Theme Writing 3 – Film Music Notes

Theme Writing 3: Long-Form Film Themes & Theme Suites

Turn your short ideas into large, well-structured themes and suites.

Lifetime Access

No need to rush through the course. Take the time you need to learn the material thoroughly.

Composition Exercises

On every section of the course with instructor feedback. Files in MIDI, MusicXML, and PDF formats.

Quick References

Review courses quickly and easily with summary notes on key points and details.

~~$99~~ $79 USD
Duration: 4 Hrs 20 Min

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Turn your short ideas into large, well-structured themes. Learn how to expand 8-bar themes and construct forms with a contrasting B section like rounded binary and rondo. Write large themes of flexible length called “continuous themes” from short units of just a few bars. And learn tried-and-true practices for connecting themes into a suite like those for end credits, main titles, and the like.

The course comes with a set of composition exercises that are in MIDI format for DAWs, MusicXML for notation software, and PDF for pencil and paper. You can also get feedback directly from the instructor by posting your answers in the site forums. And review content quickly and easily with the Quick References section.

Course Content

Traditional Long-Form Themes
- Expanded 8-Bar Forms
- B Sections – Harmony & Phrase Structure
- B Sections – Melody
- Rounded Binary
- Rondo
- Ternary
Continuous Themes
- Structural Units: Mottos, Large Phrases, 8-Bar Themes
- Combining Units into Repetition and Variation Blocks
- Combining Units into Contrast Blocks
- Intros and Closes
- Analyses
Theme Suites
- Dynamic Structures
- Key Relationships
- Transitions
- Thematic Combination
- Suite Intros and Closes

Related Courses

Learn how 8-bar forms shape the emotional expression of a theme. Go well beyond the classical forms of the sentence and period with 12 different 8-bar forms and their 16-bar versions as well. Examples of each form are drawn from major feature films and at the end of the course, sample compositions compare different forms with given opening ideas.

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Write melodies that mean what you want them to mean. Melodies in tonal music tend to conform to underlying linear patterns that have different emotional meanings when they are elaborated in different ways. By analyzing many of Hollywood’s best-known themes, you’ll learn these basic shapes and how the elaborating techniques can create expressions that are perfectly suited to a theme’s association.

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