Hans Zimmer Chord Progressions

anzima is one of the most successful and prolific film composers of all time in this video i'll explore some chord progressions which are found in a selection of his most well-known pieces from films including the dark knight and inception time from the movie inception has emerged as one of hans zimmer's most popular pieces of the last decade or so featured in the closing scenes of the movie the piece slowly builds revolving around a repeating chord progression made up of a total of eight chords the piece is in the key of e minor and starts on the fourth chord of the key a minor before moving down to the root chord of e minor the progression then moves to a g major or chord iii to me the g major then has a feeling of needing to be resolved which he does by moving to d major or chord seven [Music] this d major again sounds like it wants to move somewhere which most naturally could be chord one or e minor that would give the impression of the music including though which obviously wouldn't be the best approach given the piece has just begun so we head back to chord four or a minor in order to start the loop all over again this previous four chord progression then repeats but the second time free instead of the second chord being e minor we have a c major seven chord instead this changing chords helps to give the progression some variety and offers a harmonic twist given the repetitive nature of the overall piece to finish we return to g major or chord three followed by d major chord seven let's take a listen to the whole progression [Music] next we have he's a pirate main theme from the pirates of the caribbean centered around the key of d minor the progression changes chords frequently with a total of 15 chords in the space of the 8 bar phrase starting on d minor or chord 1 it quickly moves away to b flat major or quad 6. [Music] then down to a minor which is chord five [Music] before resolving back to d minor whilst the melody which accompanies the progression then essentially repeats this time the harmony changes and starts on a b flat major chord or chord six then moves to f chord free before moving on to c major or chord seven [Music] and then again resolving to d minor the second half of the progression then stays on d minor [Music] before moving to g minor or chord four this time in first inversion this creates an unstable feel the first inversion quickly shifts to a root position g minor chord before again resolving to d minor or chord one finally we have a quick return to b flat major or chord six then chord one d minor before ending on a major the major version of the v chord which helps us then pull back up to the d minor helping to start the progression all over again let's take a listen to the complete progression [Music] i feel this progression takes us on a journey starting on the tonic or chord one going through a variety of harmonic twists and turns before ending up on chord five there is a whole mix of motions and resolutions including a total of seven individual chords including an inversion for good measure as well the next piece is from the ending of the da vinci code just as the narrative is wrapping up and concluding the piece essentially repeats the same chord progression throughout gradually building to a climax using instrumentation again in the key of d minor the progression is fairly straightforward starting on d minor or chord one before moving to f major or chord three [Music] a c sus four chord or chord seven is then used to add some tension and instability before resolving by lowering the f to an e to make a normal c major triad the progression finishes with a minor or chord v helping to resolve and pull the progression back to d minor or chord one for the beginning of the next round of the progression [Music] so let's take a listen to the complete progression with some string oscillators underneath as well [Music] the dark knight was co-composed with james newton howard and this progression is from one of the main themes which is heard throughout the movie again we're in the key of d minor and the progression starts on the root chord of d minor before moving to b flat major or chord six [Music] we then move to c major or chord seven before landing on a minor or chord five [Music] this fifth chord gives us the feeling that it needs to move on and progress forward which it does by shifting to a b flat major again or chord six [Music] this is then resolved to chord one or d minor before moving to c major or chord seven this gives a strong feeling of needing to be resolved which it does by once again returning to chord one or d minor [Music] here's a quick look at the number of times zimmer uses each chord in the previous examples all of which are in a minor key we can see that perhaps unsurprisingly chord one is used the most with a total of eleven appearances this is followed by chords six and seven which both crop up six times each chords three four and five then appear four times each with no appearances from chord two so with these examples we can see that zimmer will often write in a minor key especially for the pieces which often underscore the climaxes of each movie arguably two of his most famous pieces time for inception and the ending from the da code leads to relatively simple progressions which repeat over and over for the duration of each piece these progressions loop effectively partly due to the last chord of each progression giving a feeling of instability or needing to be resolved okay so let's take a look at a couple of pieces which are in a mage key the next example is from the lion king which zimmer won an academy award for the progression is from the peace king of pride rock again from the end of the movie and this time is in the key of f major in this example he makes use of the three most important chords in a major key the tonic or chord one the subdominant or chord four and the dominant chord five it's a fairly simple progression with the first half alternating between f major or chord one and b flat major chord four the third chord is an f major in first inversion with a in the bass this helps to add some extra variety and richness to the chord as well as enabling the bass to move by step to the note of a before heading back to the chord of b flat major or chord four the second half of the progression is more involved though with an f major or chord one this time in second version adding a feeling of instability this then moves down to b flat major or chord four with an added ninth which quickly resolves to a straightforward b flat major triad tension is created with the f sus4 chord but this tension is then immediately released by resolving to a straightforward f major chord finally we have a d minor or chord six taking us to one last place on the journey before another suspension in the form of c sus4 this creates a huge amount of tension which is released by resolving to f major at the start of the next section instead of resolving to a c major triad but although the chord progression is built upon the most important chords found in a major key there is quite a bit of tension which is constantly resolved especially during the second half of the progression let's take a listen to the whole sequence [Applause] [Music] and finally we have the main theme from planet earth 2 which again is in a major key this time in b flat major the progression is eight bars long and is split into two four bar phrases which essentially repeat starting with the brute chord of b flat major we quickly move the dominant or fifth chord f major this immediately sets up a feeling of tension with a chord clearly needing to go somewhere else that somewhere else is then up to g minor or chord six before moving to e flat major or chord four [Music] we then return to chord one b flat major and then again to f major chord five [Music] next we land on an e flat major chord with a sharpened 11th degree giving the note of a natural this immediately creates a strong dissonant sound which clearly wants to be resolved which it does by taking the a down to a g to form a complete e flat major triad [Music] the progression then pretty much repeats starting with chord one then five six and then four again following this though we have the addition of the b flat major in first inversion which has a d in the bass helping to give the music an unstable quality which quickly resolves then to an f major chord [Music] we then end on an e flat major 7 chord adding another feeling of tension which will put us back to the root chord of b flat major during the next round of the progression let's take a listen to the complete 8 bar sequence [Music] so looking at these two examples we can again see that chords one and four make the most appearances with eight each chord five is the next with five appearances whilst chord six appears three times interestingly there is no chord two three or seven in these two examples so there's a quick look at some of the chord progressions han zimmer uses in his music if you enjoyed the video don't forget to subscribe to the channel for more composing tips and tricks thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next video [Music] you

Channel: Composing Academy

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Keywords: Hans Zimmer. Hans Zimmer Chords, How to compose like Hans Zimmer Cinematic Chord Progressions, Chord Progressions, Inception, Time, The Lion King, Pirates of the Carribean, How to write like Hans Zimmer, Music Theory, Common Chord progressions in film music, film music, how to write film music, how to compose film music, Cinematic Chord Progressions, Epic Music, Cinematic Music, Roman Numerals in Music, Chords, Major Chords, Minor Chords, Music Analysis, Chords in music

Id: cAgTvai3d0c

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 05 2022