[0:00] if you're a music producer this is the
[0:01] last music theory tutorial you will ever
[0:04] need we're going to cover the basics of
[0:05] Music Theory and everything you need to
[0:07] create really good chords and Melodies
[0:10] let's get started this is a
[0:14] note this is a
[0:22] melody or in other words a series of
[0:24] single notes played in succession to
[0:26] create a phrase that conveys emotion
[0:29] tells a story or forms the backbone of a
[0:31] song Here's a
[0:33] [Music]
[0:39] chord or three or more notes played at
[0:42] one time now here's a progression of
[0:44] [Music]
[0:54] chords now here's our chord progression
[0:56] playing simultaneously with our Melody
[1:11] and together they create Harmony Harmony
[1:15] is when more than one line of Music in
[1:18] this case our first line of music is our
[1:20] Melody our second line is our chords
[1:23] play together simultaneously so how do
[1:25] we get here or in other words how do we
[1:27] have a Melody with a bunch of notes that
[1:29] work together with these chords to form
[1:31] a harmony let's break down what's going
[1:33] on here so we have a better idea music
[1:36] theory is broken down into these pitches
[1:38] we call
[1:39] notes on our keyboard we have all these
[1:42] white notes these are the natural notes
[1:44] and they are labeled from
[1:45] [Music]
[1:50] a through G and then they repeat from a
[1:54] through G again until the end of the
[1:57] keyboard from a to to a is called an
[2:01] octave and that's the same for every
[2:03] other note so from E to e is also an
[2:07] octave octaves go down as well so from a
[2:11] to a is also an octave on our keyboard
[2:14] we also see this repeating pattern of
[2:16] black notes these notes represent the
[2:19] white keys so for example if we take
[2:21] this black note that's right above the C
[2:23] that's called C sharp however each black
[2:25] note has two names this black note also
[2:29] touches this B so it is a B flat here's
[2:32] another example we have this black note
[2:34] here it's up from the G so it is a G
[2:36] sharp and it's down from the a which
[2:39] makes it an A flat as well now that we
[2:41] covered pitches and notes we have to
[2:43] understand two types of movements
[2:45] throughout the keyboard one is whole
[2:47] step movements the other is half step
[2:49] movements for example let's look at this
[2:51] C note here one whole step from this
[2:55] C goes right here or in other words a
[2:59] whole step step is always going to be
[3:01] two keyboard notes away a half
[3:06] step is always going to be one Keyboard
[3:09] Note away here's a quiz for you if we
[3:11] take a d note let's place a note five
[3:14] half steps away try to pause this video
[3:16] and guess 5/ half steps away would be 1
[3:19] 2 3 4
[3:21] 5 right here another way to look at this
[3:24] distance is that it's one whole step two
[3:27] whole steps and a half so two and have
[3:30] whole steps now that we understand steps
[3:32] let's talk about scales scales help you
[3:34] strategically put notes together to form
[3:37] a desired emotion and a scale is just a
[3:39] group of notes that sound good together
[3:41] now there are two main scales that
[3:43] you're going to have to know and that's
[3:44] the minor scale and the major scale
[3:46] let's first make the minor scale we'll
[3:48] start on any note and then we add a
[3:50] whole step a half step whole whole half
[3:54] whole whole now we have the minor scale
[4:01] that alone sounds like a melody now
[4:03] let's make the major scale which is the
[4:05] other popular scale now for this scale
[4:06] you start on any note then you add a
[4:08] whole step whole half whole whole whole
[4:16] half now the words major and minor come
[4:20] from the quality that is generated from
[4:22] the notes within that scale for example
[4:24] the major scale generates a more
[4:26] positive or brighter tone and we can
[4:28] hear that just by flaring the scale like
[4:31] this and now here's the minor scale
[4:34] which generates a more serious
[4:37] [Music]
[4:40] tone hear
[4:42] that is that kind of cool now keep in
[4:44] mind when you know the formula to build
[4:46] a certain scale you can build that scale
[4:49] on any key for example this black note
[4:52] here is called an fshp if I wanted to
[4:54] build the minor scale within the key of
[4:56] f we would start there and build out our
[4:59] scale we start on the F and we go whole
[5:02] half ho ho half whole
[5:08] ho and now we have the Minor Scale based
[5:11] on the F or in other words the F minor
[5:15] [Music]
[5:17] scale now that's how to write a scale
[5:20] but how do you use a scale you use a
[5:23] scale by first picking a scale that will
[5:25] help guide you toward a specific emotion
[5:27] and then you limit yourself to only
[5:29] using the notes within that scale so for
[5:31] example if I want to write a melody for
[5:34] my horror movie score something dark
[5:37] I'll need to pick a scale that'll help
[5:39] guide me toward that emotion remember we
[5:41] said the minor scale carries a darker
[5:45] mood and now to make a Melody within
[5:47] this scale we can use any of these notes
[5:50] but we can't place any Melody notes on
[5:52] these blank spaces otherwise that's
[5:54] called stepping out of key stepping out
[5:56] of key does not sound natural let's make
[5:58] our Melody
[6:01] [Music]
[6:09] let's add a little bit of Reverb to it
[6:11] because we are producers after
[6:14] [Music]
[6:18] all that's pretty creepy but hold on a
[6:21] second you remember earlier we discussed
[6:23] the concept of octaves just because we
[6:25] wrote Our scale here doesn't mean we're
[6:27] stuck to these seven notes we can add
[6:29] some salt and pepper to our Melody by
[6:31] using different octaves to add more
[6:34] notes We'll add a couple notes up
[6:36] here then if you want to get a really
[6:38] creepy effect you scroll down to a
[6:40] really low
[6:43] octave and put one of
[6:45] [Music]
[6:51] them now the world of scales is pretty
[6:54] expansive there's the popular scales
[6:57] like the major and minor scale in
[6:58] western music but there's also the blue
[7:02] scale the pentatonic major
[7:06] scale there's even these seven weird
[7:08] things called modes one of which is
[7:10] called the lockran mode which is known
[7:12] for its uncanny unstable
[7:16] [Music]
[7:18] character and my favorite scale which is
[7:20] the harmonic minor
[7:24] scale and every scale or mode is
[7:27] designed to help you aim toward a
[7:29] specific spefic emotion story or mood
[7:31] for your music so when you're studying
[7:33] make sure to practice and learn the
[7:35] sound of each scale so you can really
[7:37] figure out which scale will help you
[7:39] develop your own unique sound now with
[7:41] that being said let's go ahead and shift
[7:43] our Focus onto chords scales help guide
[7:46] us toward a broad emotional Direction
[7:48] but chords help refine that emotion into
[7:51] something more specific now to build a
[7:53] chord you can pick any note to make it
[7:54] easy we'll start on this a we're going
[7:56] to make this a the bottom note of our
[7:58] chord which is a great place to start
[8:00] when you're practicing the bottom note
[8:02] of the chord is called the root note the
[8:04] second note you add is a
[8:07] fifth the fifth is always going to be
[8:09] seven half steps up from the root 1 2 3
[8:13] 4 5 6 7 the third note your chord
[8:17] gets is either the minor
[8:21] third which is three half steps up from
[8:25] the root or the major third
[8:32] major chords have a brighter tone to
[8:38] them then their chord
[8:41] sibling which are minor
[8:46] [Music]
[8:53] chords do you hear the difference
[9:00] now these chords are called Triads
[9:02] because they have three notes and the
[9:03] way you name a Triad is based on the
[9:05] root note and the position of that third
[9:08] so here our root node is a so we have an
[9:10] a major chord here our root node is also
[9:14] a but we have that minor third so we
[9:16] have an A minor chord now technically if
[9:18] we get rid of these fifths we still have
[9:21] a major third right here and a minor
[9:24] third right here and these are called
[9:26] intervals intervals are two notes played
[9:29] at once then when you add that third
[9:30] note they become that major Triad or
[9:35] that Minor triad now that you know how
[9:37] to make a chord you have to know how
[9:39] chords relate to scales as this will
[9:41] give you what you need to write chord
[9:43] progressions and that's where the fun
[9:45] stuff starts now how do chords relate to
[9:47] scales by the way I'm switching to logic
[9:49] here's the a minor scale again just to
[9:51] make things easy and in any given minor
[9:53] or major scale you have not only seven
[9:56] notes but you also have seven chords one
[10:00] chord for each note one note for each
[10:03] degree of the scale in every scale each
[10:06] degree of the scale is numbered from 1
[10:09] through seven so the chord on the first
[10:11] degree of that scale you could also call
[10:13] the one chord in that scale that's the
[10:15] same for the second third and so on and
[10:17] so forth with that being said another
[10:19] way to make chords is just to count the
[10:22] degrees of the scales instead of doing
[10:24] all this whole step and half step stuff
[10:26] for example if you're in the a minor
[10:28] scale and you you want to make the one
[10:30] chord which in other words is the tonic
[10:32] the first chord of the scale and then
[10:34] add your next note 3° up the scale and
[10:37] then you add your fifth which is 5° up
[10:41] the scale and there's our Triad now the
[10:44] other cool thing about using degrees to
[10:45] build your chords is that you can go a
[10:47] little farther into the chord system for
[10:49] example this is a
[10:50] Triad because it has three notes but you
[10:53] could also add a seventh degree to your
[10:55] Triads to make a seventh chord
[11:01] in other words you could take any chord
[11:03] in your scale add the third 3° up go 5
[11:06] Dees up from the root and add the fifth
[11:09] and then we can add the
[11:12] seventh and that's how we would build
[11:14] our seventh chords wherever we want in
[11:16] the scale now seventh chords give off a
[11:18] different energy than just basic Triads
[11:21] they used to be more common in genres
[11:23] like jazz and blues but now producers
[11:26] are using these chords in any genre
[11:29] to add that very Jazzy and bluesy flavor
[11:33] to anything now check this out here's a
[11:35] little dance beat I made with basic
[11:37] Triads I'm going to play it back and I'm
[11:39] going to add the sevenths to each chord
[11:41] and we'll see if you could hear the
[11:42] difference here's the Triad
[11:46] [Music]
[11:52] version I'll take each of these
[11:55] chords We'll add the seventh degree to
[11:58] each chord
[12:06] now that you understand notes scales
[12:08] steps and chords it's time we talk about
[12:10] chord progressions chord progressions
[12:12] are the emotional backbone of any song
[12:15] now in order to make chord progressions
[12:17] you have to understand two things the
[12:20] first thing is musical time like how
[12:23] music moves the second thing which is a
[12:25] little harder and that is how to string
[12:27] chords together in order to create the
[12:30] desired emotion that you're going for
[12:32] let's first discuss musical time most
[12:34] western music is written in a time
[12:36] signature called 44 this is the most
[12:39] common time signature in songwriting and
[12:41] understanding 44 is essential for
[12:43] writing core progressions the way to
[12:45] understand 44 is to look inside your
[12:48] software of choice I'm in logic and
[12:50] you'll notice these numbers across the
[12:52] arrangement grid these numbers are bars
[12:55] or measures you can call them and you'll
[12:56] notice there's four lines before every
[12:59] bar counts up a number those lines are
[13:02] Beats so 44 means four beats per bar
[13:06] play it with the metronome on so you
[13:07] could hear
[13:12] it if I increase the tempo our musical
[13:15] time will go faster but we will still be
[13:18] in
[13:21] 44 and that latter beat which happens on
[13:24] these thicker grid lines are called down
[13:26] beats this is when that fourth beat
[13:27] resets and it starts over again now
[13:29] because of this 44 time signature most
[13:32] core progressions that you make or here
[13:35] will be four bars long or some multiple
[13:39] of
[13:45] four another common length for chord
[13:48] progressions is an eight bar progression
[13:50] like
[13:57] this you notice it moves a a little
[14:02] slower eight bar progressions are still
[14:05] common in most music although slightly
[14:08] less common than the four bar
[14:09] progression now let's talk about the
[14:11] most important part of chord
[14:12] progressions which is writing chord
[14:14] progressions that actually sound good
[14:16] and that generate the right emotion for
[14:19] the song you're trying to create so to
[14:20] make a cord progression pick any scale
[14:22] I'm going to use the a minor scale
[14:24] remember that there are seven chords
[14:25] that we can choose from in the a minor
[14:28] scale we can use any octave our starting
[14:30] point is to make a progression with four
[14:32] chords that is four bars long you can
[14:34] obviously make your chords however long
[14:36] you want but this is a good starting
[14:42] point here's the first progression that
[14:44] I came up with it is the 1 7 4 and 6 in
[14:49] the a minor
[14:50] [Music]
[14:56] scale now when you're practicing and
[14:58] randomly piece pieing together different
[15:00] chord combinations you want to listen
[15:02] for the emotion that that chord
[15:04] progression is giving off because as you
[15:06] get better at this you will start to
[15:07] remember which chord combinations
[15:10] generate certain emotions here's a
[15:12] couple examples of go-to progressions
[15:13] that I like to use to generate certain
[15:15] emotions for this first one it's the 5 6
[15:18] 1 and 7 in the minor scale this gives me
[15:21] a very uplifting Vibe and it's good for
[15:23] Dancy kind of cheesy EDM music
[15:33] here's an eight bar progression I like
[15:34] to use in deep house songs because of
[15:36] its deep Vibe it's the
[15:39] 1354 in the minor
[15:56] scale here's a 7145 56 in the a minor
[16:00] scale this is the chord progression that
[16:01] Fred again used in adore you it's a fun
[16:05] group of chords to play around with in
[16:06] dance
[16:08] [Music]
[16:14] music here's one of the most popular
[16:16] chord progressions in all of music it's
[16:19] the
[16:20] 6713 in the minor scale and this is how
[16:23] it was used in kao's Firestone
[16:33] it's very uplifting happy progression
[16:35] now I can show you all day different
[16:37] chord progressions that I use to
[16:38] generate different emotions when I'm
[16:40] writing songs however there are still
[16:42] different things that you could do to
[16:43] your chord progressions to make them
[16:44] sound interesting as well for example
[16:47] downward moving progressions tend to
[16:49] give off more of a serious or sad tone
[16:55] [Music]
[16:59] upward progressions or upward movements
[17:02] will tend to give off a more uplifting
[17:04] or positive
[17:06] [Music]
[17:13] tone another thing with progressions is
[17:15] that you can move the notes and the
[17:17] chords around to get a smoother more
[17:19] satisfying sound when your chords are
[17:21] constructed from the root to the third
[17:24] to the fifth that is called root form or
[17:27] in other words their most basic form
[17:29] when all your chords are in the most
[17:30] basic form you might get a pretty basic
[17:32] sound at times so what you can do is you
[17:35] can select some notes in the chords for
[17:37] example we'll take the
[17:39] third you can spread out the third this
[17:42] is called open
[17:44] [Music]
[17:51] voicing here's the chords without open
[17:53] voicing
[17:56] [Music]
[18:02] same chord slightly different sound
[18:04] another thing you can do is double the
[18:05] notes in the chord that you think are
[18:07] more important or helping the song the
[18:09] most so what I like to do is take the
[18:13] base notes of my
[18:15] chords and double them and see if
[18:17] that'll work and I'll also maybe double
[18:19] a high
[18:21] [Music]
[18:26] note that's my chords with a doubled
[18:29] root and a doubled third there's also
[18:31] these things called inversions and
[18:33] that's when you can either take the
[18:34] third or the fifth or
[18:37] both and put it an octave down to give
[18:40] your progression a more tucked in linear
[18:43] feel a lot of times these inversions
[18:45] sound smoother and easier on the
[18:53] ears that's a pretty unique sound oh
[18:57] yeah one more thing don't forget
[18:58] rearticulate your chords at times to
[19:01] either add energy to them for a
[19:03] different part of the song or make them
[19:06] more suitable for the genre you're
[19:08] working in I like to make house music so
[19:10] I might do this a
[19:14] [Music]
[19:15] [Applause]
[19:20] lot I love these chords why didn't I
[19:24] ever use these chords before for this
[19:26] final section of the video I want to
[19:27] talk about Melodies melodies are the
[19:29] most creative part of Music Theory
[19:31] because there are infinite possibilities
[19:34] for how you can write melodies the
[19:36] reason for this is that every other part
[19:37] of Music Theory whether it's chords
[19:39] scales and every other thing we touched
[19:41] on in this video all those things have
[19:44] Frameworks like for example to make a
[19:46] chord you have a root a third and a
[19:48] fifth to make a minor scale there's a
[19:50] formula you follow to make that scale to
[19:52] make a major scale there's a formula you
[19:54] follow to make that scale Melodies are a
[19:56] little different because they are less
[19:58] def find which makes it a little bit
[20:00] more tricky but it also gives you
[20:03] infinite possibilities to really express
[20:07] yourself as a musical artist to write
[20:10] good Melodies I think you have to
[20:11] understand one thing and that is scale
[20:14] relativity so let's start here every
[20:16] minor scale shares the same notes with a
[20:21] relative major scale for example here
[20:24] are all of the notes in the a minor
[20:28] scale notice that all of the notes in
[20:30] the a minor scale are the white keys if
[20:34] we write out the c major scale again
[20:38] it's all the white keys this is because
[20:40] a minor and C major are relative scales
[20:43] to find the relative major scale of your
[20:46] minor scale that you're in you would go
[20:47] to the third degree of that scale and
[20:50] that is your relative major if you're in
[20:52] a major scale and you want to find the
[20:53] relative minor you would go to the sixth
[20:56] degree of that scale and that would be a
[20:58] relative minor so how do we take that
[21:00] information and apply it to building a
[21:03] Melody well with Melodies you can
[21:05] technically start anywhere you want and
[21:08] just go and see where the music takes
[21:10] [Music]
[21:18] you but I think that idea makes it
[21:20] tricky especially if you're a beginner
[21:22] because again you don't have that
[21:23] starting point so you're kind of just
[21:25] throwing darts at a dartboard hoping
[21:26] something will stick and when you get
[21:28] good you're going to do that a lot it'll
[21:30] work for you but when you're just
[21:31] starting out you can use music theory to
[21:34] help give you a starting point for
[21:35] writing your Melodies step one is you
[21:37] want to start with the set of chords it
[21:39] gives you some kind of emotional
[21:41] Foundation to build on I'm going to use
[21:43] the F major G major a minor back to G
[21:46] major they sound like
[21:48] [Music]
[21:54] this now this is a good neutral chord
[21:57] progression in the scale of a minor C
[22:00] major has a mix of minor and major
[22:02] chords so we can use our Melody to
[22:05] either enhance its major side or enhance
[22:08] its minor side with a Melody technically
[22:11] you can start on whichever note you want
[22:13] but here's what I recommend go to the
[22:15] tonic of the scale that you are in or
[22:18] the relative tonic so we're in a minor
[22:22] I'm just going to put a note on a and
[22:25] step one I always do this
[22:28] I write a repetitive note on the tonic
[22:31] and then I play it back to help
[22:33] calibrate my emotions and get myself in
[22:35] a musical
[22:36] [Music]
[22:44] mood so we kind of get like a serious
[22:46] Vibe all right so now I'm going to build
[22:49] My Melody based on this tonic note every
[22:53] Melody focuses on One Singular note no
[22:56] matter how many notes is included in
[22:58] that Melody that Melody is always
[23:00] focused on a singular note usually it's
[23:03] the tonic of the key signature that your
[23:05] song is in so I'm just going to move
[23:07] these notes
[23:08] [Music]
[23:10] around I'm going to keep the first note
[23:12] on that tonic and then we'll get
[23:14] [Music]
[23:25] This Isn't that cool you kind of get
[23:28] like that
[23:28] emphasized serious Vibe drilled into
[23:32] your head now watch this remember I said
[23:36] every Melody is going to have its focus
[23:39] note in this case it's that tonic that
[23:41] we started the melody on if I take this
[23:44] melody now I take this tonic and I put
[23:47] it on the relative major which is the C
[23:50] it's going to emphasize the major side
[23:52] of these chords but I also have to
[23:54] rewrite this
[23:55] melody in the major scale then we get
[24:00] [Music]
[24:07] this See's like more uplifting happy
[24:14] positive that is a big difference from
[24:17] the minor rooted
[24:19] [Music]
[24:27] Melody but that's how I relate Theory to
[24:30] writing Melodies Melodies are going to
[24:32] be a little bit trickier because they
[24:34] are less defined than everything else
[24:36] but if you use that as a starting point
[24:39] like rooting your Melody on a certain
[24:40] tonic I think you'll pick it up pretty
[24:43] quickly that is a video for you thanks
[24:44] so much for watching for more resources
[24:47] like coaching programs courses and
[24:49] soundpacks visit my website at the top
[24:51] of the description below and stay tuned
[24:53] for the next video