@ABitRusty -

I had first watched the 'Listening In' video, "What do Dreams Sound Like?" (quite a while back) which talks about the music in the film "Inception" & I remember thinking it felt like there was more to it than just 2 simple melody lines.

I'm not finding the Charles Cornell video very helpful, either.  It's mainly because I'm hearing a powerful chord progression (love the minor/major interplay), but I have a really hard time clearly seeing what the chord progression is just by watching notes played on the piano.

So, I had to look for a video about Zimmer's chord progressions - luckily this one starts with "Time" from Inception & is straight forward. 

I feel like I learned more about this music from seeing how this chord progression advances in notation, than anything else. 

Behind the Score: Inception - Ashton Gleckman.  This was interesting - the Édith Piaf connection for one, but starting at 22:00, Ashton talks about "Time" and harmonics of the strings, bowing effects that are possible from 'spitfire' plugins, etc... 

I know we talked about Zimmer in at least one other thread & think I watched several videos of him explaining his thought/processes at that time, but I don't remember exactly which ones. 

THIS ONE BLOWS MY MIND!  ...don't think you shared this one(?)

First of all, he's making me feel really stupid for recording my cat noises, now! 

Second, WHAT IS ALL THAT EQUIPMENT ON HIS WALLS???  It's SO COOL to be part of the great room decor, which doesn't really look like a studio! 😎

OMG! 

YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE TRAILER FOR HIS ONLINE FILM SCORING CLASS! 

Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring!

@ABitRusty -

I really appreciate this discussion. 

Yes, Charles does say what the chords are, but the way he went about it just makes it hard (just for me) to understand what's happening with the chord progression. 

It's the exact same problem I have when Rick Beato shows chords on his guitar, or piano.  Rick also tells what the chords are, but I really have a hard time following 'why', especially once the chords have more than 3 notes.  

I find myself focusing on listening to how the chords sound, but not understanding why the chords/notes are used... like running inside a maze, instead of looking down at the whole maze from above.  

Helps if I'm given the Roman numerals, but I can understand the chord structures and their progression much better (for anything other than simple triads) only if I can see the notation while it's being played. 

Actually, the way Zimmer described his lessons I thought they might aid in YOUR creativity (surprised by the low cost).  ...think I better learn to use PreSonus, first.