Icecube’s Quick Guide to music theory (for people who don’t want to learn how to read score)
1> The nice and friendly Europian Scale is made up of TWELVE NOTES. 2> A scale is a set of as many or as little of these notes as you like (a chromatic scale includes all 12) 3> Most electronic music is based around one of the two main scales, major and minor. 4> Both have 7 different notes, but they are divided up evenly. 5> If one note is a tone above another note, it is 2 notes above it. 6> If one note is a semi-tone above another note, it is directly above it. 7> The typical keyboard (consisting of black and white notes) is arranged to fit nicely into the so-called natural scale of C MAJOR. (note to C programmers: in music land, C is nice and easy) 8> The layout of a piano is shown below (where O’s are white keys, and X’s are black keys) 9> 0XOXOOXOXOXO or
10> Note that to our ears there is an equal distance between any note and the note above it, even if the black notes happen to be scrunched together.
11> The white keys (O’s) are called (from left to right) C,D,E,F,G,A and B
12> Each black key can be called at least two different things.
13> They can be either reffered to in relation to the white key directly above or below them.
14> For instance, the first Black note in the keyboard above can be called C sharp (or C#) or D flat (Db)
15> If something is sharpened, it means that it is brought up a semitone.
16> If something is flattened, it means that it is brought down by a semitone.
17> This means that if you live in simple land where the only accidentals are sharps and flats, the black keys can be called any combination of the two below
18> from left to right: C#,D#,F#,G# and A#
19> or …
20> from left to right: Db, Eb, Gb, Ab and Bb
21> (the more complex and pointless things are double sharps and double flats, which go up/down by a tone. pointless in practice, but invaluable in theory)
22> Why do we need both sharps and flats then, if they both can say exactly the same thing?
23> Let’s have a look at some nice & simple major scales below as they should be writen:
24> C Major: C,D,E,F,G,A and B
25> E Major: E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, and D#;
26> C# Major (yes, scales can start on black keys as well): C#, D#, E#, F#, G#, A#, B#
27> What? why would anyone want to use a E#? it’s the same as F isn’t it?
28> Yes, it is, but notice that all the scales refer to each letter once, and in order.
29> Now let’s look at how E Major could be written, and compare it to the one given before:
30> E, Gb, G#, A, B, Db, and D#
31> See how this goes eggabdd, while the proper one went efgabcd.
32> It just makes more sense.
33> Below is a scale that uses a flat
34> F Major: F,G,A,Bb,C,D and E
35> No plain major scales make use of both sharps and flats.
36> That’s just the way it is : )
37> Look at how the notes are distributed on the keyboard for each of the major scales.
38> They all follow the same sequence, but just start on different keys.
39> Here’s the sequence.
40> Base note, go up a tone, go up a tone, go up a semi-tone, go up a tone, go up a tone, go up a tone (and if you want to get to the base note an octave up just go up another semi-tone).
41> oh yeah, the sequence of keys repeat themselves as you go up, so you get back to the same key name you started from if you go up 12 semitones from where you started. This is called an octave.
42> Minor scales are more tricky. I will get to them later, but for now if you’re interested I will give you the form of the simpler of the two just so you can mess with it
43> Harmonic Minor scale> Base note, go up a tone, go up a semi-tone, go up a tone, go up a tone, go up a semi-tone, go up 3 semitones (go up another semitone to get to the base note an octave up. 3 semitones can be called a minor third).
45\\ There are loads of other scales, and feel free to make up your own.
46\\ There are pentatonic scales (scales that use only five different keys, usually based entirely around the black keys), whole-tone scales (a 6 note scale that rises only in tones), chromatic scales (a twelve note scale that use all available keys), and the thorny modal scales (there were loads of these, each given it’s own horrible name. They were at their most popular during the time of plainchant (you know, the monk chanting thing). Thank god much more flexible systems have been come up with since then that sound MUCH nicer (and are much easier to use).
47> Here come the TRIADS!!!!
48> When people started making music, they noticed that some notes just sounded SOOOO good together, and they realized that the strongest came in threes.
49> These were called…
50> …Wait for it!…
51> TRIADS!!!!
52> They are just bunches of notes that can be played together and that sound nice.
52> In the key of C major, the strongest triad is the C major triad, or C,E,G
53> All major triads take the form Base note, up a major third, up a minor third.
54> A major third is 2 tones.
55> A minor third is 3 semitones.
56> But it’s nice and balanced, as it uses both intervals.
57> If you were to swap around the last two intervals, you would have a triad in the form:
58> Base note, up a minor third, up a major third.
59> Which is also nice and balanced. This is the minor triad.
60> A minor triad that is in the key of C major would be E minor
61> E minor : E, G, B
62> To form a triad from a certain note in a scale, just play the note two notes above the base, and the note four notes above it.
63> In a major scale, it can be said that:
64> The triad based on the base note (tonic) is always major.
65> The triad based on the second note is always minor.
66> The triad based on the third note is always minor
67> The triad based on the fourth note is always major
68> The triad based on the fifth note is always major (and is second in strength only to the tonic triad)
69> The triad based on the sixth note is always minor
70> The triad based on the seventh note is always dimished.
71> Diminished? What is that?
72> Well, remember how I said that the major and minor chords were nice and balanced?
73> ps. I will use the word chord as if it means the same as triad. For the moment it does.
74> A diminished chord takes the form:
75> Diminished triad: Base note, up a minor third, up a minor third.
76> And it sounds very dissonant and sad indeed, and you will not encounter in in major scales.
77> yes, there is also another type of basic unbalanced triad, called the Augmented.
78> Augmented triad: Base note, up a major third, up a major third.
79> This sounds very dissonant.
80\\ Philosophical flash
81\\ Seeing how major triads seem happy, and minor ones sad.
82\\ it seems that too much happyness or sadness leads to stress.
83\\ End of philosophical flash
84> All melodies and harmonies can be established to rest on chords (even if they are very strange)
85> Now, let’s imagine that you have just come up with a COOL melody…
86> That goes C, E, E, E, G, C, E, E
87> It’s funny isn’t it?
88> How this melody slots into the chord of C major (C,E,G) perfectly
89> It’s no coincidence, i made it that way : )
90> You should also notice that if you play these three notes and hold them down while playing the melody above them, it sounds…nice and fluffy!
91> But what if I wanted the melody to go something like C, D, E, E, G, C, E, E ? What would I do then?
92> Notice how it’s still the same exceptfor the D which replaced the second E? 93> And how C, D and E are in a row? 94> And how C and E are notes of the chords? 95> Well, in this instance D can be ignored and called a passing note, as it is just something used to pass from C to E, so nobody will pay it any real attention anyway (it’s not a strong note) 96> However, if the melody went like C,F,G,E,C,C,C 97> The F wouldn’t count as a passing note between C and G, as there is a gap. 98> Big general rule below 99> You can jump from one note of a triad to another, but you can NEVER jump to or from a passing note. 100> To jump is to move up or down more than one note. 101> When I say note, I refer to the note of the scale, not tones or semitones. 102> i.e, one the note above E in the key of C major is F, but the note above E in the key of G major is F# 103> Similarly, if you encountered a piece where the notes F and A were played together, you could say that it could be based on one of two triads 104> F Major (FAC) 105> D Minor (DFA) 106> If you just HAD to deceide what one it was you could either play the chord with the two notes as the come in the piece, and pick the one that sounds best, or simply deduce it for yourself. 107> Can’t think of how to deduce at the moment. Brain is dead. 108> Figure it out yourself. 109> Certain triads sound good when they come in sequence, 110> But first you’re going to have to learn how we refer to them. 111> We use roman numerals to denote all triads in relation to the base note (tonic). 112> I in the key of C major is the triad C major. 113> stupid minor chords are written in lower case roman numerals. 114> vi in the key of D is B minor (B, D, F#) 115> Remember that list of all the triads that were major and minor in a major scale? 116> yes? 117> Well, it can be written much more easily now. 118> I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viiº 119> Yep, you guessed it. Diminished chords are notated in lower case with a little º (degree symbol) beside them. 120> Some triads just sound good next to other ones. 121> Try the following sequences (in whatever major key you want. C is probably the easiest): 122> I-IV-V-I 123> I-iii-IV-I 124> These sound finished, because they all end on the base (tonic) chord. 125> Some endings just sound better than others. 126> I-IV-iii-viiº 127> Doesn’t sound very finished, does it. 128> Here are some ending progressions that do sound good. 129> (Progressions that close a section are more properly called cadences) 129> V-I 130> This is the strongest cadence. 131\\ Called a perfect cadence by classical music buffs. 132> IV-I 133> This is also a pretty strong ending 134\\ Called a plagal cadence by people like me 134> V-VI 135> This is a cadence that sounds unfinished, perfect for when you want to link a section to another one in the same key 136> (I’ll get to key changing (modulation) in a while. be patient) 137\\ It’s called an interrupted cadence. 138> Now, for some practical work, try composing a melody that uses the following progressions (each triad can last for a bar, but it doesn’t have to) in the key of C major. 139> I-V-IV-I 140> Here’s a simple melody i did with it in fruity loops:
141>See, not so tough, is it?
142> and you can do some cool things with it now.
143> To change the key of this melody to D major, all you have to do is notice that D is a tone above C, and drag the whole thing up a tone.
144> The triads still keep their numbers
145> Now comes the really cool part.
146> Because you know the structure of the whole thing, and know what will DEFINITELY sound good with it, you can add a bass line really simply.
147> Here’s a sample one below:
148> There is a very good reason why the base line is only playing the bottom note of each triad.
149> The reason?
150> Inversions.
151> Basically, say with the triad of C major (but it can be with any chord), you can write it as CEG.
152> You could also write it as EGC (high C on top).
153> Called the first inversion of the chord of C major.
154> or GCE (with a high C and a high E)
155> Called the second inversion of the chord of C major.
156> These are still perfectly legal triads, but they just sound a little weaker.
157> And so, because the bass note dictates the inversion, I had the bass play the root note.
158> These can be called the root position, first inversion and second inversion
159> or the A,B and C versions of the chord (handier for quick notation.
160> For a nice ending cadence, try Ic-V7-I
170// This candence was really popular during the classical period, and still sounds nice and fluffy ; )
161> What’s the 7 for?
162> It means that in addition to playing the three notes of the V triad, you add on a note that is seven notes up, and one semitone down from the base note of the chord. (i.e.you diminish the seventh)
163> I’ll give an example. It’ll help clarify it.
164> C major 7 (not C maj 7. That’s different. I’ll clarify it in a sec) is C, E, G, and Bb.
165> B is seven notes above C, and Bb is one note below B.
166> If you are using note names for chords, to denote a minor chord, you put a small “m” after it.
167> eg. C,Dm,Em,F,G,Am,Bº would represent all the triads in C major.
168> C maj 7 means that you play all the notes of the C triad, plus the note 7 notes above C (i.e. B). You do NOT flatten it. It remains major.
169> Anyway..For some uknown reason, the fifth chord of any scale can sound quite nice with a diminished seventh (not the triad, the note. They are related, but at the moment, just confusing).
170> and the cool thing is that you can use this note in the melody like as well, even though it is not part of the scale (if you are using V7)
171> Of course, listen to most pieces in the key of C major, and you will hear notes that just don’t belong to the basic, mundane scale (but you can still do a hell of a lot within it’s confines)
172> as you should now know, V-I cadences are REALLY strong.
173> What is a V-I cadence in the key of C?
174> G-C of course
175> And what is it if the tonic (base note )is G?
176> D-G naturally
177> What note is D in the scale of C major?
178> why ii of course.
179> Now, have a look at the following cadence:
180> II-V-I
181> Notice two things:
182> I’ve put in two V-I cadences in a row, so it should be really powerfull sounding!
183\\ called a double perfect cadence
184> and there is no II (major second triad) in the key of C major.
185> So how do you play it then?
186> Simple. The only note that changes from Dm to D is the F (it goes from F to F#).
187> So basically make all the F’s F#’s when that triad is playing and the cadence will be perfectly fine.
188> That’s two ways to escape from the constraints of a major scale then (and pretty cool ways they are if I do say so myself : ) )
189> But what if you want to completely change into another key for a bit?
190> (that’s called modulating in case you weren’t listening earlier)
191> It’s dead simple.
192> make the cadence at the end of the section the same as a strong ending cadence of the key you want to modulate to.
193> eg. if you are in the nice and easy key of C major, and you want to hop into the key of G, just put the following cadence in:
194> D-G (don’t forget to sharpen your Fs in the major D chord)
195> after that, you can simply write the next passage as if it were in the key of G major (remembering to put in all the sharps/flats that are present in that particular scale) 196> Naturally, some modulations sound better than others. 197> A modulation into the fifth is always a good bet. 198> And so is one to the fourth. 199> (that should be no surprise really, as they are both powerfull triads in the tonic (base) key) 200> But what if you want to go into a minor key? All the minor keys sound whimpish. 201> Go to the relative minor of one of the more powerfull keys then (be it I,IV, or V); 202> Relative minor? isn’t that my little cousin Susan? 203> No, it’s a key three semitones (a minor third, remember?) down from the relative major. 204> And it shares a very common scale. 205> For example, the relative minor of C major is A minor, because A is three semitones down from C. 206> and to get to it you could do a E-Am cadence (E is the fifth note of the scale of A. Oh! don’t forget to make all Gs sharp when the E is playing) 207> or if you want to write a general pattern that works for any major key that wants to modulate into it’s relative minor: 208> III-vi 209> And here’s how you could modulate to the relative minor of the subdominant (the subdominant is just the fourth note of the scale. I’m not going to use these terms again here, but it’s nice to say it and sound intelligent : ) ) 210> in C major it would be modulating to D minor 211> which would be a A-dm cadence (don’t forget that A has C# in it, not C!) 212> i.e. VI-ii 213> Bolox, i don’t have to patience to go into more detail with minor scales at the moment. They’re a bitch to explain in person, and even harder when you’re stuck with ASCII & images. 214>So instead I’m going to go into more detail on triads, and teach you another way to break out of scales(as opposed to changing them completely). 215>Rember how we write a diminished 7th chord? (eg. C7, or Eb7) and how major 7th chords are written with the maj (eg. C maj 7)? 216>Well, the reason people take the 7 to mean diminished seventh is because the major one isn’t used much. 217>However, with all other chords like this, the extra note(s) are major unless stated otherwise. 218>eg. C6 is the chord C,E,G,A, NOT C,E,G,Ab. To write the latter, write C dim 6. 219>eg. C6 is the chord C,E,G,A, NOT C,E,G,Ab. To write the latter, write C dim 6. 220> One thing. Insteading of writing, say C2, C4, or C6, write C9, or C11, or C13. 221> They both just saying the same thing (the second note in a scale has the same name as the ninth), only the latter one is the one used by convention. 222> Use these type of chords whenever they sound right. This is just a taste of the freedom you will have by the end of this tutorial. I think that it’s funny that people start off thinking that they can do anything in music, then they learn some theory and think it’s all based around rules, and then learn that it’s perfectly OK to break those rules. (reminds me of Zen, only music is less time-consuming (but then, to a Zen master, what IS time?)) 223> There once was a sad sounding modal scale that was just so k00l that it was kept when everything went major. This scale was called the Harmonic Minor scale. 224> It took the form: 225> Base note, +tone,+semitone, +tone, +tone, +semitone, +3 semitones (and go up one more semitone to get to the next octave) 226> this can also be written like this: 227> Base note, +2, +1, +2, +2, +1, +3, (+1) 228> The triads for each note of the scale go like this (oh! Augmented triads are represented by a “+”) 229> i,iiº,iii+,iv,V,VI,viiº 230> Modern composers love scales that produce dissonances like this (look at all the funky triads man!). 231> Baroque and Classical composers did not, so they invented a scale based roughly around this that would sound “nicer”. 232> There are two ways to go up it. I’ll put it below (I’m sick of the old notation, so this time +1 means +semitone, and +2 means +tone ok?): 233> Base note, +2, +1, +2, +2, (+2, +2) or (+1, +2) , (depending which ending you choose, you’ll have to advance one or two semitones to get to the next octave) 234> See how flexible it is? (and yes, you can still use those funky custom chords with it as well) 235> You should also be able to see that doing up a chart of all the different possible triads would be very time-consuming. I’m not going to do that, but there is plenty of scope for the “nice and fluffy” major triads in this one. 236> That’s why it’s called the Melodic minor scale, because it makes “nicer” sounds (but I find it a wee bit archaic and too fuzzy for my tastes) 237> I’m now going to list all of the scale types I know and think are cool, and you can experiment with them yourselves : ) 238> Whole-Tone scale (6 notes): base note (tonic), +2,+2,+2,+2,+2, (+2) (there are only two possible different whole tone scales : ) ) 239> Whole-Tone triads: i+, ii+, iii+, iv+, v+, vi+ (see how all the triads are augmented.) 240> Whole-Tone scale (6 notes): tonic (base note), +2,+2,+2,+2,+2, (+2) (there are only two possible different whole tone scales : ) ) 241> Simple Pentatonic Scale (5 notes):tonic, +2,+3,+2,+2, (+3) (with this you can make pieces that only use the black keys!) 242> Simple Pentatonic triads: ii,III (only two simple triads fit into this, but you can make up your own now : ) ) 243> Chromatic Scale (12 notes): tonic, +1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,(+1) 244> Chromatic Triads: Chromatic scales contain ALL triads! 245> Diminished Seventh scale (4 note) : tonic, +3, +3, +3, (+3) (this is a diminished triad that has a diminished seventh added not, not a plain diminished seventh triad : ) ) 246> Diminished Seventh triads: iº,iiº,iiiº,ivº 247> Augmented Scale (3 note): tonic, +4, +4, (+4) 248> Augmented Scale’s triads: i+,ii+,iii+ 249> Phrygian Scale (7 note): tonic, +1,+2,+2,+2,+1,+2, (+1) (one of the old modes, just so that you will be able to sound intelligent. The strong (Dominant) triad in this scale is the sixth one. Figure out the triads yourself) 250> Atonal music: In some atonal music, EVERY one of the twelve notes must be used in a melody before they can be repeated. That’s it. The very end You know as much about composition as i do now (but i probably still know it better ;) ) I hope you’ve learned something from all this : ) Yours faithfully in the name of all that is good and parsible. -Stephen Lavelle aka Icecube aka Adiamante aka Erde– icecube@maths.tcd.ie