WHO SAW THE NEW ONE?? How was it? Also, less than one week left to get 70% off the entire academy!! cornellmusicacademy.com/holidaysale

Honestly the story behind this movies soundtrack is kinda sad. They attempted to make a completely new musical system outside of the system we use. They wanted to literally make a musical system that developed completely independently of humanity's. However it was cut down when they realized it sounded *too* foreign. It sounded eerie to audiences so there's none of it in the soundtrack.

Super sucks that James Horner passed away and especially the way he did. Really a tragedy. He was responsible for some pretty incredible scores over the years and is still regarded as an underrated composer.

Listening to Horner's themes in Way of Water, made me really miss him. His death was so tragic, but the impact he left behind as far as the person he was and the music he wrote cannot be overstated. I hope such an era of music will happen since everything these days sounds like Hans Zimmer. Considering the big shoes to fill, I felt Simon Franglen did a pretty good job carrying the torch for Horner.

James Horner since 1979 has been a part of so many big movies and the 2 biggest, TITANIC and Avatar, what a fantastic talent who unfortunately was taken from us in a stupid plane crash 🤬 RIP

this might be one of the most beautiful movie soundracks ever...truly amazing

The avatar soundtrack will always have a special place in my heart as being the soundtrack that got me into film score. My favourite track is the first one (you don't dream in cryo) for the really interesting vocals at the opening. Super otherworldly.

I remember going to the cinema for the premier and the score made me tear up. Really effective and beautiful.

Plays a few seconds of the Avatar soundtrack... immediately have goosebumps and tears in my eyes. I miss James Horner's score style.

If you treat C#m as the 1 chord, you'd have a classic 1, 7, 4, 1 Dorian progression. This is a lot more intuitive than suggesting we never touch the tonic, or that the F# major is somehow a modulation and not diatonic to the mode.

I like how you provided a clear explanation of basic theory for those viewers that do not know theory. Basically a free theory lesson for anyone!

Here before the vid gets copyright claimed for mention of "My heart will go on"

My musical mentor is a First Call Recording Artist in L.A. He worked under Horner countless times, and respected him greatly. James was not only a pilot, but loved doing aircraft stunts. His death was a stunt gone horribly wrong. My mentor (who is a pilot himself) said there was no body and basically just "plane dust". No complete parts survived. James died on impact and hopefully didn't feel a thing. God bless him. But!! He went doing what he loved doing! The loss is ours. We should all keep that in mind. Peace...

Hopefully you mention the song - the songcord sung by Zoe. Such a beautiful song, probably the best in the movie!

Simon Franglen did Horner proud. He created some beautiful themes, like the Tulkun theme and the theme for the Sully Family. If you're taking recommendations, then please explore the music of James Newton Howard. One of the greatest composers.

The soundtrack of Avatar is just so magical, I love listening to the main theme everyday

RIP James Horner 🌹 One of the greatest.

I've never seen this movie. I don't know the music. But as soon as I read "otherworldly" I was like "I bet it's dorian." That major IV chord after the minor i chord is the best way to create that otherworldly sound. You can also look at it as E lydian, but I prefer to think of the C# as the minor i, which would make it dorian. Both scales can be "otherworldly" however. I just think it's more logical to view this as being in a minor key considering it's a loop around C# minor. I believe the Avengers and James Bond both also use that major IV (though I think they blend natural minor with Dorian). I was surprised that connection wasn't made, since you've talked about both before.

Even the melodic choices and key changes for the *I See You* song were so distinct and stark in difference while connecting the verses and the bridges to the chorus but it all made sense. It was also paired up with the indigenous chants which made the song more haunting, and Leona Lewis' powerful and dynamic vocals that frequently had a lot of transitions from chest voice to head voice. Everything was so intentional.

I always remember seeing this film in the cinema and hearing the trumpet motif/theme and wondering for ages where else I had heard it! Turns out lots of places, most notably from his work on Enemy at the gates! Since then I have always been trying to listen out for a composers signature within a soundtrack

Another way of looking at chords I discovered was to lay out major and minor triads into a circle. For example, ...FM, Am, CM, Em, GM... . Alternate between 4 and 3 note increments, and alternate between major and minor. This creates two interleved circles of fifths. Chords in this wheel that are closer are more "expected", whereas "god chords" are further apart. It is easy to build virtually all conventional chord progressions by selecting chords from this wheel that are nearby.

Honestly don’t know why this movie is getting so much hate. I didn’t care much for the first one, but this new one is a really great movie. People should definitely go see it before hopping on the hate bandwagon.

I really appreciate the visualization of what you are talking about

the avatar chord progression is one of the few 'i can't believe i hadn't thought of that before'

the Major IV chord is absolutely lovely in a minor key. I use it oft in my own compositions.

yes! james horner's avatar soundtrack getting the love it deserves!

I’d think of that chord progression as belonging C# Dorian, Eg all chords deriving from B major. So it’s 2, 1, 4 if thought of in B or, 1, b7, 4 if in C# Dorian. Agree it’s an ear bender and a powerful sound

i have had this soundtrack on repeat for the last week and then this video comes out... aaaaa i cant get enough of james horner's music its too good

These musical themes by Horner are incredibly alive on the Flight of Passage ride at Disney....and in the pandora area of animal kingdom. Any casual fans of Avatar will find themselves suddenly feeling more strongly for this fictional world after visiting Pandora. The experience made me cry and gave me lasting chills hours after I was done. Check out "Pandora: the world of Avatar" for some great ambience recordings made for the theme park and it's shops. It also features themes written by Horner that didn't make it into the first film. RIP James Horner....the composer of my childhood.

Glad I wasn’t the only one that loved those chords when it first came out in the trailer release

i watched avatar 2 recently, and rewatched the first one right before. and this chord progression... it was just so good, every single time.

Mate it's so interesting to see all this! Thanks for teaching us music theory!

I am just amazed by how you explain these complicated topics so easily. We should all learn from your teaching style

James Horner is incredible and his soundtrack to "Sneakers" is a masterpiece. You should take a look at it!

It's from the song "I see you" by Leona Lewis from the Soundtrack of the first movie. So those cords sing "I see you" and it's what I hear every time it plays in the movie.

I'm getting goosebumps just hearing this.. Just a crazy good sound track

I actually like the video before watching it, knowing I will be amazed by it. Best piano reaction videos ever. Thanks Charles❤️

I'd love for you to dive into Casper's Lullaby by James Horner. Might be one of the most underrated cues of the last 30 years.

Love your video and how you’re able to always have genuine energy throughout!

Charles, you did something brilliant here that most of your subscriber base prob didn’t notice. I’ve been watching you for a couple of weeks now. KZfaq’s algo threw me a couple of older vids earlier this week that fascinated me as a theory & piano noob. I’m willing to bet you identified some extended watch time on some of those rudimentary concepts, and revisited them while bringing some fresh content. You’ve got something special here, and no one else is engaging with my watch time like you lately. Thank you for sharing your gift! Keep it up!

Man the goose bumps I get from this chord progression

i just love your charismatic, pasionate, explaination, of the music behind one of my fav movies, this really gets me in the mood, to just turn on my old keybord and just play around the cords you are so very amazing

watching Avatar 2, I went mainly for Horner’s music even though different composer- it made me sob that Horner is in fact gone and we will never hear his magic again. I love his work in Avatar- “pathway to heaven” is seriously the best. Did you know that Horner invented a few instruments just for this film??

I love it how they also made the song I see you with the same melody sung beautifully by Leona Lewis. She was just perfect for this song.

Really interesting how you explained the basics of harmony in a short video! Well done!

This does only half of the work. I think the other half is rhythmic, in fact two rhythmic elements: contrast between a relatively slow chord progression and a very fast rythm and basing the chord progression on groups of 3 (or 9, whatever), while not going into a waltz feel - the music does not feel "in 3/x", but that's the dominating feature of percussion (triplets, triplets, triplets) and the chord progression. Couple this with an out-of-place major chord... and you're on Pandora. Beautiful. Alien, but beautiful. Paired with similarly beautiful but alien visuals - you get a movie that hits hard, even if the actual plot is not that novel. It's not a great movie (plot, characters, etc), it's a great experience - one I will certainly never forget. Thanks to the creators we got to BE on Pandora. The story was far less important.

I know nothing of music but you're right. Those few chords and you immediately know it's Avatar's unique and special sound. Almost magical and otherwordly. It's beautiful and never ceases to amaze. I was very worried after James Horner passed that this beautiful Avatar music would be lost or changed in Avatar: Way of Water. But it was so touching to hear it wasn't lost at all - they just carried that torch. Also I'm mindblown. I would have never realized the first two chords are same with Titanic. It's touching to be honest that these are the two movies Cameron made and are special to him and share this relation.

It saddens me that “I See You” was never released as a single when the film came out, I reckon it could have been a huge bit! Leona’s vocals over Horner’s song is just stunning 😭

Me and my brother are about to see the sequel and we were just talking about how underrated the score from the first one is. Thank you sooo much for analyzing it for us!

As always, super fascinating and educational analysis. Your enthusiasm is very catchy :) all the best!

Great explanation Charles! Absolutely love your content 🙌🏽

great voicing on the chords, beautiful spread.

If your soundtrack its recognizable just for some notes, you hace done a good work

Can we all take a moment to appreciate the editors who do the keyboard at the bottom and the highliting of notes when a scale is shown on screen

get goosebumbps every time i hear it

I'm focused on Latin Jazz but really enjoy the way you break all of this down. Kudos!

this was an awesome video. i love the way you explained the music theory so clearly. gained a sub!

The Avatar Soundtrack is so beautiful 😭💙

Acabo de aprender muchísimo gracias a tu video. Excelente trabajo amigo!

I love how I can see the title and music in the thumbnail and immediately hear what you are talking about. Horner is a legend

Dude, you know more about music than I’ve ever known in my life 😂😂❤ Stay awesome!

Using the F# major chord instead of the diatonic F# minor means that A# occurs in the scale, where it usually wouldn't. This A# makes the E major scale (ionian) into a lydian scale, which is the same one as in Yoda's theme, which gives it a mystical, magical quality.

Fan from 🇬🇧 thanks for your hard work. Love the videos. Music theory was always my favourite subject at school. 20 years later I still love it.

It’s also the singing style with the brassy, forward placed open vowels. There’s a choral composer who likes to make tribal-sounding songs with gibberish words and I sang one in a women’s chorus in college and our student director for that song was very much like sing differently! Much more brassy and forward and nasally and almost flattened soft pallet/ kinda chant-y.

As a choir singer, this progression really pushes memories of whimsical, sparkly sounds through my head - the first piece that comes to mind is 5 Hebrew Love Songs by Eric Whitacre. If you're not familiar, I don't doubt that you'll find it extremely interesting, especially given Eric Whitacre's all-over-the-place, yet drop-dead gorgeous style of composing.

This soundtrack is so close to my heart ❤️

Really amazing video! Just watched Avatar 2 and that theme gives me chills every damn time! Thanks so much for breaking this down I learned a lot about scales and major/minor chords.

dude you are such a legend for making this video

Love the scores on both films

This progression kinda reminds me of the theme for Andor, except where F#(maj) goes back to the C#m, it instead resolves to a F#m. Love the content!

That flippin Motif literally brought tears to my eyes nearly every single time it played in the new movie! For some reason it has a profound affect one me!! It was actually quite annyoing, having constant misty eyes, but I love that motif so much. XD

Very valuable input, thank you

Chris, great video. I think there is also the consideration of what inversion of a chord goes to what inversion of the next chord. The intervalic leaps also help with the "otherworldly" vibe. Also direction of intervalic movement, meaning with all root of the chords in the bass, right hand goes from 2nd inversion C#m to 1st inversion B to 2nd inversion F# moving upwards versus moving downwards. If that makes sense. I think it's the openness of the intervallic movement. Similar to how open chords and the intervalic and inversion movement is used in gospel or Americana music.

This is amazing 🔥💖

I like that you spend so much time to explain music theory to beginners. I'm missing an explanation though, why the song is in E major and not B major. In B major, all the chords are diatonic. (IMHO, it is in C# dorian...)

That F-Sharp Major just does something man. I’m glad i’m not alone 0:27 Yes, Dude that IS the chord. and it might be my favorite

i know all this stuff, but i still enjoy the way you explain it to people who have no idea lol. love the content.

This is a great vid!!

loved this video. you are completely right... those chords give it the immediate 'avatar' bloom in a dark room

i wish there was someone like you for guitar

the moment you played the chords i got put back to the cinema 13 years ago, instantly goosebumps! its something different

Just started watching but the moment I heard the soundtrack I went home and figured it out on my guitar: the main theme tones are totally Lydian: root, second, sharp 4, 5, 3. In Db maj. Never tried to figure out the chords so this should be a treat!

My high school music theory final was comparing Avatar to Titanic. I feel so validated now that the king is talking about it.

Hey, Charles, its true, this is a great revie of Avatar Soundtrack, thank you for the class.

Hey Charles, your videos are always AWESOME! I’ve never seen Avatar but I definitely want to watch after what I saw! I want to request that you break down some of Todd Terje’s music, specifically Preben Goes to Acapulco. I think you’d have a great time figuring out the patterns and what makes it such an engaging piece

Love your work You are truly not only obviously talented Beyond skilled Love someone to do a bio on you and see how you got to where you are today That would be very interesting

The soundtrack makes the film the way it is, no explanation around it, it feels right. Very otherworldly, I love the music.

Could this also be seen as the C# minor the base and this being the Dorian Scale of B Major? The F# Major chord fits with C# minor and B Major in B Major Dorian..

Awesome vid once again, was hoping you'd do something on Avatar! Saw the new movie a few days ago, and it reminded me how gorgeous James Horner's original score was. Looking forward to playing some of it when friends come over

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the score to The Chronicles of Narnia do a similar thing? I seem to remember a similar sound and feel during the opening scene of the train ride and the wide open landscape shots in Narnia

Avatar was seeded by a Dream Cameron had back around when he was making Titanic and the film is very "dream like quality" in its many layers of presentation, one need only look to the lyrics of the song "I see you" sung by Leona Lewis..

hey Charles really love your videos and the way that you explain music theory, even though i don't have knowledge of music theory, and if possible I would love to hear you analysing the "across the stars" from Star Wars.

This was a really interesting video! I had no idea the major 2 was the key to the "Avatar" sound. To me, it's a very beautiful, peaceful, and nostalgic sound. The progression evokes feelings of longing for a better place, and I think that pulled me into the first movie harder than I otherwise might have been. The world of Avatar tends to set its claws in your imagination, and I think the soundtrack has a lot to do with that. The Way of Water's soundtrack is absolutely on point in this regard. If I recall, the movie opens with this exact progression (or throws it out very quickly), and immediately all those feelings came right back. I went into the movie cold (ie not prepping by rewatching the first), and that short progression brought everything from the first movie right to mind and set the stage. I remember being very impressed at how deftly it was done.

Love these sad sound

Every single time I hear that chord change I get crazy goosebumps. It's what pulled me into the second movie immediately. That being said, this video playing it so many times in a span of 15 minutes ended with me feeling a little woozy lmao

While thinking of everything in terms of Major and Minor key centers is definitely the more traditional way of thinking about Western harmony (as annoyed as I am about that; I think exploring modal harmony is worth the headache of learning the modes), I'd like to think that instead, the Avatar progression intentionally invokes a Dorian tonality. E Major vi - V - II - (vi) and C# Dorian i - VII - II - (i) are equivalent, so it certainly wouldn't be an _incorrect_ interpretation.

just got back from the theatre and was wondering if Charles had made an Avatar analysis, first thing on my recommended videos.

I wouldnt think of the key as E major, as it makes more sense as C# minor. View it as a I VII IV I and it seems alot more conventional as long as you notice the borrowed note for your 4th (that being the A#). You will notice this progression used quite often, plus it seems obvious that the c# minor is your root, and going from a borrowed chord to your root makes more sense as it gives you more of a sense of home. Also you can apply that borrowed note of A# to your 7th chord as the 7th and then think of that same A# as the 13th to your C# minor, this way it seems more logical. For example play the chord progression and hold that A# for every chord and you will notice that magical feeling he has invoked ( due to the root having the 13th, known for its magical sound)

James Horner created an incredible score, and I'm really happy that Simon Franglen did him proud in the Way of Water with an amazing soundtrack.

incredible