Song 3 Analysis - Chords
Lesson 33 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Song 3 Analysis - Chords
Lesson 33 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Lesson Info
33. Song 3 Analysis - Chords
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
Song 3 Analysis - Chords
Hello. In this lecture, we're going to be analyzing another one of my tracks. This one is called Angels Spray and I do believe it's a bit more intricate. There's a bit more going on than in the other tracks. It's really just based around the same four chords. And then I have different melodies that come in and then different textures. A lot of work on arrangement. This track, I remember I've spent a long time arranging this. If we look at the top, the whole piece was about an hour long and then I arranged this to just over 3.5 minutes. So arrangement was super key. This however, is not a tutorial about Ableton live or mixing or plug in tutorial. This is about music theory and working out the chords and the melodies. So we're going to be looking at my chords, how I constructed the chords and also how I constructed the melodies. Also have a look down here at these red lines. This is tempo. So tempo changes, which is part of arrangement and texture, which I believe is really important. If...
you want to create some more interesting music, you can always put some tempo changes in. So let's have a listen to this. It's quite a big project. You can see there's a lot of different instruments, but it's really just based around the same four chords. And I add a few different melodies in use different orchestrations. So put these riffs on different instruments and then just try and make it turn into more of a journey for the listener and really just turn these four chords into a lot more than just the same four chords. But it started off just with four chords and a few different riffs. And we're gonna work out how I did this. The rest of it was really arrangement and mixing. Like I said, we're not really going to be looking at mixing, but I will go into a bit of detail about how I actually arrange this. So let's have a listen. So there is really a lot going on in terms of arrangement for this track, but it's just based around these four chords. A lot of tracks are just based around four chords. And that's where all the ideas started was a huge arrangement and they stripped it back down to just over 3.5 minutes. And then what I basically did is I wrote these four chords and I wrote loads of different melodies that should go with these four chords. And I worked out which melodies I could play at the same time, which ones I could lock together the base lines, the pads, different octaves I can put together, try not to clash. Sounds too much. And then it was all about mixing and plugins, but it all started off just with these four chords. So let's actually work out the four chords. I do think the best thing is to find the base notes. And then once you've got the base notes, it's quite easy to work out what the chords are. So let's have a look at this. So we've got GFC and C as well. So let's just write this in the document GFCC. So the base notes got GFC say. So the first one is probably going to be some kind of G code looking here. We've got this D sharp or E flat. So we know it's not gonna be G major because G major does not have D sharp or E flat. So maybe it's a G minor, we might think of the key, who knows? Maybe AC minor doesn't necessarily have to start on the first note. So the key doesn't have to be the first note. So that's basically the baseline with a few little passing notes. So let's have a look at the chords. Now, we know the base notes is GFCC and I use an AR P for this. So it just plays through the notes. So let's have a look. So we have G A sharp will be flat then day. So instantly you should know that this is a G minor cord because of the gaps here, there's no inversion going on. It's just in root position. So it's 1234. And when you have an interval of four notes like this or four semitones between root and third and then 3rd and 5th of 512345. So four and five, that's a minor chord. So we know instantly this first chord is a G minor. Let's try and work at the second chord. So the base note is f, this one, we can tell straight away isn't as common, we can do it by listening to this as well. You should know that the first chord is quite a regular cord. The second that kind of drops down with the, the arpeggio. So it's a bit of a different sounding chord. It adds a bit of tension. So we have an F be flat and the day. So let's just write this down FB flat D so F B flat and ad this is kind of a ab flat cord. So if we swap these notes around a bit and put the B flat in the base, we can actually create different kind of chord. So let's just. So if the B flat isn't the base, it's B flat DF, this is the B flat major code because the gap between A B flat 12345 and ad is five and the gap between ad 1234 is four. So this would be a B flat major. However, we have this base in the cord. So we have this F base note, which isn't really uh a B flat major chord. So could write it as B flat slash F. So this would be a B flat chord, but a F in the base or we could write it as kind of a, an F sus four slash six. So this means we're playing the fourth note, which would be the B flat instead of an A and we're playing the six instead of a five, which is ad so we could have it as S plus four S six or B flat slash F. It doesn't really matter too much. It's more, you know what the notes are and what's going on. I quite like the uh the B flat slash B flat slash FF plus four slash six is a little bit confusing. So really, we just keep the same notes and we just drop the base one that's pretty much what's going on. So these notes are the same, we're dropping the base from A G to an F just adds a bit more color and movement to the chords. Like if you don't write the chords exactly like B flat slash F or B plus 4 6, it doesn't matter. It's more about knowing what the notes are doing and knowing how this sounds, we just know, it drops down the base adds a bit more tension. That's all I'm trying to create. I wasn't really thinking, I'm gonna have a, an FO four slash six. I was just thinking, I wanna add a bit of tension and just change this very, so slightly and change the base note at the same time. Then we've got this one which is a G be flat. Oh A slightly different code here. So this is a G minor but instead of playing the uh the D got this D sharp instead. So it's a bit different this good. And the G minor is the relative minor of B flat major. And in B flat, we have two flats, a flats and the B flat. So this is in Quay. Just A I like this cord sounds a bit more interesting than just it was a different tone, different feel. So this is really just G minor six cos we're playing the sixth note instead of the fifth one. So the next one is G minus six and then I got another one here which is kind of the same you think? Oh, so we've got this G minor again, but you look at the base now and it's ac, so we've got the G minor which is looking at this GB flat D 123412345. So you'd think it's a G minor but there's ac in the base. So I wanted to kind of hint the first chord but change the base note as well. So we, we're hinting back to the first chord but changing the base note just to mix it up a little bit. That's kind of what I was feeling at the time. So we've got this, uh, see in the base, then we've got the G, then we've got the B flat and we've got the D, so this could be a, say, say su two seven perhaps C plus 2 7 because we're playing the D ST, the E flat, which is the third of a minor chord. So C minus plus two seventh chord could write like that. Um So now, you know, the suss twos, we're playing ad instead of an E flat and 1/7 because we've got a B flat or we could just call it G minus slash C, which I'm probably gonna call that. So I just know, oh, it's a G minor cord but there's ac in the base. So now I know there's a G minor. It's a B flat cord. F in the base. And then I know um G minor, but we're playing the E flat instead the D and then G minor with the C, I'd also listen to this at the same time and look at the piano role. If I was trying to jam this out in a live situation, say I had a band together. I want to play this live I'll probably give the musicians just a lead sheet, a chord chart, maybe a few of the notes of the melody and some chords and about listen to the track, work it out, then they'll have to work out the parts from these chords. It's kind of quite a common thing for lead sheets or remixes. If you're doing a remix or someone's sending you a remix a lot of time, you'll get some chords, you've gotta work the rest of it out. But I would say this is pretty standard for me. Just work out the chords most of the time, I wouldn't even work out the chords. I just write it and I just kind of do it by ear, but it's good to know, work out how I did this and the different elements and ingredients I use. It's like cooking or baking. Really. If you're baking a cake, it's great to taste the cake. But knowing what exact ingredients you put in, form the cake in a certain way. So we've got this, that's kind of what the chords are based on the track. Next, we're gonna have a look at melody and the different melodies used and how I use these to kind of create counter melodies and interlock the melodies together. So, in this lecture, we've gone over this track and we've also had a look at the different cores used. And so there's a lot of slash cores, a lot of movement in the base while the cores are staying the same, the base is moving, which I like to do a lot of the time, it adds a bit more color to your cords and it makes it feel like it's staying in the same place, but it's moving at the same time. So you can add a lot of tension doing this.
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