Basic Music Theory Terms
Lesson 2 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Basic Music Theory Terms
Lesson 2 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Lesson Info
2. Basic Music Theory Terms
Lessons
Introduction
00:58 2Basic Music Theory Terms
08:07 3Keyboard Layout and Octaves
06:19 4Working out Major Scales
08:58 5Perfect 5ths
06:42 63rds - Part 1
08:05 73rds - Part 2
07:39 8Perfect 4ths
04:36Chords and Inversions - Part 1
10:05 10Chords and Inversions - Part 2
09:13 11Chord Progressions - Part 1
10:22 12Chord Progressions - Part 2
08:26 13Inversions
08:53 147th Chords
09:48 15Chord Extensions
08:09 16Suspended Chords
02:40 17The Circle of 5ths
04:30 18Minor Scales
08:09 19Chords in the Natural Minor scale
09:56 20Harmonic and Melodic Minor
09:30 21Write the Chords, then the Melody
09:03 22Write the Melody, then the Chords
18:01 23Arpeggios
08:00 24Writing Bass Parts
11:35 25Writing Bass Riffs and Adapting Melodies
14:10 26Song Analysis - Chords, Part 1
10:17 27Song Analysis - Chords, Part 2
05:58 28Song Analysis - Melody
08:55 29Song Analysis - Arrangement
07:30 30Song 2 Analysis - Arrangement
05:04 31Song 2 Analysis - Chords
08:55 32Song 2 Analysis - Melodies
06:34 33Song 3 Analysis - Chords
11:41 34Song 3 Analysis - Melodies and Arrangement
06:55 35Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 1
10:22 36Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 2
18:47 37Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 3
18:49 38Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 4
08:21 39Create a Song from a Chord Progression - Part 1
08:16 40Create a Song from a Chord Progression - Part 2
08:07 41Create a Song from a Melody - Part 1
07:27 42Create a Song from a Melody - Part 2
09:05 43Modes Intro
04:10 44Ionian
00:43 45Dorian
04:31 46Phrygian
02:09 47Lydian
01:35 48Mixolydian
02:13 49Aeolian
00:39 50Locrian
01:50 51Dorian Mode Example
09:12 52Pentatonic Scales
12:27Lesson Info
Basic Music Theory Terms
Hello. In this lecture, we're going to be looking at some common music terms. So if you're brand new to making music, music theory and music production, I'm sure this lecture could really help you out if you've been writing music for quite a while, you know, a lot of these terms, maybe just skip this lecture. So these are the terms we're going to be looking at pitch scales, chords, rhythms, melody, harmony and intervals. So if you collaborate with other musicians or producers, these terms will be thrown around quite a lot and generally, they will expect you to know what these terms mean. So first of all, we have pitch. This is basically where the note is, is it high? Is it low? So if we have a low note, generally, this is a low pitch. And if we have a high note, generally this is a high pitch. So this note here you can hear it's quite low, has a lower pitch than this note. And this note up here has a higher pitch and both of the notes. So high pitch just means it sounds high, low pitch...
means it sounds low. Next, we have scale. So a scale is just a pattern or sequence of notes that fits a certain pattern or certain scale also called mode is a different type of scale. We're going to be looking at later on. But for now, just remember a scale is a pattern of notes. When writing music, we don't have to stick to a scale, we can do basically whatever we want. But if you're brand new to writing music and music theory, I recommend just sticking to a scale. So on the left here, we have ac major scale. On the right, we have ac minus scale. The both sound slightly different. If you want to stick to ac major scale, it basically just means just use these notes. And if you want to stick to ac minus scale, it basically means just use these notes. That's what a scale is. It's just a series of notes that fit in a pattern. There's loads of different types like I said about modes which we will look at later on. But for now, the main ones really want to worry about a major scale and minor scale. Next, we have chord, a chord is basically just two or more notes. That's all it really is. The most common type of chord is called a triad, which is three notes, which is usually the root, the third and the fifth of the scale. So if you look at the scale, it'd be the root note, the third note and the fifth. But it depends on where you are in the scale, which note you start on. But generally a chord is two or more notes. You can have a chord of 10 notes, you can have a chord with just two notes. OK. Next is rhythm and rhythm is basically just a sequence with arrangements of sounds and silences. So let's go back into Ableton Live. Let's just delete these. So a rhythm, like I said, a sequence with tones or notes and also silences, they don't have to be pitch notes. You can get a rhythm on a drum kit, for example, or different drums, but you can get a rhythm on pitch notes like a piano. So let's just play this and this is a rhythm. You can see there's different notes or tones or sounds and then there's also gaps or silences. So that's a rhythm. You can change the rhythm, you can move it around and that's all a rhythm is, I'm sure you've heard this hundreds thousands, maybe even millions of times. Next is a melody and the melody is a series of tones or notes that creates a pattern. So let's go into Ableton Live again. So a melody, a series of notes or tones. So it could be a lot of the time melodies do resolve. So it will go down to the starting note of the chord, but not always, there's no real golden rule for this. But generally, we do like to resolve melodies. So this could be a melody. A lot of the time melodies are repetitive and they generally do fit a pattern. And this is kind of an overall term of a melody. They don't have to be in key that have to be in scale. They don't always have to repeat, but a melody is generally a pattern and that's pretty much what it is. And like I said, it normally resolves. But if you get into more experimental music, you might not want to resolve your melodies. But if you're starting off, I would recommend making your melodies resolve the key or the chord. Next, we have harmony. This is quite similar to cord. It's really one or more note being played simultaneously. So one or more note being played at the same time and this will create a harmony. So if we have this note here, which is ac we could have a harmony of an octave which is just the same note, but up in the different octave here. So we have C two and the octave above is C three. So real simple harmony is just an octave above. So I can just drag all these or copy these over or draw them in again up another octave. Then we have this one here which is an E and at the end of the C, I don't have to have the octave for all these notes, I can choose different harmonies. So this one here could and this note here could be changed to say a G here. And this will create another harmony. It's basically just two notes or more being played simultaneously. And this will create a different harmony. That's a Hoy similar to a cord. But harmony can be used in the melody and other instruments too. OK. Intervals is a distance between two notes. So if we go back to Ableton, so this is an interval of an octave because you'll see here, it says C two, this is C three octave difference. So that is an interval of an octave. Here we have C to E which is um an interval of a major third. And here again, we have E to G which is an interval of a minor fair, don't worry about the major minor fair differences. Now, just remember an interval is a difference between the two notes. So an easy one is this interval is an octave. You can hear it here, that interval and this one here, this is the interval. This is the interval. That's all it really means. These are basically the terms. So we have pitch which is basically the high notes and the low notes scales a pattern or sequence of notes. And generally we try and fit in the scale when we're writing music, but you can always try new stuff. You can always experiment a chord is two or more notes, a rhythm is just a sequence with some kind of sound and silence melody is a pattern or sequence of notes of harmony is one or more two or more notes being played at the same time interval is the distance between the notes. And these are kind of the main terms that are gonna be thrown around in this course. And also when you collaborate with other musicians or producers, these are just common terms really, we're not gonna be looking at any Italian terms like crescendo or diminuendo, anything like that. It's more just these normal terms you'll be using when producing music and writing music with other musicians or producers. So thank you for watching this lecture. I hope you found it useful and I hope you understand some of the most common terms that will be used in this course and also in writing music with other musicians and producers.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Student Work
Related Classes
Electronic Music Production