Hans Zimmer MasterClass Review:
Can It Teach Film Scoring?

Hans Zimmer MasterClass Content and Structure Review

Hans Zimmer’s music production MasterClass is 5 hours and 40 minutes long. It’s a detailed course that teaches film scoring in 31 lessons. Some lessons provide insights into music theory and writing songs, while others present Hans Zimmer’s creative process.

The lessons are a mix of guides on film scoring and reviews of Hans Zimmer’s work. Throughout the course, he breaks down the essentials every film composer should know and complements them with ways to utilize them, like creating themes for characters like Jack Sparrow.

The class guide takes it further by giving you film score assignments. The homework in Hans Zimmer’s course on scoring soundtracks ranges from creating sound palettes for your favorite city to using a metronome to identify the tempo of a scene.

Themes and Story

1-3 Lessons Summary

Hans Zimmer begins his film scoring MasterClass by laying the foundation with themes and stories. He gives simplicity as his best tool for creating memorable tunes and encourages film composers to ask questions and use answers to drive the theme forward.

Hans Zimmer then prepares the next section reviewing the differences between speaking to the director and reading the screenplay. He uses the differences in Interstellar script and how Christopher Nolan portrayed the story during the scoring process as an example. The key takeaways from this section were asking questions and composing music connected to the narrative.

Working With Directors

4-6 Lessons Summary

This section is made up of three consecutive lessons that teach bringing the director’s vision to ears. He also briefly talks about working with other production members and reveals that he’s in the Gladiator cutting room for this MasterClass, which only increased my excitement for it.

I found these three lessons to capture life as a music producer in the film industry perfectly. You get practical tips on building a good relationship with the director. Plus, it describes the role of other production members and how it relates to film composers.

Essentials of Film Scoring

7-10 Lessons Summary

The next batch of lessons is where you will learn more about the technical aspect of film scoring. Hans demonstrates the importance of sound palettes, scoring with synths to create abstract sound, understanding which scenes need music and scoring accordingly, and using music as a dialogue.

These are explained as essentials every film scorer should know. With the previous lessons, the course gives you an idea of how you can compose music for the story, different scenes, and dialogue.

Tempo and Music Diaries

11-13 Lessons Summary

This part is all about the tempo and creating music diaries. Hans touches on the importance of tempo and gauging the editor’s rhythm to enhance the sonic immersion for the audience. In these lessons, Hans Zimmer explains the musical journey of rhythm and how it can change or stay consistent throughout one scene.

This chapter ends with Hans Zimmer’s music diary for Sherlock Holmes while Hans makes a point about the benefits of creating them for each film. It’s an insightful way to end this part, where you’ll be encouraged to do the same for your own music projects.

Character Theme

14-17 Lessons Summary

The lessons on creating character themes were my favorite part of the film scoring MasterClass by Hans Zimmer. For more in-depth character development lessons, I highly recommend checking out actor Samuel L. Jackson’s lessons. In Zimmers classes, you get to witness the exceptional music composer’s creative process as he composes themes for characters, offering valuable insights into what makes him a renowned composer. This section was entertaining, partly because of the Character Theme lessons that look at Batman, The Joker, and Jack Sparrow.

In each, Hans Zimmer teaches something new, like recognizing when to stop music and tensing and relaxing the audience. I found the lesson on the Batman score extremely helpful. It taught me various ways to use my own style while incorporating insights from Hans Zimmer’s stories.

Case Studies

18-19 Lessons Summary

There are case studies of Frost/Nixon and The Dark Knight in this quick section that summarizes pretty much everything discussed in the course so far. It does a good job honing all the topics, from scoring to story to understanding characters.

If the course was easy to follow for you until this point, you can skip these two lessons.

Working With Musicians

20-22 Lessons Summary

In these lessons, you see sincerity coming out of an Academy award winner. He goes over his casting process and points out that you don’t need a big symphony orchestra and recording orchestral music to have a good film score. Zimmer critically stresses that it’s all about finding the right musicians, whether they are your friends or aspiring artists you’ve met.

These lessons give general tips on working with musicians and the differences between some instruments and orchestras. While these are the primary points, Hans also makes remarks on effective communication with musicians.

Incorporating Feedback and Tips for Writing Music

23-28 Lessons Summary

Hans Zimmer shares his process on incorporating feedback and rewriting effectively. The music composer shares plenty of ways to present the score to the audience and gauge their reaction to determine if it’s working or not.

He further enhances this section with his writing tips. The two lessons dedicated to writing music were extremely practical. I’m sure you’ll find it beneficial whether you’re into film scoring, concert music, classical music, or a related discipline.

Closing

29-31 Lessons Summary

Hans Zimmer wraps up his MasterClass with common challenges you might face as a film composer. He also touches on the importance of a work-life balance and how that can benefit your creative process. Although this course teaches music for films, much of his tips in the closing lessons can help anyone pursuing arts.

Fast-Track Lesson Plan

Finish Hans Zimmer MasterClass in 3 hours, 1 minute, and 53 seconds.

No.	Lesson	Duration
2.	Themes	15:50
3.	Story	10:12
4.	Directors: Part 1	9:35
6.	Directors: Part 3	6:46
7.	Sound Palettes	17:31
9.	Scoring to Picture	9:49
10.	Scoring Under Dialogue	9:12
11.	Tempo	9:42
12.	Tempo: Sherlock Holmes Scene	3:58
14.	Character	8:04
15.	Character Theme: Batman	9:59
17.	Character Theme: Jack Sparrow	10:34
21.	Working With Musicians	15:13
23.	Feedback & Revisions	9:38
24.	Audience Feedback	11:37
25.	Writing Tips: Part 1	16:26
29.	Life as a Composer: Part 1	7:07

Hans Zimmer MasterClass Student Engagement and Retention

I found Hans Zimmer to be an overall good teacher. However, there were parts where I relied heavily on listening to what he had to play to understand some topics. For example, I couldn’t wrap my head around how tempo could lead the scene until I watched the Sherlock Holmes scene.

What made Hans Zimmer a good teacher for me was his instructions. Every guide and tip he presented was clear and easy to understand. Although some lessons got technical, like using synths and tempo, he delivered points effectively.