LearnIt Series - 14 May 2022

134 Pages·2022·111.9 MB·English

COMPUTER

MUSIC

Presents

Handbook

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OVER SGB OF
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> WRITE CATCHY HOOKS
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FOURTH
EDITION

> BUILD A TRACK WITH THEORY

COMPUTER

sic

Presents

The Producer’s

MUSIC
THEORY

Handbook
HOW TO USE

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The term ‘music theory’ is known to strike fear in the
hearts of computer musicians, conjuring up images of
stuffy classrooms, clusters of confusing musical notes
and incomprehensible languages.

However, with all this music-making power sitting on
your hard drive, there’s no excuse not to fully grasp the
fundamental building blocks of music. Yes, you can get
by without any theory skills... but how much better would
your tracks be if you could program those MIDI notes
with gusto and tickle those ivories with purpose?

So if words like
“A mega- ‘chords, ‘scales, ‘modes’
and ‘inversions fill you

compendium of Siititeiceereranes
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MEE Ne th CO ry finest tutorial features

99 from the pages of
Knowledge Computer Music and

Future Music - each

guide created specifically for the computer-based
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Joe Rossitter Editor

COMPUTER

MUSIC

Presents

The Producer’s

MUSIC
THEOR

Handbook

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The Producer’s Music Theory Handbook Fourth Edition (MUB4212)
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COMPUTER

SIC

Presents

The Producer’s

MUSIC THEORY
Handbook

contents

THE PRODUCER'S GUIDE TO
CHORDS AND SCALES

PLAY KEYBOARD LIKE A PRO

HOW TO WRITE PERFECT
HOOKS

GENRE-BUSTING MUSIC
THEORY

MUSIC THEORY MADE EASY

ARRANGEMENT
WORKSHOP

BITESIZED THEORY
TIPS AND TRICKS

GET INSPIRED WITH
THEORY

REMIXING IN KEY .
SUBSCRIBE a ~ —_—
PLAY KEYBOARD LIKE APRO Diet

WRITE PERFECT HOOKS

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Take the mystery out of
music theory and give
your tracks the ultimate
musical power-up with

the computer musicians
definitive crash course

> An unforgettable vocal melody. A moving
chord sequence. An infectious bassline.
Nailing just one of these could leave your
listeners humming your tunes and whistling
your melodies, eager for their next hit of your
audio crack. Back it up with a killer production,
and you could have another kind of hit on

your hands!

But the truth is that many computer musicians
put the technical side of production first. With
sonic standards always evolving, and endless
plugins and techniques to master, why wouldn't
you? Well, see it from the listener’s point of view:
they can’t sing along to sidechain compression or
dance to multiband distortion!

To keep your listeners coming back for ‘just
one more listen’, you'll need to hook ‘em with a
catchy combination of notes. So how’s it done?
Do we just hit keys at random until a great tune
pops out? Well, you could, but there’s an easier,
faster way, and that’s by using tried-and-tested
note combos as a guide. Yep, chords and scales!

Now, if there’s a two-word phrase guaranteed
to paralyse producers with fear, ‘music theory’

rT F FF

is it... and no wonder: most learning material is
textbook-dull, full of jargon, and simply not
designed for computer musicians. We’ve long
recognised such problems here at cm, with our
ever-popular Easy Guide series packing in over
150 tutorials to date. But what if you need a one-
stop primer to get you up to speed? You need it
easy, you need it fast, and you need it right now!
Well, here it is!

With this tutorial, you'll be making amazing
evocative melodies and jazzing up your chord
progressions in no time. You'll learn everything
from basic major and minor scales to inversions,
suspensions, seventh chords, key changes,
modes, exotic scales, and loads more. We'll show
you which notes go where, with audio examples,
MIDI files, and videos packed with clear
annotations and extra explanation. All with zero
music notation in sight, and a minimum of jargon.

As if that’s not enough, we bring you the CM
MIDI Construction Kit, comprising almost 2000
ready-made scales and chords in every key. These
include our scale ‘templates’ that show you which
notes to use, making composition a breeze!

rF F FF
> make music now / the producers

Notes, octaves and intervals

Before fumbling around with chords and
scales, let’s get a grip on the stuff they’re
made up of: notes and intervals. There are
only 12 different notes, and they repeat all the
way up the piano keyboard (or piano roll).
The piano is easy to visualise, with one key
per note, but music theory principles work
the same for every instrument.

Whichever note you start on, if you go up
12 notes from there, you’re back where you
started, playing the same note, but one ‘octave’
higher - it sounds the same but higher pitched.
In addition, the pitch difference between
adjacent notes is always the same, called a
‘semitone’ (also known as a half-tone or minor
second). A difference in pitch between two
notes is called an ‘interval’ - so far we’ve
covered only two intervals: the octave and
the semitone.

It all begins with a C

The 12 notes are named C, C’, D, Di, E, F, F’,G, G’,
A, A and B. After that, the sequence starts over
at C, as we've reached the octave point. ‘#’
means ‘sharp’ and is essentially shorthand for
‘plus 1 semitone’, telling us that A’ is the note
immediately above A, for example. Notes with
no sharp symbol - C, D, E, F, G, A, B - are called
‘natural’ notes and are the white keys ona
piano. The black keys are C’, D’, Fi, Giand A‘.
Notice that B/C and E/F have no sharp note
between them. Also, C (rather than A) is
considered the ‘default’ or ‘first’ note in music
theory, not A.

Some notes lead a shady double life, as the
five sharp notes can also be described as ‘flat’,
the symbol for which is ‘b’, meaning ‘minus 1
semitone’. So A‘ can be called B’, for example -
same note, different name! The full run using
flats would be: C, D’, D, E, E, F, F, G, A’, A, BY, B.

If you’re finding it hard to take in, just get
comfortable with the sharp naming scheme first.
Most music software uses only sharps anyway,

so to make sure our tutorials translate to your
software, we're going to use sharps pretty much
throughout (even where they might be
considered ‘wrong’ in traditional music theory).

Let’s go after the interval

It’s time to look at the other intervals - we’ve put
a table of the intervals (from O to 12) over on the
right-hand side of the page.

Notes played one after the other make a
‘melodic interval’, and no matter which of the
notes you play first, it’s the same interval - we’d
just call it ascending or descending. When the
notes are played at the same time, that’s a
‘harmonic interval’.

Each interval has its own sound. The ‘unison’
and ‘octave’ intervals sound very clear, since
they’re playing the exact same note - no
surprise. However, the next clearest are the 7-
and 5- semitone intervals, known as a
‘perfect fifth’ and a ‘perfect fourth’ - the
reason for this naming will become clear soon,
we promise!

(Memorising each
interval and being
able to identify them

Will help massively”

Next, the 4- and 3-semitone intervals
- named ‘major third’ and ‘minor third’ - also
sound musically satisfying, with a ‘happy’ and
‘sad’ feel respectively. Memorising each interval
and being able to identify them by ear will help
massively in making music, and a common trick
to help with this is to associate each interval
with the opening notes of a well-known tune.
For more, see bit.ly/Intervalldeas.

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PLUGINS

DUNE Fibre

eer

ie |

Let’s hear intervals in action. Load

Dune CM ina new project, select
preset 32: Fat Saw Bass RH, set Volume
to 25% to prevent clipping, then load
Interval Demo.mid on its track. Play it
to hear a1-semitone interval (a minor
second) between C and C’, first as melodic
intervals (ascending and descending),
then as a harmonic interval (both notes
played together), then a short riff.

10

UNE filiSic

AAA

This pairing sounds quite “dark”, and

the harmonic interval is kind of jarring
on its own. Select all C' notes and move
them up one step to D for a 2-semitone
interval (a major second), which sounds
less harsh, but still not that musically
pleasing. Now move the Ds up to Di- this
3-semitone interval, a minor third, is a lot
more satisfying, with a sad, serious quality.
Our riff sounds more like actual music now!

Solid/powerful

Solid/powerful
Upbeat/happy
Serious/sad/downbeat

The 4-semitone major third also

sounds very listenable, with a happy,
upbeat quality. There are two more stand-
out intervals: 5- and 7-semitones, called a
perfect fourth and perfect fifth. Aside
from the octave, these two intervals have
the purest, most solid sound, if a little less
evocative than the minor and major third.
See our bonus video (1b) to find out why
some intervals sound more ‘natural’.