Film Music Notes

Understanding the art of film music

Courses

Learn about the musical languages of well-known film scores and add techniques to your toolbelt whether you are a composer, teacher, performer, researcher, journalist, or enthusiast.

Complexity Made Simple

Former professor of music theory, Mark Richards, breaks film music down into its basic elements, making even the most complex techniques easy to understand.

Exclusive Course Material

Courses always include original research that cannot be found in other sources, whether they are online analyses, composition manuals, or academic writings.

Learn at Your Own Pace

Every course comes with lifetime access, allowing you to absorb course material with as much time as you need and at the pace that suits you best.

New Course

Action-Music Harmony in the Style of John Williams

The action music of John Williams is some of the most harmonically complex in all of film music. Its fast chord changes, busy textures, and dissonant harmonies make it notoriously difficult to analyze. This course breaks down Williams’ action music into a network of easy-to-understand concepts that reveal the harmonic systems behind his action writing.

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Upcoming Course

Film Music Harmony 1: Introductory

Other film music harmony courses are structured by the practices of classical music, even though film music differs widely from classical music. This introductory course will teach fundamentals of harmony, counterpoint, and voice leading drawn from Hollywood film music itself – as it should be!

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Music Theorist

Mark Richards, PhD

I worked as a Professor of Music Theory for several years in universities, specializing in film music, Beethoven, and rock music in my teaching and research. For more than two decades, I have taught music theory and analysis to all ages and at all levels from the community music school to the large university. I have published articles on film music and have a new chapter on John Williams’ Star Wars themes forthcoming in 2021.

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