Action-Music Harmony 3: Polytonal Harmonies & How to Use Action Chords

Write dissonant but tonally-based chords with more than one tonic in classic blockbuster style!

Lifetime Access

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

Composition Exercises

On every concept in the course. Submit your answers and get feedback from the instructor.

Site Forums

Get answers to your questions, share your compositions, and talk with your peers.

$125 USD $99 USD
Duration: 5 Hrs 25 Min

Enroll In Course
Watch Overview
Watch Preview

Learn the classic blockbuster sound of chords with more than one tonic. Understand how these dissonant but tonally-based harmonies are used in action scenes for several purposes: scoring long passages over a single chord, emphasizing key moments in the narrative, and expressing common associations. Also learn how a large number of action chords are built from a consistent set of notes called “action extensions”.

The course comes with a comprehensive set of exercises to let you build these chords and use them in a described scene. You can also get feedback directly from the instructor by posting your answers in the site forums.

Note: Lesson numbers continue from Action-Music Harmony 1 and 2

  1. Understanding How Action Chords Are Used
  2. Expanding a Single Chord with “Action Extensions”
    • Overview
    • The m(b6), M(b6) and augM7(#9)
  3. Polytonal Voicings of Action Chords
    • Overview
    • The m(b6)
    • The mM7(b6)
    • The mM9(b6)
    • The mM7(add#4)
    • The mM9(add#4)
    • The Mm(M7,b6)
  4. Unifying Action Chords
    • Progressions with Chords from Different Action Scales
    • Composing Out a Chord
    • Composing Out a Scale

  1. Preliminaries
    • What Are Dissonant-Bass Chords?
    • How Dissonant-Bass Chords Are Used
  2. Major Chord + Dissonant Bass
    • +1 Major
    • +4 Major
    • +6 Major
    • +9 Major
    • +11 Major
  3. Minor Chord + Dissonant Bass
    • +1 Minor
    • +3 Minor
    • +6 Minor
    • +8 Minor
    • +10 Minor
    • +11 Minor
  4. Dissonant-Tonal Chord + Dissonant Bass
    • Overview
    • A Final Example
  1. Overview
    • Defining Polychords
    • Common Polychords and Their Component Chords
    • Typical Associations
    • Pedal Point with Polychords
  2. Quiet-Tension Polychords Next to Action Music
    • +11 Polychords
    • +6 Polychords
  3. Polychords for Mystery in Action Scenes
    • +4 Polychords
    • Other Hexatonic Polychords
  4. Other Associations of Polychords
    • Mortal Dread
    • Brutal Strength

Coming Soon

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 the best-known themes to emerge from Hollywood scores, you’ll learn these basic shapes and how the elaborating techniques can create expressive effects that are perfectly suited to a theme’s association.

Notify Me When Available

Other Courses

The octatonic scale is one of the most commonly-used resources in classic action music. Learn the power of its versatility in these three lessons.

Learn More

Learn the most common harmonies for the other two action scales of hexatonic and Hungarian minor. Then see how scales interact with planing and how octatonic, hexatonic, and Hungarian minor scales combine in sophisticated action music.

Learn More

By studying many of the greatest themes to come out of Hollywood, this three-lesson course will teach you the most common harmonic progressions in Hollywood film music and the emotional and musical associations they tend to have. Learn how to use harmony to evoke the perfect emotions in your themes!

Learn More

Join Our Mailing List

Receive an email when a new course or blog post becomes available.

By subscribing, you agree with our Privacy Policy.

Scroll to Top