music theory for music producers (you'll actually use this)

what is going on everybody my name is tatro and since i just finished my uncut music production lo-fi beat making series i got a lot of questions and people asking me to do something around music theory so i want to start this new monthly series where i talk about the different parts of music theory that i use in my music making process now if you're like me you loathe the idea of learning music theory it sounds super boring and it also sounds super complex something that you have probably been trying to avoid learning or maybe you've been looking for somebody to explain it in terms that you can understand and that's what i hope to do here because i can relate to you i am somebody who absolutely loathed the idea of learning music theory i had to learn in school and i had to learn so many levels of music theory beyond what i actually used today and i was so frustrated at the ways that it was taught that made it seem very irrelevant to actually making music and made it seem a lot like math so what i'm going to try to do is demystify the elements of music theory that i think are the most vital for you the home studio music producer just somebody out there who is making your own original music and wants to sort of understand peek behind the curtain what's going on in terms of music theory so this will be an ongoing series we'll be revisiting this subject every month and i will put subsequent parts of this series in the description down below so stay tuned for that maybe it's already up by the time you're seeing this but welcome first installment this series is actually going to be sponsored by skillshare but we'll talk about that a little bit later as usual if you're liking the vibe here make sure you subscribe to the channel and if you learned something new today consider giving the video a thumbs up but the first element of music theory i want to talk about is one of the most foundational elements and it's learning scales and keys those can sometimes be used interchangeably basically it comes down to the collection of notes that you're going to use in making your track let me play you an example of a scale you've probably heard that before but let me do something else really quick forget i just played that forget that reset your ears now let me play you this [Music] now some of you out there might be saying hey that sounded pretty much the same but slightly different and you're actually right on both counts it sounded the same because the two scales that i just played you are both major scales the reason you say it sounds kind of different is because i started on a different note if you noticed the first time i started on c the second time i started on f but nonetheless they were major scales they sound pretty much the same they just start in a different place and use different keys remember that now i could go tell you oh let's learn to read music on the staff and let's memorize all of those key signatures and major and minor scales let's go memorize them and i'll teach you how to read music even though you're probably never going to use it in your music production career but i won't do that because that would be a waste of your time instead let's actually take a look at the keyboard and understand our way around and just know that this applies to other instruments not just the keyboard i think the keyboard is just probably one of the most universal instruments to demonstrate this on so right now you notice that there's white keys and black keys and i'm just going to give you the names of the white keys and if you know the english alphabet this shouldn't be that hard we're going to start on c c is the note next to two black keys and then we're gonna go up just count up the alphabet c d e f g now the musical alphabet stops at g so what happens after g we reset we go to a a b c and then it just repeats you notice i said c next to two black keys you'll notice that this is a repeated pattern two black keys three black keys two black keys three black keys it just repeats and all you have to remember is start on c c d e f g a b c the black keys have names too that's where sharps and flats come in but i'm not going to confuse you with that right now but just know uh even though the keyboard has white keys that are a bit bigger and black keys that are a bit smaller we're still gonna count these equally and that will come into play um in a moment so now that you know the names of the keys you know it's just the alphabet starting on c next to two black keys you can create shortcuts for yourself like if c is next to two black keys we can remember that f is next to three black keys nonetheless the names of the notes don't matter that much for now because i just want to teach you how to play a certain scale or in a certain key that's how you're going to end up coming up with your melodies you're going to build your chords this way you're going to write your bass lines in a particular scale in a particular key or if you want to learn a song that already exists you're going gonna have to learn what key is that song in and what notes should i play now that i know it's in that key so how do we do that well we first have to understand how we talk about notes and how we talk about the distance between two notes right so there's two types of steps we can take whole steps or half steps now a half step is when a note is right next to each other like this c to this c sharp don't worry about the name for now just notice that these two notes are right next to each other [Music] and we'll call that a half step there's no note in between these two notes now don't get confused it's not a half step just because it's a white key to a black key because this relationship right here this e to this f there's no note in between that is also a half step here is another half step b to c and then the pattern repeats e f then we have them going all the way up this is a half step [Music] anywhere there is no note in between two notes that is a half step okay but what if i want to take a whole step well you might have already guessed this but a whole step means there is one note in between the two notes so the c to d is a whole step we've got a note in between there we have to take two half steps right half step half step equals a whole step same thing here f to f sharp is a half step to g is a whole step so the distance between f and g is a whole step the distance between c and d is also a whole step the distance between b and c is a half step there is no note in between them the distance between e and f is a half step there's no note in between them again we have whole steps and half steps why is this important this is important because there's a secret formula for scales if i told you play a c major scale you might have learned that in your piano 101 class or you might just know you play all the white keys but the secret formula behind it is what is going to allow you to know any major scale so that if i say play me f sharp major you don't look at me with a blank scared stare and you know the secret formula so you can automatically formulate the f sharp major scale in your head that is the goal for today so what is that secret formula and remember it's comprised of whole steps and half steps which we just learned about the secret formula is whole whole half whole whole whole half whole whole half whole whole whole half that's two holes a half three holes and another half now let's go through it slowly because that might sound a little bit confusing but all that means is no matter where you're starting on on the keyboard let's keep it simple for the first one and start on c to form a scale we're gonna follow this secret recipe whole whole half let's start with that part whole whole half so i'm going to start on c and i'm going to follow the secret formula a whole step up from c is d and it's whole hole so we're going to go d and then a whole step up from d [Music] whole whole half the next note should be a half step away e to f remember there's no note in between here so this is a half step so we have whole whole half remember the hole in the half represents the relationship between two notes so that's why i say whole and play two notes whole two notes half two notes and then we have three whole steps in a row well what's a whole step up from f g what's a whole step up from g a remember one two what's a whole step up from a one two b and then the final part of the formula is a half step b to c is a half step now using the secret formula whole whole half whole whole whole half [Music] we have formed a c major scale why is this important it's because when i sit down and write a piece of music the first thing i decide is what key am i going to play in or maybe i heard a song that i like and i want to emulate the way that song sounds i'm going to figure out what key that song is in maybe right in the same key if that song is written in c i know that i can only use the notes that are in c major and write a cool melody [Music] and then we start forming the basis of a track understanding that at the most basic level every track is tied to a particular scale and set of notes not just random if i'm playing in c major i'm not going to play any of these other keys i'm going to just play the keys that i figured out are in c major and i may have glossed over this but i did mention that there are only seven notes in a scale why am i not saying eight because this eighth note is c we already played c so i'm not going to say it's eight notes because then i'd be repeating myself with the c's so there are seven notes in this major scale here but how do we take that secret formula and apply it to any key on the keyboard and know how to play literally any major scale well we're gonna do that right after i finish talking about today's sponsor skillshare skillshare is an online learning community for creatives where millions come together to take the next step in their creative journey you can take thousands of inspiring classes on skillshare including classes on music production business photography videography and more today for the first 1000 of my subscribers to use the link in the description you can get a one month free trial premium membership to skillshare and with the skillshare premium membership you get access to all the classes on skillshare not just the music ones not just the business ones not just the video ones all of them so it doesn't matter like i'm about to try watercolor painting just because there's a class for on skillshare but if you're watching this video you're probably interested in music theory and ableton live maybe and they actually have a class that is music theory taught within the daw ableton live and it's taught by an ableton certified trainer and one class i talk about this all the time that i took advantage of was the how to mix your music class with young guru music production is hard you have to learn not only all these crazy music theory things but also the technical side and if you're trying to hone all of those things at once especially the mixing stuff i cannot recommend enough young gurus how to make your music course really help me improve my mixing skills and put out more tracks so click the link in the description and see what you can get done in that one month free trial of the skillshare premium membership support the sponsor you're supporting the channel if you take advantage let me know in a comment down below for now let's get back into learning scales okay so we learned the secret formula for a major scale whole whole half whole whole whole half you're gonna burn that into your memory we learned what a hole and a half step is half step the notes are right next to each other whole step the notes have a note in between them we learned that a scale a major scale has seven notes not counting the root again at the top [Music] but i played you a very easy example i played you c major which maybe you even learned on your own already but the key to understanding this is opening up your mind and realizing that it really is a formula and it doesn't matter what key you start on it's easy no matter what as long as you know the formula that's why this is better than memorizing key signatures or having to read it on a piece of manuscript paper because now that we have that in our head we can start anywhere like f sharp which by the way i did gloss over the fact that these black notes have names all i want you to do for today's purposes is take the note that's right to the left of it so say this is f and since we go up to it we're going to call it sharp f sharp we're going up but if your car breaks down because your tire goes down you get a flat we're going to call it a flat if we go down so this might be called f sharp but if i start on g and go down to it i'm going to call it g flat i'm just planting little seeds here because you should know that some notes can have two names i know that was confusing this note is called f sharp and g flat i didn't mess up but just know that if we go up it's called sharp if we go down it's called g flat flat f sharp g flat that doesn't matter for the purposes of right now i'm going to call them all with their sharp names but just for as we go through building a major scale on f sharp you should know that that is how i'm naming them if they're right next to a note and they go up i'm going to call it sharp so big scary uh the black keys are here we are no longer in c major but i said find me a major scale on f sharp find me f sharp major okay you know the secret formula it's easy whole whole half whole whole whole half so a whole step up from f sharp f sharp to g is a half step f sharp to g sharp is a whole step pull another whole step a sharp a half step now that's to be so let's review that hole hole half now we go three whole steps in a row whole that's b to not c but to c sharp we gotta take one two okay another whole step one two one more whole step one two [Music] play that all together and you notice that has the same sonic quality as the c major scale but it's just on f sharp it's the same exact thing we followed the same exact formula in the same steps so now you can start anywhere like on a know that it's whole whole half whole whole whole half [Music] and as a result what you'll see as you experiment with this on different starting notes is that there are different combinations of notes different combinations of white keys and black keys and that's what makes each key unique and the more you understand this formula and the more you get comfortable playing in all of the keys the more fluid you'll be able to be in writing your own music because you might want to play in a major one day but then you might also want to play an f sharp major the other day and you'll be able to do it now i'm not saying that understanding this formula um you'll just be able to play comfortably in all the keys overnight but having that layer of understanding and being able to look at a song and say okay that's in d major i know at least the collection of notes that i'm supposed to be playing just based on the fact that i know it's in d major the whole idea here of scales and keys is that you have a collection of notes that you're locked into a collection of seven notes that are used throughout your whole track and you limit yourself to those seven notes across the keyboard which allows you to play in all these keys which then informs your melodies your chords your bass lines all the fundamental parts of your track it's not random we're not just playing a bunch of random types of keys i'm saying okay i'm playing in d major today i'm limited to all the notes in d major which i now can even if i didn't know the d major scale i could figure out using the secret formula whole whole half whole whole whole half i call it a secret formula but obviously it's not a secret now that's a major scale and i'll give you one final tip today in terms of finding the minor scale which is usually a darker sounding scale let me play it for you here little spookier little darker and the funny thing about minor scales and major scales is that they're related every major scale has a relative minor every minor scale has a relative major and the easiest way since you already know how to find a major scale the easiest way to find a minor scale is to find the sixth note of the major scale let's go back to our friend c major one two three four five six now we're going to play the same collection of notes that we already learned in c major and we're going to play them but starting on a major [Music] you probably recognize that i played all white keys because that's all the notes in c major they're all white keys they just happen to be that but if i start on a i get a nice a minor scale so let's go back to our friend the f sharp major scale three four five six if i play that same collection of notes starting on this note here which i'm going to bring down an octave these are the same notes these are equivalent notes then i'll have my minor scale my relative minor to f sharp major which if you notice we're on d we go up d up is d sharp [Music] of course you could figure out the secret formula for a minor scale as well whole half hole whole half hole whole [Music] but for me it's just quicker in my head to figure out what is the sixth note of a major scale and then just play in the major scale but starting on the sixth note which is the relative minor so essentially if you know how to find a major key you know how to find a minor key as well so any song that you hear that's in a major key or any song that you hear that is in a minor key you can now find it and find the collection of notes that you need to use to recreate a similar sound or recreate a melody or create a song of your own using a particular set of notes in that key by finding the scale but this is only the beginning understanding scales and understanding keys which i don't expect you to fully understand it after watching just this video you can go back and watch this a couple times if things weren't really clicking right away and i promise that'll help but just understanding how to find a simple major scale and understanding that formula is the first step of building our foundation of understanding music theory looking behind the curtain and understanding what makes this music work this is going to inform everything we do going forward in this series like how to write melodies how to form chord progressions harmony all these different things i do recommend that you just try to practice understanding the formula of whole whole half whole whole whole half play it across your keyboard play several different keys and start trying to get more comfortable playing in different keys and for the next installment if you want to leave me questions down below i'll let those sort of inform the direction we go with this music theory series because there's a lot to build on here and i want to make sure we're learning everything that is most important to you all the audience but as usual please check out the sponsor skillshare when you support the sponsor you support the channel and not only that you can probably get more in-depth music theory and music production advice by taking advantage of the free trial so use the link in the description for that it does help support the channel make sure you follow me on instagram twitter all that if you're not yet make sure you subscribe give this video a thumbs up if you did enjoy and don't forget to comment down below and let me know what you thought but for now that's going to be it thank you so much for watching this has been tatro have a good one

Channel: TAETRO

Views: 87,529

Rating: 4.9624515 out of 5

Keywords: ableton, ableton live, ableton push, novation, launchkey, launchkey mini, akai, beat making, drum pads, drum rack, tutorial, home studio, electronic music, recording studio, producer, home studio producer, beat maker, akai mpk, mpk mini, akai mpk mini

Id: CluuHrr7HG4

Length: 23min 7sec (1387 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 12 2021