HOW TO WRITE BETTER SNARE RHYTHMS.     DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL AS PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2806684/snare-rhythms INCLUDES MIDI + WAV FILE EXAMPLES   If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser: https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2806684/snare-rhythms       INTRO.   While it’s normal to hear at least a few different kick patterns and hi-hat patterns in music nowadays, it’s rare to hear an interesting snare pattern. The rhythm assigned to this neglected element of the drumkit is almost always an afterthought. In 4|4 (which most music is in), the snare is usually one of these three rhythms:   __ __   So, when listening through to the new releases on Spotify, it was rather shocking (pleasantly so) to hear something completely unusual. The collaborative single “Snare Thing” by French producers Matt Sassari and Tony Romera is a refreshing celebration of the drum that almost always plays the most boring rhythm!   With these PDF tutorials, we usually have to make an educated guess as to what the creator’s intention and process was behind the song. But, based on the less-than-subtle title of their track, it’s safe to say that the duo were intentionally showcasing the snare drum’s creative potential. So, inspired by “Snare Thing”, here’s our 4-step method for writing creative snare patterns. But first… Tea!       STEP 1. MOTIF   Set up two bars of 4|4 with your grid on 1/16 notes, and your tempo at 126 BPM. The first thing we need to do is write a motif, which is a short idea that’s repeated to give the music structure and make it more memorable.   As we’re writing for the drums, our motif will obviously be a rhythmic motif (when using pitched instruments, you can also write melodic and harmonic motifs). The motif that Matt and Tony use is a couple of 1/16 notes followed by a 1/16 rest. They then repeat this motif to create their snare rhythm.       As you can see, their motif is three 1/16 notes long. Having a motif that’s an odd duration (like three, five, seven, etc.) will make it far more interesting, because each time the motif is repeated it’ll start on a different 1/16 note beat (e.g. 1A, 2+, 3E).   A motif lasting four (or eight) 1/16 notes will repeat on the same beat, so it’ll get repetitive and boring extremely quickly. Therefore, avoid using an even-number motif here. For the record, though, they can sound great when played on melodic instruments, because you can repeat the same rhythm while changing the pitches.   Right, when you’re happy with your motif, copy and paste it into the first three 1/4 note beats of bar one. You wanna leave beat 4 open for now, as that’s where you’re gonna write a variation. Next, copy and paste your rhythm into bar two.       Now it’s time to write your variation in beat 4 of bar two. This variation will prevent the snare rhythm from getting boring, by turning it into a two-bar rhythm:         STEP 2. SWING   With such an unusual snare rhythm, it would be completely acceptable to move on and write the kick drum pattern now. But, Matt and Tony have one more brilliant snare trick up their sleeves. Instead of using the regular straight grid that you hear in almost every song, they use a swing grid. This is a game-changer!       DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2806684/snare-rhythms          Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy!     https://hackmusictheory.com/books     RAY HARMONY      

54s

Mar 18

  HOW TO WRITE BETTER SNARE RHYTHMS.     DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL AS PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2806684/snare-rhythms INCLUDES MIDI + WAV FILE EXAMPLES   If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser: https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2806684/snare-rhythms       INTRO.   While it’s normal to hear at least a few different kick patterns and hi-hat patterns in music nowadays, it’s rare to hear an interesting snare pattern. The rhythm assigned to this neglected element of the drumkit is almost always an afterthought. In 4|4 (which most music is in), the snare is usually one of these three rhythms:   __ __   So, when listening through to the new releases on Spotify, it was rather shocking (pleasantly so) to hear something completely unusual. The collaborative single “Snare Thing” by French producers Matt Sassari and Tony Romera is a refreshing celebration of the drum that almost always plays the most boring rhythm!   With these PDF tutorials, we usually have to make an educated guess as to what the creator’s intention and process was behind the song. But, based on the less-than-subtle title of their track, it’s safe to say that the duo were intentionally showcasing the snare drum’s creative potential. So, inspired by “Snare Thing”, here’s our 4-step method for writing creative snare patterns. But first… Tea!       STEP 1. MOTIF   Set up two bars of 4|4 with your grid on 1/16 notes, and your tempo at 126 BPM. The first thing we need to do is write a motif, which is a short idea that’s repeated to give the music structure and make it more memorable.   As we’re writing for the drums, our motif will obviously be a rhythmic motif (when using pitched instruments, you can also write melodic and harmonic motifs). The motif that Matt and Tony use is a couple of 1/16 notes followed by a 1/16 rest. They then repeat this motif to create their snare rhythm.       As you can see, their motif is three 1/16 notes long. Having a motif that’s an odd duration (like three, five, seven, etc.) will make it far more interesting, because each time the motif is repeated it’ll start on a different 1/16 note beat (e.g. 1A, 2+, 3E).   A motif lasting four (or eight) 1/16 notes will repeat on the same beat, so it’ll get repetitive and boring extremely quickly. Therefore, avoid using an even-number motif here. For the record, though, they can sound great when played on melodic instruments, because you can repeat the same rhythm while changing the pitches.   Right, when you’re happy with your motif, copy and paste it into the first three 1/4 note beats of bar one. You wanna leave beat 4 open for now, as that’s where you’re gonna write a variation. Next, copy and paste your rhythm into bar two.       Now it’s time to write your variation in beat 4 of bar two. This variation will prevent the snare rhythm from getting boring, by turning it into a two-bar rhythm:         STEP 2. SWING   With such an unusual snare rhythm, it would be completely acceptable to move on and write the kick drum pattern now. But, Matt and Tony have one more brilliant snare trick up their sleeves. Instead of using the regular straight grid that you hear in almost every song, they use a swing grid. This is a game-changer!       DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2806684/snare-rhythms          Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy!     https://hackmusictheory.com/books     RAY HARMONY      

54s

Mar 18

  HOW TO WRITE BETTER SNARE RHYTHMS.     DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL AS PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2806684/snare-rhythms INCLUDES MIDI + WAV FILE EXAMPLES     While it’s normal to hear at least a few different kick patterns and hi-hat patterns in music nowadays, it’s rare to hear an interesting snare pattern. The rhythm assigned to this neglected element of the drumkit is almost always an afterthought. In 4|4 (which most music is in), the snare is usually one of these three rhythms:   __ __   So, when listening through to the new releases on Spotify, it was rather shocking (pleasantly so) to hear something completely unusual. The collaborative single “Snare Thing” by French producers Matt Sassari and Tony Romera is a refreshing celebration of the drum that almost always plays the most boring rhythm!   With these PDF tutorials, we usually have to make an educated guess as to what the creator’s intention and process was behind the song. But, based on the less-than-subtle title of their track, it’s safe to say that the duo were intentionally showcasing the snare drum’s creative potential. So, inspired by “Snare Thing”, here’s our 4-step method for writing creative snare patterns. But first… Tea!       STEP 1. MOTIF   Set up two bars of 4|4 with your grid on 1/16 notes, and your tempo at 126 BPM. The first thing we need to do is write a motif, which is a short idea that’s repeated to give the music structure and make it more memorable.   As we’re writing for the drums, our motif will obviously be a rhythmic motif (when using pitched instruments, you can also write melodic and harmonic motifs). The motif that Matt and Tony use is a couple of 1/16 notes followed by a 1/16 rest. They then repeat this motif to create their snare rhythm.       As you can see, their motif is three 1/16 notes long. Having a motif that’s an odd duration (like three, five, seven, etc.) will make it far more interesting, because each time the motif is repeated it’ll start on a different 1/16 note beat (e.g. 1A, 2+, 3E).   A motif lasting four (or eight) 1/16 notes will repeat on the same beat, so it’ll get repetitive and boring extremely quickly. Therefore, avoid using an even-number motif here. For the record, though, they can sound great when played on melodic instruments, because you can repeat the same rhythm while changing the pitches.   Right, when you’re happy with your motif, copy and paste it into the first three 1/4 note beats of bar one. You wanna leave beat 4 open for now, as that’s where you’re gonna write a variation. Next, copy and paste your rhythm into bar two.       Now it’s time to write your variation in beat 4 of bar two. This variation will prevent the snare rhythm from getting boring, by turning it into a two-bar rhythm:         STEP 2. SWING   With such an unusual snare rhythm, it would be completely acceptable to move on and write the kick drum pattern now. But, Matt and Tony have one more brilliant snare trick up their sleeves. Instead of using the regular straight grid that you hear in almost every song, they use a swing grid. This is a game-changer!       DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2806684/snare-rhythms          Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy!     https://hackmusictheory.com/books     RAY HARMONY      

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Mar 18

  HOW TO WRITE A CRAZY DRUM BEAT     DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL AS PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2781264/crazy-beats INCLUDES MIDI + WAV FILE EXAMPLES       Drums nowadays are arguably the most boring element in music! That’s probably due to the widespread use of drum loops. If you listen to the new releases on Spotify every Friday, you’ll hear the same handful of drum patterns over and over again. The best you can hope for is a few variations of those popular patterns.   It would be an interesting experiment to actually count how many different drum patterns are used in the  playlist, which usually contains 100 songs. We’re pretty sure it’ll only be a handful of patterns, but that’s some super boring research, so we won’t be volunteering to conduct that experiment. AI can do it!   Having said all that, for us producers, this is actually a blessing in disguise. Why? Because it makes it easier than ever to stand out and grab people’s attention. All you need to do is use an unusual drum beat. Or even better, a  drum beat!   This is exactly what happened when the song “Never Doubt” started playing. It’s by the UK duo Blue Lab Beats. Their drums are unlike anything else we heard on that playlist! And after listening to their crazy beats, and then continuing through the remainder of that playlist, the other songs’ drums sounded even more boring.   Drum beats usually consist of three elements: kick, snare, and cymbals. Giving one or two of these an unusual pattern would be enough to make a beat stand out, but Blue Lab Beats have made the patterns of all three elements unusual. That’s crazy!   So, inspired by “Never Doubt”, here’s our 4-step method for writing crazy beats. But first… Tea!       STEP 1. SNARE   Set your tempo to 75 BPM and your time signature to 7|8.   And yes, that’s a crazy time signature! It’s the foundation of crazy upon which they build their standout beats. Why is 7|8 a crazy time signature? Because it sounds like 4|4 on a broken drum machine, as the last 1/8 note of each bar is cut off. This makes it sound like the record (or CD) is skipping. Ah, remember those days?   Next, create a two-bar loop on your drum track, with the grid set to 1/32 notes.   So, when it comes to a snare pattern in 7|8, the most common one is to play the snare on beats 3 and 7. That’s because in 4|4 the snare is almost always played on beats 2 and 4, which is called a regular backbeat. And if you count 4|4 in 1/8 note beats, then the snare hits of that regular backbeat fall on beats 3 and 7.           As you can hear (and see in the MIDI above), the bar is cut short by an 1/8 note.   And to be clear, while that’s the snare pattern you’ll most usually hear in 7|8, that definitely doesn’t make it sound normal. It still sounds crazy! That fact will give you an idea of exactly how crazy the snare patterns are in this Blue Lab Beats song.   And without further ado. Here’s their snare pattern: beat 6. Yep, that’s all they play on the snare. That’s way more space than you’d usually hear in a 7|8 beat. But, spoiler alert: they’re not done with the snare yet. It’ll be revisited in Step 4 below.   Lastly, to give your beat 6 snare a reference point, draw in a kick drum on beat 1.   Also, there’s so much space in this snare pattern that you’ll need to hear the 1/8 note pulse to put the snare in context. So, turn on the metronome when listening.           STEP 2. KICK   With hardly any snares in this beat (currently), all that space can be filled with kicks. And that’s precisely what Blue Lab Beats do. They play a kick on beat 1 and a super syncopated kick on the fourth 1/32 note. If you’re new to the concept of syncopation, it’s simply when an off-beat is accented. Their kick on the fourth 1/32 note is the perfect example of syncopation. And obviously when you accent a 1/32 note off-beat, it sounds a lot more syncopated than a 1/16 note off-beat.           FOR THE REST OF THE TUTORIAL, PLEASE BUY THE PDF. SUPPORTING OUR WORK HELPS US TO KEEP TEACHING. THANK YOU :)       DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2781264/crazy-beats          Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK https://hackmusictheory.com/books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy!   /books   RAY HARMONY      

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Feb 25

  HOW TO WRITE A DREAMY CHORD PROGRESSION     DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL AS PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/product/974087 INCLUDES MIDI + WAV FILE EXAMPLES       New single “Loved” by British producer Four Tet (Kieran Hebden) is a dreamy soundscape that floats your thoughts away on its neuro-massaging vibrations!   If you listen to it with your eyes closed, you can easily imagine sitting by a window on a rainy morning, sipping your tea and day-dreaming as you stare out into quantum clouds of possibility. Even the pitter-patter accent of his hi-hat rhythm mirrors the sound of rain drops on the roof.   The outro (from 2:43) further lowers the energy, deepening the introspection. There’s a sprinkling of arpeggios (i.e. chords played one note at a time) throughout the song, but in the outro he uses them exclusively. That’s only one of the many elements that make this section sooooo soothing. Right, inspired by the “Loved” outro, here’s our 6-step method for writing dreamy chords. But first… Tea!     STEP 1. ARPEGGIO   Set your tempo to 82 BPM and your time signature to 4|4. Then, create an eight-bar section with a 1/16 note grid. Next, load up a gentle keyboard sound like a Rhodes organ, or something similar. You can find the perfect sound afterwards.   One of the most interesting elements of this section is that Four Tet wrote it in the major scale. Nowadays, the major scale is hugely unpopular, which is a shame and a loss. You’ll only really hear this scale in children’s music or Christmas songs. But, it’s the most consonant scale, which means the harmonies it creates are the most peaceful for us. In these dissonant times, we believe there needs to be far more music written in major keys to help people let go of their daily stress and anxiety.   To be fair, there’s a valid reason why most producers don’t use the major scale: all that consonance makes it predictable! Therefore, music written in a major key is at a high risk of being boring. That’s no problem for Four Tet, though, as he has some great hacks up his sleeve to avoid this problem.   Right, so Four Tet uses G major for this section. We chose C major, as it’s simply all the white notes from C to C, but you can use whatever major scale you like.   C major scale: * ------------------------- -------------------------     He starts this outro section by playing the root chord (Cmaj in our example), and the first hack he uses to create a dreamy vibe is to play the chord as an arpeggio. Also, he plays the root note in two octaves: C (1) → G (5) → C (8, i.e. the root an octave higher than 1). Technically this is a harmony (or interval) and not a chord, as it only contains 1 and 5 (it’s missing 3), but he does play 3 in the melody above.   FYI: If you wanna play this on the keyboard instead of drawing in the MIDI, you’ll play the arpeggio in your left hand, and the melody above in your right hand.   While the technique of playing a left-hand 1→5→8 arpeggio is nothing new (it was common in Mozart’s day), the way Four Tet weaves in his melody is original. He doesn’t just add a melody over the top, like most producers would do, he tricks the listener into hearing his melody as part of the arpeggio. Well, at first…   But then it sounds like his melody begins to break away from the arpeggio. We then hear it as a separate layer. And then it seems to join the arpeggio again?! This uncertainty as to whether it’s a separate melody or part of the arpeggios is one of the brilliant hacks Four Tet uses to create his dream-like atmosphere. It gives us that feeling of waking up from a dream and thinking: Did that really happen?   So, start by drawing in a 1→5→8 arpeggio from your root (C in our example). Let your arpeggio sound for half the bar, then copy and paste it into the second half.             STEP 2. REPEAT   Here’s a question for you: Have you ever had that dream where you’re running but you’re going nowhere?! Well, that’s the next hack Four Tet uses to create a dream-like quality to his chords. FOR THE REST OF THE TUTORIAL, PLEASE BUY THE PDF. SUPPORTING OUR WORK HELPS US TO KEEP TEACHING. THANK YOU :)       DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/product/974087          Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy!   /books   RAY HARMONY      

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Feb 02

    HOW TO WRITE A NON-CHEESY FESTIVE MELODY     DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL AS PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2663402/festive-melody INCLUDES MIDI + WAV FILE EXAMPLES       “Noël Nouvelet” is a traditional French Christmas Carol dating from the 15th or 16th century. So what on earth can we learn from a 500-year old holiday tune? A game-changing melody hack that will totally transform your festive season music!   You see, almost all Christmas songs are written in major keys. And as you can hear from walking into any shop in December, the results are usually very very very cheesy songs! And yes of course there are exceptions, but most of the new holiday music being released is blatantly trying (and failing) to cash in on the “happy holiday” song formula. That brings us back to our traditional tune…   The composer of “Noël Nouvelet” used the most innovative cheese-removal magic trick, as this Christmas carol is 100% cheese-free. And it could so easily have been cheesy because the melody is upbeat and uplifting (like most Christmas music), but it somehow stays  away from the cheese. It’s a Christmas miracle! So there you go, that’s what we can learn from a 500-year old Christmas carol.   And on that note, inspired by “Noël Nouvelet”, here’s our 4-step method for writing an upbeat and uplifting festive melody, without the cheese. But first… Tea!       STEP 1. FESTIVE RHYTHM   First, regarding the tempo. As with most 500-year old music, you can more-or-less interpret the performance of it however you want. There are lots of breathtakingly beautiful versions of “Noël Nouvelet”, but our favourite is by Libera, a boy’s choir in London, UK. Libera’s performance is around 77 BPM, so we’ll use that too.   Now, create an eight-bar loop with a 1/16 note grid, then load up a piano sound on that track. And yes, piano, that’s not a typo. Piano is the perfect instrument for writing on, because it’s about as “neutral” sounding as you can get, and the attack of the instrument is instant (due to the piano’s hammer action).   Some choir plugins have a very slow attack, and we’ll be using some quicker notes in our melody because it’s a lively one, so we don’t want the choir plugin holding us back. At the end of the writing process, though, you can go through all your choir plugins and see which one works best for your final melody.   Right, spend some time writing a two-bar rhythm now, and be sure to use a vibrant combination of 1/4 notes, 1/8 notes, and two 1/16 notes. Regarding those 1/16 notes. Don’t make them syncopated. Approach them like an 1/8 note split in two.   Also, don’t use any rests  your rhythm. After your rhythm, though, you’ll use a rest. So, don’t play anything on beat 4 of your second bar. This 1/4 note rest is for phrasing (i.e. where the singers would breathe if your melody was sung). And lastly, remember that your rhythm needs to be an upbeat, festive one, so have fun!         STEP 2. CHEESY MELODY   Wait, what?! We promised you a cheese-free melody, and now we’re telling you to write a cheesy melody? Yep! That’s the genius of the “Noël Nouvelet” composer’s cheese-removal magic trick, but that will only be revealed in Step 4.   For the record, we obviously have no idea if this is how the anonymous composer wrote the carol, but when reverse-engineering this melody and trying to figure out their method (that’s the process we use to make all our PDF tutorials, by the way), it seems this method is certainly plausible. In fact, we can totally imagine the story…   It’s December 1st, 1499. Our composer turns up to choir rehearsal with their brand new carol, all pleased and proud of it. The choir gives it a run through. There’s an awkward silence as someone tries to think of a nice way to say it. Someone pipes up with “Erm… it’s very Christmassy!” More erms from the choir. Then a brave soul says: “Any chance of making it… erm… [silence] less cheesy?”   The composer storms out. Fast forward a couple hours. They’ve had a walk in the fresh December air and calmed down. Now, back in their study, they pull out the manuscript, dip their quill in the ink. And… Boom! A stroke of genius. They scream , run out the room and back to the church, screaming  all the way. Choir sings it. Everyone cries. They love it. Composer sighs with relief.   . [roll the credits]     Surely that’s a better story than the one where our composer walks into their study, sits down, then proceeds to write a non-cheesy Christmas carol in one go. Boring!   Alright, let’s write a melody. So we’re in the key of D major, and here’s our scale:   D major scale * ------------------------- -------------------------   In order for this method to work, there are 5 rules you need to follow in this step…   FOR THE REST OF THE TUTORIAL, PLEASE BUY THE PDF. SUPPORTING OUR WORK HELPS US TO KEEP TEACHING. THANK YOU :)       DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2663402/festive-melody          Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy!   /books   RAY HARMONY      

1s

Dec 07, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE CAPTIVATING BASS USING DISPLACEMENTS FOR VARIATIONS     DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL AS PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2648019/displaced-bass INCLUDES MIDI + WAV FILE EXAMPLES     Do you ever write a bass line (or synth/guitar riff) that you love, but after a few loops it gets boring? No problem, you think to yourself, being here in the Hack Music Theory community you know that you need to write a variation for it. So you get to work on that. Fast forward an hour, and everything you’ve tried resulted in the magic of your original version being lost. This is a common problem, and Thom Yorke (Radiohead) and his band The Smile have a brilliant solution for you!   In their song “The Smoke”, they use a super creative method for turning a one-bar bass line (and guitar riff) into an epic ten-bar adventure. And most importantly, they do that without creating a conventional variation anywhere in their line/riff*. How? They take their one-bar riff and repeat it a few times, then just as it’s about to get boring, they displace it. What on earth does that mean? Well, this is how the dictionary defines the word “displace”: . So in musical terms, what displacement means is to play the exact same thing but in a different place/position in the bar (i.e. the riff starts on an earlier/later beat).   However, they don’t just displace their riff, they also cut it up and displace those segments. The result is mesmerising, and we’re captivated by this displacement as our brains try to figure out what’s going on. They then repeat their ten-bar riff, and the second loop feels even more captivating, as it catches us off-guard because we weren’t expecting it to repeat after ten bars (but more on that in Step 1).   So, inspired by “The Smoke”, here’s our 5-step method for writing a ten-bar riff that will totally captivate your listeners with its displacements. But first… Tea!   *Thom Yorke (bass) and Jonny Greenwood (guitar) play the exact same thing in the main section of this song, so to keep things simple, we’ll just be referring to what they both play as a riff.     STEP 1. ONE-BAR RIFF   Change your tempo to 93 BPM, then create a ten-bar loop on your bass track (or guitar track, if you prefer). When you’re done writing your riff, you’ll duplicate the track and load up the other instrument (guitar/bass), so it doesn’t actually matter which one you use to write the riff. Now, open your MIDI editor, set the grid to 1/16 notes, and let’s get to it!   You’re gonna start by writing a one-bar riff. You really want to take your time here, as this one bar is the source material for the whole ten bars, so make it good! The Smile uses E minor pentatonic scale for their riff, so we’ll use it too. If you’re new to this scale, it’s just the natural minor scale without its 2nd and 6th notes.*     E natural minor scale * ------------------------- -------------------------     E minor pentatonic scale * ------------------------- -------------------------     You can use any notes from the scale, but there are four rhythm rules to follow:   __ __     *For help with writing in the minor pentatonic scale, as well as in the blues scale (a spicy variation of the minor pentatonic), use Hack 8 in our SONGWRITING & PRODUCING PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/product/210150.       Here’s our one-bar riff:           STEP 2. REPEAT & DISPLACE   The Smile repeats their one-bar riff four times, exactly as it is. Four bars is the absolute maximum you’d want to repeat such a short riff. Any more repetition than that, and it’ll not only be boring to your listeners, it’ll actually be annoying!   But, they’re very intentionally pushing their repetition to the max. The reason for that is because they need their listeners to be 100% familiar with the riff before they start messing with it. If the listeners don’t have the original version 100% stuck in their heads, then all the upcoming displacements would be completely disorientating, and therefore completely unpleasant to the ears.   But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First things first, let’s get our riff stuck in the listeners’ heads! So, copy and paste your one-bar riff into bars two through four.       For the rest of the tutorial, please buy the PDF. Supporting our work helps us to keep teaching. Thank you :)         DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2648019/displaced-bass      WE PUBLISH FOUR NEW PDF TUTORIALS EVERY MONTH. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 33% /tutorials ON FUTURE PDFS.         Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy!     /books     RAY HARMONY      

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Nov 24, 2023

  How to Write Sweeping Arpeggios using a unique layering technique     DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL AS PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2639559/sweeping-arpeggios INCLUDES MIDI + WAV FILE EXAMPLES     Do your arpeggios all sound rather similar? It’s a common problem for producers.   Arpeggios are when you play a chord one note at a time, and it’s one of the best techniques for making your progressions more interesting. And while it’s definitely more rare to hear arpeggios than “block” chords in popular music genres, most of the arpeggios you do hear are rather boring. Merely playing chords one note at a time is not a foolproof way of making progressions more creative. If you want better arpeggios, you need to write an internal melody within them. Want even better arpeggios? Write two internal melodies, or maybe even three!   What are we talking about when we talk about “internal melodies”? Well, the melodies need to be formed from notes within the arpeggios, as opposed to writing a melody over the top of them. There’s obviously nothing wrong with doing that, but it will be heard as a separate melody, not as part of the arpeggios.   While there’s an abundance of genius examples of this in classical music, there are sadly not many to be found in popular music genres. If you’re into the rock side of things, Muse has plenty of creative arpeggios. Examples are even rarer on the electronic side of things, though, but Daft Punk comes to the rescue with their song “Motherboard” (check out their new “Drumless Edition” of this song, as it’s easier to hear the arpeggios). At 28 seconds into this track, the most beautiful arpeggios begin to sweep up and down. Despite their fast pace (i.e. 1/16 notes), they’re thoroughly calming due to their smooth, sweeping motion. And it’s not just the fast pace that makes their arpeggios so creative, it’s also their choice of notes.   So, inspired by “Motherboard”, here’s our 5-step method for writing sweeping arpeggios, which are guaranteed to stand out from all those boring, clichéd arpeggios. But first… Tea!     STEP 1. CHORDS   As arpeggios are simply broken up chords, the first step is to write a chord progression. So, set your tempo to 103 BPM, then create a four-bar loop and set your grid to 1/16 notes.   Daft Punk play their arpeggios on woodwind instruments, but we’ll get to that in the last step. For now, we actually recommend using a piano, for two reasons. Firstly, piano arpeggios are beautiful, so if you want, you can keep them on a piano sound (we did). Secondly, the piano has a much bigger range than any woodwind instrument, so you won’t be held back by not being able to play a note because it’s too high/low for that instrument.   Daft Punk’s arpeggios are in the key of E minor, so we’ll use it too:     E natural minor * ------------------------- -------------------------     Regarding what chords to choose. This PDF is all about arpeggios, so we’re not going to cover the “chord choice” topic. If you need help with writing better chord progressions, we recommend our SONGWRITING & PRODUCING COURSE https://hackmusictheory.com/product/841067.   The only three guidelines we suggest are to choose four chords, avoid the diminished chord, and play the root chord somewhere (you don’t have to start with it, though). Here are the chords we chose for our progression:   Cmaj → Gmaj → Dmaj → Em   After you’ve chosen your four chords, draw in each chord’s root note for one bar.         For the rest of the tutorial, please buy the PDF. Supporting our work helps us to keep teaching. Thank you :)       DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2630326/timeless-piano      WE PUBLISH FOUR NEW PDF TUTORIALS EVERY MONTH. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 33% https://hackmusictheory.com/tutorials ON FUTURE PDFS.         Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK https://hackmusictheory.com/books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy!     RAY HARMONY      

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Nov 17, 2023

    HOW TO WRITE TIMELESS PIANO LIKE THE BEATLES   DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL AS PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2630326/timeless-piano INCLUDES MIDI + WAV FILE EXAMPLES     The last Beatles song. That’s what the official press release calls “Now And Then”. The Beatles made history this week (again!), but the internet is flooded with writing about this song, so we won’t repeat the story of how “Now And Then” came to be. Instead, we’ll focus exclusively on why this song sounds timeless.   Until recently, I used to think that J.S. Bach’s music was timeless. But now I’m not so sure. I’ve been to many Bach concerts, and while my head is bald by choice, almost all the other men in there didn’t have a choice with their bald heads, if you know what I mean?! So, who’s gonna be listening to Bach in 30 years from now? Don’t get me wrong, there will always be Bach superfans (like me!), but is his music timeless if it’s not popular with the general public now? Bach’s music is far too complex to appeal to most modern musical taste buds, so it’s not really timeless. It’s the same with art and poetry. Yes, there will always be William Blake superfans (like me!), but the general public nowadays is clearly not interested in this genius’ work. Great art will always be great art, but perhaps it’s not timeless.   So why is this PDF titled “Timeless Piano” then? Well, by definition timeless music has to appeal to generation after generation, and there’s been a clear trend for many decades in the music that the general public listens to. Yep, it’s been getting simpler and simpler. So, perhaps the way to write music that’s going to have the best chance of being timeless, is to make it extremely simple. But, the simpler the music, the more chance there is of it getting boring. And if it gets boring, it’s obviously not going to have a very long shelf life. That’s where the genius of The Beatles shines: they’re masters of making simple music that has just enough interest to prevent it from getting boring. The result? Timeless(ish) music.   You see, I still don’t believe that any music can be said to be truly timeless, as how can we possibly know if the general public will be listening to it in a thousand years from now!? Nevertheless, inspired by “Now And Then”, here’s our 4-step method for writing a piano part that’s as timeless as The Beatles. But first… Tea!     STEP 1. A COUPLE CHORDS   The chord progression in “Now And Then” mainly consists of two chords. Before we get to those two chords, though, a brilliant and creative hack that The Beatles use is to make their progression ten bars long. We’re obviously used to hearing loops of two bars, four bars, or sometimes eight bars. But ten bars? Nope, we’re not used to that at all. So, despite their progression being super simple, those extra two bars at the end keep us interested and engaged, because they’re unexpected.   So, change your tempo to 87 BPM, then create a ten-bar loop on your piano track. We’re gonna start off with the grid on 1/4 notes. The Beatles begin their song (intro and verse, which is what we’re teaching here) in the key of A minor , so we’ll use it too.   A natural minor * ------------------------- -------------------------   Now it’s time to choose your two chords. Your progression is going to change back and forth between these two chords for five bars, so make sure you really like them. You can use any chords from the key, other than the diminished (Bdim). Well, unless you want to make your listeners feel very very uncomfortable.   The Beatles begin on the root chord (Am), as it anchors their progression into the key. For this reason, we suggest you also start on Am. We did, too. Their second chord is Em. We chose Dm. Their choice of two minors (Am→Em) obviously makes “Now And Then” deeply solemn. If you want a more uplifting sounding progression, though, then definitely choose a major as your second chord.   Once you’re happy with your two chords, draw them in, with each chord lasting one bar. This is another great example of how The Beatles keep their progression simple. They could’ve changed chords on beat 3, or even an off-beat, which would sound more interesting, but maybe that’s too interesting for timeless(ish) music.       Next, invert your second chord to get the common note in the same place. If you don’t have a common note, you’ll need to make one. If you don’t know how to do that, we teach it in our SONGWRITING & PRODUCING (COURSE) https://hackmusictheory.com/product/841067. Otherwise just choose a different second chord that does contain a common note with the Am.       Next, delete the ♭3 (C) in your Am chord. Why? Well, it’s yet another way that The Beatles create interest without making it too interesting. And by deleting the 3rd note of Am, it’s theoretically no longer Am, it’s now A5 (i.e. the root and 5th).   As you know, the 3rd note determines a chord’s quality (i.e. whether it’s major or minor), so by deleting the ♭3 in our Am chord, we’ve de-minored it. And no, that’s definitely not a musical term! Also, for the record, it’s no longer a “chord” either, because a chord requires at least three notes. It’s now an interval/harmony.         For the rest of the tutorial, please buy the PDF. Supporting our work helps us to keep teaching. Thank you :)       DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2630326/timeless-piano      WE PUBLISH FOUR NEW PDF TUTORIALS EVERY MONTH. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 33% /tutorials ON FUTURE PDFS.         Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy!   /books   RAY HARMONY      

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Nov 10, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A MEMORABLE BASS LINE USING MODAL AMBIGUITY     Yes, your lead melody is important. But a great bass line has the power to make or break a section. Despite that fact, though, most producers approach their bass as an afterthought. Think about it. How many songs’ bass lines can you remember?   Almost all the bass lines we hear in the new releases each week are not really bass lines, they’re bass . If a producer merely plays each chord’s root note as their bass line, that’s not a melody (“line” is just an informal word for melody).   In order for it to be a bass line, it needs to be an actual melody. We’re obviously not saying that your bass should play a catchy melody like you’d want on the lead synth or vocals. But, it does need to contain the characteristics of a well-written melody, which will also make it memorable. And that’s a good test for yourself. The day after you’ve been writing, can you remember the bass line in your head?   A great example of a super memorable bass line, which doesn’t steal any attention away from the lead melody, can be found in the song “So Easy” by Norwegian electronic duo, Röyksopp. If you haven’t heard this song, have a quick listen, it’s the opening track on their brilliant album “Melody A.M.” from 2001. The song actually begins with both their bass line and lead melody playing, and while the lead is crazy catchy, the bass below is 100% memorable as well, without ever taking any attention away from the lead melody. It’s truly brilliant!   In this PDF you’ll learn the characteristics that make their bass line so memorable, as well as our 4-step method for writing memorable bass lines. But first… Tea!       STEP 1. HALF & HALF   Set your tempo to 104 BPM and leave your time signature on 4|4. Then create an eight-bar loop on your bass track, and set your grid to 1/16 notes. When you analyse Röyksopp’s bass line, one of the most obvious characteristics you’ll notice is that half of it isn’t there, or so it seems. In other words, they use a ton of rests! So many, in fact, that their bass line consists of about half notes and half rests.   That’s a rather counterintuitive approach to bass, as it’s the foundation upon which the music is built. If half your foundation isn’t there, then surely you’re heading for trouble, right? Nope. Their clever use of rests ensures their bass line stands out because it’s different. But, as it’s not even there half the time, it’s not taking attention away from the lead melody. On that note, their lead is the opposite. It consists of longer connected notes, with no rests other than where they phrase it.   Okay let’s get to it! So you’re gonna start by writing a two-bar rhythm on C, the root note. But remember, you want about half of it to be rests. Also, all the notes should be short, so use a combination of 1/8 notes and 1/16 notes. And don’t be shy with the syncopation! If you play too many notes on the beat, it’s going to sound stiff and rigid. Those off-beat accents are gonna bring your bass line to life.       When you’re happy with your lively two-bar rhythm, copy and paste it into bars three and four. Now, delete beat 4 in the fourth bar. You’ll find out why in Step 4.     Then for variation, make one tiny change to a note towards the end of bar four.       STEP 2. ANCHORS & ARCS   The next thing you’ll notice about Röyksopp’s brilliant bass line is that it begins with three punchy on-beat root notes, before taking off to a bunch of other notes.   They repeat this pattern every two bars. That anchors the bass line into their key’s root note, as well as providing a  anchor. Every couple bars their bass briefly anchors melodically (to the root) and rhythmically (to the beat), before it ventures off to explore. And that exploration creates a melodic “arc” (i.e. contour), which we’ll get to in Step 3.   For the rest of the tutorial, please buy the PDF. Supporting our work helps us to keep teaching. Thank you :)       DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2620271/memorable-bass      WE PUBLISH FOUR NEW PDF TUTORIALS EVERY MONTH. YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 33% /tutorials         Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy!   /books   RAY HARMONY      

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Nov 03, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A MODULATING MELODY USING A SERIES OF DIRECT KEY CHANGES     John Carpenter’s “Halloween Theme” is one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the horror film genre. And that’s not just because the movie is so famous, it’s because the music is massively attention-grabbing due to all its original ideas.   One of the many creative techniques he uses is modulating (i.e. changing key) in the middle of his melody. That’s completely crazy! To put it in context. Most music nowadays doesn’t even modulate at all. In other words, the whole song (verse, chorus, and everything else) is all in the same key. How mind-numbingly boring!   So, when Mr Carpenter changes key halfway through his “Halloween” melody, it grabs your full, undivided attention, as it’s unlike anything you’ve heard before. It goes without saying that this technique can be used in any genre, and wherever you use it, heads are gonna turn, because nothing grabs attention like a mid-melody modulation. And that’s not even the only modulation he does, there’s a lot more!   Without further ado. Inspired by the “Halloween Theme”, here’s our 7-step method for writing modulating melodies like John Carpenter. But first… Tea!     STEP 1. REPETITION   In our research for this tutorial, we found a video of John Carpenter talking about his “Halloween Theme” being in 5|4. However, because of the way he groups his piano part, the time signature is actually 10|8. And yes, they’re obviously the exact same length: five 1/4 notes = ten 1/8 notes. But, when you listen to the original you can clearly hear the 10|8 grouping: two groups of three 1/8 notes, followed by two groups of two 1/8 notes.   MIDI for John Carpenter’s “Halloween Theme” piano part (right-hand):                 If the piano part was in 5|4, there would be five groups of two 1/8 notes, like this:     To complicate things, though, the drums play a four-on-the-floor style pattern, except it’s actually -on-the-floor due to the length of each bar:     With the drums accenting every 1/4 note beat, it’s clear that they’re in 5|4. So, when we take the drums into account, we realise there’s actually a polymeter here (i.e. two time signature playing simultaneously): the drums are playing in 5|4 while the piano is playing in 10|8. Very cool! But seeing as Mr Carpenter considers the whole thing to be in 5|4, we’ll go with that too, just to keep it nice and simple.   So, load up a piano track, then create a four-bar loop in 5|4, with your grid on 1/8 notes. Set your DAW’s tempo to 136 BPM. There’s actually two different versions of the “Halloween Theme”, the original one from 1978 and the remake from 2018. They’re both in the same tempo (and keys), and they’re pretty much the same, other than one relatively big difference that we’ll talk about in Step 4.   Right, let’s get down to the music making! We’re gonna start by writing the right-hand part of our piano. This part is super simple. As you can see in the MIDI screenshots above of the original version, John Carpenter only uses three notes: the 1 (F♯), 5 (C♯), and ♭6 (D). The original starts in the key of F♯ minor, but we’ll use A minor to keep things simple, as that’s just all the white notes from A to A.   For the rest of the tutorial, please buy the PDF. Supporting our work helps us to keep teaching. Thank you :)       DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2609645/modulating-melody      WE PUBLISH FOUR NEW PDF TUTORIALS EVERY MONTH. YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 33% /tutorials     Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /booksRAY HARMONY      

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Oct 27, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE HAUNTING ARPEGGIOS USING PARALLEL KEYS AND BORROWED CHORDS     Danny Elfman’s theme song for the Netflix show  (officially called “Wednesday Main Titles” on the soundtrack album) is utterly brilliant! It’s just over one minute, but the amount of creative theory it contains is thoroughly impressive.   One of the most unusual sections is at 21 seconds into the track. It’s a crazy creative chord progression, played as triplet arpeggios. The section is so haunting and unsettling, because he slides through three different keys in the space of four bars. This leaves the listener feeling disorientated, as their subconscious is trying to figure out if it did actually hear a key change or if it just imagined that. You know the feeling, right? Maybe that was just a shadow at the window, and that noise was probably (hopefully) just a branch knocking against the house. Hmmm…   On that note, go and check that all your doors are locked and your windows are closed. Then, turn off your lights, put on your headphones, and let’s make some spooky music! So, inspired by the  theme song, here’s our 4-step method for writing haunting arpeggios like Danny Elfman. But first… Tea!     STEP 1. CHORDS   There’s two stages to this method. First you’ll write a haunting  progression (Steps 1 & 2), then you’ll turn that into  (Step 3). As a bonus, we’ve included a section on how to write a haunting bass line for your arpeggios (Step 4). By the way, Stage 2 is super quick and easy, but Stage 1 will take some time. Okay let’s get to work, cos these arpeggios aren’t gonna write themselves - they’re haunt arpeggios, not haunt arpeggios!   Set your tempo to 98 BPM, then create four bars of 4|4. You can just use a piano sound for now, then after you’ve finished writing, you can play around with some different sounds. Next, change your grid to 1/8 note triplets. If you want your whole song to be in this triplet feel, though, then you can use the 12|8 time signature. We’re using triplets because the opening section of  is in 4|4. It switches to 1/8 note triplets after 21 seconds, when this arpeggio section begins.   Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to grab some paper and a pen. Yep, we’re going old-school in Step 1. An arpeggio is simply a chord played one note at a time. So, before we get to our arpeggios, we obviously need to write a chord progression.   Here is Danny Elfman’s progression: Dm → F♯m → C♯m → Bm → Dm   A surface-level analysis of that progression reveals that he’s only using minor chords. That’s a great hack all on its own, because a progression made up exclusively of minor chords will sound seriously dark, as you’re never giving your listener a break from the somber nature of minor chords. Now, if you do a deep analysis, you’ll discover something far more remarkable. The progression is in the key of D minor, so what do you notice about its chords?   D natural minor scale * ------------------------- -------------------------     Our deep analysis doesn’t even get past the second chord before we discover that Danny Elfman has officially left the key! There’s no F♯ in D minor. So, the second chord in this progression is a non-diatonic chord, i.e. a chord that’s  in the key. On we go to the third chord. Oh, he’s done it again! There’s no C♯ in D minor either. And on to the fourth chord. Same again! There’s no B in D minor. What?!   So, sandwiched between two root chords that start and finish the progression, he has three non-diatonic chords. That’s obviously not normal. In fact, it’s so unusual that it takes us back to the drawing board, because if the root chord is the only chord that’s  the key, then is the key really D minor or did we get it wrong?   No we didn’t. The key  D minor, but each of those three non-diatonic chords is from a different key. A PARALLEL KEY! A parallel key is just the fancy term for a key (i.e. scale/mode) that has the same root note. And when you play a chord from a parallel key, it’s called a BORROWED CHORD. In this example, D natural minor and D major are parallel. D Lydian is also parallel, which is another key Danny Elfman uses in his progression.   For the rest of the tutorial, please buy the PDF. Supporting our work helps us to keep teaching. Thank you :)     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2598925/haunting-arpeggios      WE PUBLISH FOUR NEW PDF TUTORIALS EVERY MONTH. YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 33% /tutorials     Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY      

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Oct 20, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A SUSPENSEFUL MELODY USING BITONALITY, AKA PLAYING IN TWO KEYS SIMULTANEOUSLY   The dictionary definition of  is “causing a feeling of excitement or nervousness because you are waiting for something to happen”. That perfectly describes the intro of “Tubular Bells - Pt. I” by Mike Oldfield. It’s easy to hear why The Exorcist (1973) director William Friedkin chose this music for his film. Recall that classic scene where Chris starts walking home alone as the “Tubular Bells” intro begins. Eeek! Talk about “waiting for something to happen”. If you wanna make music that keeps people listening because they need to know what happens next, then knowing how to create suspense is essential. Mike Oldfield has given us a masterclass with this music. So, inspired by “Tubular Bells”, here’s our 4-step method for writing a suspenseful melody. But first… Tea!   STEP 1. ODD One of the first things we notice about the intro of “Tubular Bells - Pt. I” is that it’s in an odd time signature. If you count along with that piano part in the intro, you’ll count 15 beats. So, change your DAW’s time signature to 15|4 and set the tempo to 150 BPM. On closer analyses of the piano part (i.e. where its melody repeats), it becomes apparent that the time signature is actually one bar of 7|4 followed by two bars of 4|4. But as that adds up to 15|4, we’ll just go with that to keep things simpler. Next, create a one-bar loop of 15|4 on your piano track, with the grid on 1/8 notes. We’re gonna start by writing a rhythm on E (the root), using only 1/8 notes and 1/8 rests. You can do whatever you want, but don’t play more than two notes in a row. Also, only make your rhythm seven 1/4 notes long, i.e. one bar of 7|4.     STEP 2. PITCH Now it’s time to turn this rhythm into a melody! For the rest of the tutorial, please buy the PDF. Supporting our work helps us to keep teaching. Thank you :)     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2591466/suspenseful-melody      WE PUBLISH FOUR NEW PDF TUTORIALS EVERY MONTH. YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 33% /tutorials     Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY      

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Oct 13, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A MYSTERIOUS MELODY USING THE CHROMATIC SCALE     The epitome of a mysterious and magical melody is the Harry Potter theme (titled “Prologue” on the soundtrack album) by legendary film composer, John Williams.   This melody is overflowing with mystery and magic for a few reasons, all of which you’ll learn in this PDF, but the main reason is: chromaticism. That’s just the fancy word for using notes that are not in the scale. While this technique is (sadly) rare in popular music, it’s common in classical and soundtrack music.   However, John Williams elevates his chromaticism in the Harry Potter theme with an additional technique, which you’ll also learn in this tutorial. For now though, it’s sufficient to know that the chromaticism found in this melody is not your average run-of-the-mill chromaticism, this is very special.   Whatever genre you make music in*, if you want to learn how to convey mystery and magic through a melody, you can learn everything you need to know from John Williams. So, inspired by the Harry Potter theme, in this PDF you’ll learn our 6-STEP METHOD FOR WRITING MYSTERIOUS MELODIES. But first… Tea!   *Like all the Hack Music Theory teachings, the method in this tutorial will work in any genre.     STEP 1. DIATONIC   First things first. Before we can play notes that are not in the scale, we need a scale. Remember though, no matter what scale you’re using, you can always add chromatic notes to your melody. And by the way, another word for chromatic is non-diatonic (notes  the key are diatonic, notes  the key are non-diatonic).   So, while the Harry Potter theme is rooted in the natural minor scale, after you’ve worked through this PDF, you can follow the method again but in another scale/mode. For this example, though, we’ll be using the E natural minor scale:   E Natural Minor Scale * ------------------------- -------------------------     Set your DAW’s time signature to 3|8 and the tempo to about 90 BPM. As the original recording was played by an orchestra (not a computer), the tempo varies a lot due to the musicians’ expressive performance. After you’ve written your melody, revisit your tempo and try some faster or slower BPMs to see if that better suits your specific melody.   Next, create a 16-bar loop on your melody track. That sounds like a super long melody, but it’s not really, because each bar is only three 1/8 notes long. So the length of this melody will be the equivalent of six bars of 4|4.   Regarding the virtual instrument to load up on this track. John Williams uses a celesta, which is a beautiful instrument, but rather rare. If you don’t have a celesta in your library, as we don’t, then you can use a vibraphone, which is what we used. Or you can use a vintage organ, an electric piano, or even a regular piano. Obviously the more mysterious (i.e. the less common) your instrument, the more mysterious your final music will sound, so try to at least find something unusual.     STEP 2. CHROMATIC   Walls have ears, so please make sure nobody’s listening in, because we’re about to talk about those mysterious and magical  notes. Shhh…   For the rest of the tutorial, please buy the PDF. Supporting our work helps us to keep teaching. Thank you :)     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2584542/mysterious-melody        Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY    

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Oct 06, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A TECHNICAL DRUM BEAT   If you’ve been in the Hack Music Theory family for a while, you’ll know we love technical drum beats! And there probably ain’t nothin’ more tech’ than polymeters*. While polymeters were relatively popular with those bold “modern classical” composers of the early 20th century, they haven’t been used much since then.   And yes, over the last few decades there have been a few rare examples of polymeters in popular music. But, it wasn’t until a group of hairy Swedes with exceptional talent (otherwise known as Meshuggah) came along and re-popularised the polymeter. What made Meshuggah’s polymeters unique, though, is their genius idea of having their drummer’s hands (snare & cymbals) play in 4|4 as the one time signature, while his feet (kick) play in an odd time signature, like 17|16. The genius of the Meshuggah method is that listeners can nod (or mosh) along to the 4|4 time signature, while the odd time signature slithers around unpredictably. The brilliance of this can’t be overstated. They created a way to play in odd time while the audience dances in 4|4.   To get an idea of how weird odd time signatures sound without this method, listen to “March of the Pigs” by Nine Inch Nails. They alternate three bars of 7|8 with one bar of 4|4. And while we love this song, you have to have a relatively high level of music theory knowledge just to be able to dance along to it. That’s obviously not ideal for the average listener. Also, 7|8 isn’t even that weird. Meshuggah uses far weirder time signatures! But, because they’re playing them against 4|4, you can dance along.   Meshuggah’s method has become a favourite for prog/tech bands over the last couple decades, and TesseracT are one of them. Their new album “War of Being” kicks off with a great polymeter (in the track “Natural Disaster”) which finds them adding a few creative twists to Meshuggah’s method. So, inspired by “Natural Disaster”, here’s our 6-STEP METHOD FOR MAKING TECHNICAL POLYMETRIC DRUM BEATS. But first… Tea!   *If you’re new to polymeters, it’s the term for playing in two (or more) time signatures simultaneously.     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2579130/tech-drums      Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY    

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Sep 29, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A PROG MELODY USING THE MAJOR-MINOR SCALE, AKA MIXOLYDIAN ♭6   There aren’t many melodies that stand out nowadays. In an era where most musicians are trying to sound like the popular musicians in their genre, the result is a narrowing of musical territory. This should shock the world, as artists have historically been the brave explorers boldly trekking into unmapped cultural regions. These days, though, most “artists” tend to be copycats playing it safe, doing everything in their power (and AI’s power) to stay within the narrow boundaries of what the masses deem acceptable. The result is not art, but product.   It only requires a cursory glance in the rearview mirror to see that the artists who stand the test of time are the ones who bring something new to the table. To be clear, the artist’s job is  to reinvent the musical wheel (like Arnold Schoenberg did). But, every human has a slightly different way of seeing the world, and art is supposed to be a way for the artist to capture and share their unique worldview.   One of the rare artists who still takes his job description seriously is prog rock legend STEVEN WILSON. Regardless of what you think of his music (or him as a person), and regardless of whether you love or hate his band Porcupine Tree, huge respect is owed to the man for sticking to the artist’s brief. Steven Wilson’s music is not groundbreaking, but it always sounds like Steven Wilson’s music, not someone else’s. Yet he continues to mature and explore new musical ground (for him). A recent example of this is his new single “Impossible Tightrope” from upcoming album “The Harmony Codex”. And what a great name for an album, right?   At 5:46 into the epic 10-minute song, there’s a section where the bass and drums play a captivatingly syncopated groove, while Steven sings a beautifully strange melody over the top. This melody instantly stands out, as the scale is not a normal scale. The first time I heard this section, I knew I had to share it with you. So, IN THIS PDF YOU’LL LEARN THIS BEAUTIFULLY STRANGE SCALE, AND OUR 6-STEP METHOD FOR USING IT TO WRITE A PROG MELODY. But first… Tea!     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2573369/prog-melody       Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /learn (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /learn RAY HARMONY  

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Sep 22, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE AN OCTATONIC RIFF USING THE HALF-WHOLE DIMINISHED SCALE     ALMOST ALL POPULAR MUSIC (IN EVERY GENRE AND SUBGENRE) IS MADE USING THE MAJOR SCALE OR THE NATURAL MINOR SCALE. That’s a vast ocean of music from only two scales! And yes, some of the more creative producers will use the modes. That’s great. But, the modes are also 7-note scales (just like the major and natural minor scales).   And, like those two scales, they also contain a major 3rd or a minor 3rd. In other words, each one of the five rarer modes sound either like a variation of the major scale, or a variation of the natural minor scale. So yes, the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Locian modes open a lot more doors, however, they all lead into the same 7-note house.   For the record, Mozart had no problems writing genius-level music using only the major and minor scales, so there’s obviously nothing wrong with using those scales. But, as a counter argument, there was significantly less music when Mozart was alive. Nowadays, it can easily feel like all the possibilities that those two scales offer have been thoroughly explored already. I don’t believe that’s true, though it’s undeniable that it is significantly harder to create something new with those scales.   So, if you’re looking to explore some new musical territory, one of the best ways to get there is with 8-NOTE SCALES. These are called octatonic scales. They were relatively common in the “modern” classical music of the early 20th century, but you hardly ever hear them in popular music. One of our favourite examples of an octatonic scale in popular music is in the song “I Am That Thirst” by Meshuggah. And another song we recently heard that features an octatonic scale is “GODDAMN WHITE TRASH” BY MINISTRY. They use it in a heavy breakdown riff (starts at 2:03).   So, if you’re ready to try the exciting world of 8-note scales, then in this tutorial you’re gonna learn our 5-STEP METHOD FOR WRITING OCTATONIC RIFFS. But first… Tea!     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2568001/octatonic-riff       Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY    

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Sep 14, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A BEAUTIFUL MELODY   THERE ARE 7 ELEMENTS THAT CREATE A BEAUTIFUL MELODY. IN OUR NEW PDF TUTORIAL (LINK BELOW), YOU'LL LEARN WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW TO USE THEM!   When I recently heard “Ray Of Solar” by Swedish House Mafia on Spotify’s “New Music Friday” playlist, the song’s beauty jumped out at me from amongst the almost 150 tracks that all seem to be sounding more and more alike each week.   And for the record, while I’ve heard the name Swedish House Mafia, I don’t think I’d ever listened to them before. In fact, I don’t even know if they’re from Sweden. I mean, you’d think the electronic duo Boards of Canada are from Canada, right? Wrong. They’re from Scotland! What?! Yep, it’s true. But I digress… So, despite not being a Swedish House Mafia fan, the beauty of this song is undeniable. And as a result, we’ve ended up in the rare situation of making two tutorials on the same song.   In last week’s tutorial BEAUTIFUL ARPEGGIOS (PDF) https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2551818/beautiful-arpeggios we taught our 6-step method for making a beautiful chord progression like you hear in “Ray Of Solar”. In this tutorial, inspired by the same section, you’ll learn our 7-STEP METHOD FOR WRITING A BEAUTIFUL MELODY.   And no, you don’t need to have done the previous tutorial, this one is completely independent. If you have, though, then you can write a melody for the beautiful arpeggios you made from that tutorial. Alright, download the PDF at the link below, then read on to learn the music theory hacks that create this undeniable beauty, and how you can use them to write your own beautiful melody. But first… Tea!     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2554562/beautiful-melody       Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY  

1s

Sep 07, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A BEAUTIFUL MELODY   THERE ARE 7 ELEMENTS THAT CREATE A BEAUTIFUL MELODY. IN OUR NEW PDF TUTORIAL (DOWNLOAD LINK BELOW), YOU'LL LEARN WHAT THEY ARE, AND HOW TO USE THEM!   When I recently heard “Ray Of Solar” by Swedish House Mafia on Spotify’s “New Music Friday” playlist, the song’s beauty jumped out at me from amongst the almost 150 tracks that all seem to be sounding more and more alike each week.   And for the record, while I’ve heard the name Swedish House Mafia, I don’t think I’d ever listened to them before. In fact, I don’t even know if they’re from Sweden. I mean, you’d think the electronic duo Boards of Canada are from Canada, right? Wrong. They’re from Scotland! What?! Yep, it’s true. But I digress… So, despite not being a Swedish House Mafia fan, the beauty of this song is undeniable. And as a result, we’ve ended up in the rare situation of making two tutorials on the same song.   In last week’s tutorial BEAUTIFUL ARPEGGIOS (PDF) https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2551818/beautiful-arpeggios we taught our 6-step method for making a beautiful chord progression like you hear in “Ray Of Solar”. In this tutorial, inspired by the same section, you’ll learn our 7-STEP METHOD FOR WRITING A BEAUTIFUL MELODY.   And no, you don’t need to have done the previous tutorial, this one is completely independent. If you have, though, then you can write a melody for the beautiful arpeggios you made from that tutorial. Alright, download the PDF at the link below, then read on to learn the music theory hacks that create this undeniable beauty, and how you can use them to write your own beautiful melody. But first… Tea!     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2554562/beautiful-melody       Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! https://hackmusictheory.com/books RAY HARMONY  

1s

Sep 07, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE BEAUTIFUL ARPEGGIOS   If you play all the notes of a chord simultaneously, you’ll create an instant emotion in your listener. This is a powerful technique, and the most common way to play chords. While allowing a chord to unfold and reveal its emotion one note at a time is arguably less powerful, in the right context, it can be even more beautiful.   One such context is the new single “Ray Of Solar” by Swedish House Mafia. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to Swedish House Mafia before, and I don’t know anything about them, but when I was going through the new releases on Spotify, this song instantly stood out thanks to its beautiful arpeggio intro.   And yes, arpeggios are widely used, but they’re almost always boring. Most producers clearly don’t know how to be creative with arpeggios. And as Swedish House Mafia uses so many clever hacks to make their arpeggios creative, we simply had to share them with you. So, inspired by “Ray Of Solar”, here’s our 6-STEP METHOD FOR WRITING BEAUTIFUL ARPEGGIOS that will definitely stand out. But first… Tea!     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2551818/beautiful-arpeggios       Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY    

1s

Aug 25, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A MELODIC BASS DROP     EDM producers didn’t invent the bass drop, but it’s easy to argue they perfected it! Having said that, though, the bass drop has long since gone stale. After becoming so popular, it was sadly turned into a formulaic cliché. However, every now and then a creative producer comes along with a fresh angle. The recent single “Hero” by Grabbitz (who’s probably my favourite EDM producer), contains an exciting example of this. At 57 seconds into the track, he drops an absolute beauty! So, inspired by Grabbitz, here’s our 5-STEP METHOD for making melodic bass drops. But first… Tea!     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2546081/melodic-bass-drop       Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY  

1s

Aug 18, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A RHYTHMIC CHORD PROGRESSION   One of the most common mistakes producers make when writing chord progressions is focusing exclusively on the notes (i.e. the harmony). Now, it obviously goes without saying that the notes are a vital ingredient in chord progressions, however, another vital ingredient that is often ignored is rhythm.   As a result of this widespread oversight, it’s normal to hear chord progressions that are entirely lacking in vital energy. This lack is more obvious in certain genres than others, but the problem most certainly occurs in all genres.   British electronic duo Maribou State has a great example of what a lively chord progression sounds like. You can hear it in their song “Midas”. It’s a super chill track and the chords are not at all dominant, yet they’re full of vital energy.   So regardless of whether you want to write something uptempo or something chill, the 3-STEP METHOD IN THIS TUTORIAL (inspired by Maribou State “Midas”) will guide you through making a chord progression that’s full of life, by using a creative rhythm, inversions, add chords, and 7th chords. But first… Tea!     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2540881/rhythmic-chords       Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY  

1s

Aug 11, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE "PEACEFUL PIANO" MUSIC   I’m just old enough that I got in my Grade 1 to 12 school years before computers and the internet took over. If you’re a Gen X like me, and there wasn’t a computer in your school building either, then our schooling experience was pretty much the same as our grandfathers’ schooling experiences in their youth. How crazy is that?!   And the deeper you go back into the past, the longer those stretches of time are where nothing changed. Fast forward to today, and robots are making music and cars are driving themselves! It’s not surprising that there’s a tidal wave of nostalgia sweeping industrialised countries. People are desperate to find anything that can lessen the unpredictable nature of this relentlessly-changing modern world.   For most people, an unpredictable world causes anxiety. And the opposite is true too: A predictable world causes calm. IT’S TOTALLY UNDERSTANDABLE THAT THIS DESPERATE DESIRE TO FIND SOME PREDICTABILITY IN OUR WORLD HAS RESULTED IN “PEACEFUL PIANO” BEING ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR PLAYLISTS ON SPOTIFY. Every track on this playlist creates a predictable musical environment, which counterbalances all the change.   If you’ve been in the Hack Music Theory family for a while, you’ll probably be amused right now, as I’ve spent decades teaching people how to make music that’s not predictable haha! Well, my views on music have evolved over the decades, and I now see (and hear) the benefit of well-written predictable music. For the record though, I don’t mean the manufactured “content” that makes up most of the new releases every week, I’m talking about artistic music that’s predictable, like Mozart.   One of the most popular composers in the Peaceful Piano “genre”, who’s been paving the minimal path since the mid-90s, is the Italian pianist and composer LUDOVICO EINAUDI.   So, inspired by “Experience”, one of Einaudi’s most popular songs, here’s our 5-STEP METHOD FOR WRITING “PEACEFUL PIANO” MUSIC. But first… Tea!     DOWNLOAD PDF TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2536029/peaceful-piano       Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY  

1s

Aug 04, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE IN 2 MODES SIMULTANEOUSLY   Humans are walking paradoxes! YOU KNOW THOSE TIMES WHEN YOU’RE FEELING TWO CONTRADICTING EMOTIONS AT THE SAME TIME? Like when you’re in a difficult situation but you feel hopeful about the future, while simultaneously doubting your own optimism. How on earth would you reflect those contradicting feelings in music?   As we cover in our SONGWRITING & PRODUCING PDF https://hackmusictheory.com/product/210150, each mode conveys a general emotion. Feeling optimistic in a difficult situation would be well represented by the Dorian mode, which is the natural minor scale* with a major 6th (i.e. the cloud’s silver lining). Cancelling out that optimism with doubt would revert back to the natural minor scale, where the cloud doesn’t have a silver lining.   So you may be thinking now that it can’t be too difficult to write something using the Dorian mode then switch to the Aeolian mode. And you’re right, that’s not difficult. However, using one mode first and then moving into the other one, does not reflect the paradox of feeling both of the contradicting emotions .   BUT YOU CAN’T USE TWO MODES AT THE SAME TIME, CAN YOU? YES MY FRIEND, YES YOU CAN!   This is where things get juicy. Are you ready? Right, so in the title-track of their album “Pain & Bliss”, THE BROOKS play in both the Dorian and Aeolian modes at the same time. The guitar plays in Dorian while the bass simultaneously plays in Aeolian. It’s awesome!   So, inspired by this great song, here’s our 6-STEP METHOD FOR WRITING MUSIC IN TWO MODES THAT WILL BE PLAYED AT THE SAME TIME. But first… Tea!   *Natural minor scale is another name for the Aeolian mode.     ACCESS TUTORIAL /tutorials     Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY  

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Jul 28, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE A MIXOLYDIAN MELODY   Music in a major key is uplifting, but the downside is that it often sounds childlike.   This is because the major scale is the most predictable scale. Predictable things are comforting and reassuring, so it is indeed used in almost all children’s music. The ease at which children can sing along with melodies in the (predictable) major scale is one reason, but an equally important reason is its innocent and naive sound. This is due to its consonant intervals, but that’s acoustic science, so I won’t bore you.   Here’s the problem so many producers face when trying to make uplifting music: How do you write a song that’s happy but not childlike? Or, far worse than childlike… Cheesy. Urgh! And yes, it’s scary/funny how many songs we hear that were obviously intended to be uplifting, but just ended up sounding cheesy instead.   So how do you make uplifting music that sounds beautiful and mature? Just ask SIGUR RÓS, as that’s exactly what they did with their song “KLETTUR”, from the beautiful new album “Átta”. This song has a wonderfully uplifting melody, but instead of sounding like children’s music (or cheese), it sounds solemn.   In case you ask Sigur Rós but don’t get a reply, here’s the answer: their secret is the Mixolydian mode. There’s a few other brilliant tricks they use as well, like the two different ways they deal with tension and resolution, and you’ll learn all these in our 4-step method for writing Mixolydian melodies, which is in our new PDF tutorial. But first… Tea!   ACCESS TUTORIAL /tutorials   Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY

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Jul 21, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE CALMING CHORDS   Within seconds of hearing the opening chords in PORTISHEAD “ROADS”, you can feel your cortisol levels dropping and your body’s tension releasing. This intro has to be one of the most calming moments in the entire popular music catalogue.   Unlike the mad rush that songs are in nowadays to grab your attention with a catchy hook (in order to avoid the dreaded skip!), the “Roads” intro unfolds at a pace so leisurely that it feels DELIGHTFULLY PRE-INTERNET. Aaah… Remember those days? Back when humans had attention spans longer than goldfish!   On that note. According to Spotify data, about 25% of listeners skip a song within five seconds. If those people skipped “Roads” a mere five seconds in, they wouldn’t even get halfway through the chord progression. Oh well, their loss.   In this dizzyingly fast-paced world, if you want to cater to the distracted listener, then it’s impossible to create a calming atmosphere, as that takes time. For almost the whole first minute of “Roads”, all your hear is the legendary sound of a FENDER RHODES ORGAN. Rumour has it that the song is actually named after the Rhodes.   The vintage sound of a Rhodes organ obviously adds to the atmosphere, but in terms of music theory, what makes these chords so relaxing? Well, it’s not just one thing, it’s many! And in this tutorial you’ll learn them all, as well as our 5-STEP METHOD FOR MAKING YOUR OWN CALMING CHORD PROGRESSION. But first… Tea!   ACCESS TUTORIAL /tutorials   Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY

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Jul 14, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE STANDOUT DRUMS     A standout drum beat can make or break a song. Want proof? Listen to the new APHEX TWIN single “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f”. He’s actually reversed the roles of the instruments in this song, as the melody, chords and bass step into the background while the drums take centre stage. In other words, if this song was played by a live band, the spotlight would be exclusively on the drummer. Drummers rejoice! So, what makes the drums deserving of the spotlight? Well, compared to the “regular” beats you hear in most songs nowadays, Aphex Twin has added a whopping 5 standout features to his drum beat.     LISTEN TO EXAMPLE FROM TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/track/3474887/standout-drums-inspired-by-aphex-twin-blackbox-life-recorder-21f     EACH STANDOUT FEATURE ELEVATES APHEX TWIN'S DRUMS TO THE NEXT LEVEL, AND IN THIS TUTORIAL YOU’LL LEARN ALL 5 LEVELS OF THAT STANDOUT-NESS. But, these levels are totally independent (they’re not accumulative), so you can use only the levels that your song requires. And remember, if you use all 5 levels, your drums will demand the spotlight too, so your other instruments will have to step back. If they don’t, you’ll have a fight on your hands, and no producer wants an instrument fight, not in your DAW at least. Right, click the link below and subscribe to learn how to make your drums worthy of the spotlight. But first… Tea!     ACCESS TUTORIAL /tutorials     Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY

1s

Jul 06, 2023

  HOW TO WRITE BASS LINES THAT MOVE PEOPLE   I remember the first time I heard “Closer” by NINE INCH NAILS in a club back in the ‘90s. I’d never before seen people literally running to the dance floor. Running! My fellow Gen Xers will remember this, but by the time the bass line starts after about 20 seconds of drums, the dance floor would be completely packed. And this phenomenon happened in every club! The power of a great bass line to move people (even over a simple four-on-the-floor beat, like in “Closer”) still amazes me.   LISTEN TO EXAMPLE FROM TUTORIAL https://hackmusictheory.com/track/3469624/bass-moves-inspired-by-nine-inch-nails-closer   Ever since then, I’ve felt that the ability to get people physically moving is probably the most fun aspect of making music. So, inspired by “Closer”, here’s a STEP-BY-STEP METHOD FOR WRITING BASS LINES WITH THE POWER TO MOVE BODIES, MINDS, AND HEARTS. But first… Tea!     ACCESS TUTORIAL /tutorials     Lastly, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Enjoy! /books RAY HARMONY  

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Jun 30, 2023

  *   HOW TO WRITE HEAVY BASS LINES     STEP 1. SYNCOPATED OCTAVES Set up one bar of 4|4 with your grid on 1/16 notes, and your tempo at 110 BPM. You’re gonna start by using only one note, and the octave of that note. We’re using A in our example. So, draw in every 1/16 note on the low A. Now, play around with moving a handful of them one octave up. These high notes will make accents in your bass line, so you want them to create a cool rhythm all on their own. And one of the best ways to do that is to syncopate most of them. In other words, most of them will not be on the main beats. All that syncopation adds tons of energy!   STEP 2. HIGH LINE Your bass line actually consists of two lines now: a high line, and a low line. So in this step you’re gonna add a melodic element to your high line. A great note to start on is the ♭3 (which is C in our example), as it’s super strong and moody! And by the way, if these flats and numbers confuse you, no problem, just read hack 8 in our free book (link below). Right, so what other notes should you use in your high line? Well, as we’re writing a heavy bass line, you wanna crank up the dissonance, so throw in a ♭2 somewhere (which is B♭ in our example). And if you use the ♭3 and the ♭2, then you could also use the 2, which is the note in between. And feel free to repeat notes. In our example, we played the ♭3 twice, the 2 twice, and the ♭2 once. And a shoutout to local Vancouver BC legends FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, as this lesson is based on the song “Purge” from their 2021 album “Mechanical Soul”.     FREE BOOK Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. /books     STEP 3. LOW LINE So as you could hear, the bass line is already sounding good. And to be honest, most producers would think it’s now complete, but not Front Line Assembly! No, they’ve got one more trick up their sleeves, and that’s the dissonance they add to their low line. Most of their low line remains on the root note, however, they’ve moved a few notes down one semitone to the 7 (which is G♯ in our example). Also, at the very end, you could throw in a ♭3 for a little variation. This makes the bass line loop more smoothly as well. Adding this dissonance to your low line is a game-changer, as it’s super subtle (seriously, most people won’t even notice it), but it adds a feeling of heaviness that you simply can’t achieve without it!     PODCAST Listen below, or on any podcast app.

2m

Jun 11, 2023

  *   HOW TO WRITE ADVANCED DRUMS     STEP 1. PATTERN Set up two bars of 4|4 with your grid set to 1/16 notes, and your tempo at 136 BPM. Now, instead of starting to make your drum beat with the usual kick on beat 1 and snare on the backbeats (like everyone else does!), you’re gonna start by writing your kick and snare pattern on the hi-hats. Wait, what?! I know that seems like a really odd thing to do, but this method is gonna result in a far more creative (and therefore “advanced”) drum beat. Okay, so there are many ways to write a creative pattern, but here’s an easy method. Start by playing every 1/8 note. Then, delete a couple of those. This creates variation. And then, move one or two hits over to the next 1/16 note. This creates surprise.     STEP 2. BEAT Right, now that you’ve written a creative rhythm, it’s time to turn it into a drum beat. To do that, simply divide up your pattern between the kick and the snare. In other words, move some notes to the kick and others to the snare. But, instead of falling back into the conventional approach of kick on beat 1 and snare on the backbeats, purposefully avoid doing that in the first bar. This unusual approach in your first bar creates a huge amount of interest that grabs the listeners’ attention. But, if you repeat this approach in your second bar, it won’t sound as interesting any more, as they’ll be expecting it. So, in your second bar, you’re purposefully going to switch to a conventional approach with the kick on beat 1 and snare on the backbeats (i.e. beats 2 and 4). This cycling back and forth between an unconventional bar and a conventional bar keeps your listeners constantly engaged. And a shoutout to Royal Blood, and especially their drummer Ben Thatcher, as this lesson is based on his beat from their new single “Mountains at Midnight”. Just before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.     FREE BOOK Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK /books (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. /books     STEP 3. PULSE This is the easy part. Just add an 1/8 note pulse on a cymbal. This simple rhythm glues the complex beat together. Ben actually switches the pulse between the hats for the verses, and the crash for the choruses. And if you need more help with your beats, download our HACK DRUM BEATS PDF /drums (link opens in new tab). It contains everything you need to know for making great beats, all in one PDF. /drums   PODCAST Listen below, or on any podcast app.

2m

Jun 04, 2023