Action-Music Harmony in Classic Blockbuster Films

Learn harmonic techniques of well-known scores from the 1970s to early 2000s.

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This Course Only

$125 USD
Duration: 7 Hrs 32 Min

Bundle These 2 Courses Together

$125 + $125 = $250 USD
$112.50 + $112.50 = $225 USD
Duration: 14 Hrs 6 Min

These lessons focus on the three main scales of classic action music: octatonic, hexatonic, and Hungarian minor. Learn how to extract sophisticated action writing from them with easy-to-understand techniques. Lesson 4 builds a vocabulary of common chords from hexatonic and Hungarian minor scales. Lesson 5 then demonstrates how scales play an important part in the planing of chords. And Lesson 6 reveals common ways of mixing the action scales together, either one after the other or even at the same time!

Note: While the Octatonic course is not required to take this course, it is recommended as some aspects of the Hexatonic course build on the Octatonic course.

Hexatonic Course Breakdown

  1. Hexatonic Scales
    • Overview
    • Tonal Chords, 3 notes (major and minor)
    • Tonal Chords, 4 notes (mM7 and augM7)
    • Atonal Chords, 5 and 6 notes
    • Melodies and Flourishes
  2. Hungarian Minor Scales
    • Overview + Tonal Chords (3 and 4 notes)
    • Main Chord, 5 notes
    • Tonal Chords, 5 notes (add2 chords)
    • Atonal Chords, 5 to 7 notes
    • Atonal Chords, 3 notes, (the (014) chord)
    • Melodies and Flourishes

  1. Planing as a Concept
    • Overview
    • Typical Planed Chords
  2. Planing a Chord through a Scale
    • Minor Scales
    • Modes
  3. Octatonic Melodies Harmonized by Planed Chords
    • Minor Chords
    • Major Chords
    • With One Scale Note Changed
  4. Planing and Pedal Points
    • Combined Melody-Bass “Chords”
    • Increasing the Dissonance between Planed Chords and Pedals
  1. Juxtaposing Action Scales
    • Octatonic + Hungarian Minor
    • Hexatonic + Hungarian Minor
    • Octatonic + Hexatonic
  2. Mixing Action Scales with Non-Scale Notes
    • Octatonic + 1 Note
    • Octatonic Melody Harmonized by Chords of a Single Type
  3. Simultaneous Action Scales
    • Octatonic as Gap Filler for Hexatonic
    • Harmonies from One Scale Organized by Another

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