Theme Writing 1 – Film Music Notes

Theme Writing 1: Emotions with 8-Bar Film Forms

Find the perfect form for your theme’s expression.

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 answers. Files in MIDI, MusicXML, PDF, and MP3 formats.

Site Forums

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

$99 USD
Duration: 3 Hrs 52 Min

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Watch Overview

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. Composition exercises with answers are included in MIDI format for DAWs, MusicXML for notation software, and PDF and MP3 for pencil and paper.

Course Content

The 12 Types of 8-Bar Themes
- Components of the First 4 Bars
- Components of the Last 4 Bars
Basic Forms – The Sentence and Clause
- The Basic Idea
- The Repeated Basic Idea
- Acceleration – The Sentence
- Variation – The Clause
Basic Forms – The Period and Composite
- The Contrasting Idea
- Return – The Period
- Difference (no acceleration) – The Composite
Developing Forms
- The Developing Idea
- Developing Sentence
- Developing Clause
- Developing Period
- Developing Composite
Hybrid and Compound Forms
- Hybrid Forms – Overview
- Hybrid Sentence
- Hybrid Clause
- Hybrid Period
- Hybrid Composite
- Compound Sentence & Clause
- Compound Period & Composite

Now Available

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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Coming Soon

This course not only shows how to handle voice leading and progressions for chromatic chords, but also how chords like secondary dominants, augmented 6ths, half-diminished 7ths, and others take on certain emotional associations in certain chromatic contexts. We then explore how certain key relationships in film can be associated with certain expressions like intensified action, hopefulness, and the awe-inspiring.

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