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) ♪