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“The standard major and minor scales have been the source of millions of beautiful melodies, and will continue to be so for millions more. But after years of listening to music based on the same old scales, how can you break away from convention but still keep your music grounded on planet Earth? A great way to start exploring interesting and new sounding melodies and harmonies is to use modes. Modes are scales that use the same pitches of the standard major scale but in new and different ways. Because of one or two discrepancies from the typical major or minor scale, a mode can sound fresh, intriguing, and grab your listener’s attention as something new.

As we’ll see in the examples throughout, the seven basic modes can be used in countless different styles for many wonderful effects. Where else will you possibly find a tutorial in which you learn something from Miles Davis, The Beatles, Ravel, Metallica, and Shostakovich all in the same lesson?

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If you’ve been thinking about subscribing to Plus and you’d like to learn music theory, this tutorial would be a great reason to do it. It’s the best explanation of modes I have ever seen. Each section features clear explanation, multiple audio and video examples, and some great ideas of how each mode can be used. Sign up for Plus today! At $9 a month it’s great value, and there is a money-back guarantee if you disagree. And we certainly appreciate your support!

Table of Contents

• How to Derive the Modes
• Ionian
• Dorian
• Phrygian
• Mixolydian
• Aeolian
• Locrian
• Borrowing Elements from the Modes
• Conclusion

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Each Tuesday we open our mic to readers and lurkers alike to come out of the woodwork and tell us your thoughts and opinion, your experiences and mistakes, what you love and what you hate. We want to hear from you, and here’s your chance.

How did you learn to play music? Was it a good way to learn? Do you have any comments or interesting/embarrasing stories about learning to play?

Share any advice or tips in the comments.

One thing that always struck me about the application was its lack of a serious stereo delay unit. Although the advanced reverb and standalone delays are great, I felt I needed something with a little more firepower to use in my projects. Of course delay units are supplied in the factory section of the Reason library but creating a custom device is so much more rewarding.

So … this tutorial guides you through the process I used to build a custom delay Combinator. Of course the modular nature of Reason will mean there are countless ways to do this, if you have created a different version it would be great to hear from you and if this is helpful to you I’ll share my future creations.

Step 1 – Adding the Basic Delay Units

So to get this monster delay started I created an empty Combinator and inserted two basic delay units. These delay lines do feature stereo in and out but they only really preserve the stereo content thats fed to them. Apart from a global pan control, there really is no control over the stereo sound stage. So I’ll be using a delay line for both the left and right side.

Creating a blank Combinator.

Adding the two basic delay lines.

With these two units created I had to decide how to route them to get a true stereo delay working. At first I tried to feed one side of the Combinator’s output to the appropriate side of each delay unit but this just didn’t work, so it was time to bring out the Spider.

Routing the delay lines to the Spider splitter.

In routing situations like this the Spider devices can be extremely useful and can allow much more complex routings to take place without really effecting your signal flow. In this case I used a spider ‘Merger and Splitter’ to duplicate the device output of the Combinator.

This simple split allowed me to take a true stereo signal into each delay unit, the output of these delay lines could then be panned at a later stage in the signal flow to ensure we are hearing a true stereo effect. With this section hooked up we’re ready to move onto the next few devices in our chain.

Step 2 – Mixing and Programming the Delay Units

We now need to route our delay units so that they are panned hard left and right and can be easily fed to the master outputs or any other devices we plan to use. I used a line mixer for this as I only really needed the pan controls and the ability to merge the outputs of the delay lines.

When I created this mixer it was automatically routed to the Combinators, this is fine for now as we can audition the effect in its current state but we’ll need to change this later, to accommodate more devices.

The Spiders outputs routed to their own channels on the mixer.

The delay units were then set so that they created repetitions at 5th and 8ths, a moderate feedback was also used on each line. The units were then panned hard left and right on both the delay effects themselves and the mixer they are fed into. This is a little anal but this super safe approach will ensure a 100% stereo effect.

The delay units settings and everything panned hard left and right.

Download audio file (2.mp3)

An untreated guitar loop.

Download audio file (2b.mp3)

The same loop with the basic stereo delay applied.

Step 3 – Adding Our Super Filter

One essential part of a great stereo delay line for me is the inclusion of a resonant filter. Now here I could of kept things simple and just used the Prop’s envelope controlled filter but I think Thor’s filters sound so much better, so I took the more complex route – literally.

I unhooked the routing to the Combinators insert inputs and routed them to ‘Audio inputs’ 1 + 2 on the Thor rear panel. I then flipped the synth and created a very stripped down patch that contains no oscillators, main filters or effects. The only module thats really active is filter number three.

The routing to the Thor’s audio inputs.

I used filter three due to the fact it accepts left and right signals from the audio inputs. This means that it can be used as a true stereo filter and is perfect for treating external audio. The routing of the audio to the filter is achieved by using the mod matrix in the loser section of the synth. It’s simply a case of assigning inputs 1 and 2 to the corresponding inputs on filter number 3. if your routing is correct you should hear audio passing through the device.

Setting up the audio inputs for filter 3.

I have used a resonant low pass filter here but you can really use any flavour you like. The comb and format filters are especially interesting if you want to create something a little leftfield.

Thor’s final settings for the filter effect.

Download audio file (3.mp3)

The loop with a swept filter delay.

Step 4 – Adding Crunch and Clarity

Another important part of a full on delay effect is the ability to add some controlled saturation to the signal path. Although I love this as an integral part of the effect, things can get a bit dulled by any sort of distortion. So… in an ideal world we would have a saturation effect coupled with an EQ and thats exactly what I’ve done here.

First up I’ve inserted a Scream 4 and used the tape saturation program (a personal favourite of mine) and then immediately after this there is an MClass equaliser with a healthy dose of high end added. As you will see in a later stage this is variable and not constantly on. These devices have been routed so that the signal flow remains constant and is ultimately fed back to the insert area of the Combinator.

The Scream 4 saturation effect, followed by the MClass equaliser

Download audio file (4.mp3)

The saturation and EQ applied to the filtered delay.

Step 5 – Enabling a Wet and Dry Mix Feature

At this point I realised the only way to control the amount of delay in the mix was to use the wet / dry controls on each delay unit. Although there is an easy way of controlling multiple parameters with one control (as you’ll see in the next step), even dropping the level of both delay lines effects mix still left the filter, saturation and EQ present.

It became clear that another device was needed to achieve the result I was after. I used another line mixer and fed it with another line out from the original spider splitter and the last device in the effects chain. This effectively gave me a wet and dry channel which could be mixed to taste.

The new mixer’s routing.

… And the Spider’s routing.

With the wet channel turned right down all we hear is the sound that the Combinator is receiving and absolutely no delay effect. This is perfect for introducing anything from small to extreme delay settings with exact control.

The new Wet and Dry controls.

Step 6 – Programming Custom Controls

The final step here was to create some custom controls for the Combinator. Thanks to the excellent programming system the Props have put together for us, this process is pretty straight forward.

I started by adding controls for the really key features of the effect such as cutoff and resonance for the filter. I then moved onto tape drive and delay level. Some of these custom controls actually effect a number of parameters. For instance the tape drive knob controls both the ‘damage amount’ and the tape compression level on the Scream 4 unit.

Programming the custom controls for Thor’s filter.

… And the tape distortion..

As a final touch I programmed a few of the buttons to turn on the chorus unit in the Thor and lastly one to activate the very high band in the MClass equaliser, giving a high boost effect across the whole device.

The final custom control panel.

Download audio file (6.mp3)

The patch with some added chorus and high boost from the custom panel.

Once the patch was finished I saved it for later use. Its probably a pretty good idea to save the settings of any key devices within complete patches like this, for instance saving the Thor’s filter settings may save you time when constructing other effects patches.

Saving your new patch

The final delay combinator in all its glory.

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The problem with the prevailing ideas about music theory and how supposedly useless it is, is that they lump a whole bunch of knowledge under one small label. Some of what we call “music theory” is mind-numbingly boring, some is plain useless for many popular musicians, and some is just hard to get a handle on. But there is a wealth of knowledge there that musicians can use to improve their work.

It wasn’t until about six months ago that I saw the value of interval ear training, something often lumped under that “useless music theory” banner, and started applying myself to it. And all my rocker friends said, “Why bother with all that theoretical stuff when we don’t even use it?”

But ear training isn’t theory. It’s practical. When you take a mere ten minutes out of your day, every day, to master this aspect of the musical field, you’ll find you’re better able to transcribe and dissect riffs that inspire you, and better yet, turn the tunes in your head into tunes you can play without spending hours guessing the notes. Even if you’re a rocker.

If you want to unlock these benefits, then you’re reading the right piece. I’m going to get you off to a head start by providing you with song associations for all the intervals in an octave, and next week I’m going to point you towards some great applications and Web sites that will help you get the training done.

What is an Interval?

An interval is the distance between two notes in the octave. There are intervals above the octave, but since they’re just intervals within one octave placed another octave higher, you don’t really need to learn them.

Training your ear to hear intervals is relative pitch training. When you spend the time to learn this, you won’t be able to hear a single note and say, “Oh, that’s a C#”—that’s absolute pitch. Relative pitch is more about the gap between two notes than the notes themselves, about gauging the distance. This is flexible because you can transcribe songs in any key using this skill.

Song Associations for Intervals

In my experience one of the best ways to train your ear to hear various intervals is to associate them with the beginning of a song—or another prominent section, if it works better for you. Trying to memorize the connection between two notes without a point of reference is insanely hard and won’t work at all for many people.

Let’s introduce the intervals, with their associated songs:

Root

This isn’t an interval to learn, but it is an important bit of terminology. The root note or tonic is the first note of the key you’re working in. For instance, playing in the key of C, the root is C. Simple stuff. You work out the other intervals using the root as an anchor.

The Minor Second

The minor second is one semitone above or below the root note. From C, this would be C# ascending or B descending.

Probably the most common song associated with the minor second is the theme song from Jaws. Jaws is an ascending minor second, so going from C to C#. Those two alternating notes are hard to forget, and that dissonant quality is what you’re looking for in a minor second. It’s the shortest possible distance between two notes, at least using standard Western tones.

The descending minor second is Für Elise. You might notice that the opening notes sound like Jaws in reverse. In this case, we’d be going from C to B (the actual song goes from E to D# but we’ll stick with the key of C for these examples).

The Major Second

The major second is one wholetone above the root and a semitone above the minor second. It’s the second note in the major scale, which is one way to memorize it. Alternatively, you can think of Silent Night or Frère Jacques. Not the most exciting songs in the world, I know, but clear enough that your association should hold strong.

Descending, we have Mary Had a Little Lamb and—yet another Christmas Carol—The First Noel.

The Minor Third

For most people, the minor and major second are relatively easy to pick up and then they get to the minor third and seem to have great difficulty. Be prepared to spend a bit of extra time learning this one. The minor third is three semitones from the root note.

Song associations work best when the song you use is clear in your mind and easily recalled, so I’m surprised people have such difficulty with the ascending minor third when Smoke on the Water can be associated with it. If you’ve ever spent more than ten minutes in a music store, you probably never want to hear this song again thanks to the twerps in the guitar section playing this endlessly, which unfortunately makes it excellent for association.

Descending, the options are Hey Jude by the Beatles and apparently, The Star-Spangled Banner. I’m an Aussie so I couldn’t tell you what the American anthem sounds like off the top of my head, but it’s probably the easiest option if you’ve been hearing this melody your whole life.

The Major Third

The major third is four semitones, three tones, away from the root note. It’s also the second note in a major triad, in case these songs fail you—most any musician knows the sound of the major triad pretty well.

I’ve also heard it said that the major third (ascending) is the sound of a doorbell, but this one never worked well for me. Maybe because I’ve ever heard the same thing about the major second and that throws me off.

More corny classics: ascending, the major third can be associated with When the Saints Go Marching In and Kumbaya. Descending, we’ve got Beethoven’s 5^th. You could also use Summertime or Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, according to various teachers I’ve had, but while I’ve heard them at some point before, the melodies aren’t exactly burned in my mind—and I imagine it’s the same for many people these days.

The Perfect Fourth

The perfect fourth is five semitones from the root note and is one of the easiest intervals to grasp. It’s also one of the most common intervals in popular music (does the I, IV, V chord progression look familiar to you?).

Ascending, this song can be associated with Amazing Grace, as well as Here Comes the Bride, though in this case the root note is repeated a few times before moving to the fourth.

Descending, the perfect fourth is represented by the old hymn Oh Come All Ye Faithful, or the theme song from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I suppose you need to be a churchgoer or a sci-fi nerd (yeah, I’m guilty of that!) to get this one down.

The Tritone

The Devil’s Interval, they called it when it was banned by the Church in times long past. Then someone realized it’s a really cool interval, and lifted the ban. Or something like that. Six semitones from the root, C-to-F#, this interval is found in a lot of heavier music.

The ascending tritone, otherwise known as the flat fifth (a name that just doesn’t have the same dramatic flair), can be associated with The Simpsons (The Simpsons – I’ve italicized the syllable where the tritone is sung) or Black Sabbath’s Black Sabbath.

Descending, the tritone can be associated with Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze or YYZ by Rush (if you can listen without getting distracted by their odd rhythm and timings).

The Perfect Fifth

The perfect fifth is seven semitones from the root (C-to-G) and forms the third note of a major triad. The perfect fifth can usually be picked up more easily than other intervals.

Ascending, you might associate the fifth with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, or the Star Wars theme song.

Descending, the best popular example is the theme song from The Flintstones, though if you know the melody from The Way You Look Tonight that’ll work too.

The Minor Sixth

The minor sixth is eight semitones away from the root note (C-to-G#). This is another one people sometimes get stuck on, so be prepared to spend some time on it.

Ascending, you can associate the Beatles song She’s a Woman or the first two notes from the theme song of Love Story. Ever wondered why so many of these tunes are theme songs?

The minor sixth’s descending options are the Recado Bossa Nova and Chega de Saudade, which luckily can be found on YouTube. I haven’t been able to find less obscure alternatives for the descending minor sixth, so if you’ve got ideas, let us know in the comments.

The Major Sixth

After the difficulty of the minor sixth, we have the relative ease of the major sixth. This one can usually be picked up pretty easily. It’s nine semitones away from the root note, C-to-A.

Perhaps the most popular option for the ascending sixth, and the one I was taught with, is My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean. Give the first two notes of that song a listen and you’ll probably never be able to forget this interval. If that doesn’t do it for you, Sinatra’s classic My Way might.

Descending, the options are Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen by Louis Armstrong and The Music of the Night, which is one of the more popular tunes from The Phantom of the Opera.

The Minor Seventh

The minor seventh is ten semitones away from the root note, which is C-to-A#. There are twelve semitones in an octave, so we’re almost there!

The ascending minor seventh is used in the theme from the original Star Trek, and the song Somewhere from the musical West Side Story.

The descending minor seventh is usually Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man, or the old symphony composition An American in Paris.

The Major Seventh

Ah, the major seventh, one semitone away from the octave at eleven semitones from the root. This jump is from C-to-B.

The ascending major seventh can be found in a-ha’s (a Norwegian band that had terrible American 80s haircuts) Take on Me, or the theme song from Fantasy Island.

Descending, the major seventh can be associated with I Love You, an older song written by Cole Porter, but better known as popularized by Bing Crosby.

The Octave

The octave is the same note as the root note, with a higher or lower pitch. It’s twelve semitones from the key tonic. This is, of course, a jump from C-to-C in either direction.

An ascending octave can be associated with the old Judy Garland song from The Wizard of Oz, called Over the Rainbow (somewhere over the rainbow– italics represents the interval).

The descending octave can be associated with the jazz standard Willow Weep for Me, that was written by Ann Ronell in the 30s and recorded by such notables as Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.

Well, that’s a lot to take in, so I’ll be back next week to introduce you to software ear trainers to help you take this information to the next level. As you’ve noticed, many of the songs frequently associated with intervals are out of date or a bit obscure—I think it’s time the music world had a new list! What modern popular songs can you suggest for each interval?

Step 1

Open up Logic Pro 9 and set up a new project. It doesn’t matter what kind of project template you use, as long as it has or you create an audio track.

Get some audio ready to work with–you might want to record an actual instrument, but I’m going to go the convenient route and use an audio loop from the library.

Here’s what the loop sounds like:

Download audio file (1.mp3)

And here’s how your window should look, more or less:

Step 2

At this point you should make a selection as to what audio you want to use and cut it up into a region. Make sure your project tempo matches the audio you’re using and cut it to the bar, as in 95% of situations you’ll want to have a loopable sampler region.

To cut up regions, you’ll need to use the scissors. You can turn this on by clicking one of the pointer tool menus above the main Arrange area and selecting Scissors Tool. The left menu sets your regular left click t00l and the right menu sets your Command+click tool. Here’s what the menus look like:

I’m going to use the loop as is, since it’s already cut to size.

Step 3

Select the region you wish to convert and click on the menu option Audio > Convert Regions to New Sampler Trick (or hit Ctrl+E). You’ll see a dialogue box like this one:

Select Transient Markers instead of Region. Selecting Regions is useful if you have multiple regions and want the entirety of each region to be triggered by a key on your MIDI controller. Hit OK and watch as Logic creates a new track with a green region filled with little lines:

Your old audio track was automatically muted, and you can give the new region a listen to make sure everything went as planned (if it didn’t, you will have to backtrack and see what you did wrong).

All audio should sound the same in terms of timing at this stage, even if Logic has cut it up incorrectly, because the slices are lined up in exactly the same way they were as a cohesive unit. If your audio file doesn’t suit being manipulated in this way you won’t know it until you start changing things.

You’ll notice that the dynamics of the audio has changed. I tend to find that the dynamics have been flattened out a little so they’re more consistent and are a bit louder.

For your comparison, the output of the conversion:

Download audio file (2.mp3)

Step 4

At this stage you can customize the MIDI any way you see fit. You can move the notes around manually, and you can record new ones through your MIDI controller, essentially having turned your audio into an instrument of its own. There are a whole slew of things you can do with the MIDI data now, but you’ll also find out whether Logic was able to slice it up effectively. For example, if the audio sounds stuttered when you quantize to a very minute level like 1/64th, you probably won’t have much luck doing anything with it.

Fortunately, my loop is easily manipulated. I can quantize it to 1/16th to give it a rhythmically tighter feel, and chuck on a bit of gating to make it punchier (if not quite 80s), all using the channel strip Inspector:

Download audio file (3.mp3)

Or you can create an entirely new feel. All I’ve done here is removed the gating and changed the quantization to 1/12–all very simple changes, but it sounds like a totally different loop:

Download audio file (4.mp3)

Step 5

Earlier on you cut a loopable region to convert. This region should be reasonably long to give you room to experiment with; you may change the quantization or time signature in a way that uses more notes in less time, for example, and if you cut the initial loop down to the bare minimum, you may find yourself without enough notes. Now that I’ve experimented and come up with the sound I want, I like to create a loop or a group of loops in the smallest feasible building block size.

I do this because I may want to throw in a loop in a two bar section and be stuck with a four bar loop. Not a huge problem, but certainly a workflow inconvenience.

I’ve cut this loop down to one bar and repeated it, instead of having a longer region that’s less wieldy.

If you got your sampler track from real audio you’ve recorded you can now make it easily accessible and useful by adding it to the Apple Loops Library from the Regions menu (but if you retrieved your file from the Apple Loops Library like I did, I’d suggest there’s not much point in doing so!).

First I want to begin with a working definition. For this tutorial, ghost snares will refer to quiet snare hits that are added for extra groove. Also note that this tutorial will apply to all DAWs with a MIDI editor.

Technique 1: Adding Funk

First I’ll start with a pattern that I played in on a keyboard and then adjusted.

Download audio file (1funknoghosts.mp3)

Although the pattern does have all the benefits of playing from a keyboard, which are varied velocities and imperfect timing, it could use some rolls to add more realism to it.

For this technique, you’ll want to turn off your DAW’s snapping feature, so that you can place notes anywhere. By adding a short, quieter snare just before some of the hard snares, it has a bit of a drumroll effect. Compare this audio to the previous audio, and you can see how adding barely audible snare hits in a grace note fashion can make a pattern sound more interesting. Note that I also adjusted the double kick that starts the second bar.

Download audio file (2funkyesghosts.mp3)

Technique 2: Breaks

Next I’m going to use an example that I will create solely by painting in the drum hits individually. Here’s a common pattern heard in Drum N Bass songs:

Download audio file (3breaknoghosts.mp3)

It’s a good starting point, but rather uninteresting. Let’s place some ghost notes in the piano roll that would be step 8 and 10 on a drum machine, as well as an even quieter ghost snare on step 16.

Download audio file (4breakyesghosts.mp3)

We can add more bounce to the pattern by adding a ghosted kick. We could add this just about anywhere in the pattern and it would work, but here’s where I put mine. Having the ghost kick lead into the first ghost snare has a nice bounce to it.

Download audio file (5breakghostsplusghostkick.mp3)

Making the ghost notes slightly different in each bar can turn a one-bar loop into a less-repetitive two-bar loop, while still retaining the overall feel. In this next example, the first bar and the second bar are the same, except in the second bar, I had the ghost kick switch places with the nearest ghost snare (see image). For more variety, I also moved the final ghost snare a half step.

Download audio file (6breakghostnotes2barloop.mp3)

Technique 3: Drum Rolls

Since drum rolls are a collection of rhythmic grace notes, we can apply our ghost note strategies to create them. One way of getting set up for a drum roll is place your emphasized snares first. In this roll I know I want each beat to be emphasized, so this is how I set it up. It’s not going to sound like much, but it is a starting point:

Download audio file (7drumrollsetup.mp3)

In the end, we might remove the kick but I’m using the kick as a metronome so that I don’t get lost in the shuffles. We’re going to get more complicated with each step, and in this step this means adding two shorter notes between each of the snares. Then, I’m going to add a note between each of the smaller snares.

Download audio file (8drumrollmachine.mp3)

Before moving forward, we should change the velocities of the snares to make it more realistic and hear what we should do next. Go through the hits and change the velocities, getting slightly louder as you go but making a zig-zag formation. Though I will ramp up the volume of the “on-beat” snares, I’ll keep them louder than the snares around it.

Download audio file (9drumrollvelocityramp.mp3)

Drum rolls tend to get more intense at the end, so we should add more snares in the missing spots. I copied the green “emphasized” snares and moved them over a step as a shortcut. I also took out some of the off-beat snares near the end, and I brought in the kick to reinforce it.

Download audio file (10drumrollmoresnares.mp3)

Keep in mind that most drum rolls need more time to develop, and they need to work with the other instruments in the song to build real tension, but hopefully this short example will get you started.

Final General tips

• If you’re editing MIDI, making Ghosted Snare patterns before making the hat pattern is a good idea, because then you can have interplay between the two. Also, keep in mind that there’s a limit to how many things a drummer can do at once.
• When working with ghost notes to turn one-bar loops into four-bar loops, start with the first bar being the simplest, then get slighter more complex in the second and third bars, and in the fourth bar look for a way to make a slight change.
• To avoid the machine-gun sound in rolls, consider randomly changing the pitch of each hit slightly, or make multiple versions of the same sample, using various pitch envelopes and filters, to create your own multi-velocity snare group.

This track has been submitted for your friendly, constructive criticism. They have put their track (and their heart and soul) in your hands to learn and get useful feedback.

• Do you enjoy the song or track itself? Does it have potential?
• Can the arrangement be improved?
• How did you find the mix? What would you do differently?
• What do you enjoy about the rhythm track? What can be done to improve it?
• Is the choice of instruments relevant and effective for the style/song?
• Are the lyrics (if any) effective? Does the style, arrangement and genre of the song suit them?
• Can you suggest any specific techniques that might improve the track?
• Do you have any other constructive feedback?

Rolando by Tonedeaf

Description of the track:

A beginner to EQing and mastering this track is far from finished but just trying to reproduce that classic detroit house sound.. any constructive feedback would be much appreciated

Download audio file (rolando.mp3)

Terms of Use: Users can stream the track for the purposes of giving feedback.

Have a listen to the track and offer your constructive criticism for this Workshop in the comments section.

Submit Your Tracks for Workshopping

Need constructive criticism on your own tracks? Submit them using this form.

The first few are pretty basic (and some of you might need that), but the videos get more interesting after that. I particularly love learning from Jordan Rudess – both how he plays, and how he uses his equipment. Who do you learn the most from? Do you have any keyboard tutorial links to share with us in the comments?

1. Basic Piano Notes, Keyboard Tutorial #1

“Here I show how to find basic notes on a piano keyboard.”

2. Basic Piano Chords Part #1 (Keyboard Tutorial #2)

“Here I describe a triad and how to use it.”

3. How to Play Trance/ Techno on Keyboard (Lesson 1)

“Wes teaches you simple steps on how to play your own trance/techno without the use of any music sheets or scores! This is lesson 1, and covers the very basics. Let me know how effective it is.”

4. How to Play Trance/ Techno on Keyboard (Lesson 2)

“Wes teaches you simple steps on how to play your own trance/techno without the use of any music sheets or scores! This is lesson 2, and covers Expanding and Speed modulation. Please note that this recommends an intermediate skill level in piano to grasp.”

5. Not Too Hard, Fun Piano Lesson – Intermediate Blues Lick for C7 F7 Chords

“This is a blues lick in C which slides of the Eb note… So that would make it based around the A blues scale.”

6. Blues Piano Licks : Blues Piano Intermediate Lick One

“How to play the first intermediate blues piano lick, including a step-by-step demonstration; learn this and more in this free online piano lesson taught by professional composer and pianist Jonathan Wilson.”

7. Jordan Rudess – Keyboard Wizardry

“This is a little excerpt from his “Keyboard Wizardry” DVD. I highly recommend this DVD.”

8. Jordan Rudess – Chromatic Exercise

“This is a little excerpt from his “Mastering Live Performance” DVD. I highly recommend this DVD.”

9. Jordan Rudess Keyboards World 1 (2007)

“Jordan Rudess before a concert of Six degrees of inner turbulence talks to a camera about his keyboards in the concert .”

10. Jordan Rudess Keyboards World 2

“Jordan Rudess before a concert of Live at Budokan talks to a camera about his keyboards in the concert.”

If you missed them, you can catch the previous tutorials here:

• Beginner’s Guide To Songwriting – Part 1
• Beginner’s Guide To Songwriting – Part 2

Flickr Image by plecojan

Review

Before getting to Part 3 of this series, let’s review what we learned in Parts 1 and 2:

• Music is organized sound.
• In order to understand what makes a ‘good pop song’ in the context of this tutorial, we must understand the language of music.
• To begin to understand the language of music, we must learn to listen critically. And remember, critical listening doesn’t mean taking the fun out of music!
• As we listen to music, we can begin to identify the constituent parts of a song: melody, harmony, rhythm, lyrics, and form.
• Deconstructing a song is a great way to begin to understand the mechanics of songwriting.
• Starting with simple songs, we can deconstruct and reconstruct songs to practice the art of song arrangement.

Flickr image by ~EvidencE~

Deconstruction Continued

In our last tutorial, we took a good look at what it means to deconstruct a song, using the familiar “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. Hopefully you’ve taken some time to listen to and deconstruct some of your favorite tunes, identifying the various components that comprise its overall formula.

Let’s look at a few pop tunes now to see how we might begin to deconstruct them.

Owl City – Fireflies

The tune “Fireflies” by Owl City has been near the top of the Billboard charts for the past 4 months. The tune has a lot of crisp production values, interesting vocals and a strong melody. Let’s listen to it and take some notes as we deconstruct it.

The tune opens with a typical intro, that mirrors the chord progression used for the opening verse. Then we move into the first verse, which is immediately followed by a muted chorus. Then we go to another verse, followed by a full chorus. Next we have a slightly modified verse (with some additional backing vocals), another regular verse, followed by two full choruses and an outro that is similiar to the first muted chorus.

In formulaic terms, we can assign letter values to each of the various sections – A for verse, B for chorus.

• A (verse modified as an intro, with no vocals)
• A (verse)
• B’ (modified chorus – we use the apostrophe here to denote that this is a modified version of the principle chorus)
• A (verse)
• B (full chorus – note that we have the full, regular chorus here, so no modifier)
• A’ (modified verse – now with a slightly altered melody and backing vocals)
• A (verse – back to our primary verse)
• B (chorus)
• B (chorus)
• B’ (chorus modified as an outro)

Listen, again, to the song to see if you agree or disagree with the formula I’ve come up with above.

One of the great things about discovering form and formula of pop music is that it usually helps to inform you as to the lyrical, harmonic and melodic patterns of the song. Note that while the verses may have different lyrics, their vocal melody is generally the same – except when we modify it with the apostrophe. In these cases, we have a different lyric and a different melody. Why, you might ask, do we not use a ‘C’ to denote an entirely new section here? Because the lyric and melody are still playing over the exact same chord progression that is used in the verse – thus, we really just have a modified verse, rather than a new section such as a bridge.

Likewise, with the chorus, we almost always have the same melody and a similiar lyric line – except when modified with an apostrophe. In that case, the lyrics, melody, or arrangement is significantly different from the full chorus, so we denote it with a modifier.

Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me

Taylor Swift has had a metoric rise on the Pop and Country charts this year, and her tune “You Belong With Me” has has been on the Billboard Top 100 for 33 weeks. Let’s deconstruct this tune as we did before.

Let’s take a look at the formula of this tune, noting the differences between this tune and the last.

• A (verse modified as an intro, with no vocals)
• A (verse)
• A (verse)
• B (bridge – here we have a unique section that isn’t the same as verse or chorus, but rather acts as a bridge between the two)
• C (chorus – note here that while the chord progression is identical to the verse, we are distinctly in the chorus section, so it gets its own letter, rather than a modifier)
• A (verse)
• A (verse)
• B (bridge)
• C (chorus)
• C (chorus)
• C’ (chorus modified – instrumental with no lyrics
• B (bridge)
• C’ (chorus modified – muted lyrics)
• C (chorus)
• C (chorus>

At the risk of sounding painfully obvious, one of the most potent and effective tools for writing a pop song is to write a GREAT sounding chorus and to repeat it over and over again. Note that this tune has Taylor singing the chorus six (6) times! Even so, the song doesn’t end up feeling terribly repetitive because the bridge and verse break up the musical monotony. In addition, the lyrics take us on a sort of journey, telling a story over the course of the song. Formulaic songwriting? Certainly. Highly effective (read: nearly ‘pop-perfect’) songwriting? Absolutely.

A Brief Look At Chord Progressions

Before jumping to the topic of chord progressions, I’d like to point you to another fantastic tutorial by Ryan Leach – An Introduction To Cadences. Cadences are part of harmonic progression, and understanding how and why they work, and when to use them, can be an excellent starting point for writing your own music.

Writing a chord progression isn’t as hard as it may sound. You can use a progression as simple as “Louis, Louis” – which is a 1-4-5-4 progression, or something more complex. When I first started out writing songs, I sat down at the keyboard, figured out the chords used in one of my favorite songs, and sung new lyrics and melodies over the top. This is a GREAT way to begin exporing songwriting.

There are plenty of resources on the web regarding pop chord progressions, but I wanted to point you to two amazing YouTube compilations that illustrate the simplicity of writing pop chords.

What is the lesson to be learned in these videos? Simply this: even the greatest pop songwriters of our time use similar ideas from time to time. These chord progressions, while incredibly common, simply provide a jumping off point for writing a unique song through melodic, rhythmic and lyrical ingenuity.

I encourage you to experiment with these and other chord progressions from your favorite songs. Write your own lyrics, but feel free to use the form and the chords as you like – remember this is practice!

A Note About Artistic Merit

I realize that I’ve probably alienated more than a few readers here with my musical selections. Surely there are some of you out there who question the artistic merit of these two artists, and perhaps even pop music in general. Please keep in mind that this series isn’t about opinions – it isn’t about whether or not you like a certain artist or style of music. It is about seeing the process and formula behind pop songwriting. To that end, these two artists have made it to the top of the ladder in the US, and thus they deserve to be studied. You don’t have to like it, but the better you understand how they got there, the easier it will be for you to do the same.

Final Notes And Suggestions

We’ve taken a fairly good look at pop songwriting – from listening to deconstruction to anlysis, as well as offered a few tips on experimentation. The most important thing to remember about songwriting is that there are no ’set rules’. Yes – it is possible, however unlikely, to become a hit musical sensation without a lick of music theory or knowledge. However – the more you know and understand about music theory, about rhythm, form, lyrics, chord progressions – the easier it will be for you to achieve your musical goals. If that is writing pop music – you’re in luck, because pop music formulas work! This should be painfully obvious after listening to the above examples. Even if you’re trying to break out of the genre, knowing the tried-and-true methods makes it easier to avoid them intentionally.

So sit down at your keyboard or guitar, deconstruct a few tunes, then reconstruct them using your own rhythms, lyrics, melodies, or even chord progressions. I’d love to hear your results – so if you come up with a new tune based on analysis and deconstruction of an existing tune – let us know!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this series of tutorials. If you feel I’ve left something out – please let us know in the comments. I’d be happy to further refine this series – to focus on individual sections more. Whatever you want is what we at AudioTuts want to provide. Thanks for reading and keep listening!