Learn Amazing Cinematic Chord Progressions

In this video we will break down 3 different ways to make cinematic chords that film composers use. These techniques are outside of traditional music theory and will help open up your ideas to more interesting way of making film score music. Ideas included are often used by composers like John Williams and other cinematic film composers composers.
Also take a look at my online film scoring course and practice scoring real world videos at filmscoreseminar.com.
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Composer Course: www.filmscoreseminar.com/
KZbin: / whittymusic
Website: michaelwhittaker.net/
Facebook: / michaelwhitt. .
Instagram: / michaelwhit. .

[@OM-md6ki]

Whered you even learn this kind of deep stuff? More lessons on weird progressions, techniques, film sounds like lydian. This was sooo deep man. Thank you for the ideas

[@whittymusic]

Thank you for the kind words. I will post some more of this soon.!

[@OM-md6ki]

@@whittymusic please do bro! I was just rewatching this, I’m playing with the chromatic triads… give us some Lydian film vibes please!

[@GoaWay4Sanity]

*this is absolutely crazy!! I love these tips!! Please make more of this!*

[@CT-sp7uq]

Brother in music, romantic and Impressionism overlap they’re not different eras

[@user-sc8iy1it9h]

Studiing Scores 😂 Hearing listening and understanding. These are Basics. But becareful. To get an Oskar, you have to Put this Kind of examples in the right place😂

[@D4Dthecomposer]

Finally a composer of film music who does a break down of the most exciting exciting cinematic chords. I am specializing in genre film music and these are the more commonly used approaches which I so desperately have been wanting to learn

[@daquetreed5522]

Hans Zimmer has a masterclass

[@railwaycat]

@@daquetreed5522 but it's not one that teaches technique/theory. it was good tho but it's more about his personal approaches

[@eduardotepoxteca9171]

This is the kind of stuff I was looking for, I always wanted to learn this kind of techniques or progressions there's something about movies and video-game scores that is just magic. Thank you sir

[@AlexSonicsMusic]

Absolutely outstanding content. Clear, concise, wonderfully realistic mockups. I'm a huge fan of common tone movements, but the chromatic movements seem very juicy as well. THANKS a billion!

[@whittymusic]

thank you for the kind words!

[@AndrewMasters]

Absolutely awesome!

[@BeyondtheNotesPiano]

Wow. I’ve been looking for someone like you to learn from. Just watching 5-7 min and a whole new world opened to me. Made me fall in love even more with film scoring (which I’m new to) and it even made me tear up I was so excited 🤣🤣 I love the way you teach and your personality! Totally looking into your course now after this comment. Thank you!

[@camthesaxman3387]

It's crazy how cinematic you can sound just by plopping down random triads that only share one note with the next.

[@patandmacmusic]

It’s flabbergasting how stupidly simple and yet incredibly complex it is lol 😂

[@zxprophet30]

added the sneaky E major on the first example but great lesson ty so much

[@richardbarcaricchio]

How does this have so few views?? Fantastic.

[@PowerRedBullTypology]

For the most of my time into compositon (just for fun) I did not knew any music theory or know how to play anyone's else's music. I did not even knew anything other than the idea that chords were made of a few (like 3 tones). So I just combined any 3 notes that I fancied into a chord. With things like 7 chods I only used 3 tones becasue I did not know chords could have 4 of them. I usually just had the 5 missing (so 1, 3, 7) I also did not knew of scales, but was always attacted to chord progressions with chords that did not all belong in the same key. They had that 'magical' feeling that filmscoles could have and seem to create a more intense experience than in key chord progressons. The method I used to combine chords was just to keep one of the 3 tones/notes the same and move the others around. This made it accessible enough while not feeling too predictable (as in key can feel predictable). While I would probably still recommend people to know theory, I think the way I learned it was much more fun and exciting as a journey than some starting with basic chords in a major scale. I do not think that would have captured me from the start. So i can imagine that if people do know much theory like I did, they can enjoy such methods as they not as much feel like you have to know as many rules (like scale "rules"). Then you can start out in a somewhat more playful manner.

[@pianomanny1397]

Thank you for this session! This was a tremendous help!

[@youngkizzi9944]

So inspiring! Thank you, man!

[@sourcefor]

Pure gold!

[@Andrewtm23]

that was great. loved it

[@seanmcdermott7256]

I can't believe how much my approach to composing has changed since I stumbled across your channel. What a talent you are! Thanks for all of these incredible insights.

[@janesmith9628]

LOVED this! Great presentation and examples. Thank you!

[@pliniobarraza]

Very inspiring, thank you!

[@jamescalvey5273]

This is just what I was looking for... What a fantastic video, thank you so much for making it!

[@pixels2music348]

Extremely valuable video. Thank you!

[@MarcoHerbert]

One of the best videos I´ve ever seen on YT! Thank you!!

[@nitinmistry6280]

I can't read music, but your video really helped me understand and apply a simple technique to come up with custom chord progressions given a starting point. Very well explained. Thank you.

[@drew4b]

this is one of the most helpful composing videos ive ever seen thank you so much for explaining it so simply

[@Excellentness]

Happy to be here Excellent lesson

[@sunnyschramm9650]

amazing - thx for the video.

[@handznet]

Fantastic video. Please continue ❤️

[@cyrilcalmes4208]

Awesome ! thanks

[@MasterKnutA]

This is so good. Thank you! Subscribed ✨

[@grahamstott1455]

Awesome! What fantastic relevantly simple techniques. Thanks for sharing.

[@restlessmusemusic]

wonderful! thank you

[@soundwelt1428]

Your orchestration sounds so good 👍🏻🤗 thanks for sharing your knowledge

[@DaveBessell]

Thank you, very nice compact explanation of these techniques.

[@indikasampath5440]

I literally wrote this down..thanks..good job

[@NickyBisTheB.]

great video man! Keep up the good work!

[@vivo-audio]

Your explanations and demonstrations are brilliant and made simple. Thank you.

[@MurphyKargesBass]

And he goes, "then you can get more advanced.." while I'm still scribbling down the very first few chords and notes from the beginning.. and it hits you.. just hire someone this good to orchestra for you lol great video

[@48VoltFX]

So awesome!

[@waterfallfallfall]

This is sooooooo helpful!!

[@jultzgamboa7883]

WOW! This Is amazing! Thank's! Muchas gracias

[@stephencoiner]

Great stuff here.

[@javieral1448]

You are also an outstanding producer/sound engineer! Thanks so much for this golden information.

[@premiummusicacademy17]

thank you for this, this is great

[@Johnstone565]

Excellent video. Thanks 😊

[@johnmac8084]

Fantastic lesson, thanks. Subscribed and liked 😀

[@desoconnor7445]

Outstanding content …no waffle ….brilliant flow rate and idea development..thanks 🙏

[@ryanicenhower5994]

Well if this isn’t just an absolute gold mine of information. Definitely subscribed

[@IngoGarza]

Wow this was amazing! You got yourself a new subscriber my friend.

[@music.gauri3]

Wow, this was actually so useful! Thank you so so much for this video!!

[@Willsonix]

Thanks that was enlightening.

[@omarirm]

Great!!! Thanks!

[@TimSidden]

Great Tips!!!

[@yosephkurniawanmusic]

Thankyou Sir!! you are soooo good!!

[@seekertosecrets]

5:17 Nice. It's like being introduced to a new world.

[@coweepei]

This is so great!!!!!!

[@sergiovegaz]

Amazing, great eye-opener... magic exists! :) Thanks, subscribed. Saludos desde México!

[@AyadenAllen]

Awesome!

[@KrimoErra]

Thank u so much, i am going from piano into filmscore so this helps me on my way.

[@CyrilBellem]

Great!!!! Thank you so much :-)

[@MaxTooney]

I need to transcribe this commencing @11:25. You morphed into a jazz pianist at that point -- I liked it! (Helpful lesson, btw.) Amazing that it took KZbin's algorithm two years to find this for me.

[@narresnair1154]

Excellent video

[@ChristianBrown-sc3pk]

Thank you for this. You're more informative than many others who teach the same.

[@dannylynch3290]

You should make an online course just with lessons like these, wow!

[@whittymusic]

my online course filmscoreseminar.com thanks!

[@dannylynch3290]

@@whittymusic is this information inside the course?

[@kentownsendmusic94]

Cool!

[@usaroman]

These orchestral mockups sound outstandingly realistic. Is native instruments or some very expensive library. I would be interested in taking your course if i could afford the sound libraries. Thanks 🎉

[@whittymusic]

thank you for the kind words. I use many libraries but you can start with the spitfire discover for free or the East West Composer cloud for a very small monthly price. Dont let money stop you from moving your career forward. My class will teach you and give excellent results with many different libraries..

[@Notmehimorthem]

Excellent

[@Robert-pd8hj]

This is great!! However.. I have no problem coming up with great chords, what I struggle with is how to get the chords from the piano to this epic sounding song. I need help with what instruments to use and how and when. Do you by any chance have a video where you go through that process step by step? Thanks!

[@whittymusic]

good question, its a lot to learn and beyond just a KZbin video. Id highly recommend my film scoring course which is 25 hours of training on this. filmscoreseminar.com

[@JohnSk82]

Aside the great tips I like that you are using PSamples for your mockups and the combinations btw other devs.

[@omarallen4203]

Phenomenal work! Phenomenal channel! And as I will most assuredly enjoy your online course, Phenomenal Online Course!

[@JorgeCamachoCompositormx]

Where have you been whole my student life? i love this video, new sub, thanks

[@whittymusic]

thank you for the kind words:)

[@JustFiddler]

bagus sekali ! Matur suksma

[@nicholaspatrick-]

Hey man!!! I absolutely love your teaching style. I learned more in this video than I have in the past 6 months. I have a question regarding the chord progression in technique 1. Correct me if I'm wrong because I want to learn. With the exception of the very first chord Cmin and the very last chord Bbmaj, isn't technique 1 in the key of Gbmaj/Ebmin? Or am I looking at this wrong? using the Nashville number system, It seems the chord progression is Cmin, 6, 3, 5, 2, 4, Bbmaj. Does this work so well because its mostly diatonic? Thank you in advance! you are the best!

[@johncracker5217]

The last chord in example 1 is augmented for anyone wondering

[@usaroman]

Just stopped by once again to keep a bookmark this video in my comment section. Composing is something I did naturally and had a great time but that was 30 years ago and I seem to no longer able to download inspiration as I struggle with health issues. But these videos help rekindle the fire. Thanks :) Happy Holidays !!!

[@whittymusic]

Thank you sir. Hope your health improves!

[@mosstet]

Excellent. Can you explain exactly what the advanced part of the pedal point chords was?

[@VHF.brunoverdoni]

Hi, very educating, what midi fader device are you using? Thank you !

[@hukkumkhinda497]

Hiii, I rlly loved this video and it helped me alot, also what daw did you use??

[@whittymusic]

I use Digital Performer. Thanks, glad you are getting something out of it!

[@hugobodiam4065]

Great. Would be very helpful if you could name the second and third chord progressions as in the first example. Very dramatic cinema!

[@nezkeys79]

Example 2(piano): Cm > C#m Fm > F#m Bbm > Am C#m > Cm Em > Fm Abm > Gm Bm > Cm Etc Example 3(piano): D/C Eb/C G/C Ab/C Etc he just randomizes the major triad over the C bass and says he isn't being picky about it

[@jaydonmiao3326]

thanks

[@ivansoto9723]

3:15 This tripped me up for like a good 2 minutes lmfao. I thought you said "Amin" not "a minor" haha. I was like "That don't look like no a minor".

[@rocky_racoon_uk1252]

How do things look on orchestrating, what key/'s would indicated on the scores ?

[@EugeneVasile]

Thanks for the video, this concept opens many doors. As I understand technique #1 correctly, we are borrowing chords from the parallel keys, either major or minor, and building triads on the third or fifth degree of the key we are currently in. The last two chords in the example are B resolving to Bb; can this be seen as tritone substitution? It doesn't sound diatonic. Thanks again.

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

What makes some harmonic progression cinematic?

[@maxtofone]

Thank you so so much Michael for this fantastic video and demonstrations! Looking forward to more cinematic chord progression techniques. Kind regards and many blessings, MaxT

[@aurisawei]

breakin it down for us 1 iq folks. stunning. thank you

[@boraoznacar]

Hello. Actually, I have a question for you. I have no problem creating great orchestrations with logic and vsts, but mixing them afterwards is a big problem and question mark. Since I cannot adjust the levels, either my theme is not heard or the song coming out of the general master channel is very dull. Do you provide training for this? By the way, thanks for the great video. And of course, thank you in advance for your answer to my question.

[@JhovelForonda]

Hi Sir. Amazing videos and thank you for giving us education about film scoring. I just have one question, Do you not do the measures on your mock up scores? I can see on this video that the music flows freely without following the measures. I know it could be tedious to write the tempo in a way of expressive music with at lot of retard, accelerando's and dynamic changes but how do you send the scores to the live musicians if they will not be in proper written scores? Thank you in advanced for you answer, Sir.

[@whittymusic]

In these examples I am following a click track in all 3 examples. Since these were only a MIDI mockup it didn't matter to me where bar lines were. If it were to be played by a live orchestra I would need to follow bars and make adjustments to the measures. Thank you for following!

[@JhovelForonda]

@@whittymusic Thank you for your reply Sir. And so, I assume it will take a lot of work too, to align the mock ups to the bars when it needs to be played by real orchestra... And do you just play and disregard the click if doing retard then back to "a tempo" while catching up to the next click? Because that's what I usually do 😁😁

[@toddscotdrumcovers2341]

It would be helpful to be able to download the midi file for this

[@mybiggrin]

So tight.

[@GoaWay4Sanity]

6:58 - *these half-step chords out are playing are all minor ones, right?* 10:34 - *these are just major chords over a specific bass pedal note?*

[@bigdre31371]

Can these techniques be used for creating dramedy cues?

[@autisticcormorant6881]

Wow what a gem you've made here. These techniques seem really applicable to transitions or on screen events. A great add to any beginning composer's toolbox.

[@yvanroustan4426]

Very good tips thank you ! hope you could make other videos like this ! SUBSCRIBE

[@yalla636]

Thank you ! Amazing Learn Video

[@blasttrash]

which daw is that?

[@whittymusic]

Digital Performer

[@Josehernandez-nr3ll]

What about the chord progression to your intro sir 👀

[@thearcticmantam6854]

aw man. i wish i knew music theory...

[@MattMossMusic]

I feel like I just ran into a goldmine of missing pieces to transition from music library mode to scoring 😮

[@sequentia2]

🙋🏻‍♂️🇲🇽

[@kimpeterson3445]

Super helpful. Very practical and clear. By the way, when you express the piano part with the full orchestra you are “fleshing it out” not “flushing it out”. Something is fleshed out if it is augmented or made more whole, and something is flushed out if it is cleaned with water or forced out into the open

[@richardcasey4439]

Face diapers??

[@franciscoaragao9672]

Now I understand why those 'cinematic' music looks like all the same. Repetitive recipes.

[@LearnCompositionOnline]

Hahaha yeah