Music Theory Is Easy with These 2 Simple Formulas!

[00:02] arguably one piece of theory that matters more than all the rest. In short, this concept is the key to unlocking all of the more advanced concepts that we as songwriters want to explore. Unfortunately, a lot of people

[00:14] find it frustrating and difficult to grasp. Fortunately, this concept I'm understand and can be broken down into two simple formulas. So, in this video, formulas, show you how important they are to unlocking more advanced concepts,

[00:30] really practical songwriting applications. something you've heard a million times before, give me a minute to explain how

[00:44] powerful and important this formula is. So, the tone tone semmit tone formula is referring to the distance between the notes in the major scale. So if we take the key of C major, we have C going to D. That distance is a tone. We then have

[00:59] D going to E. That distance is a tone. We then have E going to F. That distance is a semmit tone. So that gives us our tone tone

[01:11] semmit tone. Then we have the distance between F and G, a tone. The distance between G and A, a tone. the distance between A and B, another tone, and between A and B, another tone, and finally the semmit tone between B and C.

[01:27] And that gives us the C major scale. [Music] So that was the key of C. But the tone tone, semmit tone, tone, tone, tone, semmit tone formula gives us the intervals between the notes in any key,

[01:42] any major key. So if we went to the key of F, we'd have a tone, a tone, a semmit of F, we'd have a tone, a tone, a semmit tone, a tone, a tone, a tone, a semmit tone. I've created a free PDF laying out these two formulas and showing

[01:58] applications in all 12 keys. And this document may help to guide you through these concepts as you watch this video. So if you're interested, check out the link below. Now, don't be fooled by the simplicity of this idea. The

[02:10] implications of knowing this formula and knowing it well are huge. Firstly, writing in a major key, we now know what the names of the notes are. Secondly, this helps us make sense of what's referred to as nharmonic spelling, where

[02:25] the same note can have two different names. For example, in the key of F, we have this B flat here. Now the B flat could also be referred to as an A sharp but in the key of F it's referred to as B flat for a very important reason. When

[02:40] B flat for a very important reason. When we look at the scale degrees we have F G we look at the scale degrees we have F G A and then B flat. We can't go F G A sharp because the A note has already been referenced. If we were in the key

[02:54] of F sharp however that note now gets referred to as an A sharp as the third referred to as an A sharp as the third degree in that scale. F sharp, G sharp, of fourths or fifths to get the same kind of information, but thinking about

[03:08] the scale or the key that you're writing in as being an arrangement of these intervals is really helpful when you're trying to apply this theory to songwriting. And one of the big parts of our music education is training our ear

[03:20] to identify the distances between these intervals. So, going back to the key of C, that's a third interval, the distance between the C and the E. That's two tones or four semmit tones. The distance

[03:35] between the C and the E flat, that's a minor third. And the distance between those two notes has a particular sound. The major third is obviously bright and warm. The minor third is darker.

[03:50] So understanding this arrangement of tones and semmit tones also allows us to start encoding the sound of the distances between these intervals. It also unlocks the concept of stable and unstable notes within a scale. So in any

[04:04] major scale we have those seven degrees. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and back to the octave. Interestingly within that scale there are varying degrees of instability and are varying degrees of instability and stability. So the one is the most stable

[04:19] note. The five is the second most stable note and the three is the third most stable note.

[04:31] And if we were playing a C major chord, we would hear those all together. we would hear those all together. That means that the two, the four, the six, and the seven are unstable

[04:46] five. And what's interesting is that in this arrangement of tones and semmit tones, these unstable notes have tendencies to either rise or fall. So if we listen to this two relative to the C bass note, you can

[05:02] hear that it either wants to fall down to the one or rise up to the three. [Music] And this reveals something really powerful about how we construct melodies as songwriters because we're often

[05:18] looking for chances to create tension and then release that tension. So starting a melody note on the two is unresolved. It's tense, but it can be easily resolved by going either down to

[05:30] the one or up to the three. which is the four, it really wants to fall to the three,

[05:46] unstable, resolved down to the three. The six resolved down to the three. The six wants to fall to the five

[05:58] and the seven wants to rise to the octave. tone formula give us the arrangement of intervals within a major key, it also gives us the stable and unstable note options when constructing a melody. And

[06:13] knowing this allows us to then construct our melodies with a nice blend of unstable and stable notes. [Music]

[06:25] So, there's an unstable melody being answered by a stable melody. The first melody you heard was landing on the six. The second one resolved down to the The second one resolved down to the five. We can do it again here.

[06:41] Now, one of the concepts that really terrifies a lot of people is the concept of modes. And modes is a tricky subject because it could be talked about and utilized in so many different ways. But I want to show you how simply

[06:53] understanding this tone tone semmit tone formula can actually unlock the modes for you as well. Because if we look at the table of modes, we can see that they can all be described as arrangements of tones and semmitones exactly the same

[07:07] scale, which is also referred to as Ionian. And one of the other ways we can split them into either major or minor modes. So you can see that the Ionian, the Lydian, and the mixelyian modes all have a major three and that's what gives

[07:22] them the major sound. The other four modes, the Dorian, Friian, Aolon, and Lorian, they have a flat three. So that gives them the minor sound. Now, if we can see that Ionian follows that

[07:36] tone, tone, tone, semmit tone that we've been talking about. If we go down to Lydian, you can see that there's only one note difference between Lydian and Ionian, and it's the sharp four in Lydian compared to the natural four in

[07:51] Ionian. So what that means is instead of going tone tone semmit tone, if we were playing C lydian, we would now get tone tone tone tone

[08:03] tone tone semmit tone tone semmit tone. And we can do exactly the same with mixelyian. Mixelyian is only different by one note from Ionian. It's

[08:18] the flat 7 instead of the natural seven. So there the arrangement of notes is So there the arrangement of notes is tone tone semmit tone tone tone semmit tone tone semmit tone tone tone semmit tone tone. So the modes don't have to be

[08:34] scary when we look at them through this lens of an arrangement of tones and semmit tones. They're just other scales that we can arrange and learn and really leverage the sound of in our songwriting because that sharp four may be the sound

[08:48] that you're looking for to create more of a mysterious vibe with your melody.

[09:06] really gives us the notes in a key. This second formula builds on that first formula and lets us know what chords are in the key. Because if we know what notes are in the key, simply applying this second formula will automatically

[09:19] give us the chords that are diietonic to that key. So in the key of C we have the C major, D minor, F major,

[09:32] G major, A minor, B diminished, and back to C major. And again, the beauty of this formula is that it is transferable to all 12 keys. It doesn't change. And so whatever key

[09:47] you're writing in, laying out the chords in that key is really simple if you simply write them down as major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished, back to the major. And if I demonstrate on guitar where I'm far more comfortable

[10:02] with chords, this allows us to really move around in lots of different keys of E, there's my home chord, there's my two chord, there's my three chord, four chord, five chord, six chord, seven

[10:19] chord, back to one, it's exactly the same formula, the same arrangement. If I same formula, the same arrangement. If I move up to the key of G, one chord, two chord, three chord, four chord, five chord, six chord, seven chord, back

[10:35] home. And seeing this second formula laid out also gives us access to a really important cordal system in songwriting, which is the number system. The one, the four, and the five are usually denoted with capital Roman

[10:48] numerals because they're major. The two, the three, and the six are minor chords, and therefore they get the small Roman numerals, and the diminished also gets formula also gives us access to chord extensions. Once we can see the chords

[11:02] are laid out in this way, we can then add seventh notes. We can add nines, 11s. So if we're in the key of C, the chords in the key of C are C, D minor, E chords in the key of C are C, D minor, E minor, F, G, A minor, B diminished, back

[11:19] to C. Turning those into seventh chords, we get C major 7, D minor 7, E minor 7, F major 7,

[11:32] G dominant, A minor 7, B half diminished, and back to C major 7. [Music] these sounds and these concepts are

[11:46] really opened up to us once we build on the foundations of these two formulas. music theory that if you can really get a handle on these two basic formulas, the rest of it can be attained more easily simply by building on top of

[12:01] those concepts. Another thing you get access to with these two formulas is the ability to write in minor keys. Because we've looked at the arrangement of the key, what happens if we want to write in a minor key? Well, it turns out that

[12:15] every key has a major and a relative minor. That chord in the sixth position is always referred to as the relative minor. To write in that key, we can simply take the same chords as we're hearing in, for example, C major and now

[12:30] rearrange them with a minor at the beginning. So, hopefully you can see how many amazing songwriting concepts can be unlocked by understanding these two unlocked by understanding these two basic formulas. Happy songwriting. Bye.