after years of requests I'm going to be
analyzing some of the cues on the soul
score by Trent resar and attakus Ross I
have seen the movie let's start with the
great beyond which I remember seeing the
title and going that just makes me think
of the great
below excuse me
[Music]
this sounds like a Big E major chord
which you know I think feels like things
are opening up there's possibility it
does feel very expansive but I think a
lot of that has to do with the the sound
design has a lot of movement there's
like
a that makes it feel suspenseful and
exciting and then that big
swell but yeah E
[Music]
major okay that
note that note came in this is the trone
of the scale this is associated with
lydian and lydian is
like which just sounds like a dream it's
so curious and it is in my opinion one
of the most filmy sounding scales
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that okay that textured base that the
filter is sweeping through feels very
9ish
nailsyo to show you how much you can do
with one chord with really good sound
design and sort of the uh rise and fall
of energy also kind of covered a lot of
the like dynamic range low mid high and
I feel like the placement of just
staying in this one chord and not really
having a progression of any kind or a
line to follow just makes you feel like
you don't have to go anywhere like
you've already arrived let's do Terry
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time very dissonant
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clock
ticking terod
time okay
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so
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trenty why does that sound so trenty
well I have a few theories one is is the
chord well not chord progression but the
Baseline which
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is he just uses these notes a lot in his
Bas lines and his progressions less than
I think it's
like
what and I also think he used this for
the Q that kind of rose to the top from
Challengers which I actually haven't
seen but I've I've heard the oh compress
repress is that it's called I think it
was also this so it's just like one of
the things that he likes to do and we
love when he does it and then the use of
chromaticism
and sort of like unexpected notes in
general in
theck so you kind of had this like call
and response between these two little
bells the top one sort of felt like it
was doing a line that I could follow I
think it was something
like but then there was one that was
also really strange let me see if I find
[Music]
it sometimes this
one and and then
sorry I can't explain it exactly but
like okay okay so that part and
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closer what was it I can't seem to
remember exactly how it goes but it's in
the bridge
[Music]
and it's approximately these
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notes and um this has the same kind of
vibe and the sort of diving down to this
note I don't
know also it's detuned there's this part
here the one that's
going is is tuned and so I'm just like
thinking for a children's movie that is
not something I would typically hear is
like detuned rhythmic synths they're so
clearly synth and um and then this kind
of
strange like lack of scale very
chromatic sort of Melody uh but it's
again it's very evocative let's do run/
astral plane
[Music]
okay I'm already going to just say right
now what makes this so interesting to me
is the delay which is an
echo so the the thing that he's
programmed I think is D D D D D D D D D
D which would be like the eighth notes I
guess D D D D D D D but he's got a 16th
note delay on seemingly everything so it
creates like more rhythms dck dck duck
dck dck D but still the main pulse D D D
D D D is the most accented
[Music]
one okay lots of filtering too right so
it's really closed off and then opens up
gets loud and closes off again makes it
feel like yeah you're
running
okay we have a progression
[Music]
okay this is in B
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major this is actually a chord
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progression and then
he's not playing chords like that um but
they are implied by the Baseline
movement and then the melody over them
altogether it creates those chords over
time so I'm hearing a very major Melody
[Music]
the there's some other notes in
there sometimes it goes up um but notice
how they kept it going over the chord
change that's a really good tip um every
time you change chords try not changing
whatever Motif you have going on and
seeing how it sounds over the new
baseline or the new chord because you
might be surprised some good stuff
happens that way and repetition is good
repetition is a good
[Music]
thing okay that's our four chord
this isn't how pretty that
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was my voice is
[Music]
gone
yeah this is
the ninth it's a seventh but they're
really spread out it like
this and this becomes a six it's just a
really nice way to voice things
[Music]
and then we're back okay now it turns
into astral
plane suddenly
[Music]
orchestral
[Music]
wow I think this is lydian
[Music]
so
layered it feels like there's like
things like flitting into existence and
then flitting out of existence all over
these different instruments that come in
and they've all got like a delay on them
so that also creates that feeling of
spaciousness and they're just sort of I
mean I don't think it's random but in
some ways you could kind of create a
similar Sound by like randomly playing
the notes in lydian you know
[Music]
you know and you get that it's so and
it's also out of time right there's no
pulse anymore coming from
the which makes you feel like you're
running it's perfect it's very very
descriptive emotionally let's listen to
betrayal
[Music]
this is a really
Lush tender emotional chord called an
Adine four chord
[Music]
interesting so this is building to
something but they kind of have these
two
chords D major and then this one um
I'm going to voice it like that A B
minor chord but with the seventh on it
which is left over from
this another great tip just hold on the
notes like when you change something
don't change everything just change some
things and then they start playing this
a major
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scale but over this chord instead of
over like an a chord like
[Music]
this which I think actually makes it
sound less scale-like because because
it's not relating to like it's it's its
own
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home uh dyian maybe which makes sense
cuz I did start to feel like lydian
Vibes and then I was like yeah it's it's
it's swelling it's
building oh yeah I just love this
chord oh yeah and
[Music]
sometimes it breaks through the ceiling
and hits the B
[Music]
it's
[Music]
good we got a rhythmic pulse
now I think the delicate piano is the
part that feels like a little bit of
betrayal maybe this minor chord too
but it could also sound very uplifting I
think it really depends on context I
feel like some film cues are like a
little bit shape Shifty next I want to
listen to Epiphany which is the one that
I remember the most I remember the scene
and it's very poignant and I think they
did a really good job and if I remember
correctly this Q is it's not
complicated it goes right to the heart
and at the end there's an improvisation
which now I know was John
[Music]
batist I'm just going to even talk about
this so remember it's in C
Okay so
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and then it must
[Music]
be now there's something very open-ended
about this intro this is not the kind of
intro where I'm like I feel oriented and
I know what's going on and I'm grounded
and qu it's quite the opposite part of
it that it's played so sparsely in the
top register of the piano there's so
much space in between these notes but
also harmonically it doesn't establish a
key Center whatsoever which not I mean
it's not at all given for film music for
like pop music like yeah like it thrives
on the idea of a key
Center but for film I feel like so much
of it is like the question and not the
answer so in this case it just feels
like what are
we where are we
going I didn't expect that and I and I
don't know where it's going next I can't
make any predictions whereas with pop
music I start certainly can and you know
a lot of times we're going to be right
because it is
predictable but this
is a discovery inside this person right
they're finding their way
[Music]
too so
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I love the sound of the piano that the
isain petal coming off
[Music]
interesting that I was just bringing up
that idea of like a lot of film music is
the question and not the answer but this
is called Epiphany this moment is
about uh the answer right and so
the intro which might actually be John
batist I'm not sure because in the movie
it's like him playing and I could see it
being John it doesn't really quite sound
like what Trent and attakus do here so
that could be a cool like um
collaboration it really works though
looking for something and then finding
it that's how this feels this part this
is the part where the feet touch the
ground and it's like yes now I
know why is it that way well for one it
has a rhythmic pulse so that's already
very
grounding um it has a repetitive core
progression and it also has a repetitive
like
atinado you guess you could call it the
melody well no the melody is a
t the aado is
a right and it's in a major key this is
something that you have heard all your
life it has
recognizable
moves luckily that's the key we're in so
that was a good key for me to
hit
five
1 and then
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four not to go like too deep into this
because I could just end it there and be
like that's what it is nothing like like
extraordinary about it but I will say
one thing I like about it is that um a
lot of music will start on the home
chord and this doesn't it starts the
progression starts on the tensest
sounding chord in the whole progression
and then
resolves in the middle and then goes to
another sort of like questioning
sounding chord at the end so it it uh it
still keeps you I guess a little bit
more engaged as a result it just has
like a little bit of a different Journey
that you go on the Narrative of the
chord progression
anyway then back to see then
stays which was a good
move my favorite part is probably this
part because
oh it's an add nine chord ha I actually
was going to say it sound like a
suspension the
sound but you add that note in the
little side step and now you got now you
got yourself a nice steaming hot at
nine which is so tender it's so
tender so that's what's going on beneath
and then the melody mhm
okay so I'm going to just take away the
[Music]
aado okay so why is that so pretty I
think it's because of the SEC second
chord so this
um this
part that's a suspense
ension and it's a very very potent one
because this note really badly wants to
go here why well this is the third of
the chord it's the heart this one is
only a half step away so they have this
magnetism this one
is I would say it's not dissonant but
it's like it wants to move to a stable
place in the scale which is this or here
so it's in between it's like a it's like
a it's like a a moon orbiting you know
trying to figure out
which planet to orbit um and it can go
to either one but in this one moment it
goes down here and that's like where I
wanted to
go and the tension resolves to this like
more major cord and that's our home so
it's just it's like almost like delaying
the resolution a little bit by doing the
suspension then there are these chords
later
[Music]
by the
way the main piano Melody has more
Reverb on it so it's
like has more space and
like just more
romantic okay I got the melody a little
wrong I'm just realizing doesn't go da
[Music]
just lands second time though it went up
here which is another suspension sound
or a dissonant kind of ninth
sound now some
pads okay
[Music]
okay so there was a moment where the
core progression changed and you
probably felt that and that's when
instead of going
[Music]
um it goes
to this
chord and then it goes
down all right so this is the six chord
it's the first minor chord we've heard
in the song and it is considered like
another home sort of but it's like the
colder home um so I think it's very
poignant to go to that and then it
travels downward to this chord which
we've heard before but now um they're
voicing them as actual chords and this
is I got to say kind of a little unusual
for Trans compositions to actually be
playing like traditional like major and
minor block chords like that um but it
still sounds like him which is an
interesting thing like this one I'm a
little less able to articulate why it
sounds like Trent it's like voiced very
low but it's good it's like he's not
crowding everything down here because if
you play like that that doesn't sound
that great it's kind of Muddy it's just
too many notes too many low notes close
together so it sounds better like say
doing like
that um so I think he's maybe got a
couple other notes in there maybe like
this
[Music]
okay so now we're back to
[Music]
the the main
progression you hear those petal
points and a little variation on
the I just heard like
a or something some some other notes
that are nearby but that's just really
like a nice
touch but these kind of angelic pads
make you feel like you're transcending
which is perfect because Joe
is a spirit you know and he's like
finding his way you feel like you're
ascending with
[Music]
him that line felt very
Trent almost reminds me of of some of
his falling lines and like leaving
[Music]
Hope M
oh look at that so it's all the notes in
this F major 7
[Music]
chord okay so now
we're staying here on
G which doesn't feel homey at all it
feels
like we're we're on the move
[Music]
right I love
pads okay this is John batist part
[Music]
so it still ends on that F chord so it
feels really consistent but this is the
relative minor key of C major and it's
all the same chords so it really fits
but I just absolutely love how it sounds
to play
this over this
one and then here
so yeah again varying sort of the
foundation the bass note the chords but
keeping the motif going and then he does
this gorgeous flurry of of a Improv
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
it's so pretty yeah I feel like that was
such an amazing moment in
the uh in the score and I've talked to a
lot of people that really love that Quee
this was the first video I've made in
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