Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 2
Lesson 36 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 2
Lesson 36 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Lesson Info
36. Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 2
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
Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 2
Basically that let's have a look. So let's have a look at what I was actually doing there. A lot of the time you will play this just through feel. I'm listening to a lot of music and writing a lot of music. So it was on the and yeah, so just quantize this, it's basically um puts it in time. Sometimes when you quantize, it doesn't always get it right. But it can mean you make a few mistakes which can sound good. So sometimes stuff not going exactly how it planned can sound nice or you can just drag it around and find the exact place. One thing you can do as well, you can actually add this to your drum parts just to kind of find a good rhythm, find some space. So we could add it, say on this high hat. So if we're looking on this base part here, it starts on the, the end of one. So we could drag all this over. I don't normally do this, but this is a technique of seeing people do. So you could drag this over, then go on to and of one here and now you can just match up and see where there's...
space. So this one, the space there, this one is a little bit of space. Move that there. Then there'd be more space. So then we have the rim shot, we can move the rim shot to to there. Set pushes and have the base there and we could move this GEA. Then we've got a roll there so that we wanna create a bit of space. We want the rolls to be heard so we can put that there. We could add, remember we had the four so we could use this as the main riven. Really? So remember it's the end of the one. So I've just cut that. So it's not there. Let's go back on this base part. Now let's delete this and post this in. So now if you listen the space for the base to be heard and the drums, we don't need to have it on the floor. That could basically be the base part. Really simple. It doesn't need to be too complex. Just seeing we could change the base note. It doesn't have to always just stay on the one note. So we could change this down to let's try ac which is the third of a minor. So this will be ac major cord, we could put that, we could go back to the A minor. I like to color these as well. So I know theyre different parts. So this is basically how I create easy beat. There's plenty of ways to do it. This is just a really simple way, kind of groove it in by feel and then go through and correct it, look for space and allow space to be heard in your music. Of course, you can lock in, you can use techniques like s like side chain compression. So when the kick drums played everything else goes that is compressed with side chain goes down in volume. So there's not too many clashes of frequencies. So the kick drum can easily get heard. OK. So let's try this on a G which will be G major, which is the seventh chord of a mor, let's color this slight different color and we can just loop this and let's just hear what this sounds like. Add some keys parts. I just like the two chords for now. So it's just a minor C major really? So the first one, I'm playing ac and a minor root position. So AC and E the second one just moving one note down just the A to a G. So I'm doing an inversion of C major. So that kind of thing really? So I'm really just playing this in by feel. I think there's a bit too much going on. So I might simplify it a bit more, that kind of thing. So you might think, oh, what are you doing? You're going too fast. But all I'm really doing is just playing the chords that fit with a base note. If we're in the key, we're in the key of a minor. So, all I'm doing is playing the A minor chord. I made a mistake there. And ac major chord C major chord, I'm using an inversion. So it's not the C at the bottom. It's the G and the A minor is just a ce and the C is G ce quantize this, you can tell. And that's just uh over to here and like all digital audio workstations, you can just drag stuff around copy and paste, which is amazing. I remember using an old um eight track recorder. We had to, yeah, record without copy, without copying and pasting. So the times we're living there are a lot better. I remember even using a four track cassette recorder. This is a long time ago. Even before the eight track, then they had a digital 16 track where you could just about copy and paste. If you played it perfectly in time, there's no quantis. So what we have now of our digital audio workstations is incredible. I still think this is too busy. So I'm just really just gonna strip it down even further. Cos this drumbeat. If you're playing quite a complex drumbeat, you don't really want too much being played. Cos it depends if you want the drum beat to be heard clearly, you kind of wanna strip everything else down. If you just have a simple drum beat. You can put stuff a bit more uh complex. So good thing to do is just listen, use your ears and listen, I can hear, listen for space what's going on that I want there to be no chords, boom and there, I want the sea. So I can't really tell you there's a certain technique for writing music. A lot of it. It's just trial and error and experimenting just listening for the individual parts. So I want that bum that snare to really just punch out with this, these cords. Also, I might just put uh an abrupt start just before just to make this snare hit and this cord with a snare hit is stand out and copy that over what you can do because I know there's just one note difference. I can just copy this over, hold down alt site and then just move this to a G. So all I did was move this A to a G, I might create a bit of space there. Also, I think on the end of four, I'm gonna play this note again. OK. Same here and the four. So the end of four, I want a lot of space. I don't want anything else really playing. So let's go into our drums here. I can instantly hear that wasn't dragged in the right place. So have a, they c so let's go to the base note cos we heard there's something wrong there. So we can always go into the synthesizer and find out if it's the notes or if it's the synthesizer. So we have something called de tuning here, we can change the tuning adds a bigger chorus effect. You have to be careful of this as well. So there, so this is kind of a live feel you get from me right now, but this is generally how I write music. I'm just kind of um commenting as I go along. So, and of four, let's get rid of that rim shot and at the end it's on the fore feet. So that's on Beat four. I wanna change this to the and so let's get rid of this. So the first time, so on this, a minor, I wanna change this to the end of four. Not Beat four. Got that slightly wrong because I wasn't zoomed in. So there that'd be OK. It wasn't the tune in. It's because I haven't got a loop set in the right place that's playing this now again, which is the G. So sometimes you're not always sure what's going on, make sure the loops in the right place. Cos I got a bit thrown off there because I thought the tuning was wrong. I thought I put this down as a G rather than a, then I checked, it didn't sound weird. Then I thought it was the synthesizer. So I checked the synthesizer and then it was actually the loop wasn't set up in the right place on Ableton Live. You can use something called set 1.11 from here and then you wouldn't have that issue. That's the thing. There's no exact rule in creating music like this because you never know what's gonna happen really. But once you know, the fundamentals of music theory and building music from certain chords, it makes it a lot easier than just relying on your ear. Cos I know this first chord is an, a minor bass note is an A, I'm using the chords and then it moves to ac C major really basic stuff allowing space for the rhythms to be heard and it all fits harmonically, still gonna move this round a bit. A lot of it is about rhythm and change this keyboard parts. The tuning issue on this has thrown me off quite a bit. OK? I was just messing around with the LFO it's the low frequency oscillator so you can create pulsating effect, but I decided not to use it. OK. That's good. So I'm gonna delete this one and change this, see to the end. OK? But you can be able to live if its just the same copy and paste, get this loop set up. There we go, we can just drag it over. Let's let's just uh copy like this really basic grieve. I think the drums are still a bit too busy when they go through and to strip a few things out. But his hat's a bit simpler. I'm happy with the kick and the snare, the high hats got a bit too much going on. Oh, ok. Let's hear this. So there isn't really a exact formula I'm doing here. It's more just experimenting around with what I think will sound good and training your ears from writing music a lot. So, this is kind of main basics and I can add a pluck all built around this drum beat. And here a second time, there's no drum beat, there's a lot more freedom for stuff to go on. So you can strip out the drum beat, you're writing as well if you don't wanna just stick to the drum beat. But now we've got the main rhythm section. So a rhythm section of a band is the bass guitarist, the drummer and the keyboard less. Now we've got the main rhythm section, we can add on the lead parts. So we can add on basically the high synths, the synthesizers. I'm just gonna be playing around the chords. So it's, we can do a little cheap thing in Ableton Live and other digital audio work stations and that is just play in the notes and then we can just add on and our pgis, let's do that. So let's find the notes here.
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