Hey, excellent post, and I love what you're doing, helping people out with theory, and such. There were a few mistakes I found, which you might want to change though.
The Rockerfly said:
A C note is a C because when you say the note at the correct pitch it sounds like a C due to the mouth position you have to make.
Actually, "C" is just a convenient name given to a completely arbitrary set of frequencies, and has actually changed gradually over the past few centuries.
The Rockerfly said:
A whole tone is the difference between one named note and another.
Half tone is the difference between one note and the next. C to C# is a half tone, as is E to F, as is A to Bb, etc. A Whole tone is two half tones, or C to D, E to F#, or A to B.
You might add this section to make everything else make a little more sense:
List of note names, ascending in half tones:
C (or Bb)
C# or Db
D
D# or Eb
E (or Fb)
F (or E#)
F# or Gb
G
G# or Ab
A
A# or Bb
B (or Cb)
C (or Bb) again. This cycle repeats indefinitely.
The Rockerfly said:
Now for saving time in this post I will just say research which ever key you pick on wikipedia and see what minor and major chords you have to use.
For Major keys the pattern is Major, Minor, Minor, Major, Major, Minor, Diminished
Another useful chart thingy you might add:
Every major key has the same chord pattern. The chord named for the first degree will always be major, that named for the sixth will always be minor. Here are all of them, with a C major reference point.
1 (C) Major
2 (D) minor
3 (E) minor
4 (F) Major
5 (G) Major
6 (A) minor
7 (B) diminished
The same goes for minor keys, I'll use C minor as a reference point.
1 (C) minor
2 (D) diminished
3 (Eb) Major
4 (F) minor
5 (G) minor. This chord is also commonly Major, especially when the next chord is 1 (c minor)
6 (Eb) Major
7 (Bb) Major
The Rockerfly said:
If you want to make the piece sound a bit more depressing but remain in the major key then consider using minor chords while if you want to have a more perky piece consider using major chords.
Really, if you do this, you have more or less modulated to the relative minor, just to be picky. Example, in C Major, you focus on the E, A, and D minor chords. These are the one, four, and five chords in A natural minor, so the song ends up sounding very modally minor.
The Rockerfly said:
7th's, usually I do it when I am ending a section but you are free to use it at your own risk. A 7th is getting the chord, finding the 7th and adding it to the chord. For example I will sue a C major chord which has C, E and G in it, now if I were to add a 7th this would be adding a B to the chord. This method can be used on both major and minor chords
Maybe another chart? And a section explaining how to find intervals, so that non-theory geeks have some idea of HOW to just "add a seventh."
With my students who want to be able to use basic theory, but don't really want to LEARN it in depth, I use this chart, with the number of half steps in each interval, as well as the most common name for it:
0(same note)-unison
1-minor second
2-Major second
3-minor third
4-Major third
5-Perfect fourth
6-Augmented fourth/diminished fifth/"tritone"
7-Perfect fifth
8-minor sixth
9-Major sixth
10-minor seventh
11-Major seventh
12-Octave
Major key seventh chord chart
1 (C) Major 7
2 (D) minor 7
3 (E) minor 7
4 (F) Major 7
5 (G) Dominant 7 (aka Major minor 7)
6 (A) minor 7
7 (B) half diminished 7, aka minor 7 flat 5
Minor Key Chart
1 (C) minor 7
2 (D) half diminished 7 aka minor 7 flat 5
3 (Eb) Major 7
4 (F) minor 7
5 (G) minor 7. This chord is also commonly Dominant 7 (aka Major minor 7), especially when the next chord is 1 (c minor)
6 (Eb) Major 7
7 (Bb) Dominant 7 (aka Major minor 7)
The Rockerfly said:
Maybe mention that Sus 2s won't be completely tonal when used on the three chord, and Sus 4s will likewise sound "out" on the four chord? Also, you should probably clarify that the third is replaced with a Major 2nd or Perfect 4th (rather than minor second, aug fourth, for example)
The Rockerfly said:
A 6th is a chord that instead of having a 5th has a 6th instead. For example I will use a C major chord; a usual C major chord is C, E and G note in the chord while a 6th has C, E and A note in the chord.
A 6th chord actually has both the fifth AND the major sixth. You'll notice that your "C6" chord (C E A) is actually just an A minor Chord (A C E) in first inversion (C E A). Also, just a note that minor sixth chords have the minor triad, plus a Major sixth as well.
The Rockerfly said:
Perfect cadence, imperfect cadence, interruptive cadence and a plagal cadence
Perfect (Authentic) cadence, Imperfect (Authentic) Cadence, half Cadence InterruptED cadence(more commonly known as "Deceptive Cadence," plagal cadence.
The Rockerfly said:
A perfect cadence is a 5 - 1 progression and is usual meant for a very pure sound and sometimes signifies the end of a phrase
Very good, but a Perfect Cadence also requires that both the Dominant (5 chord) and Tonic (1 chord) be in root position (example, G7 with G in the bass, to C major with C in the bass), and that the root of the tonic chord be the highest sounding note.
The Rockerfly said:
An imperfect cadence is either; 1-5 2-5, 3-5 4-5 and an imperfect is good for keeping the flow of a piece usually as a deceptive method. It's considered a weak cadence
An imperfect cadence is 5-1, and ONLY 5-1, but it has one or both of the two chords in an inversion, and/or a note other than the root in the highest voice on the tonic chord. What you are describing here are Half Cadences, which are essentially any cadence which ends on the 5 chord, most commonly 2-5, 1-5, or 4-5, but anything-5 is still a half Cadence.
The Rockerfly said:
An interruptive cadence is 6-5. It usually gives a hanging feeling and is considered a weak cadence as a result
Interrupted Cadences (usually called "Deceptive") are actually 5-6, resolving to the relative minor chord, instead of the tonic(1 chord)
The Rockerfly said:
play notes within the chords.
You should probably include some guide as to how to figure out what notes are actually IN each chord. Another chart like this one, perhaps?
Each chord is built of the note it is named for (the root) and two or more other notes, at specific intervals above the root note. For example, to build a C major 7 chord, we see we need the root (C) a Major third (up 4 half steps, E) Perfect Fifth (up 7 half steps, G) and Major seventh (up 11 half steps, B)
Major Chord => Root, Major third, Perfect Fifth
minor Chord => Root, minor third, Perfect Fifth
diminished Chord => Root, minor third, diminished fifth
Major Seventh Chord => Root, Major third, Perfect fifth, Major Seventh,
Major minor seventh chord (aka Dominant 7) => Root, Major third, Perfect fifth, minor seventh
minor seventh Chord => root, minor third, Perfect fifth, minor seventh
Half diminished aka minor 7 flat 5 chord => Root, minor third, diminished fifth, minor seventh
The Rockerfly said:
You can use the keys D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm and C# diminished in that key, however you can make variations such as sus2's, sus4's and 7th's
I think you meant, "You can use the 'CHORDS'D, Em...not 'keys'?"
The Rockerfly said:
These keys can either be E major, A major, G major or B minor.
E major would actually be fairly non-standard, the other three are the usual targets for modulation. Also note, in minor keys, it is most common to modulate to the relative major, and that modern music frequently modulates to the PARALLEL major or minor, eg. C major to C minor, or visa-versa. However, for more than the past century, composers (and later songwriters) have been modulating wherever they damned well please. The up-a-half-step direct modulation is especially popular in popular music genres, for creating a sense of drama.
The Rockerfly said:
Now whichever key you want to go in you can use 2 conventional harmonizing methods. These are either by a 5-1 cadence or by using a swing chord.
Direct, or un-prepared modulations are also very common nowadays, where the transition to the new key is not smoothed out by a cadence and/or pivot chord. ("pivot" chord(s) is a MUCH more common term than "swing".) Also, you might point out that using several pivot (shared, swing, common) chords will make the transition even smoother, is that is the intent.
The Rockerfly said:
Now the relative minor is a bit more complicated. Now you're in D major and to get into the relative minor you have to go 3 tones down.
Just to avoid confusion, 3 HALF tones down.
The Rockerfly said:
A whole tone is indicated by a flat or sharp.
This doesn't really make any sort of musical sense...
The Rockerfly said:
For example F to F# is going up by a whole tone and B to B flat is going down by a tone. Now from D major you have to go down 3 whole tones so that's B minor this will make the piece sound depressing that's the choice you have
F to F# is only a half tone. F to G would be a whole tone. B to Bb is likewise a half tone. B down to A would be a whole tone. D to B is three half tones, not three whole tones.
The Rockerfly said:
Finally remember to keep a structure, to write a pop song try an A B A C A structure which is very common but it does a good job.
This is actually a five part Rondo form, very popular in classical/art music especially in earlier periods, but practically unheard of in pop/rock/country/jazz/fusion/reggae/folk/indie/metal/anything someone might be writing with this basis in theory.
The Rockerfly said:
Very strange forms, you have here. Not to say they won't work, just that they are extremely innovative and unconventionally as far as modern popular music goes.
The Rockerfly said:
Ternary Form, a traditional simple part form dating back to baroque dances (and even earlier). More common in Jazz head tunes (AABA, same thing) than in pop/rock/folk/country, etc.
I think the forms you are looking for, as far as the vast majority of popular music of today goes, are as follows: ABABAB, or ABABCB. the second has the nice "surprise" of a chorus, to provide a relief from the Verse-Chorus pattern. Those basically sum up a good 90+% of the popular music being produced today.
Now we move onto texture. Texture is the way the chords, melody, rhythm and instruments come together and overall affects the quality of the piece.
Most types of textures can be summed up into a few different types. These are
The Rockerfly said:
Monophonic
Homophonic
Contrapuntal/Polyphonic
Octave
Unison
Music which is all unison or in octaves generally speaking count as monophonic, as the lines are too similar to disrupt the sense of the single line, moving along.
The Rockerfly said:
Homophonic is when there are chords and notes played regardless of rhythm. Most genres will end up landing in the homophonic section as they all the instruments will play a chord most of the time
Homophonic is when there is one prevailing melody or theme or motif, with everything else in the music playing a subordinate, or accompanying role. For example, a folk singer with a guitar accompanying, or indeed, the majority of music written after the baroque period. basically, if there are different parts, but one part is definitely the focal point, it is Homophonic.
The Rockerfly said:
Contrapuntal/Polyphonic texture is when all the instruments are playing different notes and these notes are interweaving. This is a more common feature in classical music and is very rare in most of the genres I will discuss
This can occur in Homophony as well. Polyphony is more that the different parts are all equally, or nearly equally important. One line does not take prevalence and dominate the texture.
The Rockerfly said:
Classical music is usually based off of a certain type of instrumentation. These are commonly an opera, a symphony, a string quartet, piano concerto and there are a lot of other types.
Very true, about the instrumentation, especially in previous centuries. The same goes for the forms used to compose in. You are mixing the two here, though. String Quartets are a set instrumentation (2 violins, viola, cello). An opera is more of a loose, storyline-based form for dramatic music, in conjunction with acting, staging, etc. A symphony is a set form of four movements, usually fast, slow, dance, and fast and loud., although you may be thinking of a "symphony orchestra" which IS a (more or less) set instrumentation. A Piano concerto is more of a genre or style, meaning that there is a group of musicians (usually and orchestra) which are showcasing the piano.
The Rockerfly said:
However I am going to assume you are not writing for a classical piece as most people don't have a ready available orchestra
Ha-ha, how very true!!!
The Rockerfly said:
Try and get some inspiration from other classical musicians such as Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Handel and Puccini
And the famed more modern composers: Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ives, Glass, Reich, etc.
The Rockerfly said:
Jazz can be fairly difficult to write for
Basically, Combo jazz is a set of more complex chord changes, nearly always with seventh chords and extensions, with a melody over them. Players either play the chords or the melody, and then take turns soloing over the chord changes, and then play the melody again. The form of the chords and melody is usually AABA, and is then repeated. Large Ensemble (big band) jazz is more complicated to write, on a level comparable, but very different, to Classical.
The Rockerfly said:
The solo instruments usually are trombone, guitar, saxophone or drums
And Trumpet! And Bass, and vibes, and whatever the hell else players happen to want to play.
The Rockerfly said:
I strongly advise new writers to not write for jazz drumming at all as it's the hardest type as most Jazz drumming is not written out
And most jazz drummers will completely ignore what you've written. There is also no standardized drum notation, making it doubly difficult!
The Rockerfly said:
Blues is very easy to write for just use the 12 bar blues...
Basically, it's three phrases. One is four bars long, and played over a dominant 7 chord (we'll arbitrarily say C7). The next is two bars over a dominant 7 chord a perfect fourth above the first (F7), and two bars of the first chord(C7). The last is a bar of a dominant 7 chord a fifth above the first (G7) chord, a bar of the second chord (F7), and two bars of the first chord again (C7). The scale used over all three chords is (more or less) the note the first chord is named for (C), a note a minor third above it (Eb), a note a perfect fourth above (F), a Perfect fifth above (G), and a minor seventh above (Bb).
The Rockerfly said:
I absolutely LOVED your whole pop description!
The Rockerfly said:
A power chord is the simplest of chords containing a note, a 5th above and then a 5th above that note.
First off, not REALLY a chord, more of a "re-enforced fundamental pitch," but who cares, it's just naming. What does matter is that A power chord is actually just the root and a note a fifth above. You can stack that third note on there, but it is a FOURTH above the second, not a fifth. You can actually come up with more variations on this arrangement for a richer, more powerful sound. For example, you can have E and B. Or E and B and E, as you said. Or B then E then B then E for a "heavier sound."
Note: much of rock uses the traditional harmonic diatonic system you outlined earlier.
The Rockerfly said:
might want a brief segment on rhythmic values, just to clarify that a quaver is an eight note, and what an eight note is too!
The Rockerfly said:
Should probably add palm muting in, since that's sort of a defining characteristic of the guitar sound.
The Rockerfly said:
For soloing I would recommend using the harmonic minor or diminished scales.
Melodic minor is also very common. Especially in Milstein type show-off chuff.
The Rockerfly said:
Advance features of metal writing is the use of drop tunings such as drop D which gives the chords a bigger bass sound and makes the chord sound meatier.
Don't forget 7 or more string guitars, for the truly heavy stuff!
The Rockerfly said:
G goes up in a whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, half tone then whole tone.
G to A = Whole tone
A to B = Whole tone
B to C = Half tone
C to D = Whole tone
D to E = Whole tone
E to F# = Whole tone
F# to G = Half tone
The Rockerfly said:
a regular note goes up by a whole tone whole tone while a sharpened or flattened note is going up by a half tone.
No no no! Take a look at the chart I posted up near the top: List of note names, ascending by half steps.
From each note to the next is a half step, from each note to the second note down the list from it is a whole step. It doesn't matter whether they are flat, sharp, natural, double sharp, quarter flat, etc.
The Rockerfly said:
So the G Major Dorian mode would go like this: A, B, C, D, E, F, G#, A
What you've actually spelled here is A harmonic minor, cool scale, but not A dorian. A dorian (from G major) would be A, B, C, D, E, F#, G, A. To get a mode, you use the same note names and just re-order them. Here is an example of the modes in Eb major:
Eb Ionian- Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb
F Dorian- F G Ab Bb C D Eb F
G Phrygian - G Ab Bb C D Eb F G
Ab Lydian - Ab Bb C D Eb F G Ab
Bb Mixolydian - Bb C D Eb F G Ab Bb
C Aeolian - C D Eb F G Ab Bb C
D Locrian - D Eb F G Ab Bb C D
All in all a great effort, and a good, simple guide to get people started writing music with some knowledge of theory. Congratulations!
