How to Write a Beautiful Chord Progression
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- čas přidán 7. 08. 2024
- Music Theory from Sleep Token "Take Me Back to Eden".
►FREE BOOK. Learn Theory in 30 Minutes: HackMusicTheory.com/Books
0:00 Step 1. Beauty
0:46 Step 2. Chord Beat
1:55 Step 3. Bass
2:33 Final Example
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”.
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.
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ABOUT
The fast, easy & fun way to make music. Taught by Ray Harmony, a multi award-winning college lecturer who's made music with multiplatinum Grammy-winning artists, and his protégé wife, Kate.
CREDITS
© 2023 Revolution Harmony
Revolution Harmony is Kate & Ray Harmony
Script & all music in video by Revolution Harmony
Book promo filmed & edited by Maurits Nienhuis
Footage of Ray Harmony by Billie Woods
Vinyl footage by Matthias Groeneveld
Cathedral footage by Kelly M Lacy
►FREE BOOK. Learn Theory in 30 Minutes: HackMusicTheory.com/Books
This is actually gonna be really useful, would love to try use this. Also, I would gonna love if you make a theory from J-pop artists, like Kenshi Yonezu, Yoasobi/ayase. J-pop songs are really unique especially Kenshi Yonezu's songs, all of his songs are unique from one another
Thanks for stopping by, my friend, we appreciate you being here. Thanks also for your artist suggestion. I'm just having a listen to Kenshi Yonezu right now. Very creative, indeed! I'll add him to the list. Thanks again, and I hope to see you back here on the next video. Ray :)
I like how you focus on a specific technique at a time. It also helps me find videos on exactly what I may be currently working. I still have trouble using music theory terminology to describe how I'm approaching a piece of music. I lean on my gut feeling a lot. Your videos often validate that feeling and puts a name to it. With this video, I'm running back to my current piece and spreading chords out a bit more. I love that feeling of space. Thanks, again.
Amazing like always! This is great to start working some melodies on top. You guys rule!!! Thanks!!!
Hi Kate & Ray! Awesome lesson, really interesting effect!
1:37
Her are som suggestions
Chevelle (what makes it sound so heavy and sad)
A7X (how to make good sweep picking patterns and exciting drums)
RED (how to add simple violin lines to hard rock)
Breaking Benjamin ( how to color cord while using distorsion, and exciting drums)
Guns and roses (how to write a melodic solo)
Maybe one of them can get you excited to make a video lesson, thanks for your vids, they always get me excited with making music.
Simple, powerful and immediately inspiration driven! ❤Thanks a lot for sharing your wise tips!
Love it
I like it, Thank you.
Thank you for this video. Your advice on leaving enough space for it to breath & using the example of a Cathedral was an excellent way to get your point across to me. If possible could hack the group "Rush" that would be awesome! I do know Alex Lifeson uses the Phrygian Dominant scale for a few of his solos. He uses part of it for the solo on the song "Jacob's Ladder" from the "Permanent Waves" release & He uses it for the solo on "The Anarchist" from the "Clockwork Angels" release. They have such a vast catalog of material to work with which would allow for many different HACKS. I also know he uses Lydian mode on some songs as well but after that I have no clue on what mode(s) they are using. I do love the way they use scales on certain songs such as "La Villa Strangiato", "Natural Science", "Clockwork Angels", Etc... I believe they use Locrian for the intro of "YYZ" as well. Thanks so much for your videos. I am a guitar player and find your videos extremely helpful.
Suggested artist: Oliver N'Goma. Thanks for the amazing work 🙌
I love SLEEP TOKEN! Nice example
Awesome, Color Me Leighzy! Thanks so much for stopping by, and we hope to see you around soon for more hacks :) Take care and have an awesome day!
OK! This is cool ... even if I did have to go and make myself some tea before watching 😉
Yeah we are gonna need more sleep token content please
Conor my friend, thanks for stopping by and connecting, we appreciate you being here! Glad to hear you enjoyed our Sleep Token video, and we'll definitely consider doing more, as there's so much to cover in that new album. Thanks again, and we hope to see you back here on the next video. Ray :)
What is this? A notification I haven't seen in ages?!? And sleep token in the thumbnail? 😮
Pradich my friend, it's so good to hear from you! Wow, it's been years. A heartfelt thank-you for stopping by again, we truly appreciate you being here in the community since the beginning. How've you been? What you up to these days? Ray :)
@@HackMusicTheory It has been too long! I was wondering what you guys were up to lately! I've been busy with work! Slowly getting back into music learning guitar now. Bought myself a 7 string because I always wanted one and have been having a blast with it.
Hi Pradich, Kate here :) Happy to hear you're having fun playing your 7 string, especially if you're working hard too! Sending you lots of good vibes and hope to see you again soon :)
That was just pure awsome.
Thanks for coming back to our channel and watching another video, Arjun, we're grateful to you. Happy to hear you enjoyed our new video too, and we hope to see you again next week. Until then, take care. Ray :)
@@HackMusicTheory A hack of the song Tiered of Winning by the band Nothing More 🙏 😅
Love it, thank you!
Well hello there my friend, it's always a pleasure to see you here in the comments! I hope this finds you well, and thanks for stopping by and connecting, we appreciate you big time! Ray :)
@@HackMusicTheory Thanks, I'm doing great. Hope both you and Kate are well. Thanks as always for this great community and content you've made!
Aw thanks dude, you're exceptionally kind. We're so grateful to have you here :)
Amazing..Love it
Aw thanks Franz, always puts a smile on my face seeing you here in the comments! Hope you're well, my friend, and I'm super stoked to hear your next tune over in the network! Ray :)
@@HackMusicTheory I have a whole tune from your Locrian mode video
Worship!
Hello!
This "Chord Beat" method kinda reminded me of Dave Grohl and how he sees a guitar as a drum set!
Muhammadreza my friend, thanks for stopping by and connecting, you are very much appreciated here! Thanks for sharing about Dave Grohl, I hadn't heard him saying that before. Very cool indeed! Hope you're well, and I hope to see you back here on the next video. Ray :)
@@HackMusicTheory we could hack THE PRETENDER by the Foo Fighters 🤔
Hack some NIN 🔥
Love NIN! Here's a Trent Reznor video we did a few years back: czcams.com/video/BZFpcGTgqZE/video.html :)
Please hack Sevdaliza! 🌻✨️
Your metal band hacks are awesome! It would be cool if you did a heavier band like Fit for an Autopsy
It’d be really cool if you could cover Volbeat 😊
👍 - _also_ for the YT algo! 😊
P.S.: But where is the tea? 😘
Jost my friend, thanks for always stopping by and connecting, we very much appreciate you being here. Hope you're well, and I hope to see you back here on the next video. Until then, tea! Ray :)
❤😊
Love this analogy, I noticed you're videos seem to be a lot more artistic lately(still as educational though!). Is this intentional, I've noticed certain things that almost feel like you're using cinemetography as a metaphor for the music theory you teach 😮 hope you're well!
Thanks for your kind observations, Spencer :) I couldn't tell you if Ray's done that intentionally... but I do know that we're trying to pack in the best hacks in as short a time span as possible, which means every word counts! Thanks as always for showing up, we really appreciate you being here :) Kate
But first, TEA 🍵
Tea first. Always! Happy to see you've got your priorities in order. Thanks for stopping by and connecting, Jay, you're very much appreciated here. Hope you're well, and I hope to see you back here on the next video. Ray :)
Major 7th
ok, I guess the p4 in the bass will be fixed in the next step ;-)
Haha well spotted, my friend! Yeah it pained me to leave that perfect 4th, but changing it would have taken the example too far away from the original :)
Where's the intro?
Sadly, these days people's attention spans are too short for intros. Every time we have an intro, our analytics show that we lose about half the viewers in that intro. Sad, but true. On a more positive note, though, thanks big time for always stopping by and connecting, Chris, you are truly valued and appreciated here. Hope you enjoyed the video, and hope to see you back here next time. Ray :)
@@HackMusicTheory honestly, this change is appreciated!
@@HackMusicTheory 😭we need our tea!! What if you have it at the end? Like an outro where you can have your suggested videos, with tea drinking in the background? I dunno xD
Can i pay you everything i have for this info? How is this channel free
Haha thanks for your kind comment, my friend. We're so happy to hear you're finding our videos helpful. Thanks for stopping by and connecting, and a warm welcome to the Hack Music Theory community! We appreciate you being here. By the way, if you wanna support our work and go deeper into music theory, you can check out the PDFs and courses on our website: hackmusictheory.com
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