Graduate Certificate in Screen Scoring & Music Design
Build the reel that proves you can score for the screen.
6 MONTHS · TWO 10-WEEK TERMS
16 CREDITS
100% ONLINE
Applications open for January 2027
Learn from World-Class Industry Professionals
Throughout the program, instructors and guest professionals bring real-world workflows, techniques, and perspectives directly into the course—helping you develop your craft while building work that's ready to represent you professionally.
Working Practitioners
Mentorship Model
Portfolio-Focused Learning
Andy Hill
Executive Dean, Creative Arts
Andy Hill is a thirty-five year veteran of the film and television music industry.
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Phillip Simmons
Associate Professor, Orchestration/Arranging
Phillip Arthur Simmons is a composer, orchestrator, and educator from Atlanta, Georgia.
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Demetrius Martin
Faculty and Technical Resource Specialist
Demetrius A. Martin is an Atlanta-based producer, audio engineer, and entrepreneur.
Read MoreGuest Lecturers and Advisors
Edy Lan
Music Nerds LLC
Seth Wright
Wright Music Interactive
Catherine Joy
Joy Music House
Jay Weigel
How it works —
Built to fit
your life
The Graduate Certificate in Screen Scoring & Music Design fits around your life — move through thoughtfully produced lessons on your own schedule, guided by working professionals through composition, production, and dramatic interpretation. It all builds to a live orchestral session and a recorded reel you can use to show what you can do.
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~12 HRS / WEEK PER COURSE (AVERAGE)
- 2 hrs pre-recorded video lessons
- 2 hrs independent study, research & exercises
- ~2 hrs live instructor office hours (synchronous, via Canvas)
- 6 hrs applied writing & labwork
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2 COURSES PER TERM
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TITLE IV ELIGIBLE
Sample Lesson
Build Your Portfolio. Get It Recorded.
Six months from now, you'll have…
~6 minutes of original music professionally recorded with a live orchestra
Write, orchestrate, prepare, and record original work with a professional orchestra as part of your capstone—leaving with finished, portfolio-ready music you can actually use.
A screen-scoring reel
Original work written to real picture—not classroom exercises—ready to show collaborators, clients, and potential employers.
Game and interactive music experience
Hands-on experience creating adaptive music that responds to gameplay, player action, and changing game states.
A professional screen-scoring workflow
Take music from creative brief to final delivery through collaboration, deadlines, feedback, mockup, production, orchestration, recording, and professional critique.
Guidance from working industry professionals
Learn directly from credited composers and creators actively working across film, television, games, and new media.
Work you own
You have ownership rights in your original composition, so the music you make here can become part of your professional portfolio.
16 graduate credits—and a pathway forward
Earn graduate-level credit that can provide a direct route into the MFA in Screen Scoring & Music Design at Media Design School at Strayer for eligible students.
SoundTrek: Where
Your Score Becomes
A Recording
SoundTrek is where your work moves beyond the screen. As part of the online Graduate Certificate program, you’ll develop an original score and take it through the professional recording process – culminating in a remote live session with professional musicians and new work for your portfolio.
Curriculum – 4 courses – 2 terms
Produce · Score · Adapt · Record
The screen composer is now a producer, what was once a demo is now often the final product, and the work you do in the project studio with virtual instruments and soundshaping is part and parcel of a greater whole, which may also include live performers and multiple recording locations. This course will allow you to become fully the author of your own music, in both creative and technical respects.
Every aspiring screen composer needs a reel to show the world and prospective clients what they can do, even if that “reel” lives on a digital file under a QR code. In this course, you will score a carefully curated selection of original short films, including live action, animation, and experimental forms, as well as story briefs, that are suitable for portfolio use, and can be recorded or “sweetened” in the SoundTrek sessions as part of MUS504.
Adaptive scoring—music that reflects and reacts to in-play factors such as game state, game world, character health, levels of intensity, etc. is the lingua franca of the non-linear media world. It is enabling each day new products that enhance and intensify the immersive experience, and it is beginning to make itself felt even in linear media. The composer creates the musical assets, but the artist who arranges and choreographs these stratified layers is the music designer, and the MD's work in middleware and game engines will be a major focus as a potential career path.
This capstone course, anchored by a series of remote scoring sessions with ensembles ranging from a 22-piece string group and 38-piece studio orchestra to a 52-piece group with small choir, is the culmination of the Screen Scoring & Music Design portfolio program. It covers all phases of preparation for and execution of live/hybrid scoring, including orchestration, choral arrangement, and conducting.
Cost and Financial Information
At Media Design School at Strayer our team of advisors provides academic, admissions and guidance on cost as you navigate through the Graduate Certificate in Screen Scoring program. Tap into resources online or on campus.
4
courses
$150
one-time
final academic requirements evaluation fee
$65
technology fee
each term
$9,800
total tuition
Speak with an advisor about financing options
Federal financial aid may be available to eligible students. Employer tuition assistance may also apply.
Students are responsible for sourcing and purchasing any required software not provided by the university, in addition to the fees listed above.
Build your next body of work
Six months. Four Courses.rnA stronger portfolio.
