I’m very pleased with Dark Film Scores 1.1 for Pigments. It’s chock full of musical, inspiring textures.

This course is absolutely brilliant. Don't get fooled by the running time. It is full of tips and knowledge. All straight to the point!

I bought all these courses by Davis. I have seen many courses, and have a pile of the best music theory books anywhere. Although I classify myself 'only' as a guitarist,I do this as a 'safe bet' because I found the guitar easy (it's good to balance easy and difficult, in my opinion). I have studied classical piano for a few years, tonal harmony, the basics of orchestration, the basis of counterpoint, (and these 'basics' can be pretty powerful) and decent sight-reading at the piano. I mean, if it hasn't downed on you yet: no matter what your main instrument, you should take up the piano as a secondary one. Fast. So on the outside I am a guitarist, but 'inside' I am more than that, to simplify. And 'decent' sight-reading can translate to 'quite powerful!' compared to someone who doesn't have these skills. The fact is that you don't have to be a score reading wizard, and the benefits of being a fluent reader are incredible, for example I navigate the scores and (because of my background) the explanations by Robert Davis VERY smoothly. Which in turn makes it for faster learning.

So these courses are actually excellent for those like me who have already established a good basis (these courses are NOT for beginners, or people who can't read a bar of music to save their lives).

The first thing I commend in this course, are the excellent annotated scores. They clarify the musical material as much as possible, even using colour coding. This is super useful, as to me the best teaching is the one that doesn't waste time or words and immediately shows me what I can use and how I can learn it, or improve on it.

Secondly, I am a big fan of 'chords', which is ironic, as I am very well aware that NOT everything can be explained with chords....once your understanding of music theory goes past the intermediate level (to say nothing of the beginner one, and this is why so many whine about music theory and how they can't do anything with it: to reap the benefits you have to go beyond the basics, otherwise it will never make sense to you) you'll see that all the material that is not chord based, can mainly be explained as appoggiaturas, passing notes, auxiliary notes, suspensions, embellishments, etc.....never the less, as CH Kitson wrote: 'chords are the four walls of the house'. They have limits, but you'll always find them as a first attempt, quick way to understand a particular texture.

So the course has this element, harmonic reductions, or 'block chords' where possible. Great. The main element covered in this course, however, is the concept of motifs, what it means and how to use them. It's pretty clear to me that no music can ever be good without motifs....they are found everywhere from Yankee Doodle to all the works of all the best composers ever. Even in a jazz or rock solo, if you insert some of this after some 'licks', a motif will immediately stand out all the more, because it contrasts with the more free form stuff. (and why the free form stuff such as 'licks' -I hate that term- work even though they are NOT motifs, is an explanation for another day, but this too can be explained.).

I can see this powerful technique all traces back to the old counterpoint rules, i.e. the fugue. I am not a musicologist, but I am probably not far wrong, if I am at all.

In short, you can't be a good musicians if you don't know how to harness musical material such as motifs: they are the most important understanding of FORM. As Schoenberg wrote: 'Our minds can only understand things in patterns: it cannot comprehend what is formless'. Whether or not you like or understand Schoenberg's music (I don't, and few ever did), the man was a consummate and highly knowdgeable musician.

There's a zillion uses for motifs, regardless of what instrument you play or what type of music you write. One big advantage is that you can get a lot of 'musical mileage' with skilful use of motifs, and this is what Davis shows you in this course.

What are you waiting for? Jump in already.

It is truly incredible the breadth and depth of these explorations. The examples are so insightful in helping me understand how great compositions work and to inspire my own original pieces. I’m so inspired by Roberts teaching. after years of struggling to understand these building blocks of music the veil is lifting and the fog is clearing. I’m so grateful. This course and the other one I did have changed me fundamentally as a composer. I highly urge anyone with a foundational knowledge of music to try one of Roberts courses on fiSound. This course has clearly been constructed with great care and attention to detail, the concepts are introduced and developed in a logical and methodical way. Robert doesn’t mince or waste his words and again there isnt a pick of fat on these teachings. If you’re serious about composing you can’t go wrong with his courses.

Harmonic Minor Mastery - Course

I've been doing Roberts Chromatic Harmony Course religiously for that last year today I am a different musician. 100X better composer, i"m starting to wander around the musical keys and sometimes I surprise myself and burst out laughing at how cool the thing I just did was...Its like I'm channelling music all of a sudden, it’s spiritual. I've never had this with music before, despite years of trying and following other courses. This one was the key for me. It feels like magic. Its all thanks to Robert. Hands down best music teacher ever.

What he did with my ears/brain regarding chromatic harmony is a miracle of sorts. So many concepts I never got nor could even identify despite years of trying, searching, wondering, asking people and just banging my head off a wall just came together because of this course. It is logically structured, well thought out, full of examples, well paced and without a pick of fat. Robert tells us students what he/we need to do to get this stuff (play in all keys, write things out etc) without labouring his points. The examples are inspiring and absolutely delightful to play and transpose and use bits of in my own compositions.

He just did a brilliant job on it and there is no one else teaching chromatic harmony on youtube . Its not aimed at popular music but I’ve found its insights to be the key to the more avant guard (for want of a better word) popular music artists that I'm into like David Bowie, The Beatles, Beach Boys, etc. and its helped me immensely to write my own pieces with those sort of sophisticated moves and to see behind the curtain on what those masters were thinking...Anyway this course is brilliant , I’ve never in my life been so changed by a course of study. If you are willing to put the work in it will make you a much better composer and see/hear all sorts of possibilities you would never get near without it. I am proof. A genius teacher, a peerless teacher. Utterly brilliant! Buy this course, roll up your sleeves, crack your knuckles get the head down daily for months and watch what happens! 10/10

The thing that make Robert Davis' soundsets so attractive is that many of them a based on a harmonic approach, which makes them useful for combining with other traditional instruments (brass, strings, etc.) in a composition.

What I really like about this preset bank is its design in there are so many different ways you can use these sounds. In various octave ranges especially. These sounds are very interesting and inspirational. You only have to listen to any of these patches to start getting incredible ideas for building on. Its a very small price to pay for what you get back.

if you are someone who wants to always become a better musician, then you'll see that every course by Robert Davis is very useful. Packed with the hard earned experience of a real and practical musician and composer, and a talented one too, rather than contemporary courses taught by people who write little or no music. Or, when they do write it, it sounds weak and super cheesy. Not in these courses. And they are cost effective, too. One of the things I really like is that the tutor explains a lot of harmony with simple block chords, at the keyboard. This way, if you read music decently, you can learn a lot, very quickly. Also very useful to see how he improvises, and generally, how he works. A no brainer.

Before the course I could not for the life of me figure out how to get the augmented 6th working. 1 week with the course and I can move through any of the augmented 6ths chords at will. This course is not only a must for composing, it is also the key to improvisation.

I feel like I found a gold mine when I found the Basic Chromatic Harmony class. I understood secondary dominants, but I had no idea how many more techniques could introduce some chromatic interest into a chord progression. The chord progression examples can be used, modified, orchestrated, or elaborated on. I thoroughly enjoyed this class.

I might not have discovered Pigments if Robert and fisound hadn't created this sound bank. Great plug-in and these patches are fantastic. Very "film score-ish" and usable. Also very flexible with the macros adding a lot of variation within each patch. I got the Dark Film Scores bank as well and it's just as good.

This is another excellent tutorial and Pigments library from Robert Davis. I also recommend his Chromatic Harmony course!

Robert Davis is an experienced sound designer and composer and has created a great set of sounds for Pigments 5. Also recommend checking out the "Rylee's Nightmare" study score that uses these sounds.

Fantastic Presets for an Amazing Instrument!