Hi,
I'm a piano player interested in film music. Unfortunately I'm not a great composer and I don't want to be one, just pure interest. So my question is: how to learn those typical cinematic chord progressions? I mean, there're lots of books available describing how to catch the mood of a scene, how to get into business etc. but what I'm after is some kind of tutorials explaining how to develop those typical chord progressions. Are there any books or other sources available to get some ideas?

Thanks & regards,
Andy

PS: don't wonder about my quirky English, it's not my native language

Really, there are no chord progressions in film music. And no "typical" ones for sure. You often hear a lot of modulations, but not in any traditional or typical way.

You are a musician. The best thing I can suggest is to get a recording of a score you like, and play along. Then you will know all its secrets!


jeff

Thanks for your answer. Generally it's a good idea to listen and play along to scores even though I'm not sure if I'm able to unveil all secrets of those compositions then.

There is a lot af common tones in chords changes. A lot lot of fifth and fourth in chords.

Hi Laurent,
Thank you for your hint. I visited your myspace site and there's some quite good stuff on it.

Okay, the situation is this: a friend of mine is a computer graphic artist, mainly doing SciFi stuff. Now he's working on a demo reel and he asked me to write some background music. Actually I've everything I need for this job: I can play piano, I've Kontakt 3, Absynth 4 and all that fancy stuff. The problem is, as I already mentioned, I'm not a good composer, let alone a score composer. :/

What I need now is some inspiration, some hints how to build up emotional tracks etc. You know what I mean. So I think it's really a good idea to buy some scores on CD, listen to them an analyze them.

By the way: how do you learn to compose? And is it possible to learn at all? All I've done so far is playing from note sheets.

Sub_sonic,

There's really know to learn how to be inspired, but if you're talking about learning the technical aspects of composition, books on music theory and such are a good idea. From then on it's a matter of creating your own personal style and applying it in your music.

As for inspiration, some of my favorite composers are Hans Zimmer (of course), John Powell, and James Newton Howard. Of the three, I feel that James Newton Howard creates very emotional tracks without much difficulty in creating a complex form--or melody, for that matter! I'd listen to some of his scores, and take note of his chord progressions and general style.

Hope this helps!

Zachareeno,
that's an interesting point: learn how to be inspired. Is it possible to learn inspiration and creativity? Maybe, I don't know.

In my opinion music theory is a very important part to save time (not to learn composition). When you don't know some technical basics of harmony, composition and orchestration you will most likely make avoidable mistakes.

And thanks for your tips.

Or, may be, this "mistakes" make you unique

I'm sure your music will indeed be VERY unique when you don't follow the basic rules of harmony. Generally it's always a difficult decision when and whether to leave a common path to try something new, e.g. there's no problem when your melody contains notes outside the scale you choose for your song, but when you don't care about harmony at all you'll probably end up with a mess and you'll be the only one who like your music.
This is even more important when you compose for film and / or TV, games or commercials.

My 2 ct.

i agreed with you that" there's no problem when your melody contains notes outside the scale you choose for your song, but when you don't care about harmony at all you'll probably end up with a mess and you'll be the only one who like your music." and I want to say that i love music so much. It is my life

I really appreciate all your thoughts here. Keep it up!

It's really good,

mycat1102

I think that anyone who listens carefully to film music gets it: There are no rules.

Hi Jeff,

Maybe there are no rules you have to follow strictly. But IMHO there's a certain kind of style you'll often find in film music. An orchestra score composed for a film will most likely sound different compared to a piece from Haydn or any other classical or even modern composer. Film music has a tendency to sound broad and wide, with lots of phrases. Okay, this can happen in classical music as well, but film music is somehow different. Maybe this is because film music has a more functional approach and very often you just have to listen to a certain score and you can imagine the corresponding film scene. You definitely recognize whether the composer had an action scene or a love scene in his mind. Besides of the fact that this is the truly art of film composing there must be something that enables the listener to make conclusions like that. When you also consider that a film score has to be successful both in an emotional and a commercial way a composer has to follow some kind of 'rules' concerning the inner structure of film music. He has to know what works and what doesn't. That's what I meant with my initial posting. But I understand that this isn't just a matter of chord progressions.

For me, i try to "score" everything, not only the film or project i am working on , but my life in general, ex.when we have a dinner with friends, i try to imagine what music would fit on each situations or discussions, when you get that, just try to remember what's in your head and write it down or play it, you,ll be surprise that what comes out of that exercice