How To Write A Song From The Mega Man 2 Soundtrack

hello I'm 8-bit music theory you may remember me from such instructional YouTube videos as learning modes for Mother's Day and you're telling me there's a sharp eleven I'm here today to talk to you about how to write a song from the Megaman 2 soundtrack let's get started now I know you've all been aching for a step-by-step instructional guide on how to write a song from the Megaman 2 soundtrack but worry not for your prayers have been answered first off we need a tempo so make sure to choose a tempo that's either 180 or 150 beats per minute next we need a key now you can write in any key you wish as long as it's minor of course but generally speaking the more sharps and flats the better b-flat minor perfect C minor that'll do G major ok but only for you crash man course fun fact coming in hot the crash man stage music is the only one of composer Takeshi tattoo issues first pass of songs to make the cut into the final game Tata Ishii stated in a 2013 interview that his original attempts at scoring the game sounded similar to crash man's music but were rejected as being too cute and not cool enough kind of weird to think of what the game would be like if all the music was this cheerful we have a key and a tempo now we just need a chord progression to lay down a foundation make no mistake every conceivable Avenue of harmonic expression is open to you you can use a one flat 7 one vamp [Music] by [Music] but you don't have to stick with this exact chord progression all the time let your creativity flow a little here switch it up a bit how about moving to the flat sixth chord before you move to the flat seven chord [Music] of course I'm just poking fun here yes these progressions are pretty ubiquitous throughout the soundtrack but Teta Ishii was tasked to write cool music and he approached the soundtrack as a rock musician rather than a classical composer the flat 7 to 1 in flat 6 flat 7 to 1 in a minor key is about as common akkadians as you could find in rock music and so it's served katha issues needs nicely plus there is a little more harmonic variation than I give the soundtrack credit for check out how at AE she uses a 5 7 chord in first inversion to chromatically fill in that flat 7 to one bass line [Music] or look at how he introduced the flat to cord borrowed from the parallel Phrygian scale for a splash of color like in Woodman and dr. Wily's stages [Music] Oh [Music] so you have a chord progression all figured out but how do we make music out of that well since it's a megaman 2 song it's got to have a funky bass line that nes sound card could only produce four noises simultaneously giving us two power panels usually used for the melody line and counter line a triangle channel usually used for the bass line and a noise channel used for percussion with only three melodic voices to work with the bass couldn't afford not to be kick-ass if you chose the 180 BPM option earlier you're going to want to give the bass this galloping rhythmic figure it's not exactly funky per se but this driving rhythm at such a fast tempo lends a certain intensity to the music which is very important when you're scoring a game about fighting killer robots if you chose the 150 BPM option you'll want something considerably funkier what makes a bass line funky you know and at the top well we can see some examples of funk based techniques scattered throughout the soundtrack like the flash man stages bassline where a steady eighth note pattern alternates between staccato downbeats and tenuto up beats [Music] or in crash man's baseline where we have this chromatic octave walking up to the tonic with the staccato top notes mimicking a slap bass sound you know and then you know you got your basic formulas usually though we get the more energetic type of funky bass line dripping with sixteenth note syncopation syncopation is the rhythmic dissonance created by emphasizing offbeat notes rather than notes found on the beat and it's the most important factor in creating energetic music check out how metal Mane's and quick man stages both use the sixteenth note rhythm to anticipate the third beat of each bar [Music] the boss battle themes bassline features even more syncopation to lock into the rhythm of the melody this is actually a really good example of another aspect of mega man two's bass lines incorporating the blues scale the blues scale is the closest approximation we can get to of what notes sound bluesy without veering into micro tonal territory specifically with the flattened third fifth and seventh these can be in direct contrast to the natural third fifth or seventh in the underlying harmony or they can be used as a chromatic approach tone to give a line a bluesy edge Megaman 2 soundtrack goes for the latter with the chromatic note being used to fill in the gap between the natural fourth and fifth in the bass lines of the stage select and boss battle themes [Music] Oh [Music] while the baseline in the credits music shows us the use of the flat 7 and flat third in a major key there is one example of the former method where the blue notes simply clash against the notes found in the harmony in crashman stage theme check out the melodies flat 3rd and flat 7 used over a very clear outline of a regular G major chord [Music] [Applause] [Music] alright so we have our bluesy funky bass line and our harmonic backdrop now for the most important element the melody this will definitely be the hardest part of the megaman to songwriting process as it's key to have a catchy melody that the player won't mind listening to over and over and over again as they fall into the stupid pit 1030 times hmm hypothetically of course in all seriousness each melody on the soundtrack seems to focus primarily on memorability with melodies that stick to outlining the basic chord tones of each changing chord in repetitive patterns [Music] [Music] this makes perfect sense since with only three available voices the melody can't really afford to stretch too far away from basic chord tones without obscuring what the Harmony is actually supposed to be but you don't win over the ears of a whole generation of kids with just basic chord tones alone no of course not what really makes these melodies great is the rhythmic energy the key to this sort of musical height machine is an emphasis on the offbeat check out dr. Wily's castle for instance notice how the melody starts and ends each phrase on the offbeat with every other phrase hammering home only off beats the only time we get a strong downbeat in this section is when it lands on the raised six a sharp giving us the modal intrigue to offset the rhythmic resolution [Music] another great example is the beginning of air man stage theme which creates rhythmic and melodic tension with this chromatically descending stream of off beats again when it does land on a downbeat it gives us a nice colorful chord tone in this case the major seventh of the underlying G flat chord to maintain some musical energy going back to the idea of syncopation I mentioned earlier we can see one of the most important ways that the soundtrack creates energy rhythmically with the anticipation of the next chord in the progression what I mean is that the downbeat of a bar where a chord changes will be moved back half a beat or even a sixteenth note to the bar before and held over the bar line this push to get to the next chord faster than what is categorically demanded by our slimy lizard brains makes the music exciting for some reason I don't know why it works I just know that it does check out all these examples now compare that to the stage clear theme without this anticipation the melody and the base make up two of the NES is three available voices so what about the third this parts pretty simple actually you can either harmonize the melody in thirds [Music] [Applause] [Music] or you can express the harmony with a syncopated sixteenth note counter line that outlines the underlying chord progression like so [Music] and with that you all now know how to compose music for one specific game on a console in genre that hasn't really been relevant in like 20 years you're welcome if you want more hot tips like these don't forget to subscribe and if you want to get the sheet music you saw on screen here get these videos early make a suggestion for a video topic or just support the channel feel free to check out my patreon if you have any questions feel free to tweet me at 815 News a theory and thank you all so much for watching see you in the next one [Music] you

Channel: 8-bit Music Theory

Views: 276,230

Rating: 4.9573698 out of 5

Keywords: 8 bit music theory, 8-bit music theory, 8bit music theory, music theory, music, analysis, education, soundtrack, Mega Man 2, megaman 2, megaman, Takeshi Tateishi, air man, quick man, metal man, Wilys stage theme, Dr wilys castle, megaman music, how to, wood man, heat man, flash man, crash man, theme song, video game, video game music, game music, vgm

Id: JknOdnEtwxs

Length: 13min 55sec (835 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 08 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/jdepps113]

Great video. Love those songs.

[u/[deleted]]

Just getting into chiptunes. Very helpful.

[u/A_Salty_Scrub]

I just subbed to this guy because of this video. Definitely one of my new favorite channels.