Chords Film Composers use for the HOLLYWOOD SOUND

How to use Chords by 3rds, aka chromatic mediant chords.

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Chromatic mediant chords are an easy way to use non-functional harmony to create powerful emotional effects. We’ll put the music theory to actual practical use by looking at short examples of moving between different major and minor chord relationships.

Enhance moods, make your chords sound “more major” or “more minor”, and use the harmonic technique that you hear all over film, TV and video game soundtracks! Using chords with roots a third apart is a great step towards broader non-diatonic harmony.

I first heard about this trick from Scott Smalley at a film scoring orchestration workshop in LA, but I’ve since seen it talked about many times, including in the book Hollywood Harmony: Musical Wonder and the Sound of Cinema by Frank Lehman.
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Stock footage provided by Videvo, JulienTromeur, and Mark Schellenberg, downloaded from www.videvo.net
Photos courtesy of Unsplash, special thanks to Annie Spratt.

Icon made by iconixar from www.flaticon.com

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:39 What are Chords by 3rds?
2:01 "More major, more minor"
3:08 Major to Major 1
3:52 Major to Major 2
4:25 Major to Minor
5:36 Minor to Minor
6:27 Minor to Major
7:17 Final thoughts