After composing, recording and placing the basic pieces of music for the film on piano we had always planned to add extra layer. However the new director changed the approach to the music (after hearing the temp music) and felt a simpler style of music was more sufficient for the film and enjoyed the piano of sadness quite a lot. Through meeting with the director we agreed that it could still do with an extra layer of another instrument just to add a bit of texture to the pieces. Therefore I went ahead and created some extra sounds to layer up with the piano through Pro Tools MIDI instruments.
The first was a bassy electronic instrument which I put in to make the introduction piece more powerful. This was still extremely subtle in the mix and could go unnoticed.
The second MIDI instrument is still very subtle but acts as a counter melody to the piano. This is a xylophone type instrument, and attempts to just add a different timbre to the piece.
These two combined give the piano a lot more texture without taking away from the effect the piano has. It is still simple yet seems a lot fuller and finished.