How to Write aCatchy Melody. Free PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2877864/catchy-melody Intro. British band Glass Animals are absolutely massive! At the time of writing this, they’re ranked #257 in the world on Spotify. Most artists as famous as them have achieved their success as a result of an obsessive striving for celebrity. However, Glass Animals seem to be obsessed with making catchy music instead. And not only that, their music is surprisingly creative for a band as successful as them. If you’ve been doing our Hack Music Theory tutorials for a few years, you’ll know that we don’t usually cover “celebrity artists”. The reason for that is because (nowadays) there’s an inverse correlation between the success of an artist and the creativity of their music. For an artist to achieve a fanbase of tens of millions, their music needs to appeal to the masses. And most people (nowadays) want “sugary” ear-candy music that’s pleasantly predictable, i.e. boring, bland background music. So why are we doing a tutorial on such a huge band? Well, Glass Animals’ new single “Creatures in Heaven” is a masterclass in catchy melody writing. The lead melody in their chorus has a whole bunch of creative hacks, as well as a very clever twist in its tale. So, inspired by “Creatures in Heaven”, here’s our 6-step method for writing a great melody that’s catchy enough for the masses. But first… Tea! Step 1. The Chords Open your DAW, leave the time signature on 4|4, but change your tempo to 80 BPM. Next, create a four-bar loop on your melody track, with a 1/16 grid. Okay so you may be wondering why the first step in a melody tutorial is… the chords?! Well, all great melodies are written over chords, or implied chords (chords are “implied” when they’re not played separately but their notes are incorporated into the melody instead). The reason it’s best to write a melody over chords is because it gives the melody a harmonic progression. Without this progression, the melody will sound mind-numbingly boring, as it won’t go anywhere harmonically. The difference is night and day. It’s like walking through a beautiful forest along the ocean compared to walking on a treadmill in a stinky gym. There’s no comparison! So let’s get our chord progression written, that way we’ve set ourselves up to write a great melody. Glass Animals are in the key of D major for their chorus (so we’ll use it too), and they use four chords in their progression (so we’ll do that too). D Major (notes) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D E F♯ G A B C♯ D Major (chords)* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dmaj Em F♯m Gmaj Amaj Bm C♯dim As you probably know (or as you’ll hear if you play it), the diminished chord is crazy dissonant. It’s safe to say that using C♯dim ain’t gonna appeal to the masses, so take that off your menu. But other than that, you can use whatever you want. Glass Animals use all three major chords, and only one minor. Playing three major chords in a major key gives their chorus a wonderfully uplifting vibe. So, think about your balance between major (happy) and minor (sad) chords. Also, think about the order of your chords. Glass Animals play the root chord (Dmaj) second. This detracts attention from it and creates a more fluid atmosphere. We played Dmaj last, though, which creates a more final ending. You can play Dmaj wherever you want, but consider where you want to draw people to the “home” chord. Here’s our progression: Gmaj → Bm → Amaj → Dmaj *If you need help working out the chords in a key, read Hack 10 in our Free Book. Once you’ve chosen your four chords, draw in the root note of each chord for a full bar (in a low octave). These roots will provide harmonic reference for your melody, which you’re gonna write above. This way you’ll be able to hear the relationship between each note in your melody and its accompanying chord. When you’ve finished writing your melody, mute these low roots. Then, create another track specifically for your progression, and draw in each full chord (i.e. 1, 3, 5). Root note of each chord in progression (key note, D, highlighted) Step 2. The Drama Great melodies contain drama, and there’s no better way to bring the drama than by using a big interval.* You see, larger intervals create intensity, while smaller intervals create continuity. You need both. In fact, you need a lot more smaller intervals than bigger intervals. However, if your melody contains only small intervals, it’ll be awfully boring. On the other hand, if your melody contains only big intervals, people will presume you were thoroughly drunk when you wrote it. *New to writing melodies? Use the Melody Checklist in our Songwriting & Producing PDF. Over your first chord, write a handful of notes that end with a big interval around beat 3. And that big melodic jump should go up, not down (a large descending interval contains only a fraction of the drama of that same interval ascending). Be sure to begin your melody on beat 1, as this will make the most impact, and as this section is the chorus, first impressions matter even more than usual. Use a combination of note values for interest. And remember, if you wanna emphasize a chord’s major (happy) or minor (sad) vibe, then play its 3rd in your melody above. Melody’s opening segment with large interval (highlighted) for drama Step 3. The Fall You’re now gonna finish your melody’s first phrase with “the fall”. This is an utterly brilliant technique that Glass Animals use in their melody. And, it makes for a deeply pleasing balance between the drama and the gentle ride down afterwards. Your last note is currently that high note around beat 3, so now you’re gonna write a smooth contour that flows back down to somewhere around where you began. All good melodies have phrasing (i.e. where the melody rests), regardless of whether they’re sung or played on an instrument. This is because the melody itself needs to breathe, not just the singer. These rests also break-up a melody into digestible bits (i.e. phrases), which makes it easier to remember. So, end your first phrase on a longer note, and have at least a 1/16 rest at the end of your first bar (i.e. beat 4a). You can have an 1/8 rest if you prefer, but nothing longer than that, otherwise you’ll lose the momentum. First bar completed with “the fall” (highlighted) Notice how we didn’t play the chord’s root (G) in our melody. That root will be played in the chords below, so you don’t need to play it unless you actually want to. Step 4. Rhythmic Variation Copy and paste your first phrase into bar two, and make sure to also start it on beat 1. Glass Animals use a great hack in their second phrase, which makes it familiar to the listeners while simultaneously freshening it up so it’s not boring. They achieve this by using rhythmic variation. Simple, but massively effective. By only changing a few note values, the phrase is both predictable and unpredictable. First phrase copied and pasted into bar two (highlighted) Repetition is vital if you wanna appeal to the masses. People love a melody they know. But, too much repetition will make a melody predictable. And as soon as it’s predictable, their attention will move to some other novelty in their environment; probably their phone (it’s a sad reality that music is competing with phones for people’s attention). So it’s essential to repeat your melody for it to get stuck in their heads, and rhythmic variation will prevent it from losing its novelty and appeal. Glass Animals change almost all their note values, but only slightly. Let your ear guide you into the Goldilocks Zone in this step, as too much change will make the phrase sound unfamiliar, while not enough change will make it sound predictable. Lastly, Glass Animals add one new note at the end of their phrase, so it actually finishes on the last beat of the bar. This new note is a 1/16, which is completely unexpected, so it adds to the novelty. We did this too, but you don’t have to. If you don’t, though, then extend your last note so it also finishes at the end of the bar. Second phrase with rhythmic variations (highlighted) Step 5. The Climb We’re halfway through our melody now. And after two phrases that “fall”, Glass Animals counters that with a phrase that “climbs”. In the same way that the notes in our “falling” phrase aren’t all descending, the notes in our “climbing” phrase don’t all have to be ascending either. But, there needs to be an overall climbing contour and feel to it. So, you’ll wanna start this phrase slightly lower than your “falling” phrases, and then play around with writing a generally ascending contour. Also, Glass Animals start this phrase on beat 1+, which is another way of adding novelty and interest. We did the same. You don’t have to start there but you do have to start on an off-beat, as your previous phrase ends right at beat 1. And your melody needs a breath there, so your only other options are beat 1e or beat 1a. Before you jump in and begin writing this phrase, there’s one more guideline. After their climb, Glass Animals actually take their melody down a big interval. In fact, it’s the exact same big interval they use in their first phrase, but this time it jumps down instead of up. This provides a clever mirror image, which is utterly brilliant, but most people won’t notice that. What is noticeable, though, is how this low note extends the range (i.e. distance from lowest to highest note) of their melody. Climbing segment of third phrase (highlighted) Good melodies usually have a range of about an octave. This ending note is the last opportunity to extend your melody’s range to somewhere around an octave. Final note (highlighted) of third phrase, extending melody’s range Step 6. Melodic Structure This final step is a game-changer! You see, when we hear Glass Animals’ third phrase (i.e. the “climbing” p
How to Write aBetter Snare Rhythm. Free PDF Tutorialincludes MIDI + WAV file examples If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2806684/snare-rhythms Intro. While it’s normal to hear at least a few different kick patterns and hi-hat patterns in music nowadays, it’s rare to hear an interesting snare pattern. The rhythm assigned to this neglected element of the drumkit is almost always an afterthought. In 4|4 (which most music is in), the snare is usually one of these three rhythms: Regular backbeat (beats 2 and 4): used in most songs Half-time backbeat (beat 3): used for a slower vibe Double-time backbeat (beats 1+, 2+, 3+, 4+): used for a faster vibe So, when listening through to the new releases on Spotify, it was rather shocking (pleasantly so) to hear something completely unusual. The collaborative single “Snare Thing” by French producers Matt Sassari & Tony Romera is a refreshing celebration of the drum that almost always plays the most boring rhythm! With these PDF tutorials, we usually have to make an educated guess as to what the creator’s intention and process was behind the song. But, based on the less-than-subtle title of their track, it’s safe to say that the duo were intentionally showcasing the snare drum’s creative potential. So, inspired by “Snare Thing”, here’s our 4-step method for writing creative snare patterns. But first… Tea! Step 1. Motif Set up two bars of 4|4 with your grid on 1/16 notes, and your tempo at 126 BPM. The first thing we need to do is write a motif, which is a short idea that’s repeated to give the music structure and make it more memorable. As we’re writing for the drums, our motif will obviously be a rhythmic motif (when using pitched instruments, you can also write melodic and harmonic motifs). The motif that Matt and Tony use is a couple of 1/16 notes followed by a 1/16 rest. They then repeat this motif to create their snare rhythm. Motif repeated to create snare rhythm As you can see, their motif is three 1/16 notes long. Having a motif that’s an odd duration (like three, five, seven, etc.) will make it far more interesting, because each time the motif is repeated it’ll start on a different 1/16 note beat (e.g. 1a, 2+, 3e). A motif lasting four (or eight) 1/16 notes will repeat on the same beat, so it’ll get repetitive and boring extremely quickly. Therefore, avoid using an even-number motif here. For the record, though, they can sound great when played on melodic instruments, because you can repeat the same rhythm while changing the pitches. Right, when you’re happy with your motif, copy and paste it into the first three 1/4 note beats of bar one. You wanna leave beat 4 open for now, as that’s where you’re gonna write a variation. Next, copy and paste your rhythm into bar two. Snare rhythm copied and pasted into bar two (highlighted) Now it’s time to write your variation in beat 4 of bar two. This variation will prevent the snare rhythm from getting boring, by turning it into a two-bar rhythm: Two-bar snare rhythm created by adding variation (highlighted) Step 2. Swing With such an unusual snare rhythm, it would be completely acceptable to move on and write the kick drum pattern now. But, Matt and Tony have one more brilliant snare trick up their sleeves. Instead of using the regular straight grid that you hear in almost every song, they use a swing grid. This is a game-changer! If you’re new to the swing grid, you’re in for a treat. An easy way to think of the swing grid is that it’s a long note followed by a short note, and that occurs in each beat. But to be precise, the swing feel is what you get when you repeatedly play a triplet’s first and third notes. And that’s one way you can program swing rhythms. DAWs allow us to use a swing grid, though, which gives us way more control over the feel (that’s actually the way drummers play swing rhythms, too). If you ask a drummer to play a swung beat for you, they’ll ask how strong you want the swing. The stronger the swing (i.e. the later that second note is), the more “lazy” the rhythm feels. And the weaker the swing (i.e. the earlier that second note is, and therefore the closer it’ll be to a straight grid), the more rigid the rhythm feels. The three MIDI screenshots below show the difference between using a triplet grid, a swing grid at 50% strength (usually the default in DAWs), and a swing grid at 66% strength. Notice how the triplet and 66% swing grids are pretty much identical, but the 50% swing is slightly closer to a straight grid (we’ve left that second snare hit in the same place in all three MIDI screenshots, so you can see the grids’ differences). Now, loop it up (or put the metronome on), and decide how much swing you like. We chose 65% strength, as we wanted it to have that stronger swing feel. While the swing strength you use is obviously up to you, we recommend going with something over 60%, otherwise your drums won’t have that super cool “lazy” vibe. Grid set to 1/16 triplets Grid set to 1/16 swing, at 50% strength Grid set to 1/16 swing, at 66% strength Right, now that you’ve chosen your swing strength, simply quantize your snare. If you’re new to quantizing, you can either try to find that function in your DAW, or you can just move your snare hits onto the new grid (that’s all quantizing is). Snare rhythm quantized to 1/16 swing grid (swung notes highlighted) A quick bonus hack before we move on. In “Snare Thing”, Matt and Tony mute the last three snare hits in every other loop. So, when you’re totally finished with your two-bar drum beat, copy and paste it, then mute those last few snares in bar four. This is an easy yet effective way to create variation. Remember, variation is not always about adding, the same effect can often be achieved by subtracting. Last three snare hits muted (for variation) in every other loop, i.e. bar four Step 3. Dance Now that your snare rhythm is swinging, literally, it’s time to add the dancey element. And when it comes to enticing people off their comfortable chairs, there’s no better remedy than a four-on-the-floor beat. If you’re new to that term, it’s simply a drum beat where the kick is on every 1/4 note beat. And usually the snare will be on beats 2 and 4 (i.e. a regular backbeat). While a four-on-the-floor drum beat is not very creative, it’s guaranteed to bring the dancey vibe to any song! Right about now you may be thinking: But wait, we’ve already got a snare rhythm?! Yep, and this is where the French duo take their drums to a whole new level… They have two snare drums playing simultaneously! And not only do the two snares have very different rhythms, but they also have very different sounds. FYI: this beat will make most drummers angry (i.e. “How many freakin’ arms do you think I have?!”), so if you have a drummer friend, please don’t ask them to play this. Four-on-the-Floor drum beat added (highlighted) Step 4. Spice Okay, so if you thought the previous step was a drummer provoker, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! We’re about to add hi-hats. But, one hi-hat isn’t enough for these ambitious Frenchmen. Yep, they also have two hi-hat rhythms playing. Madness! They actually start with only one, but then when they wanna build up the energy, they bring in their second hi-hat rhythm. So let’s get the first rhythm written now, which will be played on the closed hi-hats (see MIDI screenshot below). They have a relatively simple swung rhythm on the closed hats, with a couple rests. You can go for something with more variation if you want, but be careful not to have a closed hat rhythm that’s too complex, as that will fight for your listeners’ attention. Remember, there’s only enough space in the spotlight for one element! Also, be sure to have a slightly different closed hat rhythm in your second bar. Once again, though, don’t make the variation too noticeable. Simple is best here. Closed hi-hat rhythm added (highlighted) What you have now is your main drum beat. However, as you build up the energy in your other instruments throughout the song, you’ll wanna ramp up your drums too. And that’s when Matt and Tony introduce their second hi-hat rhythm, which is played on the open hi-hats. That swoosh sound of open hats is great for energy! If you look at the MIDI screenshot below, you’ll see that we’re well into the realm of drummer impossibilities now. Not only are there moments where the closed and open hats are played together (which is impossible on most drumkits as they only have one set of hi-hats), but there are also moments where the drummer’s need for two hi-hats would be the least of their problems, as they’d also need three arms! A couple examples of this can be found on beats 2+ and 3+ in bar one. Okay, so now that we’ve thoroughly annoyed most drummers (which, I confess, is one of my hobbies because my big brother is a professional drummer), let’s write our second hi-hat rhythm. These Frenchmen may be wildly ambitious, but they certainly know when to balance complexity with simplicity. And that’s exactly what they do with their open hats, which plays a super simple off-beat rhythm on beats 1+, 2+, 3+, and 4+. Along with the flour-on-the-floor, this off-beat hat rhythm is another classic dance element. You can do something slightly more complex if you prefer, but once again, simple is best here. Too much variation in your open hat rhythm will result in it fighting for your listeners’ attention. And this beat is all about that Snare Thing! And with that, you’re done. So, clear some space, hit play, and get dancing. Enjoy :) Final beat (open hi-hats highlighted) PS: Did you enjoy this tutorial? Do you want more “musical recipes” like this one? If so, we can keep you cooking up new music with our library of PDF Tutorials. Make Music You LOVE. I know you want to be a confident producer who finishes songs, and loves the results. In order to become a confident
How to WriteSweeping Arpeggios. Free PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2639559/sweeping-arpeggios Intro. Do your arpeggios all sound rather similar? It’s a common problem for producers. Arpeggios are when you play a chord one note at a time, and it’s one of the best techniques for making your progressions more interesting. And while it’s definitely more rare to hear arpeggios than “block” chords in popular music genres, most of the arpeggios you do hear are rather boring. Merely playing chords one note at a time is not a foolproof way of making progressions more creative. If you want better arpeggios, you need to write an internal melody within them. Want even better arpeggios? Write two internal melodies, or maybe even three! What are we talking about when we talk about “internal melodies”? Well, the melodies need to be formed from notes within the arpeggios, as opposed to writing a melody over the top of them. There’s obviously nothing wrong with doing that, but it will be heard as a separate melody, not as part of the arpeggios. While there’s an abundance of genius examples of this in classical music, there are sadly not many to be found in popular music genres. If you’re into the rock side of things, Muse has plenty of creative arpeggios. Examples are even rarer on the electronic side of things, though, but Daft Punk comes to the rescue with their song “Motherboard” (check out their new “Drumless Edition” of this song, as it’s easier to hear the arpeggios). At 28 seconds into this track, the most beautiful arpeggios begin to sweep up and down. Despite their fast pace (i.e. 1/16 notes), they’re thoroughly calming due to their smooth, sweeping motion. And it’s not just the fast pace that makes their arpeggios so creative, it’s also their choice of notes. So, inspired by “Motherboard”, here’s our 5-step method for writing sweeping arpeggios, which are guaranteed to stand out from all those boring, clichéd arpeggios. But first… Tea! Step 1. Chords As arpeggios are simply broken up chords, the first step is to write a chord progression. So, set your tempo to 103 BPM, then create a four-bar loop and set your grid to 1/16 notes. Daft Punk play their arpeggios on woodwind instruments, but we’ll get to that in the last step. For now, we actually recommend using a piano, for two reasons. Firstly, piano arpeggios are beautiful, so if you want, you can keep them on a piano sound (we did). Secondly, the piano has a much bigger range than any woodwind instrument, so you won’t be held back by not being able to play a note because it’s too high/low for that instrument. Daft Punk’s arpeggios are in the key of E minor, so we’ll use it too: E natural minor 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7 Em F♯dim Gmaj Am Bm Cmaj Dmaj Regarding what chords to choose. This PDF is all about arpeggios, so we’re not going to cover the “chord choice” topic. If you need help with writing better chord progressions, we recommend our Songwriting & Producing Course. The only three guidelines we suggest are to choose four chords, avoid the diminished chord, and play the root chord somewhere (you don’t have to start with it, though). Here are the chords we chose for our progression: Cmaj → Gmaj → Dmaj → Em After you’ve chosen your four chords, draw in each chord’s root note for one bar. Root note of each chord in progression Step 2. Low Just a heads up, those long root notes are just there for reference, they’re not going to be part of your final arpeggios (you’ll mute them in the last step). Having the root notes there while writing arpeggios is a super helpful hack, because it allows you to hear the interval/harmony between each note in your arpeggio and the root of that chord. This way you can hear if each note is conveying the right emotion. Now, in this step you’re going to write the lower portion of your arpeggios. You see, sweeping arpeggios tend to cover a wide range. That’s what gives them their unique sound. Those boring, clichéd arpeggios that you hear most often usually only cover the range of each chord, which is almost always one octave or less. The range of Daft Punk’s arpeggios is just over two and a half octaves, and the range of ours ended up being just over three octaves. Those are massive ranges! And that’s one of the most notable features of sweeping arpeggios. As we mentioned in Step 1, writing this on the piano is ideal because not all instruments can accommodate huge ranges. We don’t know if this range issue was the inspiration behind Daft Punk dividing up their sweeping arpeggios between the clarinet and flute, but it sure is a beautiful outcome. The clarinet has a lower range than the flute, so their arpeggios start with four lower 1/16 notes on the clarinet, then the flute takes over and plays four higher 1/16 notes. So beautiful! We decided to do three notes for the lower portion of our arpeggios, because it gives us five notes to navigate up to the climactic peak and back down again. However, please feel free to use Daft Punk’s four-and-four formula instead. The lower portion of your arpeggio is going to be the first three (or four) 1/16 notes. So spend some time now experimenting with what notes you want to begin your arpeggios with. You’re going to use the same pattern for each chord, so make sure you really like the notes and their contour. We chose the (shockingly) simple pattern of 1, 2, 3, because we’ve got a trick up our sleeves that we’ll reveal below. Lower portion (highlighted) of Cmaj arpeggio This lower arpeggio portion needs to anchor it, so playing the root is a must. You don’t have to start on the root, but it’s not a bad idea. Daft Punk do, and so do we. When you’re happy with your three/four notes, copy and paste them into beat 3. And yes, you’re going to sweep up and down twice over each chord. There’s two reasons for this. Firstly, the repetition will help your arpeggios to be more memorable. And secondly, if you only did one sweep up and down in each bar, your range would be absolutely ridiculously gigantic! As we mentioned above, our final arpeggios ended up sweeping across three octaves in a mere two beats, so imagine the GARGANTUAN range you’d end up with if your arpeggios swept over four beats, instead of two. That’s definitely way too much of a good thing! Now, here’s the trick we mentioned above. Instead of playing the same three/four notes in beat 3. Move them to create a variation. For the record, Daft Punk doesn’t do this in their song, it’s our little hack to add more melody into the arpeggios. And to make things even more interesting here, we don’t start this second lower portion on the root note, we start on the 5. We then play the root, and then the 3. Second lower portion (highlighted) of Cmaj arpeggio When you’re happy with the second lower portion of your arpeggio, play the same pattern over your other three chords. Our lower pattern is: 1, 2, 3 and then 5, 1, 3. Lower portion of Gmaj arpeggio Lower portion of Dmaj arpeggio Lower portion of Em arpeggio Step 3. Peak Now that the lower part of your arpeggios is complete, it’s time for the upper part. Instead of writing this in one go, though, we’re going to divide it up. This allows us to bring more melody into the upper part, but we’ll get to that in the next step. For now, we’re focusing on the peak, which is where your arpeggios will reach their highest note. After that, they’ll begin their descent. High notes are attention-grabbing, so these peaks will stand out. Therefore, writing them first prevents us from getting distracted by the other high notes that’ll lead up to them. So, choose two (or maybe three) notes that you like over your first chord. Your peak is going to happen in beat 2, and then again in beat 4. But, before you get too attached to the notes you’ve chosen, copy and paste them over the next two chords as well. In other words, you’re going to play the same two/three notes as your peak in bars one through three. That peak has to sound equally good over all three chords. If it doesn’t, try different notes. This is a brilliant hack of Daft Punk’s, as that repetition creates stability through all their fast-paced arpeggios. We used F♯ and G as our peak notes. Over our first chord, Cmaj, the G is 5 and the F♯ is ♯4. Daft Punk plays the F♯ over Cmaj as well. We wanted to do that too, so we could share how clever this note choice is. You see, with their first chord being Cmaj, that ♯4 makes it sound like they’re in the Lydian mode*. This is a super clever and creative illusion, and makes their arpeggios instantly stand out! *If you’re new to the modes, we recommend taking our Songwriting & Producing Course. Peak notes over Cmaj Peak notes copied and pasted (highlighted) into bars two and three So what about the peak notes in your fourth bar? Well, Daft Punk use a double-hack in their fourth bar. They use different peak notes. This creates a variation, which keeps the listener’s attention. And, it becomes the climax of their arpeggios as well. So, your fourth bar is going to contain the highest two/three notes of all your arpeggios. Try to create a satisfying, concluding feeling with them too. Also, while Daft Punk uses the same notes for both peaks in their fourth bar, we used different notes. This adds even more melody into our arpeggios. One thing to consider with your peak notes is to try a combination of harmonic notes (i.e. from the chord) and non-harmonic notes (i.e. not from the chord). If those concepts are new to you, here’s a couple of examples to demonstrate. Over the Cmaj chord, the harmonic notes are C (1), E (3), and G (5), because they’re in the chord. The non-harmonic notes over Cmaj are D (2), F♯ (♯4), A (6), and B (7). If you only use harmonic notes for your peaks, it will sound boring. If you only use non-harmonic notes for your peaks, it will sound like you got lost in
How to Write SuspensefulSoundtrack Music. Free PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2591466/suspenseful-melody Intro. The dictionary definition of suspenseful is “causing a feeling of excitement or nervousness because you are waiting for something to happen”. That perfectly describes the intro of “Tubular Bells - Pt. I” by Mike Oldfield. It’s easy to hear why The Exorcist (1973) director William Friedkin chose this music for his film. Recall that classic scene where Chris starts walking home alone as the “Tubular Bells” intro begins. Eeek! Talk about “waiting for something to happen”. If you wanna make music that keeps people listening because they need to know what happens next, then knowing how to create suspense is essential. Mike Oldfield has given us a masterclass with this music. So, inspired by “Tubular Bells”, here’s our 4-step method for writing a suspenseful melody. But first… Tea! Step 1. Odd One of the first things we notice about the intro of “Tubular Bells - Pt. I” is that it’s in an odd time signature. If you count along with that piano part in the intro, you’ll count 15 beats. So, change your DAW’s time signature to 15|4 and set the tempo to 150 BPM. On closer analyses of the piano part (i.e. where its melody repeats), it becomes apparent that the time signature is actually one bar of 7|4 followed by two bars of 4|4. But as that adds up to 15|4, we’ll just go with that to keep things simpler. Next, create a one-bar loop of 15|4 on your piano track, with the grid on 1/8 notes. We’re gonna start by writing a rhythm on E (the root), using only 1/8 notes and 1/8 rests. You can do whatever you want, but don’t play more than two notes in a row. Also, only make your rhythm seven 1/4 notes long, i.e. one bar of 7|4. 7|4 rhythm (on E) Step 2. Pitch Now it’s time to turn this rhythm into a melody! Mike Oldfield uses the E natural minor scale for this piano part, so we’ll use it too. E natural minor scale 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7 E F♯ G A B C D You may be wondering why F♯ (2) is in red. That’s because it’s out-of-bounds! Yep, you can’t use that note in your melody. Why? Well, we’re gonna create some suspense all of our own here, as we’re not revealing the reason for this until Step 4. One more tiny guideline here. If you wanna use E, use the high octave (i.e. the 8). Without the F♯ (2) you still have six notes, which is plenty, so write your melody by using all the usual elements, like a big range and a smooth contour. Need help with this? Use the Melody Checklist in our Songwriting & Producing PDF. 7|4 rhythm turned into melody, by moving notes to different pitches of E minor When you’re happy with your melody, then copy and paste it (starting at beat 8). 7|4 melody copied and pasted (highlighted) That gives us 14|4, so extend your melody by one note to complete the 15|4 bar. Note added (highlighted) to end of melody, completing bar of 15|4 Now that you have the full melody, you can hear that it’s a 7|4 melody looping, except the loop has an extra beat that makes it eight 1/4 notes long (i.e. two bars of 4|4). That odd-time element from Step 1 has now become very noticeable! 7|4 melody looped, with looped version (highlighted) transformed into two bars of 4|4 The interesting takeaway here is that alternating between an odd time signature (7|4) and an even time signature (two bars of 4|4) makes the melody sound more odd. It seems counterintuitive, but the melody would actually sound more normal if it was exclusively in 7|4. The reason for that is because our pattern-loving brains will figure out an odd time signature after a few loops, and then get used to it. Therefore, alternating back and forth prevents us from adjusting to the odd time. So thanks to those 4|4 bars, the 7|4 continues to sound odd every time we hear it. Step 3. Drone This is the final piece of the piano part, and it’s the easiest. Simply draw in the root note (E) in all the rests. This drone on E creates two layers in your piano part, which not only adds depth, it also adds tension between the melody and its root. Final piano part, with drone on root note (E) highlighted Now that you’ve finished your piano part, you can have some fun with the orchestration by duplicating the track, then changing its sound (and octave). As this piano part is at a super high register, you can lower it by an octave on the duplicated track, then change the sound to a glockenspiel or anything suspenseful. Step 4. Bass That’s enough suspense! It’s finally time to reveal why you couldn’t play F♯ in your piano part, back in Step 2. This is gonna be pretty shocking! So, are you ready for a massive twist in the tale of this tutorial? Okay, here it is… You’re actually not in the key of E minor, you’re in A minor. WTF?! I know, right? That shocked us, too! This magic trick of Mike Oldfield’s is probably our favourite element of “Tubular Bells - Pt. I”. Let’s explore it in depth. After the piano part has been playing for 50 seconds and the key of E minor has been well and truly established by the piano’s drone on E, Mike Oldfield brings in the bass guitar. But, the bass plays a drone on A for almost five 1/4 notes. WTF?! Bass drone on A (highlighted) below piano part, which is muted and just there for reference In building architecture, the lowest floor is the foundation. Same with music. The lowest instrument is the musical foundation. All the other instruments are like the floors built above. So, that A drone in the bass reframes the music around that keynote, which results in the listeners perception shifting as soon as the bass starts. However, Mr Oldfield has one more magic trick up his sleeve… A natural minor scale 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7 A B C D E F G But first, you’re probably wondering why the F (♭6) is in red. And don’t worry, we won’t make you wait for the answer this time. The F is out-of-bounds, too. Why? Well, as you can see if you compare the A minor and E minor scales, they only have one note difference between them. A minor has F, and E minor has F♯. The two keys are very “close” to each other, because they have six notes in common. So by avoiding F♯ in the piano and F in the bass guitar, all the music consists of the six common notes. And as the piano part drones on E while the bass line drones on A, it actually sounds like the music is in both keys at the same time! You see, if the bass played F, it would make everything sound like it’s in the key of A minor, because the bass guitar is our foundation. So, as long as the piano avoids F♯ and the bass avoids F, the music sounds like it’s in both keys simultaneously. This causes a lot of tension, and therefore, suspense. What a brilliant magic trick! By the way, playing in two keys at the same time is called bitonality. Theoretically, it could be argued that “Tubular Bells - Pt. I” is not bitonal, because neither the piano nor the bass solidifies what key they’re in. But, the effect is certainly bitonal. Right, let’s finish up the bass line now. So, in your bass guitar track, draw another longer note under the beginning of your looped 4|4 melody (i.e. from beat 8 onwards). These longer notes function as root notes of the implied chords in your progression. In other words, while you don’t have an actual chord progression here, these longer notes in your bass line create the equivalent harmonic effect. To learn all about implied chords, read our Melodic Bass Drop PDF. Mike Oldfield’s implied progression consists of two chords, so feel free to keep it simple like that. We added a little more harmony, cos, well… we love harmony! Longer notes added to bass line (highlighted) to create implied chord progression When you’re happy with your implied chord progression, simply link up the longer notes with a variety of shorter notes. But remember, avoid playing that F, and also, be sure to give your bass line a big range and a smooth melodic contour. And with that, you’re done. So click play, sit on the edge of your seat, and feel the suspense! Final bass line, with shorter “linking” notes highlighted Make Music You LOVE. I know you want to be a confident producer who finishes songs, and loves the results. In order to become a confident producer, though, you need decades of knowledge and experience. To gain that knowledge, you need a good teacher. To gain that experience, you need decades of practice. That’s overwhelming! I understand that searching for a good teacher is frustrating. Most courses are taught by YouTubers who are not qualified in music, and are not qualified teachers either. The few who are qualified in both, have no industry experience. I feel your pain. Truly. Most of my music teachers were bad. That’s why I studied music and education in order to become a lecturer, and why I created Hack Music Theory. Also, over my 30+ years of composing, I developed a unique method called Song-Whispering, which I’ve used to make music with multiplatinum Grammy winners. In my one-of-a-kind online apprenticeship, you’ll learn my method and turbocharge your music with my decades of knowledge and experience. Enroll Now and stop wasting years of your life learning from bad teachers and trying to get better through trial-and-error. Transform into the confident producer you would be in 10+ years now, and start loving your music! Ray HarmonyMulti award-winning college lecturer, teaching since 1995 “Song-Whispering may be the single greatest concept ever!”–Glynne Owen (Japan) “I followed their YouTube for a while before taking their course. I wish I'd taken it sooner!”–Sagar Saluja (India) “I wrote the first song in my life that I actually like!”–Anastasia Lucas (USA) Free PDF Download Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you
How to Write aTechnical Drum Beat. Free PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2579130/tech-drums Intro. If you’ve been in the Hack Music Theory family for a while, you’ll know we love technical drum beats! And there probably ain’t nothin’ more tech’ than polymeters*. While polymeters were relatively popular with those bold “modern classical” composers of the early 20th century, they haven’t been used much since then. And yes, over the last few decades there have been a few rare examples of polymeters in popular music. But, it wasn’t until a group of hairy Swedes with exceptional talent (otherwise known as Meshuggah) came along and re-popularised the polymeter. What made Meshuggah’s polymeters unique, though, is their genius idea of having their drummer’s hands (snare & cymbals) play in 4|4 as the one time signature, while his feet (kick) play in an odd time signature, like 17|16. The genius of the Meshuggah method is that listeners can nod (or mosh) along to the 4|4 time signature, while the odd time signature slithers around unpredictably. The brilliance of this can’t be overstated. They created a way to play in odd time while the audience dances in 4|4. To get an idea of how weird odd time signatures sound without this method, listen to “March of the Pigs” by Nine Inch Nails. They alternate three bars of 7|8 with one bar of 4|4. And while we love this song, you have to have a relatively high level of music theory knowledge just to be able to dance along to it. That’s obviously not ideal for the average listener. Also, 7|8 isn’t even that weird. Meshuggah uses far weirder time signatures! But, because they’re playing them against 4|4, you can dance along. Meshuggah’s method has become a favourite for prog/tech bands over the last couple decades, and TesseracT are one of them. Their new album “War of Being” kicks off with a great polymeter (in the track “Natural Disaster”) which finds them adding a few creative twists to Meshuggah’s method. So, inspired by “Natural Disaster”, here’s our 6-step method for making technical polymetric drum beats. But first… Tea! *If you’re new to polymeters, it’s the term for playing in two (or more) time signatures simultaneously. Step 1. The Even When it comes to the Meshuggah polymeter method, the one time signature is usually 4|4 played by the drummer’s hands (snare and cymbals), so that’s where we’re gonna start. And this is where TesseracT brings their first creative twist to the table. This type of polymeter almost always loops every eight (or sixteen) bars of 4|4. However, TesseracT loops their polymeter every four and a half bars! So, set your DAW’s time signature to 4|4. Then, create a loop on your drums track of four bars and a bar of 2|4 at the end, making the polymeter’s loop a total of eighteen 1/4 notes. And for this step you can set your grid to 1/8 notes. If you look up the tempo of this song online at one of the many BPM websites, they say the tempo is 165 BPM. But, the pulse of this song (measured in 1/4 notes) is clearly half that, so set your tempo to 82.5 BPM. It might not seem like that’ll make any difference, but at 165 BPM all the notes values will be twice as fast as their normal range. For example, a 1/4 note pulse, which is the range your heart beats in when it’s resting, will instead feel like you’ve just been for a really fast run! Now, draw in 1/8 notes on your crash (or hi-hats, if you don’t want the section to sound heavy). Then, draw in a regular backbeat snare, which is on beats 2 and 4. 4|4 pattern consisting of 1/4 note pulse on crash and regular backbeat snare (highlighted) Step 2. The Odd Right, now it’s time to get this polymeter party started, so change your grid to 1/16 notes. TesseracT chose 17|16 for their odd time signature, so we’ll use it too. It’s a super fun time signature, because it’s only one 1/16 note longer than a bar of 4|4, so it feels like a slightly stretched out 4|4. Now, spend some time making a creative kick pattern in 17|16 (i.e. the pattern’s length is seventeen 1/16 notes). You can play two or three (or more) consecutive 1/16 notes, but be sure to leave some rests too, as that contrast will actually make your drums groove way more! Kick pattern in 17|16 Step 3. The Extra Okay so while that previous step was straight outta Meshuggah’s polymeter playbook, this step is a creative addition (literally). Usually this is where you would copy and paste your 17|16 kick pattern all the way to the end. And honestly, that sounds really cool! However, when every song follows the same formula, it does get old. So just like Meshuggah have added countless creative twists to their own polymeter method, TesseracT have also brought their own flavour into the mix. Start by copying your 17|16 kick pattern and pasting it on beat 1e of the second bar. Then if you have any kicks that fall on regular backbeats (beats 2 and 4) under the snare, mute those kicks. It sounds tighter when the snare doesn’t have a kick with it. 17|16 kick pattern copied and pasted (highlighted), with kick muted that coincided with snare[vertical red line shows beat 1 of kick’s second bar] Now, here’s the first TesseracT twist. Add one kick somewhere in your second bar. One kick added for variation, making polymeter harder to follow[vertical red line shows beat 1 of kick’s second bar] Why add a kick? Well, two reasons. Firstly, it creates a little variation, which keeps things fresh. Secondly, it makes your original 17|16 kick pattern less recognizable, which makes the 17|16 time signature less rigid, so the polymeter sounds fluid. Now, here comes the second TesseracT twist. They add an extra kick to the end of their 17|16 pattern, turning it into a 20|16 pattern. This is super creative. While the first twist made the original 17|16 kick pattern less rigid, the second twist goes so far beyond that, that the pattern isn’t even in the same time signature anymore! You can do this like Tesseract, and add one kick to the end of your 17|16 pattern (in the third bar of 4|4), or you can add a couple kicks, it’s up to you. Just make sure that this second bar of your kick patterns adds up to 20|16 when you’re done. 17|16 kick pattern extended to 20|16 by adding one kick to the end (highlighted)[vertical red line shows beat 1 of kick’s third bar] Step 4. The Middle Okay this step is proper quick and easy! Simply copy and paste your original 17|16 pattern into your kick’s third bar, which starts on beat 2e in the third bar of 4|4. As usual, though, remember to check if you have any kicks that fall on snare hits. If you do, mute those kicks. That’ll keep your drums sounding tighter and neater! 17|16 kick pattern copied & pasted into third bar, with kick muted that coincided with snare[vertical red line shows beat 1 of kick’s third bar] Step 5. The End The end is in sight. So, to finish out your drum beat, copy and paste your original 17|16 pattern. Polymeters can get confusing the longer you go, so just to confirm, make sure that you pasted your 17|16 pattern on beat 2+ of your fourth bar. And once again, if you have any kicks that fall on snare hits, mute those kicks. Now, here’s the next TesseracT twist. If you count from the beginning of this 17|16 pattern (starting on beat 2+ of the fourth bar) to the end of your drum loop, you’ll notice there’s an extra 1/16 note. In other words, this last kick pattern is actually in 18|16. Let’s take a minute to appreciate all TesseracT’s twists. Instead of their kick just repeating a 17|16 pattern, it’s ended up with almost every bar being different: a bar of 17|16, then a bar of 20|16, then a bar of 17|16 again, then a bar of 18|16. If you like maths, that’s a total of seventy-two 1/16 notes (i.e. eighteen 1/4 notes). 17|16 kick pattern copied and pasted (highlighted), with kick muted that coincided with snare[vertical red line shows beat 1 of kick’s fourth bar] To make the end of your kick pattern a stronger and more stomping ending, delete the kicks in your fifth bar (i.e. the bar of 2|4). Now, draw in kicks on beat 1+ and beat 2+. This simplicity after all that complexity will not only give your listeners a little breathing room to recover, but it’s also a heads-up that the loop is about to repeat. Last two 1/4 notes of kick pattern are simple, revealing the cycle to listeners[vertical red line shows beat 1 of kick’s fourth bar] Step 6. The Accents This step is the cherry on top. We’re gonna throw in a few accents on other cymbals. You can use another crash, a china, or even a ride or open hats. Start by accenting the first beat in each bar of your kick pattern, then add a few other accents for spice. Accent every beat 1 of kick pattern with a cymbal (highlighted) A few other cymbal accents (highlighted) added for interest Step 7 (Bonus). The Riff Yes this is a drums PDF, but TesseracT’s riff is so good that we just had to include a quick bonus hack about it. They use the half-whole diminished scale, which we recently taught in our Octatonic Riff PDF. Here are the notes and their spelling: Half-Whole Diminished Scale 1 ♭2 ♯2 3 ♯4 5 6 ♭7 A B♭ B♯ C♯ D♯ E F♯ G There’s a weird enharmonic there (i.e. calling the ♯2 a B♯ instead of just saying C, which is what it is in practice). There’s a good reason for that, but this is a big topic, so if you’re interested in learning this scale, read the Octatonic Riff PDF. Now, if you wanna write a riff to go along with your drum beat, copy and paste your kick pattern into your bass track. But, remember to unmute all the kicks you muted because they fell on snare hits, otherwise you’ll miss some notes. You now have the riff’s rhythm. Next, move the notes up and down to fit the scale. And finally, boil the kettle, make a tea, and get ready for your very own polymeter party! Riff in the half-whole diminished scale (riff’s first note highlighted fo
How to Write aBeautiful Melody. There are 7 elements that create a beautiful melody.In this PDF tutorial you'll learn what they are, and how to use them! Free PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2554562/beautiful-melody Intro. When I recently heard “Ray Of Solar” by Swedish House Mafia on Spotify’s “New Music Friday” playlist, the song’s beauty jumped out at me from amongst the almost 150 tracks that all seem to be sounding more and more alike each week. And for the record, while I’ve heard the name Swedish House Mafia, I don’t think I’d ever listened to them before. In fact, I don’t even know if they’re from Sweden. I mean, you’d think the electronic duo Boards of Canada are from Canada, right? Wrong. They’re from Scotland! What?! Yep, it’s true. But I digress… So, despite not being a Swedish House Mafia fan, the beauty of this song is undeniable. And as a result, we’ve ended up in the rare situation of making two tutorials on the same song. In last week’s tutorial How to Write Beautiful Arpeggios (Free PDF) we taught our 6-step method for making a beautiful chord progression like you hear in “Ray Of Solar”. In this tutorial, inspired by the same section, you’ll learn our 7-step method for writing a beautiful melody. And no, you don’t need to have done the previous tutorial, this one is completely independent. If you have, though, then you can write a melody for the beautiful arpeggios you made from that tutorial. Alright, read on to learn the music theory hacks that create this undeniable beauty, and how you can use them to write your own beautiful melody. But first… Tea! Step 1. Chords Before we get to the melody, we need to talk chords. All beautiful melodies either have chords accompanying them, or if it’s a solo melody, the melody itself will imply chords. For more on implied chords, read MELODIC BASS DROP (PDF). So let’s start by choosing some chords for a progression. If you did the other Swedish House Mafia tutorial mentioned in the intro, then load up that file in your DAW. You can write this melody over those chords. If you didn’t do that tutorial though, no problem, you can just write an eight-bar chord progression now. “Ray Of Solar” actually has a sixteen-bar chord progression, which is super rare. Most songs nowadays don’t even have an eight-bar progression! Four-bars is standard. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can write a sixteen-bar progression, but there’s no need for that, as eight bars is plenty for writing a beautiful melody. So, set up eight bars of 4|4 with a 1/4 note grid, and your tempo at 135 BPM. Swedish House Mafia is in the key of F♯ minor, but we’ll use A minor instead, as it keep things simple because it’s just all the white notes. Here are the chords: 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7 Am Bdim Cmaj Dm Em Fmaj Gmaj You can use whichever chords you want, but start on the root chord (Am), as that will anchor your progression into the key. Here are the chords we chose: Am → Cmaj → Dm → EmDm → Cmaj → Dm → Em If you’re making a new progression, then four chords is all you need. We have eight chords because it’s our sixteen-bar progression from the previous Swedish House Mafia tutorial. We’ll only use the first half for now, though, then as a bonus (Step 8), we’ll show you what to do with your eight-bar melody if you’ve also got a sixteen-bar progression. Right, so once you’ve chosen your chords, draw the root note of each chord on the grid. If you have four chords, start by drawing each root for two bars. But, it will sound better if they’re not all the same length. So keep a couple roots two bars long, but then make one root shorter (i.e. one and a half bars), and one root longer (i.e. two and a half bars). If you’re writing a new progression, duplicate this track and draw in the full chords. Load up a warm pad sound on that other track with the full chords. That will make for a lovely accompaniment to your melody. Then on your melody track, mute the root notes, as they’re only there for reference while we write the melody. Root note of each chord in our eight-bar progression (muted), for reference Step 2. Rhythm Alright, it’s melody time! Well, kinda. You’re gonna start by first writing your melody’s rhythm. You see, one way to think of a melody is that it’s a rhythm with pitches assigned. By approaching it this way and starting with the rhythm, you’re tapping into a primitive musical element. That’s a powerful way to express yourself. So, spend some time playing around with a two-bar rhythm. The rhythm Swedish House Mafia uses consists almost exclusively of a hypnotic 1/4 note pulse. However, they use one 1/2 note in their two-bar rhythm. This creates a beautiful balance between regularity and surprise, as you’re not expecting that 1/2 note. We changed the rhythm, but used the same note values. Try it too, as there are actually so many different ways to arrange these six 1/4 notes and one 1/2 note. And just use the root note (A) to write your rhythm on. Two-bar rhythm consisting of six 1/4 notes and one 1/2 note (highlighted) Once you’ve written your two-bar rhythm, copy and paste it into bars three and four. One of the many clever hacks used in the “Ray Of Solar” vocal melody, is repeating a two-bar rhythm but changing the assigned pitches. In other words, the melody repeats every four bars, but its rhythm actually repeats every two bars. Okay, so now that you’ve got your four-bar rhythm, you can start assigning pitches. Two-bar rhythm copied and pasted (highlighted) to create four-bar rhythm Step 3. Motif A motif is a short musical idea that you repeat in order to give your music structure, which in turn makes it more memorable. Swedish House Mafia uses a beautiful ascending 3rds motif. In other words, they start on the root (A), then go up a 3rd (to C). They then repeat this ascending 3rd motif from B up to D. And again, from C up to E. So in this step, you’re gonna spend some time creating a motif of about four notes, which you’ll then repeat later in your melody. As always, it’s your music, so you can do whatever you want. The only guideline here is that it should be catchy. And funnily enough, it’s actually far easier to know what isn’t catchy! For example, playing four notes in a row ascending through the scale (A, B, C, D) is definitely not catchy. It sounds like someone practising scales, not playing a melody. Making motifs is a really fun process, so play around with a bunch of different ideas and see what ends up sticking in your head. If it doesn’t stick, keep playing. For our motif, we started on the emotional ♭3 (C), then went to the notes on either side of it - the 2 (B) and the 4 (D). Then to end our motif, we returned to the note we started on, the ♭3 (C). Four-note motif (highlighted) Once you’ve written your motif, you can repeat it later in your melody on different notes. But before you do that, you need to consider your melody’s range. Step 4. Range The range of a melody is the distance between its lowest note and its highest note. The vocal melody in “Ray Of Solar” has a range of way over an octave. In fact, it’s almost an octave and a half. That’s HUGE! Sadly, nowadays there aren’t many vocal melodies that even have a range of one octave. The huge range that Swedish House Mafia uses is probably one of the first things people notice (consciously or subconsciously) about their melody. It’s definitely a standout feature, so let’s use it. You don’t need to use a melodic range as big as “Ray Of Solar” though, i.e. 17 semitones. Our range ended up being 15 semitones, but anything over an octave is plenty big. Especially if you or a friend is planning on singing this. A melody with a 17-semitone range is difficult to sing, so it’s a good way to lose your singer friends! When you repeat your motif later in the melody, you want to do it somewhere else in your range. In other words, if your original motif is low, then go high with the repeat. If the original is high, then go low with the repeat. And if the original is in the middle, then you can go higher or lower with the repeat. But then be sure to reach in the opposite direction elsewhere, in order to extend your melody’s range. Four-note motif repeated on different notes later in melody (highlighted) Regarding those notes (on A) in your rhythm that you haven’t yet assigned pitches. We recommend muting them in this step, because they’ll interfere with listening to your two motifs. There are six of these notes (on A) in our melody, which we muted. This also helps with listening to the current range of your melody. But, don’t worry if it’s not quite big enough yet (i.e. an octave or more), as you can extend the range with those remaining notes, which we’ll assign pitches to next. Current range of our melody is just over an octave, from B2 (highlighted) up to C4 (highlighted) Please note that in the MIDI screenshot directly above, we muted the six notes (on A) in our melody that we haven’t assigned pitches to yet. Six notes of our melody (highlighted) still need to be moved into place Step 5. Contour Whatever number of notes you have remaining that still need to be assigned pitches (probably about six), it’s essential to use them mindfully. Because, you need to create a beautiful melodic contour, and it’s all up to these remaining notes. As you can see from our melody above, there’s a massive jump in between the two motifs. Having a big interval in your melody is great, because a well-written melodic leap sounds epic! But, small intervals are essential in creating a smooth melodic contour that flows. Without a smooth contour, your melody will sound like a cat walked across the keyboard while you were recording. Don’t get me wrong, cats are beautiful, but their melodies aren’t. Take your time with this step. It’s gonna feel like a puzzle, as you’ve only got a few notes left, bu
How to WriteBeautiful Arpeggios. Free PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2551818/beautiful-arpeggios Intro. If you play all the notes of a chord simultaneously, you’ll create an instant emotion in your listener. This is a powerful technique, and the most common way to play chords. While allowing a chord to unfold and reveal its emotion one note at a time is arguably less powerful, in the right context, it can be even more beautiful. One such context is the new single “Ray Of Solar” by Swedish House Mafia. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to Swedish House Mafia before, and I don’t know anything about them, but when I was going through the new releases on Spotify, this song instantly stood out thanks to its beautiful arpeggio intro. And yes, arpeggios are widely used, but they’re almost always boring. Most producers clearly don’t know how to be creative with arpeggios. And as Swedish House Mafia uses so many clever hacks to make their arpeggios creative, we simply had to share them with you. So, inspired by “Ray Of Solar”, here’s our 6-step method for writing beautiful arpeggios that will definitely stand out. But first… Tea! Step 1. Chords The first hack that Swedish House Mafia uses to make their arpeggios far more captivating than most other arpeggios, is an incredibly long cycle. Sixteen bars! When listening through the new releases every week, it’s rare to hear chord progressions that are eight bars long, let alone sixteen. That long cycle draws you in, because it keeps on going, which in turn spikes your curiosity as you’re (consciously or subconsciously) trying to work out the pattern, i.e. when it repeats. So, create a track for strings or pad. You can use whatever you want, as long as it can play chords. At the very end, when you’ve finished writing your arpeggios, you can change the sound to a solo cello, like in “Ray Of Solar”. Solo cello will make your beautiful arpeggios even more beautiful, but that’ll have to wait till the end. Next, set up sixteen bars of 4|4 with a 1/2 note grid, and your tempo at 135 BPM. Swedish House Mafia is in the key of F♯ minor, but we’ll use A minor instead, as it keep things simple because it’s just all the white notes. Here are the chords: 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7 Am Bdim Cmaj Dm Em Fmaj Gmaj Now, spend some time choosing four chords you like. You can use whichever chords you want, but start on the root chord (Am), as that will anchor your progression into the key. Here’s the chords we chose: Am → Cmaj → Dm → Em. Once you’ve chosen your chords, draw them on the grid (each chord for two bars), and also draw the root of each chord below it. You’ll know why in a few minutes. Eight-bar chord progression with root note of each chord below (highlighted) Step 2. Changes Now it’s time for the second hack that Swedish House Mafia uses to make their arpeggios standout. Instead of changing chords every two bars, they change to some chords in unexpected places (i.e. halfway through a bar). The surprise of this not only creates a more fluid and alive sounding progression, it also keeps the listener engaged due to its unpredictability. As always, you can do whatever you want here, but just be sure to keep your progression to eight bars (we’ll get to the other eight bars next). Here’s how long we played each chord for: Am - two barsCmaj - one and a half barsDm - two and a half barsEm - two bars Progression with second chord shorted and third chord lengthened (highlighted) Next, copy and paste your progression into the second half (bars nine to sixteen). Chords copied and pasted into bars nine to sixteen (highlighted) Step 3. Foundation Right, here’s the third hack that Swedish House Mafia uses to make their arpeggios so beautiful. By simply moving the root chord (Am in our example) in bars nine and ten to another chord, they transform an eight-bar progression into a sixteen-bar progression. This is an awesome hack, as it’s so simple but so effective! When bar nine arrives, the listeners are expecting the root chord again because they’re expecting the progression to loop. So when they get a different chord instead, their ears tell them the progression is continuing as opposed to repeating. And that different chord will surprise them so much that they won’t even notice the rest of the progression (bars eleven to sixteen) is actually an exact copy. Instead, they’ll perceive this as a sixteen-bar chord progression. It’s a brilliant hack! So, spend some time now moving your root chord in bars nine and ten to a different chord. Don’t rush this chord choice. It can take a while to find the right chord, as it needs to sound good coming from the chord before, as well as going to the next chord. We chose Dm. Chord changed in bars nine and ten (highlighted), which creates a sixteen-bar progression Once you’ve found that chord, it’s time to delete all your chords. No seriously, I’m not joking. We’ve got far more fun things ahead than simple triads, so say goodbye to them. But, keep the root notes below each chord, as that’s your foundation. Sixteen-bar chord progression with chords deleted, leaving only the root notes Step 4. Roof Now that you’ve got a solid foundation for your progression, it’s time to build the roof. This consists of one note that sounds good over all your chords’ root notes. This common note will beautifully tie your progression together. We chose D. Common note (highlighted) played over all the chords’ root notes Step 5. Walls Now that you’ve built your foundation and your roof, it’s time to build the walls (i.e. the notes in between). While I wouldn’t recommend this method for building a house, it sure is a fun way to be more creative with arpeggios! The hard work is already done, so this step is pretty easy. Simply play around with the notes of each triad. And remember, you don’t need to play the 5 of any chord. The root is essential, because it’s the foundation. The 3 is essential, because it determines the major/minor quality of the chord. But the 5 merely thickens the texture, which is nice, but not necessary. Also, if you don’t play the 5, that frees you up to play something else instead, like we did with our Cmaj, where we played two roots (see MIDI below).What’s cool here, is that your “roof” note can result in a triad ending up as an extended chord. For example, in our progression, the “roof” note (D) turned our Cmaj into a Cmaj(add9) - for more on add chords, read Rhythmic Chords PDF. Chords filled in (highlighted) between root notes below and common note above Here’s a bonus Swedish House Mafia hack, which is totally optional. Where you’ve got a chord that’s longer than two bars, it may get boring. So, by playing the notes of that chord in two different positions (i.e. inverting it), you freshen up the chord. If you’re new to inversions, it’s just playing the same notes but in a different order. If you want to use this hack, cut your long chord, then rearrange the notes in one. We played two different positions of Dm7 - for more on 7th chords, read Rhythmic Chords PDF. We did this by cutting it and moving the A (5) down to D (1). This hack creates an illusion of changing chords due to the movement of notes, which is so clever, because the ear is tricked into thinking it’s a new chord, but it’s not. Chord played for the longest duration is cut (highlighted) to rearrange notes In the cut Dm7 chord, A (5) is moved down to D (1) [highlighted] Now that you’ve finished the chords in the first half of your progression, copy and paste them into the second half. But, don’t copy your first chord, as that’s a different chord in the second half. Chords copied and pasted into bars eleven to sixteen (highlighted) And now you can fill in that gap with the “surprise” chord you chose in Step 3. “Surprise” chord in bars nine and ten filled in (highlighted) And if you want to spice up this surprise even more, you can use an inversion in this chord too. Use the same method as above. The chord is Dm7 in our progression, so we repeated the earlier Dm7 positions, which will give the listeners something familiar while also being surprised by a chord they weren’t expecting. Chord in bars nine and ten cut (highlighted) to rearrange notes The A (5) in our cut Dm7 chord is moved down to D (1) [highlighted] Step 6. Scissors Alright, this is the step you’ve been waiting for! So, sharpen your MIDI scissors, as they’re about to embark on a massive cutting job. First things first, though, change your grid to 1/8 notes. That’s the note value we’ll be using for our arpeggios. Now (and this is super important), duplicate this track. Then on the duplicated track, delete the chords and keep only the root notes below. You can revisit this track later and add notes to it in order to turn this into your bass line. Next, on the original track, delete the root notes below and keep only the chords above them. Root notes below are deleted, chords above remain (original track) Also, feel free to duplicate your original track and play it the way it is (alongside your arpeggios). A warm pad sound on this track will provide a lovely harmonic backdrop for your arpeggios. This is what we did in our example. Right, so there are numerous ways to slice up your chords into arpeggios. You can choose any of the options below and you’ll end up with beautiful arpeggios. As there are four notes in each chord, to create pleasing arpeggios that are even in rhythm and duration (i.e. half a bar), you can start on the lowest note and ascend to the highest note - this is what Swedish House Mafia do in “Ray Of Solar”. Or, you can do the opposite. Start on the highest note and descend to the lowest note. Those are the most common ways to play arpeggios. But, there are many other options too, like the arpeggio pattern we use. We start on our highest note, des
How to Write aCalming Chord Progression. Free PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2520762/calming-chords Intro. Within seconds of hearing the opening chords in Portishead “Roads”, you can feel your cortisol levels dropping and your body’s tension releasing. This intro has to be one of the most calming moments in the entire popular music catalogue. Unlike the mad rush that songs are in nowadays to grab your attention with a catchy hook (in order to avoid the dreaded skip!), the “Roads” intro unfolds at a pace so leisurely that it feels delightfully pre-internet. Aaah… Remember those days? Back when humans had attention spans longer than goldfish! On that note. According to Spotify data, about 25% of listeners skip a song within five seconds. If those people skipped “Roads” a mere five seconds in, they wouldn’t even get halfway through the chord progression. Oh well, their loss. In this dizzyingly fast-paced world, if you want to cater to the distracted listener, then it’s impossible to create a calming atmosphere, as that takes time. For almost the whole first minute of “Roads”, all your hear is the legendary sound of a Fender Rhodes organ. Rumour has it that the song is actually named after the Rhodes. The vintage sound of a Rhodes organ obviously adds to the atmosphere, but in terms of music theory, what makes these chords so relaxing? Well, it’s not just one thing, it’s many! And in this tutorial you’ll learn them all, as well as our 5-step method for making your own calming chord progression. But first… Tea! Step 0. Relax Before we get to Step 1, we need to set the scene. To ensure that our blank canvas is calm to begin with, we need to find a relaxing tempo. Breathe in, breathe out… When we’re relaxed, our heart rate is usually between 60 and 100 beats per minute (BPM). As the BPM of music unconsciously affects our heart rates, the slower your song’s BPM, the more relaxed your listeners (and you) will feel, and vice versa. Portishead chose 76 BPM for “Roads”, so we went with 76 too. But, feel free to choose a slower tempo if you want to relax your listeners (and yourself) even more. Step 1. Roots If you have a slow tempo but your chords are changing every couple of beats, then your progression isn’t going to feel very calming. So, in the “Roads” intro, each chord is played for an entire bar! This slow harmonic rhythm creates an illusion of the tempo being slower than it is. And by the way, harmonic rhythm is how long you play each chord for. In other words, where the chords change. The longer you spend on each chord, the slower the harmonic rhythm, and the more relaxed your chord progression will feel. Another issue to consider is that if you play an uneven amount of chords (e.g. three or five), your listeners could unconsciously feel some tension. It’s the same with time signatures. If you write a progression in 3|4 or 5|4, you could unintentionally make your listeners feel uneasy, as they will be expecting the familiar 4|4. Symmetry tends to calm us, so choose four chords for your progression. “Roads” is in the key of A minor, so we used it too. Our chords are: Am, Dm, Cmaj, Em. If you’ve done my Online Apprenticeship, you’ll be wondering about the perfect 4th from A up to D, as well as E up to A. As you know, perfect intervals lack the emotional charge of other intervals. This actually makes them remarkably calming, so that’s why we’ve used them here. Right, once you’ve chosen your four chords, draw in their root notes. And if you want a fuller sound, you can add the octave of each root note. Root note (and its octave) of each chord in progression: Am, Dm, Cmaj, Em Step 2. Unify If you play what you have so far, you’ll notice that the progression currently sounds disjointed, and separation certainly doesn’t feel calming. So, the next step is to create a unifying connection throughout your progression, which will make it flow beautifully. Unification feels comforting, and therefore calming. The best way to connect your root notes is by adding a common note above them. A common note is just a note that’s the same between two chords. In other words, when you change chords, their common note doesn’t change. The ultimate common note is one that you can stay on throughout your chord progression. That’s obviously not something you want to achieve in every progression, but to create a common thread that remains all the way through this chord progression will be deeply comforting, and therefore deeply calming. The 5 is a great common note. In A minor, that’s E. The 5 of your key will work well over most chords in that key due to its strong relationship to the key-note (i.e. the first note of your scale). Feel free to use a different common note, though. Choose the common note that feels most calming over the root notes in your progression. Common note (highlighted) added above root notes Step 3. Melody As you can tell, we’re building up our chord progression one note at a time, instead of jumping in with full chords. If we had drawn in the full chords in Step 1, it would be sounding like every other progression. But, the method in this tutorial is a melodic approach to chords, which is sadly rather rare in popular music genres. Writing a progression in this way (by adding melodies on top of each other), is one of the most fun ways to liberate yourself from the confines of block chords. When using full chords, it can often feel like whatever progression you write, it sounds similar to something you’ve written before. With this melodic approach to chords, though, there are so many more options. It’s a game-changer! Right, in this step you’re going to add the third melody to your progression. This is arguably the most important, because it has a double function. Not only will it complete your chords, but it will also act as the “lead melody” of your progression. So, take your time writing this melody, as it’s a make or break step. Use a few more notes in this melody, to breathe some life into the progression. However, if you use too many notes, that will ruin the calming atmosphere you’ve worked so hard to create. Also, if possible, use a melodic motif.* We created a motif by repeating the first three notes (B, C, A) of our bar 1 melody in bar 3. This repetition makes our chord progression’s “lead melody” more memorable, which is always a good thing! “Lead melody” (highlighted) added above common note *A motif is a short music idea. Repeating it gives your music structure and makes it memorable. Step 4. Spice As you can hear, your chord progression is already sounding great, so feel free to stop here. However, if you want to take it to the next level, then it’s time to add some spice. This step is about making your progression’s “lead melody” a little more interesting. As it’s a super simple melody (because we don’t want too many notes in it), there’s a risk of it getting boring. A sprinkle of spice will fix that! Portishead do something really cool here, as they switch from A natural minor to A harmonic minor over the E chord in their progression. In other words, instead of playing Em, which is what you get in A natural minor, they play Emaj. To make this switch into harmonic minor over the E chord, they simply move the G to G♯. This is such a tasty way to spice up the “lead melody”, that we used it too. G moved up to G♯ (highlighted), which turns Em into Emaj Step 5. Backing As you can hear, your chord progression sounds awesome now! But, if you’re still hungry for more, then this step is the cherry on top. Your progression is made up of three melodies already, so adding a fourth melody will create complexity, which will ruin your calming vibe. So, instead of adding another melody, you’re just going to add one note in bar 2, and another note in bar 4. Both of these notes should be above your “lead melody”. Just as we add backing vocals to a lead vocal for extra emphasis, you can think of these notes as “backing” for your chord progression’s “lead melody”. Right, and with that, you’re done! Sit back, hit play, and enjoy your calming chords. Final chord progression with “backing” notes (highlighted) Make Music You LOVE. I know you want to be a confident producer who finishes songs, and loves the results. In order to become a confident producer, though, you need decades of knowledge and experience. To gain that knowledge, you need a good teacher. To gain that experience, you need decades of practice. That’s overwhelming! I understand that searching for a good teacher is frustrating. Most courses are taught by YouTubers who are not qualified in music, and are not qualified teachers either. The few who are qualified in both, have no industry experience. I feel your pain. Truly. Most of my music teachers were bad. That’s why I studied music and education in order to become a lecturer, and why I created Hack Music Theory. Also, over my 30+ years of composing, I developed a unique method called Song-Whispering, which I’ve used to make music with multiplatinum Grammy winners. In my one-of-a-kind online apprenticeship, you’ll learn my method and turbocharge your music with my decades of knowledge and experience. Enroll Now and stop wasting years of your life learning from bad teachers and trying to get better through trial-and-error. Transform into the confident producer you would be in 10+ years now, and start loving your music! Ray HarmonyMulti award-winning college lecturer, teaching since 1995 “Song-Whispering may be the single greatest concept ever!”–Glynne Owen (Japan) “I followed their YouTube for a while before taking their course. I wish I'd taken it sooner!”–Sagar Saluja (India) “I wrote the first song in my life that I actually like!”–Anastasia Lucas (USA) Free PDF Tutorial Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher?
How to WriteBass LinesThat Move People. Free PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2505465/bass-moves Intro. I remember the first time I heard “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails in a club back in the ‘90s. I’d never before seen people literally running to the dance floor. Running! My fellow Gen Xers will remember this, but by the time the bass line starts after about 20 seconds of drums, the dance floor would be completely packed. And this phenomenon happened in every club! The power of a great bass line to move people (even over a simple four-on-the-floor beat, like in “Closer”) still amazes me. Ever since then, I’ve felt that the ability to get people physically moving is probably the most fun aspect of making music. So, here’s a step-by-step method inspired by “Closer” for writing bass lines with the power to move bodies, minds, and hearts! But first… Tea! Step 1. Body Set your tempo to 90 BPM, then throw in a simple four-on-the-floor beat on your drum track. If you don’t know what that is, no problem, it’s just a kick on every 1/4 note and a snare on beats 2 and 4 (see MIDI below). Right, now set up two bars on your bass track, with your grid on 1/16 notes. You’re gonna start by making a dancy rhythm on only one note, C, which is our root note. Keep in mind that your rhythm needs to be good enough to move bodies all on its own. Adding the melodic element later isn’t going to make your bass line any dancier, so this is the time to maximise its danceability. Four-on-the-floor drum beat (one bar) So, what makes a rhythm dancy? Well, arguably the most dancy element is syncopation, which is when you accent an off-beat. However, if you only play off-beats, then your rhythm is gonna sound like a cat walking on your keyboard. So, be sure to play at least one of the main beats. In our example, we played beat 3. Also, you want a ton of space in your bass line, as that gives way more impact to the few notes that you do play. So, limit yourself to only six notes in this step, and make all of them 1/16 notes. And yes, keep all of them on C. Don’t worry though, we’ll add a couple more notes in step 3. On that note, leave beat 4 open, as that’s where those extra notes will go (see MIDI below). Repetition also plays a huge part in making a rhythm dancy. You wanna give your listeners an almost hypnotic rhythm that moves their bodies and releases their minds from thought. So, you’re only gonna write a one-bar rhythm. Then, when you’re happy with it, copy and paste it into your second bar. One-bar rhythm on root note (C) copied and pasted into bar 2 (highlighted) Step 2. Mind Now that you’ve got the body moving with your rhythm, it’s time to move the mind. You’re gonna do this by spreading your rhythm out over two full octaves. Yeah I know, that’s a massive range! But, with that range you can play three versions of the root note: C2, C3, and C4 (see MIDI below). This is a game-changer, as you can maintain that simplicity you created in step 1, but instead of playing your rhythm on one pitch, you’re now playing it on three different pitches. Technically your bass line is still only on one note, C, but sonically it’s now on three different pitches. This illusion of variation will feed your listeners’ minds with its interest, while not stimulating their brains to start thinking. Bass line playing root note, C, on three different pitches (C2, C3, C4) Step 3. Heart Right, now that you’ve got the body and mind moving, it’s time to move the heart. So, this is where you’re gonna add a couple of other notes, in order to infuse your bass line with emotion. Nine Inch Nails uses the super dissonant ♭5 (which is G♭ in this example), and the funky ♭7 (which is B♭). We used those notes in our example too, but they obviously make the bass line sound dissonant and heavy. So, if you’re wanting to make a more uplifting song, then use more consonant notes. By the way, if you need help with choosing which scale/notes to use, please read our Free Book. Once you’ve decided on your two notes, add them into beat 4 of both bars. But, play them differently in each bar, i.e. play them in a different order and/or using a different rhythm. This variation will keep your bass line from getting too repetitive. Bass line with ♭5 (G♭) and ♭7 (B♭) highlighted Lastly, add another root note into beat 4 in both bars, but use a different octave for each (highlighted below). This will make it flow more, and also add momentum. Final bass line Make Music You LOVE. I know you want to be a confident producer who finishes songs, and loves the results. In order to become a confident producer, though, you need decades of knowledge and experience. To gain that knowledge, you need a good teacher. To gain that experience, you need decades of practice. That’s overwhelming! I understand that searching for a good teacher is frustrating. Most courses are taught by YouTubers who are not qualified in music, and are not qualified teachers either. The few who are qualified in both, have no industry experience. I feel your pain. Truly. Most of my music teachers were bad. That’s why I studied music and education in order to become a lecturer, and why I created Hack Music Theory. Also, over my 30+ years of composing, I developed a unique method called Song-Whispering, which I’ve used to make music with multiplatinum Grammy winners. In my one-of-a-kind online apprenticeship, you’ll learn my method and turbocharge your music with my decades of knowledge and experience. Enroll Now and stop wasting years of your life learning from bad teachers and trying to get better through trial-and-error. Transform into the confident producer you would be in 10+ years now, and start loving your music! Ray HarmonyMulti award-winning college lecturer, teaching since 1995 Free PDF Tutorial Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! If the FREE BOOK link doesn't work, just visit our BOOKS page:https://hackmusictheory.com/books
How to Write Heavy BASS Lines Step 1. Syncopated OctavesSet up one bar of 4|4 with your grid on 1/16 notes, and your tempo at 110 BPM. You’re gonna start by using only one note, and the octave of that note. We’re using A in our example. So, draw in every 1/16 note on the low A. Now, play around with moving a handful of them one octave up.These high notes will make accents in your bass line, so you want them to create a cool rhythm all on their own. And one of the best ways to do that is to syncopate most of them. In other words, most of them will not be on the main beats. All that syncopation adds tons of energy! Step 2. High LineYour bass line actually consists of two lines now: a high line, and a low line. So in this step you’re gonna add a melodic element to your high line. A great note to start on is the ♭3 (which is C in our example), as it’s super strong and moody! And by the way, if these flats and numbers confuse you, no problem, just read hack 8 in our free book (link below).Right, so what other notes should you use in your high line? Well, as we’re writing a heavy bass line, you wanna crank up the dissonance, so throw in a ♭2 somewhere (which is B♭ in our example). And if you use the ♭3 and the ♭2, then you could also use the 2, which is the note in between. And feel free to repeat notes. In our example, we played the ♭3 twice, the 2 twice, and the ♭2 once. And a shoutout to local Vancouver BC legends Front Line Assembly, as this lesson is based on the song “Purge” from their 2021 album “Mechanical Soul”. Free BookAlso, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 3. Low LineSo as you could hear, the bass line is already sounding good. And to be honest, most producers would think it’s now complete, but not Front Line Assembly! No, they’ve got one more trick up their sleeves, and that’s the dissonance they add to their low line.Most of their low line remains on the root note, however, they’ve moved a few notes down one semitone to the 7 (which is G♯ in our example). Also, at the very end, you could throw in a ♭3 for a little variation. This makes the bass line loop more smoothly as well.Adding this dissonance to your low line is a game-changer, as it’s super subtle (seriously, most people won’t even notice it), but it adds a feeling of heaviness that you simply can’t achieve without it! PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.
How to Write Advanced DRUMS Step 1. PatternSet up two bars of 4|4 with your grid set to 1/16 notes, and your tempo at 136 BPM. Now, instead of starting to make your drum beat with the usual kick on beat 1 and snare on the backbeats (like everyone else does!), you’re gonna start by writing your kick and snare pattern on the hi-hats.Wait, what?! I know that seems like a really odd thing to do, but this method is gonna result in a far more creative (and therefore “advanced”) drum beat. Okay, so there are many ways to write a creative pattern, but here’s an easy method. Start by playing every 1/8 note. Then, delete a couple of those. This creates variation. And then, move one or two hits over to the next 1/16 note. This creates surprise. Step 2. BeatRight, now that you’ve written a creative rhythm, it’s time to turn it into a drum beat. To do that, simply divide up your pattern between the kick and the snare. In other words, move some notes to the kick and others to the snare. But, instead of falling back into the conventional approach of kick on beat 1 and snare on the backbeats, purposefully avoid doing that in the first bar. This unusual approach in your first bar creates a huge amount of interest that grabs the listeners’ attention.But, if you repeat this approach in your second bar, it won’t sound as interesting any more, as they’ll be expecting it. So, in your second bar, you’re purposefully going to switch to a conventional approach with the kick on beat 1 and snare on the backbeats (i.e. beats 2 and 4). This cycling back and forth between an unconventional bar and a conventional bar keeps your listeners constantly engaged.And a shoutout to Royal Blood, and especially their drummer Ben Thatcher, as this lesson is based on his beat from their new single “Mountains at Midnight”. Just before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube. Free BookAlso, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 3. PulseThis is the easy part. Just add an 1/8 note pulse on a cymbal. This simple rhythm glues the complex beat together. Ben actually switches the pulse between the hats for the verses, and the crash for the choruses. And if you need more help with your beats, download our Hack Drum Beats PDF (link opens in new tab). It contains everything you need to know for making great beats, all in one PDF. PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.
How to Write Locrian BASS Lines Step 1. BasicSet up four bars with an 1/8 note grid, and your tempo at 97 BPM. You’re gonna start by writing a basic bass line that plays every 1/8 note. This creates momentum. We’re in B Locrian here, which is just all the white notes from B to B. The Locrian mode is exceptionally dark, and what makes it so dark is the ♭2 (which is C in this example) and the ♭5 (which is F in this example). Now, because those two notes are what make Locrian sound so dark, you wanna be sure to use both of them in your basic bass line. But, start by playing the root note (which is B in this example) for the whole of your first bar, as that anchors it into the key. And by the way, if you find modes confusing, just read the mode hack in our Songwriting & Producing PDF (link opens in new tab). Step 2. EnergyNext, change your grid to 1/16 notes. You’re gonna create some syncopation now, which is when you accent an off-beat. This will pump energy into your rigid sounding basic bass line and bring it to life. You can add syncopation however you want, but here’s an easy method: shorten an 1/8 note to a 1/16 note, then lengthen the note next to it to fill the gap. Add a couple of these to each of your four bars. And a shoutout to fellow Canadian producer Rezz, as this lesson is based on her recent single “Suffer in Silence”. Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 3. Next LevelBy now your bass line will already be sounding good, but to take it to the next level, you’re gonna add some octaves. Rezz does something really cool here. She moves some of the notes that fall on the backbeat snare, up an octave. This accentuates those backbeats, and adds even more energy to the bass line. However, don’t do this on every backbeat snare, as that will actually lessen its impact. Also, somewhere in your bass line, move one syncopated note up an octave. This keeps your bass line fresh and unpredictable. Lastly, here’s a bonus step. Use a rest somewhere. This gives your bass line space to breathe. Rezz used a rest at the very end of her bass line, so we’ll do the same thing by deleting our last two notes. PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.
How to Write a Beautiful CHORD Progression Step 1. Beauty Set your grid to 1/16 notes and your tempo to 113 BPM. We’re in the key of A minor here, which is just all the white notes from A to A.Right, so the first step to writing a beautiful chord progression is finding a beautiful chord. There are many beautiful chords, but a good guideline is to leave space for the harmony to breathe. Think about walking into a beautiful cathedral. The space is as beautiful as the structure.When applying this concept to chords, it’s as simple as not cramming too many notes in. Three notes is enough. But yes of course, you can use more notes if you want, it’s your music. In this example, the first chord contains the root, ♭ 3 and ♭7. And if all these flats and numbers are confusing, read hack 8 in our free book. Step 2. Chord Beat This is the fun part! You’re now gonna turn your chord into a drum beat. A “chord beat”, if you will. If you’re playing this on a keyboard, you’re gonna play the root note (A) in your left hand, and the other two notes (C and G) in your right hand. Now, pretend your left hand is the kick drum and your right hand is the snare drum, and come up with a cool beat. And if you don’t play the keyboard, no problem, just do this step right here on the MIDI grid.Each hit is only going to be a 1/16 note, so the final result will sound really percussive, like a pitched drum beat. All those rests add rhythmic space to your harmonic space, creating a beautiful simplicity. And a shoutout to Sleep Token, as this lesson is based on their beautiful song “DYWTYLM” from the new album “Take Me Back to Eden”. Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 3. Bass Okay, so we’ve got one beautiful chord played over one bar. Now, let’s turn this into a four-bar chord progression. So, start by copying and pasting your first bar into the remaining three bars. You’re actually going to leave your right-hand notes the same throughout the four bars. This creates unity, which adds to the beauty.Next, spend some time moving your bass note up and down in bar two. Once you’ve found a beautiful place for it, stay there for the whole bar. Then, do the same thing for bars three and four. Sleep Token stays on the same bass note here for the two bars. You can do that, or you can move it, like we did in our example. PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.
How to Write a BASS Line with Harmony Step 1. Low Harmony is when two or more notes are played together. And sadly, it’s rare to hear harmony in a bass line. The word “line” is actually used to convey the fact that it’s a melody, not a harmony. That’s how rare harmony is on the bass!You see, most producers think the bass frequencies are too low to play harmony. In other words, if you play two notes together, it’ll sound like a rumbling mess. But, that’s not true. That only happens when the two notes are close to each other. For example, if your root note is a low A, and you play a D above that. It doesn’t sound very nice if you play the D that’s five semitones above the A. But, if you play the D an octave higher, so it’s now 17 semitones above the A, it sounds absolutely beautiful!Alright, so now we know how to successfully add harmony to a bass line, however, we don’t yet have a bass line to add it to. So, step 1 is to write a cool one-bar rhythm on the root note. And we’re using A natural minor. Then, copy and paste that rhythm to three other notes, so you’ve got a four-note bass line over four bars. And feel free to throw in some passing notes to smooth the line out.And a shoutout to the British band GoGo Penguin, and especially their bassist Nick Blacka, as this lesson is based on the title track from their beautiful new album “Everything Is Going to Be OK”. Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 2. High Now it’s time for the fun part: writing another line over the top, so you’ve got two lines playing together. Start this step by choosing what note you want to use for the harmony over your root note. And this is where Nick Blacka was super creative, as he actually used one high note that sounds good over all four bars. You don’t have to do that, but it’s very cool, so we did something similar in our example. We used D as our high note for three bars, then we varied it in the fourth bar.Once you’ve chosen your high note, write a cool rhythm for it over your root note in bar one. Then, copy and paste that rhythm into the remaining three bars. Once you’ve done that, feel free to add some rhythmic and melodic variations to keep things fresh. But you don’t have to do that, if you just wanna keep things simple. PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.
How to Write a Standout MELODY Step 1. First ImpressionsThere are many ways to write a standout melody, but it’s difficult to improve on the method PJ Harvey uses in her new single “A Child’s Question, August”. That’s because nothing grabs our attention like a bold first impression. And by first impression, I literally mean the first note of the melody.You see, PJ Harvey starts her melody in the Dorian mode, and the very first note she sings is the major 6th. That’s the one-and-only note that makes Dorian different from the super common scale that we hear all the time: the natural minor. The vast majority of people are not used to hearing a major 6th over a minor chord, so when her melody begins with that unusual note, it instantly stands out.So, in D Dorian, which is all the white notes from D to D, the major 6th is B. When we play B in our melody over a D minor chord, you can hear exactly how powerful that one note is at grabbing our attention. So step 1 in this method is to use that unusual note to begin your melody, then finish the phrase with usual notes. Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 2: Second ImpressionsYour listeners are now familiar with that unusual note, which means that if you play it again, it won’t be unusual any more. In other words, your melody is now at risk of losing its initial impact and therefore losing your listener’s attention. The way PJ Harvey deals with this issue is brilliant!In the second half of her melody, instead of singing the major 6th again, she sings the minor 6th. That’s the usual 6th note in a natural minor scale, which we’re used to hearing. But, after getting our ears used to that unusual note, the usual note now sounds unusual haha. What a brilliant trick!So to maintain your listener’s attention, step 2 of this method is to create a powerful second impression by using the minor 6th (which is B♭) in the second half of your melody. In other words, you’re using the natural minor for this phrase.Just to recap, we’re starting our melody in D Dorian, then switching to D natural minor. So use the major 6th (which is B) as the first note of your melody, then use the minor 6th (which is B♭) in the second half of your melody. And if you need more help writing melodies, just download our Songwriting & Producing PDF (link opens in new tab) and follow the seven guidelines in our Melody Checklist. PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.
How to Write a Locrian RIFF FREE: Download This Tutorial as PDFIncludes multitrack MIDI example Step 1. OctavesSet your grid to 1/16 notes and your tempo to 97 BPM. You’re gonna start by writing a creative pattern using only octaves. If you’re writing this on guitar, use your low open E string and the E one octave higher. And be sure to play every 1/16 note, as that’s what gives the riff that heavy momentum. At the very end of the riff, though, play four 1/8 notes. That creates variation, and gives the circle pit a few seconds to breathe!Quick shoutout to Metallica, as this lesson is based on their song “Too Far Gone?” from the new album “72 Seasons”. Step 2. ModeNow that you’ve got an outline of your riff, it’s time to start thinking about the melodic element. For this, we’re gonna use the Locrian mode, like Metallica. So, to get the E Locrian mode, which is what they use, start with the E natural minor scale.Now, flatten the 2nd and 5th notes. And “flattening” just means lowering the note by one semitone - or one fret, if you’re on the guitar. So the 2 (which is F♯), becomes a ♭2 (which is F). And the 5 (which is B), becomes a ♭5 (which is B♭). That’s E Locrian! And if all these numbers and flats are confusing, just read hack 8 in our free book. Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 3. MelodyFinally it’s time to add the melodic element to your riff. Now, you’re not actually going to move any of your low E’s, they’re gonna chug away down there. You’re only gonna move the high E’s. So, have some fun playing around with where you can move those high E’s to.However, be sure to play the notes that make the Locrian mode different to the natural minor scale, as those are the really dark heavy notes. In other words, play F and B♭. Also be sure to play G, as that’s the ♭3, which is a relatively dark note too.Lastly, here’s a quick bonus for my fellow theory nerds. At the end of their riff, Metallica plays some 5ths, which guitarists call “power chords”. What’s interesting about this is that the 5th of the root note E, is B. But, in E Locrian there’s a B♭ not a B. So theoretically that B pushes the riff into Phrygian for a split second. However, because our ears only pay attention to the root note of each power chord, that end part of the riff still sounds like it’s in Locrian. PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.
How to Write a Catchy MELODY FREE: Download This Tutorial as PDFIncludes multitrack MIDI example Step 1. ScaleThere are two types of catchy melodies: annoyingly repetitive ones you can’t stop singing but actually hate, and awesome ones that are memorable cos they’re unique.So, to write a catchy melody that isn’t annoying, you need to make it unique somehow. There are numerous ways to do that, and in this example we’ll be using two. The first way is to use an unusual scale. You see, our ears are so used to hearing melodies in the major and minor scales that they often fade into the background. By using a scale that’s more rare, your melody will instantly stand out.In this example, we’re using the Blues scale. So, to get the Blues scale, you start with the natural minor scale. From the root of A, that’s simply all the white notes. Next, you delete the 2nd and 6th notes. This gives you a five-note scale called the minor pentatonic. Now, to turn the minor pentatonic into the Blues scale, you add what’s known as the “blue note”, which is the ♭5. So in the A Blues scale, that’s E♭.And a quick shoutout to Beastie Boys, as this lesson is based on their song “Sure Shot”, which features that much-loved flute melody from Jeremy Steig. Step 2. RhythmAnother great way of making your melody unique is to use an unusual rhythm. And one of the easiest ways to do that, is to use triplets. So, change your grid to 1/16 note triplets. Next, write a cool rhythm on your root note. And to create variety, be sure to use three different note values. Also, use a rest somewhere, which allows your melody to breathe. And by the way, our tempo is 98 BPM. Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 3. ContourFinally, it’s time to create a melodic contour. So, change the pitches now by moving your notes up and down on the grid. And most importantly, remember to play the “blue note” somewhere, which is E♭ in this example. If you don’t play that ♭5, your melody won’t actually be in the Blues scale, it’ll just be in the minor pentatonic. And that’s it!If you need more help writing melodies, download our Songwriting & Producing PDF (link opens in new tab) and follow the seven guidelines in our Melody Checklist. PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.
How to Write Energetic BASS Lines Step 1. Rhythmic Energy There’s a super energetic bass line in the new single “No Reason” by The Chemical Brothers. To write a bass line like this, you need a lot of movement. Not just rhythmic movement, but melodic movement too. So, start by writing an energetic 2-bar rhythm for your bass line. Just use one pitch for now. We used A. You see, if you can get your bass sounding cool on one note, imagine how amazing it’s gonna sound when you bring in the melodic movement!Here are three guidelines for writing your rhythm. First, use a combination of 1/8 notes and 1/16 notes. This provides speed and variety. Second, use lots of rests. This allows your bass line to breathe. And third, use a few syncopated notes, which are off-beat accents. This makes it groove! And by the way, the tempo is 128 BPM. Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment. Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 2. Melodic Energy Now it’s time to add melody. So, first think about the chord progression you want your bass to outline. We’re in the key of A minor here, which is all the white notes from A to A. And the chord progression we chose to outline is: Gmaj, Fmaj, Am. Next, move some of your notes an octave higher. This hugely increases the energy, because it hugely increases the melodic range.It’s sounding good already, but the bass is still only playing the root note of each chord. So, next you wanna move some notes off the roots. Over the Gmaj, we’re playing F a couple times. That’s the ♭7. This is a funk favourite, so try to use a ♭7 somewhere. Over the Fmaj, we’re playing E a couple times, which is the 7.And by the way, the ♭7 (over G) followed by the 7 (over F) creates a motif. A motif is a short musical idea, which is repeated to give music structure and make it more memorable. Then lastly, over the Am, we played C. That’s the ♭3. This creates some variation. And, the ♭3 is also another funk favourite, so throw one in somewhere if you can! PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.
How to Write a Lydian MELODY FREE: Download This Tutorial as PDFIncludes multitrack MIDI example Simple music can be great music. Depeche Mode’s lead single “Ghosts Again” from their new album “Memento Mori” is proof. It has a well-written and creative vocal melody in the verses, but it’s really simple. So, here’s a method for writing melodies from a band that’s been going for over 40 years! Step 1. ModeIf you’re going to write a simple melody, it helps to choose an interesting mode. They chose Lydian, which is an uplifting but quirky mode. So, we’ll use F Lydian for our example, which is all the white notes from F to F.Just before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment. Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE Book (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 2: Roots & 3rdsWrite a simple four-bar chord progression, then mute your chords and only play the root note of each chord on your bass. That’s the only thing Depeche Mode plays under the vocal melody in their verse.Right, are you ready for a melody masterclass from Dave Gahan? So, most of his vocal melody consists of only the 1, 3 and 5 of each chord. These are known as harmonic notes, as they form the chord. Over the first two chords, he only sings the 1 and 3 of each chord, and over the third chord he only sings the 1 and 5.But, his melody sounds extra beautiful for two reasons: First, it’s in Lydian, which makes it unusual. And second, there are no chords playing, so his vocal melody is what creates the harmony and therefore the emotion. The 3rd note of each chord is the most emotional note, as it makes a chord either major or minor. And because there are only root notes in your bass, your melody will create that uplifting sound when it plays a major 3rd, and that sad sound when it plays a minor 3rd.Also, in a F Lydian melody we wanna use the note B somewhere, as that’s what makes the mode different to the F major scale, which has a B♭. If you wanna learn about the modes and how to use them, that’s in our Songwriting & Producing PDF (link opens in new tab). Step 3: VariationsOver the last chord in the progression, Dave sings the 2 and 4. These are non-harmonic notes. In other words, they’re not in the chord. This is what makes them sound like they’re floating, as they’re not anchored into the chord. So use a couple of non-harmonic notes at the end of your melody, to avoid it becoming predictable. Then lastly, in the second cycle of their melody, Dave sings a small variation to keep it fresh, so change a few notes when you loop your melody. PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.
How to Write Polymeter DRUMS Step 1. Kick in 7The new Periphery single “Atropos” (from the album Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre) opens with a classic djent polymeter, which we love! Staying true to Meshuggah’s original polymeter recipe, the kick is in odd time while the snare and cymbals are in 4|4. So, start by programming a one-bar kick rhythm in 7|8. And just cos you’re in 7|8, doesn’t mean you have to only use 1/8 notes, so change your grid to 1/16 notes. By the way, the tempo is 80 BPM.Once you’re happy with your kick rhythm, copy and paste it over four bars of 4|4. At the end of your 4-bar loop, you’ll notice that you can’t fit a full bar of 7|8. Don’t worry, that’s part of the fun of playing these polymeters. Simply chop off whatever doesn’t fit of your 7|8 rhythm. In fact, that’s how you get those abrupt-sounding loops that are one of the main characteristics of djent polymeters.Just before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on the YouTube video. Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our free book (below). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 2. Snare in 4This is the easy and fun part! Start by playing a crash on every 1/8 note. This keeps the pulse and lays your 4|4 foundation. Then for momentum and to give the djent kids something to shake their heads to, throw in a regular backbeat snare, which is on beat 2 and beat 4. Right, now you’ve got a polymeter! But, there’s more.Periphery’s drummer Matt Halpern does this really cool thing that most people won’t even notice. Where the kick and snare overlap in bar 2 beat 4, he moves that kick a 1/16 note earlier. This tiny variation makes the repeating 7|8 rhythm less obvious, which melts the two time signatures together a little bit. Small tweak, but it’s super creative!Next, throw in some accents on a second crash (or china). You can do whatever you want here as your polymeter is already established. We accented the first beat in every bar of 7|8 with a china, as well as beat 3 in every bar of 4|4. This further melts the two time signatures together. And lastly, a little kick and snare variation at the end of the loop will act as a mini-fill to transition back around to the beginning. Free Book Wooohooo!!! You’re a mere 30 minutes away from being even smarter than you already are. Just head on over to your inbox now for your free download. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. “The most brilliant, fast, easy & fun music theory book I’ve ever seen!” DEREK SIVERS, CD Baby founder We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. 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