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Wrong Notes for Better Chord Progressions
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- čas přidán 28. 09. 2022
- How to write a chord progression with non-diatonic (chromatic) notes.
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THEORY
Can you hear the weakness in this chord progression? It’s a common weakness that you hear in most songs. Did you spot it? If not, here’s the answer: all the chords are in the key! Wait, what?! Isn’t that a good thing? Well, not always...
You see, there are only seven chords in a key. That doesn’t give you much choice if you’re trying to make creative music. And to make things worse, one of those seven is the diminished chord, which is super dissonant, so most producers don’t use it.
You’ve probably done the maths already, and yes, you’re correct. Most of the music you hear these days is made using only six chords. Six chords! How many songs can you write with the same six chords before they start sounding the same?
And I’m afraid it gets even worse than that. Of those six chords, four of them work effortlessly together. In other words, a producer doesn’t need to know any theory to get these four chords sounding good. Sadly though, most modern songs don’t even have progressions with four chords, a lot of them use only three chords, or sometimes even just two!
And yes, of course, simple music can be good. But honestly, that was much easier to achieve decades ago when there weren’t tens of thousands of songs being released every day! These days, if you want to write a simple song with only three or four chords, all of which are in the key, then you’re almost certainly going to end up with something that sounds like someone else’s song.
HACK
So, presuming you want to make music that isn’t gonna get you sued for copyright infringement, how on earth do you do that? Easy, you use wrong notes!
Well, technically it’s not a wrong note if you actually intended to play it. So that’s what we’re going to do: intentionally play a note that is not in the key. And by the way, notes that are not in the key are called non-diatonic (or chromatic) notes.
Once you dip your toe into the thrilling world of notes that are outside of the scale, you open a door of endless possibilities, and you can say goodbye to boring music!
EXAMPLE
Alright, so now that you know the hack for making better chord progressions, you’re gonna learn how to actually apply it. So, open your DAW and set the tempo to 95 BPM. Then create a track for your chords and make a two-bar loop. Set the grid to 1/16 notes (or just for fun, you can set it to a 1/16 swing, like we’ve used).
The first thing you want to do is write a chord progression using three or four chords that are all in your scale. We used A minor in our example, so that’s all the white notes from A to A. And our chord progression is: Am → Cmaj → Gmaj → Em → Cmaj → Asus4. That sounds like a lot of chords, but it’s only really four, as we just repeated the C and A chords. That’s actually another cool hack you can use to make your chord progressions more interesting in this first step.
After you’ve written your chord progression, use inversions to make it flow better, and use an interesting harmonic rhythm to make it more creative. And if you need help with inversions and harmonic rhythm, then simply use the chord progression hacks in our Songwriting & Producing Course (link above). When you enrol, you’ll get all our essential hacks for melodies, chords, bass and drums in 12 step-by-step videos.
So, now you’ve got a chord progression that sounds good, even though it still sounds predictable because all the chords are in the key. This is the stage when most producers would click “Save” and reach for their phone to catch up on Instagram, but not you! You’re a true artist. You want to challenge yourself and push your creativity to the next level. That’s why you’re here.
So, here’s the hack that’ll make your chord progressions stand out from the crowd: change one chord in your progression from major to minor, or vice versa.
Don’t change your root chord, though, as then you’re actually changing the key. And if you need help with knowing the difference between major and minor chords, and how to change one into the other, then that’s all in our free book (link above).
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ABOUT
Hack Music Theory is the fast, easy and fun way to make music. Taught by multi-award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony, and his protégé wife Kate. Ray started teaching music theory in 1995, and has made music with Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend, Ihsahn, and more!
CREDITS
© 2022 Revolution Harmony
Revolution Harmony is Ray Harmony & Kate Harmony
Script & all music in video by Revolution Harmony
Book promo filmed & edited by Maurits Nienhuis
All stock footage courtesy of Pexels
As an apprentice I can't thank you enough for your courses, the 2nd One specifically, the amount of information there is soo Huge no course can beat it.. Here hoping for #3 🤞
If I can suggest specifics, (Jazz hacks, Orchestration hacks, Cinematic music hacks, Chromatic mediant hacks "Other than V/.." ).
Maybe I'm just rumbling.. Love you both & I wish you the best 👍
llEdokll my friend, a heartfelt thank-you for your kind words about our courses! We're beyond happy and grateful to have you in our apprentice family. And yes, Apprenticeship #2 is a beast, for sure. 35 hours! It's only for the most committed music makers like yourself. What would you say was your favourite part of that course? I'd love to know. Thanks my friend, you're awesome!! Ray :)
@@HackMusicTheory It's really hard, from the note-rows, the octatonic to 3 part counter points.. Lots of gems there
But the one that really hit me hard was the hack you did in the Chorus to add variety to the 3 part counter points without changing the notes.. This one for me was so sick (I don't want to spoil it of course 😂) This was the 2nd best thing I learned.
As for the best hack ever, It was the tea hack to prevent the bitterness 😂😂👍
(let's keep it secret shall we 🤭)
Haha yeah that green tea hack to prevent bitterness is gold, right? ;) Once again, a truly heartfelt thank-you for taking the time to share your experience of our courses, it means the world to us! That's great to hear that you also like note-rows. They're my favourite! And wow, that chorus counterpoint hack is the 2nd best thing you learned? Amazing!! That makes me so happy to hear :) Thanks again for sharing, my friend, you're awesome!! Have a lovely weekend, and I look forward to chatting with you again soon. Ray :)
Great information, thanks! Put another way: “If you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that you play that determines if it’s good or bad.” Miles Davis
Happy to hear you found this useful, GnR B, and a very warm welcome to the Hack Music Theory community! What kind of music do you make?
Thanks, Kate and Ray. I love all kinds of music, but using a very broad definition, I’ll say I am mostly drawn to playing Americana on acoustic guitar and mandolin. “Classical” on piano, again broad to include Phillip Glass, Arvo Part, etc. Wrote my first song last month (sort of Blaze Foley meets John Prine and Steve Earle), two more this month with my wife (mostly electric guitar) that are far more adventurous. Trying to break out of our boxes. I have some basic songs (chords) I like, and an expanding set of potential lyrics, but I’m struggling to find interesting melodies. I’m fairly strong with theory, but so far that seems a constraint :) My wife knows no theory, and comes up with imaginative and interesting songs! I’ll check out more of your videos, really like what I’ve seen so far, thanks so much!
I love this channel so gosh dang much. I've been having a pretty good writing streak, but then I ran out of ideas. So what do you know, I come back to this channel and you guys inspire me once again! You always think of ways to spice things up that I never would've thought of, and it's super helpful! Thanks for all you do. :)
cool thanks !
Yes chords substitution and borrowed chords are fun :D
Hi Kate & Ray! I always try to use wrong notes in my music, it is very hard (for me at least) to achieve something good but sometimes I get very nice results.
I tend to have this problem while making music: I follow the rules, I make chords in key, but they don’t go well with the melody. They don’t give off the same vibe. I hope this helps me get it right
I just want to say as a learning musician these videos are really helpful and easy to follow! Some of you guys' videos have really helped me improve my own stuff and I gotta thank you guys for that. Keep it up!
Thank you for sharing Diego, we appreciate hearing how these lessons are helping fellow musicians improve! As always, we're cheering you on in your music making, and we wish you a lovely upcoming weekend :)
YOU GUYS JUST CHANGED MY LIFE. THANK YOU.
Aw thanks for your kind comment, Timm, we're so happy to hear that our video helped you! Please be sure to also download our free book, here: hackmusictheory.com Thanks again, my friend, and I really hope to see you back here on the next video. Ray :)
Thanks so much. Very informative!
interesting, i just came up with some melody and saved it in FL Studio, and then boom, a Hack Music Theory video! i wonder how it will turn out with some polishing. maybe i will add chords too eventually, but for now im focusing on what i came up with so far.
how was your day guys? :)
Awesome to hear we found you in the studio, UnLucky Panda! We're having a fantastic day so far, thank you for asking that's very kind :) We're pumped that you're working on a melody, and as always, we're cheering you on! Have a fantastic weekend ahead :)
This was super insightful! I like the example of turning the major to minor. And that got me thinking even deeper on what could be done with some of my current work. Thanks again for the great content. The two of you always get me thinking deeper about what I do. For that, I am grateful. 😊🙏🙏🙏
Awesome like always my friends! Success and blessings for you always!
Thanks guys good stuff as always
exact, i always use wrong note in my music... so this give a big difference than other , i do not stick on the same boring patern
Hi Menaceri, great to see you! How's your music making going these days?
Hope this finds you well, and we wish you a fantastic weekend!
@@HackMusicTheory well , i got a new record , just one song from a company in sf california , not bad at all , i will send you the info later , for the moment i am kind of busy helping my wife to be in shape and playing with the cherry audio quadra synth , my first synth was an omni arp , it was stolen , anyway this quadra sound fantastic for the music i want to make for 2023
@@HackMusicTheory by the way , i would like if you want to make traducing one of your book in spanish so you can open a market from mexico to all latin reader over the world , from mexico to the rest of other country , i got contacts
Me, who barely remembers to stay in key because he can barely remember them: It's my time to shine!
Lol, nice, Chad! A very warm welcome to the Hack Music Theory community! What kind of music do you make?
Speaking of staying in the key! If you haven't already, may I suggest that you check out our free music theory book, '12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales and Chords'? It's a refresher of the basics and it's a super fast and fun read. If you're interested, you can download it here: HackMusicTheory.com/Books.
We hope to see you again soon for more theory hacks, Chad, and until then we wish you a lovely rest of your weekend! Kate :)
@@HackMusicTheory That book brought me here, once I saw your channel I was hooked. You really highlighted why my songs are so... lifeless.
I'm aiming for 90s video game music, the kind you would here from the SNES, Genesis, Mega Drive and anything else I can get my hands on. Your videos already helped with my first beat, so thank you!
Wow, that's awesome Chad, thanks so much for sharing! We're thrilled and honoured to be a part of your music making journey :) We're cheering you on!
I kept waiting for "but first, tea?"
I've always had this question, from a production stand point why are you always writing the notes with maximums velocity? I know you have knowledge in mixing, so I was wondering do you recommend writing songs like this or this is only during the writing process and you change it before or during mixing?
Thanks 🌹
Hello again, my friend. This is a great question! The short answer is this: When you're composing, you want to stay 100% focused on the notes. Changing each note's velocity is a performance issue, which comes later in the process. If you start tweaking velocities during the composing stage, that will pull you out of the creative flow. Also, changing velocities makes everything sound better, so I always make sure that my music sounds good with everything full velocity, cos then when I start tweaking velocities it'll sound even better! It's like those old-school sound engineers who mix on the awful sounding Yamaha NS-10s. If you can get a mix sounding good on NS-10s, it'll sound GREAT on everything else haha :)
amazing video as always.
You're very kind Jason, thanks for sending us a note :) How's your hand? Are you back to full on jam mode? Wishing you a lovely upcoming weekend!
@@HackMusicTheory hey thanks! Hand is improving. I’ve finished new EP other than mixing/mastering which after all of this year’s obstacles feels great. Have a great weekend and I look forward to your next video.
Those videos are small masterpieces!!
Aww you're too kind, MD Derrek, thank you :) How's your music making going these days? Thank you for being here in the HMT community and we wish you a lovely weekend ahead!
Hoorah, another vid!
Great to see you Bienos Carlos! Are you still enjoying your work as a music producer at the game development company? Hope this finds you well and we wish you a lovely weekend ahead :)
@@HackMusicTheory Hi HMT! Unfortunately, the indie Dev Team is delayed around 10 months. So, I have plans for the amount of time before the indie Dev Team is back in production.
I'm back to working on my tracks for my CZcams and SoundCloud, and making videos has been a pain because of how laggy it gets, but I tend to focus more on the music than the design, after all; I am a producer.
So yeah, I'm enjoying myself, but not the way it's intended to be. Still, I'm having fun here.
Please don't stop making helpful videos, it means alot to me and the people who need it!
Hey, we're sorry to hear about the delays with your team, Bienos Carlos. It's awesome that you're using the time to work on your own music though, yay!! And thanks for your encouragement, it always means a lot to us to know that the videos are helping our fellow producers :) Until next time, all our best to you!
Can I sing the melody same octaves as a Chord progression?
My melody’s range is from C3 to C4 and I'm wondering if still okay to make chord progression in that range(C3 to C4)
Is it going to crash with the vocal melody?
I searched all over the place on the internet but I couldn't find any answer.
It's not ideal to have your chords and melody in the same octave, but you definitely can do that if you want. Just make sure your melody stands out, by using a warmer/rounder sound for your chords and mixing them in softer. Hope that helps :)
@@HackMusicTheory thank you!!! It helps me a lot!!!!!! You guys are the best Music teacher in the world!!!
Aw you're very kind, my friend. A heartfelt thank-you. We really appreciate you being here in our community :)
why are you awesome people not my daily feed as a sub?
Aw thanks for your kind comment, Andrei-Ioan, it means the world to us that you enjoy our videos. We're so grateful to have you here in the community, you are valued and appreciated. Hope to see you back here in the comments soon! Ray :)
@Hack Music Theory I'll be back soon enough when there is enough Yorkshire tea in the chat 😎
Another outstanding tutorial! It’s loads of fun working on these quick tips. Thanks again, you two 🫖
What happened to tea time?
I wish these were longer. And more kitty footage please :)
Early morning let’s go 🎶🎶🎶🔥
Haha, yes Tif beats! Where in the world are you?! All the best with your music making :)
Can't copyright a chord progression, so you can't get sued for using the same one as another artist.
👍 - _also_ for the YT algo! 😊
🙇♂️
Great content which I will bear in mind, but...
1:10 this ergo setup is a one way ticket to carpal tunnel syndrome-ville