BRUSH UP ON Music Theory

Let’s face it, most music theory is stuffy and offputting. Here are a bunch of principles you can put to good use – no jargon, just simple techniques

Scale up and forget

Scales and keys are simple – instead of creating a track using all of the 12 available notes, you create it using seven. The patterns between the notes are what define a scale. If every instrument in a track is playing only from that same set of notes, then you should be in key. The root note is the focal note of the track – D in D major, for example – the one that comes right at the start and end of almost every musical phrase. Start at your root, and move the keyboard in the pattern 2-2-1-2-2-2-1 to play a major scale. For a minor scale, the pattern is 2-1-2-2-1-2-2. As examples, move up all white keys of the keyboard from C to C and you’ll play the C major scale; go from A to A and you’ll have played the minor scale.

What chords can I use?

If you’ve got yourself a scale, it’s not hard to figure out which chords will go with it. Again, your chords will only be made from the notes of the scale you’ve chosen. A basic ‘triad’ is made of three notes, moving up the scale but skipping a note every time. If you’re using C major (all the white notes on the keyboard from C to C), your first triad will be C-E-G. Start at a note: C, miss one (D), play one: E, miss one (F), play one: G.

What about flats and sharps?

Anyone who’s ever sat down at a keyboard will be able to tell you that Db and C# are the same note, but music theory has different ideas. Music theory’s job is to name things, and the difference is only in the name. These notes are exactly the same, and it’s only for advanced purposes that they’re given different names – even then, they’re the same note, just referred to differently. Don’t let the theorists’ will to name things discourage you from experimentation.

More chords to try

Basic triads are fine, but for a bit more musical sophistication, try adding more notes to them (again,

skipping every other scale note) to make sevenths, ninths and elevenths. Next give suspended chords a go – these involve taking the middle note of the triad and moving it up or down by one scale note.

A sense of tension

A diminished chord has three notes separated by a gap of three – eg, F-G#-B. When it comes to ‘standard triads’, they bear more resemblance to minor than major but, with the notes separated by the same gap of three, and the top and bottom separated by a gap of six, diminished chords are especially disturbing and aggravating. For this reason, they’re great to place at the height of tension, potentially best used during a build-up, though sometimes just as good as a connecting-chord between two normal triads. For an even more suspensive note combination, try adding another note on the top, again separated by three steps – the diminished seventh.

Chord Inversions

Inversions are, put simply, the idea of playing a chord with the notes in the ‘wrong order’, so instead of playing a D major D-F#-A, you could play it A-D-F#, and still maintain the exact same feeling. One way to use inversions to good effect is so that the lowest notes match a bassline below it; another good use is in the tip below…

Two ways to change key

Changing the key of your track in the middle is a way to make things interesting. So how is a key change performed? The first and simplest way is to just abruptly change it from one bar to the next, with no warning. The second way is to introduce the next key just after playing a chord that this key and the current key share. Transitioning from G major to A major, to give an example, can be done using the chords Bm (B-D-F#) or D (D-F#-A), as both keys share these notes and chords.

A la modes

When you’ve had your fill of standard major/minor scales, try some modes. Remember how C major and A minor were both played using the same notes, just starting at different places? Well, there are five more starting points you can use, and each is known as a mode. It’s unusual to find music played in a mode rather than in a major/minor scale, but this is one way to keep things interesting.

Keep it in key

If you’re having trouble keeping to a key, your piano roll might be able to help. In Ableton Live, for example, you can wrap the piano roll to show only the notes that have been programmed into it so far, hiding the others. Add to this the fact that you can also drag notes back to before the first beat, and you can program in the notes of your scale before you start, drag them back behind the first bar, and ‘Fold’ the notes so you can only program acceptable notes. Many hardware controllers and sequencers allow you to do a similar thing. NI Maschine, Ableton Push and Novation Circuit all feature scale modes that ‘fold’ all the notes in a key across a grid of pads.