music theory you can actually use (PT. 2!)

what is going on everybody welcome back my name is tatro and i really didn't expect my last video on music theory to be so popular but it seems like you all really enjoyed it you know here in this video today we're going to continue on breaking down the foundations of music theory in a way that you as a home studio music producer as a musician can hopefully understand in an easier more approachable way than it's kind of traditionally taught because i struggled with that a lot as a musician when i was learning it really did not click in my brain for quite some time so i've decided to start this monthly series where i break down the fundamentals of music theory how i actually use them practically in my day-to-day music production today's video is going to be sponsored by skillshare but we'll talk about that later and if you did miss last month's video it's really important that you go back and watch it or at least be sure that you have an understanding on the secret formula for forming a major key for understanding a major scale on any note we'll of course do a little bit reviewing through today but like i said at the top today the focus is on chords and i really think this is the next logical place to go i think a lot of typical instruction will have you use the knowledge of creating a major scale and now have you create a melody or something but it's no use if you can create a melody and you don't know how to form chords under it and usually my approach is forming melody on top of a chord progression anyway or at least hearing the implied chord progression that's under an existing melody in my head but don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves here let's start building some chords okay so a very quick review because we are going to build on this knowledge from the last video we remember the secret formula for a major scale whole whole half whole whole whole half meaning we have ways of counting the distance between notes here on the keyboard this note here c to a c sharp that is a half step there are no notes in between those two notes uh same as e to f there's no notes in between here on the other hand c to d [Music] that's a whole step we have to take one two steps to get there that's a whole step same as let's say f sharp to g sharp that's a whole step because there's a note in between them so if the notes are directly touching each other that's a half step if the notes have one note in between them that's a whole step so follow that formula whole whole half whole whole whole half and we can build a major key on any key starting here that's c major let's start on something now like f same formula just starting on a different key [Music] and we can see that we get a new collection of notes but we get basically the same sound the sound of a major scale now that's our key whatever note we pick say we pick c so we pick f so we pick g sharp that is the key that we're in and for now as beginner musicians understanding music theory we're going to lock ourselves in to that collection of notes so for today why don't we stick with the key of f just to go along with this so the key of f like i just played for you again use that secret formula whole whole half whole whole half and let's call those notes out we have f g a b flat is what we'll call this today c d e f now in the previous video i talked about how actually every note has two names and how we can call notes either flat or sharp today we're calling this b-flat so that's the scale we're working with today so if we are truly locked in to that collection of notes to form chords we're going to start combining different notes and in doing that the only possible notes we can use in these combinations will be those seven notes f g a b flat c d e and then of course that's f on top so we don't count it again we already have it here and first we need to define what is a chord well a chord is comprised of three notes minimum there are no two note chords it must have three notes in order for it to be a chord if it has two notes we just consider that an interval that's not a full chord and a very basic way of looking at it is actually that a chord has a starting note so let's pick any starting note in the key of f hey let's start with f seems like a good place and then let's play every other note starting from f remember it's every other note but within the key of f those notes that we're locked into so it goes f g a and we're gonna play every other note we're gonna play f and a we skip one let's do that again skip one here we're gonna skip b which isn't even in key so we're gonna skip b flat technically and then we're gonna go up to c and now we have formed this first chord here we're going to call that f major why am i calling it f major we'll talk about that in a minute so understand that concept there we're really just playing every other note we're going to dive into this more technically in a moment but now let's go up the scale we can build a chord on every single note of this scale so let's start on g let's do the same thing we're going to play g and remember we're in the key of f major we're going to skip a note and play the next note in key which is b flat and then we're going to skip a note i'm going to skip c and go to d and that is the next chord in the key of f major now remember when i'm saying skip a note we're only counting the notes that are in key so when i say we're skipping a note between b flat and d that's c obviously i'm not counting this that's not in the key we're skipping the notes we're talking in key don't forget that the only notes we're worried about right now are the seven notes we've identified as being in key can't stress that enough what you might notice right now just off the bat here is that we played two core it's f a c and that's f major and then we went up to the next chord in the scale which is [Music] g minor now we're throwing out fancy terms here major and minor where is that even coming from well let's get a little bit more technical slightly than just saying oh we're just skipping notes we're actually not just skipping notes this is very intentional what we're doing here so let's focus on just this interval right here because it's not a chord it's only two notes this right here is what determines it to be major or minor that first interval in the chord if i play this that probably sounds very pleasant probably a little bit happy if i play the next interval which is from our g minor chord that might sound a little darker a little less happy that is because these intervals are known as one a major third and two a minor third and that is where these chords get their names why do they have their names like that well actually we've already learned about whole steps and half steps but there's another way to talk about the relationship between notes and it's a word that i've already been throwing around which is interval so we're not going to talk about every single interval today we're really only going to talk about thirds but just to plant a couple seeds and forget about the notes in our scale for a moment if i do this we've already learned that that's called a half step but in terms of intervals this is like jaws right we're going to call that a minor second so if you think of you know f as the first it makes sense that this would be called the minor second right and if you wanted to take a guess at what this whole step would be called in terms of intervals if we go from a minor second you might guess that that might be called a major second [Music] and as we go through if i go from f to g sharp again we're forgetting about our key signature and all that we're just counting these intervals for the moment f to g sharp is a minor third so we went from seconds to now we're in thirds and i'll give you one quick guess the next interval major third so right there that's as far as i'm gonna go with that until a little bit later but just understand that that we have words for each interval and remember it's not just a word for like the distance between the notes it's a word for the relationship between the notes what is the interval minor second major second minor third major third so you can probably already guess that our first chord here f major is called f major because it has a major third in it and then the next chord that we play g minor [Music] is called g minor because its first interval is a minor third that is going to apply for every chord that you play especially as we go up the scale further now what about that note on top [Music] and here's the reason that actually chords need to be three notes because if i just play this interval based on everything i just told you we can't tell if it's major or minor right because there's no third in the middle if i play this note which is correct and in the key of f major we get a f major chord however if i play this note [Music] that's f minor that's why chords need to have three notes and that top note there we talked about seconds thirds i guess i kind of skipped fourths perfect fourth here comes the bride well skip fourth for now and then we go up we have a perfect fifth you might recognize it as star wars please don't copyright strike that but yeah there's little like i said jaws before too there's little i guess mnemonics what do you call that whatever it's called little ways you can remember these intervals but nonetheless you all already know how to count half steps so you can just remember that a major third is one two three four half steps you can remember that a minor third is minus one from that three and you can remember that a perfect fifth is one two three four five six seven seven half steps don't forget that half steps can also be called semitones so that was a lot of information to take in just remember that a chord is made up of three notes we are locking ourselves in key now so we're back to saying that we're only going to play notes in f major a quick shorthand for forming chords is to play every other note in key right so f skip a note a skip a note c f a c go up the scale play start on g g skip a note b flat b flat skip a note d that gets us our g minor chord and you also just learned that instead of using that shorthand and saying just skip a note that we're actually playing a third up from that root note a major third being one two three four half steps or semitones up from the root and a minor third being one two three semitones up from the root remember we're always talking about these notes in relation to each other and we're counting up from there so if you really needed to know you would know if you even got to f and you were like oh i'm not sure if this should be f minor or f major well in the key of f major we're going to expect that the f is major but as we move on through f g a how are you even going to know if that's supposed to be major or minor you could rely on the every other note rule right if we start on a and we go to the next note in key which is b flat skip it and then go to the next note which is c we have c and then we you know skip another note d and then to e we get that and maybe you're not sure by listening to that is that major or minor just count one two three three semitones means it's a minor third we've got the fifth on top and now we have a minor so the first three chords in f f major g minor a minor this is going to follow us all the way up the scale and it's not just about being able to identify all these chords it's also about being able to put them in order to make a cool chord progression and this is going to get easier and easier as we go but that was the hardest part but real quick before we go any further maybe we should take a little bit of a break and i am actually really proud to show you all something so give me one minute i have taken up a hobby i think this is important for all musicians to take up a hobby and it actually uh ties in with today's sponsor so hold on one moment but i've started watercolor painting i hope you all can see that that's the moon these are the ocean waves and uh you all know that this series is of course sponsored by skillshare and they have a great watercolor course so i want to take this moment to show off my paintings and give a big thank you to our sponsor for today's video 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 music theory art photography business and more today the first 1 000 of my subscribers to use the link in the description will get a one month free premium membership to skillshare and with the skillshare free premium membership you get access to all of the classes on skillshare so if you like this topic of music theory they have music theory explained by an ableton certified trainer within the context of the daw which is really great another music related course i can't recommend enough is the how to mix your music chorus with young guru i credit that course with how i got my sound to be a bit more professional in the last few months or a year and then like i alluded to before we all kind of need a break from music sometimes and having another creative outlet for me has actually been very awesome to refresh my mind so i've been taking up water coloring and i cannot recommend this course on doing simple watercolors uh it's from skillshare so consider checking that one out too you know i would say i'm not like a world-class painter or anything but i'm pretty stoked on my progress so far so don't forget first 1000 of my subscribers use the link in the description get your free month of the skillshare free premium membership and if you support the sponsor support the channel so i thank you all so much for that for now let's get back into it i know it's a lot to talk about but chord progressions let's go alright so we're back in it we're making chord progressions and if you all remember we just learned about major and minor thirds and how to start forming chords right chords are made up of a root note a third and a fifth and basically staying in the rule set of we're only allowed to use the notes in our major scale that kind of dictates whether this becomes a major third or a minor third so on the f chord that we formed we know that it can't be this note in the middle here because that note's not in the key but when we go up to g we might be tempted to make it this which is a nice g major sound but that's not in the key of f we have to stick to the notes in our scale so the only other option there is the b flat it can't be this that's not a third at all and we can tell right away that those notes are way too close to each other and it definitely can't be this [Applause] same problem that's not a third and these notes are now too close to each other we're forming these evenly spaced chords with three notes which by the way fancy term for these three note chords is called triad so if you see that thrown around that's what people are talking about so continue that logic up the scale reminder we are in f major [Music] following that all the way up we have f major g minor we discussed already a minor the next chord is built on b flat don't get tripped up just because it's a black key but let's go ahead find the third and the fifth we have b flat major you can probably hear that that's major keep going up and then our next scale degree is c let's build a chord on here [Music] ah that's c major and we've probably seen that chord before already in other keys just file that in the back of your mind for a moment the next scale degree in f is d [Music] that's a d minor a d minor chord this last chord here the seventh chord particularly nasty sounding chord which is neither minor nor major it's called diminished but i want you to completely not care about that right now another thing file it in the back of your head we don't need to know that right now we're barely ever going to use this chord at this stage and then the next obviously scale degree is f we're back at the top f so you just were able to make chords on every note of the f major scale [Music] that sounds satisfying now much like the major scale video the whole purpose of me explaining that to you in this way is not so that you can learn the chords in f major but so that you can learn the chords of any key by understanding those concepts so let's switch keys for this moment and this is very much going to be a brain exercise so if it feels a little bit tough that's okay but this will become more ingrained in your mind where it almost will become instinctual after a while so let's really switch things up here and let's go to the key of d why not so now forget about f major we are going to set ourselves in the land of d major and let's refresh our memory remember a whole whole half whole whole whole half to find our major scale first that's the first step hole [Music] good [Music] so in our scale we've just found we've got d e f sharp g a b c sharp d again i did that using the whole whole half whole whole whole half formula [Music] sounds like all the other major scales just starting on a different note so remember now we know how to make chords in any key so let's start right here on d remember that shorthand we can skip a note even if you need to write down the notes in the scale for now that's okay too so you don't accidentally play a wrong note because we're going to go from d we know it's not e that's too close we're going to skip e we're going to go to the next note in key which is f sharp that forms a major third surprise surprise and our fifth on top we skip a note here and we go to a same process here that's d major and now we go to the next scale degree in d here and we go to e skip the next note in key play g skip the next note in key play b at e minor interesting e minor again because i can count one two three semitones versus the one two three four semi tones from d to f sharp that's what makes it major and the three semitones is what makes it sound minor then the next in key note is not f but f sharp don't get confused here skip the next in keynote go to the next in keynote [Music] skip the next in keynote go to the next in keynote [Music] this is f sharp minor now this is where many people will get tripped up because we've got two black keys in this chord but just remember if you for some reason played this c it's because you weren't paying attention to the rules and you weren't sticking to only notes in d major this note is not in d major this note is in d major but it's too far away look at all those notes in between and then this note [Music] again it is in d major but it's too close you remember we're built off of a third and a fifth only notes in key let's keep going i'm going to go kind of faster through this the next triad is g major followed by a major we can't play this c it's not in key so we get that c sharp uh then we get b minor followed by c sharp diminished which we don't care about and then we resolve back to d major okay if that is a lot for you to wrap your mind around that's okay go back try it slower and just remember all the rules we talked about but the system the system that is really important to understand here is that if you noticed when we were talking about f major and when we were talking about d major two similar things the first chord in d major is a major chord the second chord in d major [Applause] is a minor chord now forget everything go back to f major [Music] the first chord in f major is a major chord in the second chord in f major is a g minor chord and let's keep going further the third chord in f major minor number four major number five is major number six is minor and number seven i don't care about what if i told you that this is the same for literally every single key just like the formula for a major scale whole whole half whole whole whole half the formula for forming chord progressions in a major scale is exactly the same and we can actually represent it with roman numerals one a capital roman numeral is major two we're going to make that lowercase because that's minor and that's how we'll signify that that's a minor chord three lowercase again it's a minor chord four is major uppercase roman numeral five uppercase five it's major six is a minor chord so it's going to be a lowercase six roman numeral and seven i dread talking about it but it's diminished we give it a lowercase roman numeral and it gets a little circle next to it like i said you don't need to worry about that right now but that forget about the names of the notes those roman numerals are what you want to burn into your brain because if i say to you i want to play a song and i want to play in c major the chord progression is 1 5 6 4. well since you already know how to form chords in any key if you know one five six four you already know that that's one major five major six minor and four major and if you know we're playing in c major you say okay that's great i know whole half whole half i can figure out the notes really quick okay what did he say one five six four got it and that means that's c major g major six is minor a minor four is major i'm not gonna play this first of all this note isn't even in the key of c major second of all you know that the iv chord is always major but now if i said let's play that same song but let's play it in f we already played f today it's the same chord progression one five six four the same rules apply first find your notes of f major whole whole half whole whole whole half [Music] great that's our rule set that's like we're stuck with those notes only one we know it's a major chord [Music] five we know it's a major chord six we know it's a minor chord and four we know it's a major chord find the four one two three four yeah one two three four five again i'm counting the notes in the scale one two three four five six so you will often hear musicians call out chord progressions like that one four six five four five six one so if we're in the key of f major what's the four five six one chord progression four let's start here four five is the next chord six suddenly this starts to sound like a song [Music] probably sounds like a lot of songs because of what i just told you chord progressions are uh interchangeable through keys so maybe you know a song that sounds like that but is in a different key maybe that song is in d major [Music] i can still play four five six one in d [Music] major [Music] a little flourish back to the five there but as you can tell that chord progression sounds pretty similar to the four five six one chord progression because they're exactly the same they're four five six one just in different notes that's the same reason a major scale sounds the same pretty much just like if you play a major scale on f f major and then if you play c major they have the same sonic quality that's why we call them major scales and that's with these chord progressions that's why they're labeled the same thing in any key so now hopefully you understand the system around chord progressions not just how to make chord progressions in any one key but now understanding how to find the notes of any key and understanding how to build the chords on any key is incredibly invaluable because now you can be playing in any key and you can form a chord progression and i know i was joking before about i don't care about the seventh chord it's half diminished whatever the reason for that is some of these chords are more common than others and some of these chord progressions are more common than others like the one i just played let's play in c to keep things simple which by the way if you saw me playing my left hand i'm literally just playing the root note of the chord kind of doubled on the bottom but playing in c major you've heard [Music] this is one of the most common chord progressions and then the one i played before four five six one without me playing that wrong note in the bottom there you've heard that before you've probably heard lots of these what's that that's three to four six to five where am i getting those numbers from again don't forget count the notes in the scale one is the one chord two is the two chord three is the three chord it all goes back to those scale degrees that we learned we learned how to form that uh major scale also a callback to the last lesson where i told you to find the sixth note of any scale to find the minor well guess what it's no coincidence there's no such thing as a coincidence that the sixth scale degree forms a minor chord when you build a chord on top of it so let's say you want to play in a minor chord it's the same thing applies so let's say you wanted to play a minor chord progression you might go to the sixth of the major scale [Applause] [Music] because that's the relative minor start to listen to the songs that you love and start to notice similar chord progressions and see if you can identify the roman numerals behind them because you don't need to have perfect pitch and know exactly what kia song is to be able to hear and be able to identify it because now i can do that in any key for you like going to f [Applause] and you can tell that that was the same chord progression even though it's in a different key my final tip for you as you start experimenting with this is if you do jump between different keys it's always good to do like a little bit of a palette cleanse like play a bunch of nonsense notes or just play through the scale that you're switching to so if i'm going from c major [Music] it's important for me to okay i'm switching to f major [Music] to just hear that scale and that tonality because i'll tease maybe a little bit more advanced stuff for the next month's lesson but if you notice when i play f the fifth chord in f is c major while the one chord in c is c major so we might get confused our brains might get confused but don't let it just start fresh little ear cleanse play the scale that you're in so you properly hear that tonality and then go from there now you can build chords in any key and you can start building your own chord progressions all right i hope that was an information overload but i do think this is the next logical step for you to be able to work your way around creating your own tracks you understand how to make a major scale now and you understand how to make a chord progression but if you're still taking time to wrap your mind around it have no fear that's how we learn i don't expect anybody to watch a video like this all the way through and fully understand the concept by the end you might have to pause and practice or restart and by the way that watercolor stuff i told you about before some of the tutorials are only 10 minutes long like i believe for these trees it was only like 10 minutes long however to do a small painting like this something i've never done before a new concept a new thing to learn took me probably two or three hours to actually do so i'm stopping the video pausing it watching again rewinding listening again that's the process of learning that's how it should be so don't forget that that applies directly to music and speaking of the paintings by the way if you do support the sponsor and you decide to get uh your free trial skillshare premium it actually supports the channel a lot so please just sign up you don't have to pay anything take advantage of the one month free if you like it keep it if you don't you can move on from it no cost to you but even if you sign up for free it supports the channel so don't forget that don't forget to follow me on instagram twitter i'm updating those pretty regularly and tune into a live stream sometime uh here on the channel make sure you subscribe with notifications on so you don't miss a future one important links and all that are in the description and let me know in a comment down below if you found this helpful in what direction you want this series to go for next month's installment but thank you all so much for watching this has been tatro have a good one

Channel: TAETRO

Views: 54,436

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: Jjm7Ti-iwz0

Length: 36min 9sec (2169 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 06 2021