an Armenian duduk
 that we used
for the Dothrakis.
 It's like an ethnic version
 of an oboe basically.
When I start working on a scene,
I just watch the scene
without even playing.
 I try to hear the tempo
 in my head,
and once I have that,
I can play along.
I now proclaim Cersei
of the House Lannister
protector of the Seven Kingdoms.
♪ (VIOLINS PLAY) ♪
RAMIN DJAWADI:
 I usually start writing
 on one instrument first.
 It can be piano,
 it can be string pad.
 I sketch out the scene,
and then once I feel
I have the right shape,
then I go back
and then I start arranging
and orchestrating the scene.
 And then I add
 all the different layers
 of instrumentation.
♪ (ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
 While the episode
 is still edited,
 everything just stays
 in the computer,
 and everything's
 just done digitally.
And once the picture is locked,
 then I go in
 and actually record it
 with real musicians.
And I feel that's
the most rewarding thing.
I still get goosebumps
when I hear them play the music.
 I just get huge inspiration
 from just seeing the sets,
 from just seeing
 how epic everything is,
 and then meeting the actors,
that's inspirational
for me as well.
 Just standing on the side
 and just watching.
I wanna just go back
to the studio right away
and start writing.
♪ (PIANO PLAYING) ♪
DJAWADI: This is the piece
 from episode 6-10.
 This long build up
 of Cersei's trial.
The interesting thing
about this piece is that
this is actually the first time
in Game of Thrones history
that we used the piano.
So the minute that plays...
♪ (PIANO PLAYING) ♪
DJAWADI:
 The audience immediately
 is alerted, and they'll go,
 "Wait, we have never heard
 this instrument before this.
 Something is not right."
-So the piece plays on...
-♪ (PIANO CONTINUES) ♪
It starts off very minimal,
and it slowly builds over...
I think the piece is
six and a half minutes,
 seven minutes long.
The next element that comes
in are two boys singing.
♪ (CHOIR BOYS SINGING) ♪
 When you see the kids
 with the knife in the hand,
and then Pycelle gets stabbed,
that's when it switches
to the organ,
and that's when
the choir comes in.
 That's really the next
 step up of when you realize,
 "Wow, this is all going
 wrong right now."
And now the piece
is really starting to build.
 More instruments come in,
 and the organ gets busier.
And then the orchestra actually
 doesn't come in
until the very end.
♪ (ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
 This section's
 actually interesting
 because I actually snuck in
 the main title theme,
 so you can hear it right here.
♪ (THEME SONG PLAYS) ♪
Every year I go, "Okay, now
I really have to do something
that I haven't done before."
 The show definitely
 takes it up another notch
 every season.
Even though whenever I think
it's not possible,
 they still are able
to elevate it yet another notch.
And so I gotta do the same
with the music.
♪ (ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
INTENSIFIES) ♪
-(EXPLOSIVE BLAST)
-♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪
