Advanced Concepts of Music Theory

1. Introduction: Hi, my name is Hose Tehani. I'm a singer, songwriter, music producer, and studio engineer based in Listo in Southern Africa. And in this course, we'll be taking a deeper look at music theory as it relates to music production, especially scales, chords, and some concepts in rhythm. The end of this course, you should be able to use more advanced concepts of music theory in chords, more complex chords, more complex scales, to be able to increase the quality of your music productions to layer sounds better to make your composition sound more accomplished and much more professional. I look forward to seeing you in the next video. 2. Understanding Advanced concepts of Music Theory: So why is it important to master more advanced concepts of music theory for music production? It's very important on a number of levels. One main reason why is if you're like me as a composer and a producer, a lot of times you hear ideas in your head. Sometimes you might hear a complete song or an idea or a chord structure, and it's almost if you don't have a good understanding of music theory, it's almost like trial and error to get what you're playing to sound like what is coming from in your mind. So a deeper understanding of music theory helps you to better translate what it is that you hear onto the keyboard or into your D or whatever it is that you're working with. If you're playing an instrument to be able to play it, in a way that you're hearing it. So ultimately, your composition better reflects what it was you were hearing originally. As a composer, I know there's nothing more frustrating than you hear something in your head, but however you try and play, it doesn't quite sound you know whatever you've played sounds okay, but it doesn't sound like what you heard. So having a deeper understanding of music theory helps you to be able to better translate that. Another key reason is faster workflow when you're working maybe programming in your DA, you'll work much quicker rather than less with trial and error because you kind of already know the notes that the notes and chords that you're playing. You'll know which notes go well which chords go well with which other chords. Which keys maybe go well with other keys. So it will be easier when you're maybe composing to say, Okay, after this verse to go somewhere else, I'll need to use this chord or this chord to bridge to be able to get to where I want to go. So it enables you to work faster. Another reason is with collaboration with other musicians, when the musicians you're working with have a good understanding of music theory, and you do, as well. You're able to work better translating ideas more effectively to each other so that the collaboration better reflects what it was everybody was hearing. With a good understanding of music theory, then you could be working with someone in another country, just online or whatever else and can write out a chord structure that you can send to them and they'll immediately know exactly what you were thinking and playing. So that's also a key reason. Another very important reason I would say is it gives you mastery of different genres of music. There are kind of specific theoretical underpinnings of music theory to different genres of music. For example, jazz, they use a particular type of chord, a particular type of structure, a particular type of rhythm and time signature. So, knowing what's specific to that genre will help you be able to as a producer, you might produce jazz one day and hip hop, another day, and R&B a third day or whatever. And so having a general good understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of each genre helps you to be able to work easier and understand different genres better. And then I think, lastly, really understanding music theory well will give you a good understanding of chords, harmony, song structure. So gradually you'll hear the more you practice and the more concepts you master, it will begin to reflect in your compositions. They'll become more sophisticated. They'll become a yeah, they'll evolve and become more sophisticated, and you'll find yourself able to convey emotions, for example, better in your compositions because you'll know, okay, if I'm wanting this song to sound sad and mournful, but with an air of hopefulness, you'll know what kind of chords you can use in order to convey that type of emotion. So overall, those are the reasons I'd say it's essential to better understand music theory. 3. Understanding Music Theory: Evolution from Beat & Rhythm to Harmony & Melody: Okay, an interesting story or a story of a musician who evolved and transformed his sound as he understood better music theory. Good example is Farrell Williams. When he began, he was more as part of the Neptunes. He was more of a I would say beatmaker than a more broad producer. He did songs like Nelli Hot in here, Kelis, forgot the name of the song, but the chorus kept saying, I hate you so much right now. So the beats, he was always very innovative with regards to rhythm and beat. Um, the melodic structure of the music was not as sophisticated at the beginning of his career. He would be more someone you would classify as a beat maker than who would make a beat and then people would sing and do things over it, more than a full on musical producer, I would say. But as his understanding of musical theory grew, it began to also be reflected in his music to the point where one of his biggest hits happy is very if you listen to Happy and you listen to some of the beginning songs that he did, it's much more sophisticated and it's rhythmic structure, it's harmonic structure, it's the melodies, the vocal background voices, it's a much more evolved song, something like Happy or something like Get Lucky collaboration he did with Daft Punk. It fuses different genres. It isn't straight kind of hip hop like he did at the beginning of his career. I fused elements of jazz, elements of classical music, elements of rock and punk and other things to kind of come up with a unique sound, which is something he does now. He can produce anyone at this point. He from any kind of genre and seamlessly fits in. And his songs kind of have a much more sophisticated melodic and harmonic structure than they did at the very beginning. So he's a very good example of a well known producer who was already well known, but as he studied music theory, that deeper understanding filtered into his music, such that his music evolved and became much more sophisticated than when he began. 4. Groove & Syncopation: Okay, let's talk now about syncopation and groove. Let's talk about groove first. The groove tends to be a bit more to the groove kind of needs to lock in, and to lock in, it needs to be a bit more simple. Let's say, a kick and snare and um you know, one, two, three, four, like a basic something that maybe a kick and snare or a kick and a bass drum would do. It kind of sets the foundation of your track or your song. And that needs to you can vary kind of the emphasis, like, you know, let's say it's kick and snare, in a 44 time signature. You can let's I know in R&B it's something that happens a lot in hip hop. The emphasis might be on beat two and beat four. So the groove would kind of be that dah da dun da, that kind of thing. And then, that kind of sets the foundation, which then you can vary here and there just for a little bit of a break and come back. So the groove is very important to lock in first. And then syncopation is kind of like adding spice to the cooked meat of the groove. So, you know, things like, you know, high hats or, um, ing a different rhythm pattern. It doesn't have to play the same pattern as the groove. It adds different timing elements to that groove to give it a more unique feel. An example would be an Afro beat. The beat, generally, the groove is quite simple. It can be kind of a kick four times like kinking ing or ka, gin something simple. And then the different groove elements come in with the different instruments that are added, like, the gas will play a different rhythm pattern. Shakers will come in and play a 16th kind of a beat over that 44 a 16th rhythm pattern over that 44 simple pattern that's a bit more complex. High hats could come in and play something else, a different rhythm. The bassline can be playing some other different rhythm, just to kind of give it variety and have the groove kind of move differently. So we'll see a bit more of that when we get into the examples. 5. Enriching Music with Scales: Harmonic Minor: Okay, so we're going to move a little bit past the kind of generally known major minor scales. And we're going to talk about some other more complicated types of scales, which once you've learned them will help make your music richer. The first one we're going to talk about is the harmonic minor scale. So it's a little bit of a variation from the natural minor, which is the more well known one. Let's start using the example of C minor. A general C minor scale is okay, there's C. So C minor is Okay. So now we're talking about the harmonic minor. And it is called the harmonic because if we remember, all of the notes on a scale are also assigned a number, so one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and then back to C and octave higher. The harmonic minor is on the seventh note. Uh, we go up a half step. Remember, this is a half step. This is a whole step. So the harmonic minor C is God let's try another key just to A minor harmonic would be So the harmonic means we raise the seventh note by a half step. And that's primarily that's the harmonic minor scale. 6. Melodic Minor Scale: Okay, so now we can talk about another minor scale. It's called the melodic minor scale. It's another variation of the minor scale with a little different sound musically. The melodic minor, you raise the sixth and the seventh note. So where the harmonic, you raise only the seventh, the melodic, you raise the sixth and the seventh. So using C minor as the example. So the raised sixth, the raised seventh. That's a melodic minor. Using A as an example. A minor. That's the melodic minor scale. 7. Diminished Minor Scale: Okay, let's talk now about the diminished minor scale. The diminished minor is characterized by, um, Remember, this from here to here is a half step, from here to here is a whole step. So it's characterized by a sequence of half step, whole step or whole step, half step. So the C diminished minor, half step whole step would be half step, whole step, half step, whole step, half step, whole step, half step, who step. That's the C diminished minor half step whole step. And it can also be whole step, half step, where you start the beginning with a whole step and then half step like that. It's used a lot in jazz primarily. So that's why the sound sounds a little bit, less more foreign to our ears because but it's used a lot in jazz in terms of jazz improvisations and things like that. That's the diminished minor scale. 8. Hexatonic Scale: whole Notes Scale: Okay, finally, we're going to look at the whole tone scale or to be fancy and academic, the hexatonic scale. It's characterized by just whole notes, whole steps, and it's six notes in length. So the whole tone for C scale would be whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone. Hole tone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone. So it's used mainly in, it has kind of a dream like quality. So things like for film or TV, if someone is having a dream and, you know, they're sleeping and then they show the scene of them, you know, the screen doing this and then them being somewhere else. It's that kind of That kind of a sound. So that's where the hexatonic or whole tone scale is used a lot in composition for film or TV, primarily fantasy type stuff. 9. Beyond Major & Minor : A journey Through Musical Modes: Okay, so now let's talk about modes. Modes actually before the whole system of major and minor came in the 1600s, composers used modes instead of the major minor scale that we know today. So that's how everything was composed a pre 1,600. So each there are seven modes corresponding to each node in the scale. So, for example, if we're here, there's a mode for this key. There's a mode for D. If you're starting on D and ending on D, it's a mode. If you're starting on E and ending on E, it's a mode. Starting on F, ending on F, starting on G, ending on G, starting on A, same way, and then starting on B. So it's easiest to demonstrate in C because we're basically only using the white keys. But each of them, when you break it down, has its own interval in terms of half steps and whole steps. But for the purposes of just this demonstration, we'll just use it from C. So the first mode on C is called the Ionian mode. Now, that is a back there. That's the Ionian mode, which corresponds to a C major scale. So this is used a lot in pop music and a lot of modern music. The second mode is the Dorian mode, which starts on D. So it's That's the Dorian mode of C, starting on the D. And then the Parenean mode starts on E. That's the Prenean mode. 10. Lydian Mode Scale: Okay. So now we're looking at the Lydian mode, which starts on F. In fact, if you as an interesting fact, the Simpsons TV theme song is a Lydian mode. So playing only those chords. So that's the Lydian. And then mix Oldian oh 11. Mixolydian Mode: Okay, so now the Mixolydian mode starts here. Remember this is in G. Any other scale has its own modes, but we're looking at C at the moment. So like a song, for example, that's actually a song called Sweet Home Alabama. Sweet Home Alabama. Lord, I'm coming home to you. So that's the Mxoldian scale. 12. Chord Theory & Progression: Okay, so now we can move on to the next module of chord theory and progression. And we're going to start with extended chords. Extended chords are chords like the seventh or the ninth or the 11th or the 13th. The basic chord is the triad. This is the C the triad, the one, the three, and the five. So extended chords go beyond the five to the seven, the nine, the 11, or even the 13. They can be major, minor or dominant. So, for example, the sorry, C major seven. This would be the nine. This would be the 11, the 13. So they can be used, especially in programming in your Dao You can a lot of pads will be 11th and 13th notes to kind of give a richer feel to the chords that you're playing in this song. Um it can be, for example, a seventh can be this. It can be that would be the C minor seventh. Uh, I can even be like, even though that doesn't sound very nice, or it can be So you can see that note kind of sounds quite rich. One of, um, my compositions. I started. That's a seven, and that's a nine. So those beginning chords, this one here that's a C major ninth. So it sounds a little nicer than Which is just the triads. So when you learn, for example, the ninth, instead of you're playing this, which sounds a bit more broad and gives the chord a bit more body. So another example using extended chords, the Farrell Williams we talked about at the beginning, Farrell Williams happy. It's so let's just assume it was played in that key. That's seventh there. Because I'm happy CapRunt down, d d d sorry. Dabrun data down, d, d, d, d. So, it's using the seventh So even the harmonies, I think, in that song, he uses that all four of those notes, meaning the seventh. So it gives it without playing just triads, it would be it doesn't sound quite as broad and as rich. So seventh and sometimes ninth, you can kind of play as chords. It's also used a lot in No soul type compositions. But 11th and 13th, you'll see in the demonstration when we layer basic chords with their 11th and 13th in the pads and the other instruments, because, like, you could, for example, play this and then have a bell or some other thing. Playing over that which incorporates elements of that 13th into the chord. So that's really the theory behind the extended chords. If one just remembers the triad, the 135, and then seven, nine, 11, 13, and then they can be major. They can be major, minor, and diminished as well. That's the theory behind extended chords. 13. Modal Interchange & Borrowed Chords: Okay, so now we can talk about some chords and complicated, not complicated, but tools one can use in your cords. The first one of which is borrowed chords. Now, borrowed chords, basically, you borrow a cord that is in the parallel. For example, if you're in C major, you borrow a chord that is in C minor, the corresponding chord that is in C minor. The parallel, it's called the parallel scale. So to just give a kind of different twist or a new something a little more special to your arrangement or your composition. So in the 14, five, four in C, in fact, let's play it with an inversion. It would be one, four, five. So we would be now looking to take the corresponding chord from the minor, which is the parallel scale of C major. So in the example I just used, uh, this would be the minor chord of the four in C minor. So, um, let's let's do it this way. Instead of That's original borrowed cord. We're borrowing that four from C minor. So you can see emotionally it changes character the character of the cord. It's less happy and jubilant this one. It's more it's not sad, but it's a bit more pensive. So that's the concept of borrowed chords, taking from the parallel scale in the key that you're in. So if you're in C major, it would be taking the chord from C minor. That's the concept of borrowed chords. 14. Rhythm Fusion : The Art of Polyrhythms In African Percussion: Okay, so we're going to talk now about the concept of polyrhythms, and what they are and how they help, how this concept helps in music production to make your compositions and productions more rich and more varied. So, in essence, polyrhythms are a musical concept where at two or more contrasting, different rhythms are played simultaneously, most of the time with different time signatures or subdivisions. So, um, they make, you know, playing two different sort of rhythms with different sort of time signatures create help to create kind of a more complex rhythm or maybe rhythmic texture that adds interest and make your composition seem less straightforward, like just four on the floor or, you know, one, two, three, four, it gives the rhythm a kind of complex feel, which also then will leak into the overall composition in terms of making it feel more varied and more layered. So I'll show this example with the most It's a very common polyrhythm. Which is called three against two. That basically means playing three beats against two beats. So let's say if I'm using my hands, one hand or let's say we're using drums, one drum plays three evenly spaced notes while the second one plays two evenly spaced notes. In the same time in the same time frame. So it can actually be a bit confusing, you know, like if you're a player or something and one hand is playing three beats in a time where the other is playing two. So it can be quite complex. So the 32 rhythm, 3/2 polyrhythm is used a lot in African music a lot. And let me show you a very simple example just to get an idea what we're talking about. So I've set up my Daw ProTools, and I'm using Native Instruments contact as the instrument. The plugin is called West Africa. So I'm going to be using percussion to demonstrate it. So let's start with the two rhythms in the same time frame. The tempo, I've put a 110, and I've put a click track in. So Okay. We'll use those. So now we're playing the first rhythm, which is the two beats to in a space of time. Okay. So I'm just going to quantize that so that it's right on the beat. And we can listen back to one, two, one, two, one, two. So that would be the two rhythm part. And now the three rhythm, let's put that in. Okay, I'll use that. So just recording it. Hang on. Okay. Um, just quantizing that to be on time. And now let's hear. Okay. So if you hear this hand, if I solo it, sorry. One, two, here we go. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, one, two, three, one, two, three. So let's just play that again. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. So it's playing one, two, three. That's the rhythm that it's playing against in that space of time, one, two, three, two, two, three, three, three, three, four, three, three. And then the other hand, going to unmute that and mute this one. Two, one, two, one, two, one, two. Let me just see if I can loop that. So that's a 3/2 polyrhythm. The kind of kick drum. The deep drum is playing the two and the other hand is playing three. So this is something that's very common in African music, African percussion, not just African percussion, but, you know, in rock and other things, there's some songs that have been done. But the beat has a more complex feel to it than maybe just the two beats at the same time. So then one can, you know, then kind of add let me just add another track just to quickly show. So So, um, in general, that would be the kind of base. And then other things using other things that we'll talk about to fill in the groove would be added. See, I'm adding different uh I'll just do one more. One, two, three, one, two, three. So different rhythms can come in, and, in fact, maybe let me just do so so that you get a good Right. So, um, just quant so you can hear. I'll just remove those. Sorry. Different rhythms. So it's different rhythms just to make it a bit more complex. So then as this base, one would then layer different percussion elements with different rhythmical feels to fill up and boost the basic three, two polyrhythm. So this is a nutshell is polyrhythm. There are many different examples. You could use three, four, three beats over four or three beats over four, or you could use, you know, five beats over four. There's a very popular song called Take five by Dave Brubeck that is very well known in jazz for using a 54 polyrhythm, where the one rhythm is playing one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five. And then the other is four, one, one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four. So that's a very popular pattern, but there are many. And so the most common it's in jazz, where polyrhythms are mainly used a lot. And in Afrobeat, a lot of Afrobeat uses polyrhythms, you know, playing different playing different rhythms with different percussive instruments to come out with a kind of feel that is layered and not so basic. So that in a nutshell is the concept of polyrhythms. 15. Rhythm Fusion: Polyrhythm & Odd Time Signatures : Okay, so now we're going to extend that polyrhythm concept a bit and talk about odd time signatures. Odd time signatures, Yeah, one would call them an extension of the polyrhythms. They're basically musical time signatures. You know, like common time signatures would be 44 or 34. Um Odd time signatures are musical signatures where the number of beats in a measure is not divisible by two or three, which makes it kind of uneven and irregular. Like a 44 time signature, it's four beats in one measure. One, two, three, four, two, two, three, four, three, four, it's three beats in a measure. So like, one, two, three, two, two, three, three, two, three. So, odd time signatures are signatures where, as I said, measure the number of beats in a measure is not divisible by four, by two or three, excuse me. Um, so because it's not a traditional rhythm to our ears, it's not common. It results in a sense of complexity or unpredictability. So to demonstrate it, I'm using the 54 time signature where I spoke about polyrhythms that Dave BubeckTFV is well known for using that 54 time signature, which is not a very common time signature. So a 54 time signature means that each measure, has five beats. So it's like one, two, three, four, five, two, two, three, four, five, like that. So it's quite uncommon to our ears. So on the Dave I've put a drum kit from slate SSD 5.5 drum kit. So to just demonstrate, I've programmed basic, and then we'll just add to that just so you can get an idea. The time signature, let's start with the click, so one hears. One, two, three, four, five, two, two, three, four, five, three, two, three, four, five. So it's five beats per measure. So here's the drum. So we're just going to add like a kind of rim, which in this this is where you kind of hear the five beats much more clearly. Okay. Then I'm just going to quantize that So that rim is kind of playing the Let me mute there so you can hear. One, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five. So that is kind of the basic that's the basic groove. I'll just play piano a bit so you can hear. The piano then kind of fills in that groove a little bit to make it more complex. Right, so let's just play that. That's basically how it goes. Um Let me just extend the beat just a bit. Alright, so I'm just extending the beat just a bit, you'll see as I remove these. Right. So I'm just doing that just to extend Okay. So yeah, it's just demonstrating really the concept of the 54 complex time signatures. Let me do it one more time. So, those kind of complex time signatures, it doesn't need to be five, four. It can be 74 or 78. Anything basically that's not divisible by two or three, 118, 138. So the reason people use them really is to break the predictability of standard time signatures, which tends to add a sense of intrigue or mystery. And they're they're generally they're very common in traditional music styles, particularly like Indian, Middle Eastern, or even Balkan. So it feels kind of challenging to both the person playing and the listener because they're not used to the sort of 123 they're used to the one, two, three, four, especially the Western listener. That's really what I would say that's why people use them to kind of challenge the listener and challenge the players because it's a kind of unique rhythmic structure that one isn't used the Westerner isn't used to hearing. So that is the concept of odd time signatures. 16. Rhythm Application : Groove & Syncopation: Uh, okay, having talked about groove and syncopation, this is just a quick demonstration of how groove and syncopation can change the overall feel of a song. So here's just a simple chord pattern. It's kind of four and one. Okay. So now let's just add a quick groove to it. A basic kind of 44 type groove. Okay. And then we'll probably just add a a high hat to that. Let me just quantize. Just adding a high hat to that. Okay. Just quantizing that. Okay. So, um, yeah, that's just a basic groove. Right. So there's the groove. It kind of has a bit of a rock, rock feel, a rock pop feel in terms of the groove. So that's kind of, you know, some of the instruments are adding a bit of syncopation here and there, but the groove is kind of locked in that kind of rock type of feel. So now if we were to mute this, which we are going to, and then let's go back. Now this is actually what we what the actual song was. So let's I haven't removed anything or anything like that. I'm just playing it with a different groove. So you see by a different groove and different syncopation in terms of the placing of the instruments, the same thing, the same arrangement changes into a full kind of Afrobeat type of song. Let me just solo some of the elements just so you hear the new groove. That's kind of a typical adding a third one. So you hear the groove is something totally different. Shakers playing something So this is now an Afrobeat groove with the kick and rim playing the basic elements and then the shakers and other things coming in to give a different syncopation. And then the guitars, as well in terms of the timing that they play. What the guitar is playing compared to the groove. So I think that's a very good example of groove and syncopation in action. That basic groove is fine, and it gives you a certain feel. But you remove that groove and you put in something an Afrobeat type of arrangement with a simple groove of kick and rim shot and then other elements such as the shakers and the guitars playing different off time elements to the groove, and it gives you a totally different feel a kind of authentic, genuine Afrobeat song. So this is a good example of kind of groove and syncopation in action and how different grooves and different syncopation elements can change the total feel of the song that you're trying to create. 17. Practical: An Application of Scaling, Modes & Poyrhythms: Okay, having done this arrangement, we can now talk about it. We started simple with the one, six, four, five, and then we added secondary dominance to just spice things up a bit. So instead of one, two, three, four, one, we went one, two, three, using the seventh seventh. And then we added in the pad and the strings, the sort of bell sound in the strings. We added the larger chords, the seventh, ninth, 11th. So like this one here, which I think I played with the bell, but we'll hear it. So this is seventh, ninth, 11, 13th. Except This is also a ninth It's ninth and 11. So let's play, and then I'll point them out. Right there, just to show you. I started here. And then the bell said, so that's the seventh chord right there. The minor seventh. Minor seventh. Okay, so in that arrangement, there were a lot of ninth and 11th and even 13th notes, chords, I'm sorry, being played using the strings and that bell sound, layering them over, um the piano. So a lot of times in music production, that's used to, you know, those ninth, 11th are played by the pads and other instruments to kind of layer and give the overall arrangement more depth and more complexity than just 16, four, five chords. So you'll hear that that arrangement sounds much more there's more depth to it than the basic 1645 of the piano if we just used triads, the one, three, and the five. So as you hear from that, one can use those 11th and 13th and the other strategies like, you know, different chords to be able to spice up your arrangement, and make it feel to evoke much more of an emotion. I'm not sure if we play this what type of emotion we're evoking kind of a dreamy, wistful type of emotion that you don't necessarily catch the same emotion from just There's nothing wrong with that, but when you add the other elements, it kind of deepens and broadens and makes the arrangement sound much bigger than just using the 1645 triads. So this is kind of a quick live demonstration of how some of these techniques can improve your original compositions to make them sound more lush, more complex and increase the depth and convey different types of emotions. Like in this instance, that kind of dreamy vibe. 18. Practical : An Application of Groove & Rhythm, Chord Progression & Percussions: Okay, so now we're going to build a bit of an arrangement just to demonstrate how we can use some of the theoretical concepts that we top through in terms of the cords and scales in terms of building an arrangement. I'm going to use one of the examples I used. I think it was in talking About Dominant seventh. So let's just do that now. I've created sort of a blank template, and then we're going to let me just put a click to keep rhythm. Maybe, let's see. I think I'll make it a bit slower. Okay. So I will start playing and then we'll kind of build and then we'll kind of talk through things. Okay. There's a bit of a computer lag, but I think not enough to throw things off. So what I'm playing here. It's one, six, four, five combination. So I'll put it in. I'll play it twice, basic, and then start adding some of the things that we learned. Okay. Let's just go up till there. Um, we've quantized that. So let's just see Okay. Now, let's add let's add the strings. Okay. I just go a quantas that. Okay. So the key elements that we're adding in these other instruments to kind of diversify the arrangement a bit. That's the But actually, let me play, and then I'll explain. Okay. Yes. So I'm just quantizing, and then we can talk about this. So to demonstrate, I think the piano was easier. So with the arrangement that I was just playing, as I said, it's one, six, four, five, which is, you know, very simple. But then we added, first of all, the Yeah, well the dominant seventh chords. I'm sorry, diminished. I'm sorry. 19. Class Project: Your class project, I'd like you to take some of the concepts we learned in this course, some of the more complex chords and structures of rhythms and scales, and in your Da, apply them to some of the compositions that you've done, and then apply them, finish those compositions and send them to me.