The ULTIMATE Music Theory Crash Course (in under 25 minutes)

[00:00] if you're a music producer this is the

[00:01] last music theory tutorial you will ever

[00:04] need we're going to cover the basics of

[00:05] Music Theory and everything you need to

[00:07] create really good chords and Melodies

[00:10] let's get started this is a

[00:14] note this is a

[00:22] melody or in other words a series of

[00:24] single notes played in succession to

[00:26] create a phrase that conveys emotion

[00:29] tells a story or forms the backbone of a

[00:31] song Here's a

[00:33] [Music]

[00:39] chord or three or more notes played at

[00:42] one time now here's a progression of

[00:44] [Music]

[00:54] chords now here's our chord progression

[00:56] playing simultaneously with our Melody

[01:11] and together they create Harmony Harmony

[01:15] is when more than one line of Music in

[01:18] this case our first line of music is our

[01:20] Melody our second line is our chords

[01:23] play together simultaneously so how do

[01:25] we get here or in other words how do we

[01:27] have a Melody with a bunch of notes that

[01:29] work together with these chords to form

[01:31] a harmony let's break down what's going

[01:33] on here so we have a better idea music

[01:36] theory is broken down into these pitches

[01:38] we call

[01:39] notes on our keyboard we have all these

[01:42] white notes these are the natural notes

[01:44] and they are labeled from

[01:45] [Music]

[01:50] a through G and then they repeat from a

[01:54] through G again until the end of the

[01:57] keyboard from a to to a is called an

[02:01] octave and that's the same for every

[02:03] other note so from E to e is also an

[02:07] octave octaves go down as well so from a

[02:11] to a is also an octave on our keyboard

[02:14] we also see this repeating pattern of

[02:16] black notes these notes represent the

[02:19] white keys so for example if we take

[02:21] this black note that's right above the C

[02:23] that's called C sharp however each black

[02:25] note has two names this black note also

[02:29] touches this B so it is a B flat here's

[02:32] another example we have this black note

[02:34] here it's up from the G so it is a G

[02:36] sharp and it's down from the a which

[02:39] makes it an A flat as well now that we

[02:41] covered pitches and notes we have to

[02:43] understand two types of movements

[02:45] throughout the keyboard one is whole

[02:47] step movements the other is half step

[02:49] movements for example let's look at this

[02:51] C note here one whole step from this

[02:55] C goes right here or in other words a

[02:59] whole step step is always going to be

[03:01] two keyboard notes away a half

[03:06] step is always going to be one Keyboard

[03:09] Note away here's a quiz for you if we

[03:11] take a d note let's place a note five

[03:14] half steps away try to pause this video

[03:16] and guess 5/ half steps away would be 1

[03:19] 2 3 4

[03:21] 5 right here another way to look at this

[03:24] distance is that it's one whole step two

[03:27] whole steps and a half so two and have

[03:30] whole steps now that we understand steps

[03:32] let's talk about scales scales help you

[03:34] strategically put notes together to form

[03:37] a desired emotion and a scale is just a

[03:39] group of notes that sound good together

[03:41] now there are two main scales that

[03:43] you're going to have to know and that's

[03:44] the minor scale and the major scale

[03:46] let's first make the minor scale we'll

[03:48] start on any note and then we add a

[03:50] whole step a half step whole whole half

[03:54] whole whole now we have the minor scale

[04:01] that alone sounds like a melody now

[04:03] let's make the major scale which is the

[04:05] other popular scale now for this scale

[04:06] you start on any note then you add a

[04:08] whole step whole half whole whole whole

[04:16] half now the words major and minor come

[04:20] from the quality that is generated from

[04:22] the notes within that scale for example

[04:24] the major scale generates a more

[04:26] positive or brighter tone and we can

[04:28] hear that just by flaring the scale like

[04:31] this and now here's the minor scale

[04:34] which generates a more serious

[04:37] [Music]

[04:40] tone hear

[04:42] that is that kind of cool now keep in

[04:44] mind when you know the formula to build

[04:46] a certain scale you can build that scale

[04:49] on any key for example this black note

[04:52] here is called an fshp if I wanted to

[04:54] build the minor scale within the key of

[04:56] f we would start there and build out our

[04:59] scale we start on the F and we go whole

[05:02] half ho ho half whole

[05:08] ho and now we have the Minor Scale based

[05:11] on the F or in other words the F minor

[05:15] [Music]

[05:17] scale now that's how to write a scale

[05:20] but how do you use a scale you use a

[05:23] scale by first picking a scale that will

[05:25] help guide you toward a specific emotion

[05:27] and then you limit yourself to only

[05:29] using the notes within that scale so for

[05:31] example if I want to write a melody for

[05:34] my horror movie score something dark

[05:37] I'll need to pick a scale that'll help

[05:39] guide me toward that emotion remember we

[05:41] said the minor scale carries a darker

[05:45] mood and now to make a Melody within

[05:47] this scale we can use any of these notes

[05:50] but we can't place any Melody notes on

[05:52] these blank spaces otherwise that's

[05:54] called stepping out of key stepping out

[05:56] of key does not sound natural let's make

[05:58] our Melody

[06:01] [Music]

[06:09] let's add a little bit of Reverb to it

[06:11] because we are producers after

[06:14] [Music]

[06:18] all that's pretty creepy but hold on a

[06:21] second you remember earlier we discussed

[06:23] the concept of octaves just because we

[06:25] wrote Our scale here doesn't mean we're

[06:27] stuck to these seven notes we can add

[06:29] some salt and pepper to our Melody by

[06:31] using different octaves to add more

[06:34] notes We'll add a couple notes up

[06:36] here then if you want to get a really

[06:38] creepy effect you scroll down to a

[06:40] really low

[06:43] octave and put one of

[06:45] [Music]

[06:51] them now the world of scales is pretty

[06:54] expansive there's the popular scales

[06:57] like the major and minor scale in

[06:58] western music but there's also the blue

[07:02] scale the pentatonic major

[07:06] scale there's even these seven weird

[07:08] things called modes one of which is

[07:10] called the lockran mode which is known

[07:12] for its uncanny unstable

[07:16] [Music]

[07:18] character and my favorite scale which is

[07:20] the harmonic minor

[07:24] scale and every scale or mode is

[07:27] designed to help you aim toward a

[07:29] specific spefic emotion story or mood

[07:31] for your music so when you're studying

[07:33] make sure to practice and learn the

[07:35] sound of each scale so you can really

[07:37] figure out which scale will help you

[07:39] develop your own unique sound now with

[07:41] that being said let's go ahead and shift

[07:43] our Focus onto chords scales help guide

[07:46] us toward a broad emotional Direction

[07:48] but chords help refine that emotion into

[07:51] something more specific now to build a

[07:53] chord you can pick any note to make it

[07:54] easy we'll start on this a we're going

[07:56] to make this a the bottom note of our

[07:58] chord which is a great place to start

[08:00] when you're practicing the bottom note

[08:02] of the chord is called the root note the

[08:04] second note you add is a

[08:07] fifth the fifth is always going to be

[08:09] seven half steps up from the root 1 2 3

[08:13] 4 5 6 7 the third note your chord

[08:17] gets is either the minor

[08:21] third which is three half steps up from

[08:25] the root or the major third

[08:32] major chords have a brighter tone to

[08:38] them then their chord

[08:41] sibling which are minor

[08:46] [Music]

[08:53] chords do you hear the difference

[09:00] now these chords are called Triads

[09:02] because they have three notes and the

[09:03] way you name a Triad is based on the

[09:05] root note and the position of that third

[09:08] so here our root node is a so we have an

[09:10] a major chord here our root node is also

[09:14] a but we have that minor third so we

[09:16] have an A minor chord now technically if

[09:18] we get rid of these fifths we still have

[09:21] a major third right here and a minor

[09:24] third right here and these are called

[09:26] intervals intervals are two notes played

[09:29] at once then when you add that third

[09:30] note they become that major Triad or

[09:35] that Minor triad now that you know how

[09:37] to make a chord you have to know how

[09:39] chords relate to scales as this will

[09:41] give you what you need to write chord

[09:43] progressions and that's where the fun

[09:45] stuff starts now how do chords relate to

[09:47] scales by the way I'm switching to logic

[09:49] here's the a minor scale again just to

[09:51] make things easy and in any given minor

[09:53] or major scale you have not only seven

[09:56] 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