Introduction To Music Theory For Beginners

1. Introduction: Girl last night. And rigs problems. Stop being you from when you ago. Hello. My name is Jozo Tahani. I'm a singer, songwriter, music producer and studio engineer, based in Lesto. I will be teaching introduction to music theory for music producers. And the class project that I'll be asking the students to do is to learn the C major scale, the D major scale, play them and play the 145 progression for both keys. Take an audio file or a video file of it and send back to. 2. What is Music Theory: Music theory is basically the language that musicians communicate their music in, like English is a language that you communicate your thoughts and ideas, music theory is the kind of framework by which musicians are able to write down, articulate their musical ideas in a manner that can be communicated to other musicians for posterity and the like. If we look back at the days of Beethoven and Bach, you know, composers in the 16, 17, 1800s, the same language that they used to write their major compositions that are known in the world over hundreds of years later is the same language that music theory is. So the way Mozart wrote a particular piece, even though Mozart is no longer here, exactly how he envisaged it. People are now able to play it in the exact manner and with the exact denses and everything else that he wanted, reproducing it as if he was doing it today. So that's in essence, what music theory is. It's the language that allows you to communicate with other musicians and that also allows you to put down your musical ideas, which is very critical. 3. Importance of Music Theory: Okay. As a music producer, it's really critical to have, even if it's just a basic understanding of music theory. As within music production, A, you will be communicating with other musicians. You know, you could be producing musicians in the studio, and you need a way to be able to communicate your ideas effectively to those musicians who would be coming to work at the studio. Secondly, the songs in which the songs you produce in your studio, you would be sending them out at some point where they will be played or where they may be performed by other musicians. So it's very important in the communication aspect for a music producer. Secondly, to be able to work on other pieces of music maybe that you didn't compose, to be able to read the music so that you're able to either play it or produce it. There will be people who come and work in your studio who are not studio technical people, but who are musicians who write, who would be communicating with you as to, okay, this is the piece of music I've written. This is how I want it to go, and then you would be reading their music through your understanding of music theory. Another aspect, which is also critical is in your own compositions. It gives you a sense of structure in structuring your compositions out and gives you a technical understanding to be able to use chords that musical chords or play things, which your understanding of music theory, the better it is, the better your playing will be. And that will also help in better translating your musical ideas to your D or whatever it is that you're working on in your music studio. Nowadays with hip hop music and things like that. We a lot of samples are used, which generally, you know, producers will take samples from other music audio samples and then chop them up and rework them in different ways. Sometimes that's not possible. The musical rights of the musical samples that you're using make it difficult for you to be able to do that. So it's always very good to be able to have a good understanding of music theory, to be able to play or translate what's in your mind, that is totally originally you to paper or to a communication mechanism to be able to communicate your idea to the world through music theory. 4. Music Theory in Music Composition: Music theory is critical in reading and writing music. Reading the aspect of reading, Their compositions, their composers from ages past, Beethoven Bach Mozart, who wrote compositions in the 1700s, 1800s, and they wrote their compositions for orchestras to perform. Now, they wrote the same language that they used to write their musical compositions is the same language that we are looking at in this course in music theory. So reading means that Mozart was able to write out for an orchestra for a violin. I want the violin to play this way, this way, I want the dynamics to be like this and write it in the language of music through music theory, such that that violin player was able to read and reproduce exactly what Mozart was thinking in his mind. So when you're working with other musicians, to be able to read music is very critical because it enables you to be able to read and reproduce exactly their musical ideas in the manner in which they envisage them. So as a music producer, perhaps in a music studio, and you're working with a pianist who has written some compositions. It is important to have a good idea of reading music so that you can read that composers that pianists musical ideas, the dynamics that he wanted to play and the notes he wanted to use and all of that in a manner that enables you to be able to reproduce it in the studio. Without music theory, there's no way without being able to read music. There's no way that you'd be able to somebody could write down their musical concept that you can then look at, reproduce, and work on and evolve further. So the reading aspect is very important with communicating with other musicians. The writing aspect of music composition of music theory, I'm sorry, is very important in ening you as a composer to articulate and write down your musical ideas in a manner that if you're working with other musicians who read music, you're able to put down your musical ideas to broaden them and work on them. A lot of times, us as music producers. We hear a lot of music in our head. You know, it's something common. You know, I hear this song in my head, but it's very difficult to put that song down in a manner that other people can hear, understand, and assist you to realize the vision without some understanding of being able to write out your musical ideas theoretically through music theory. So the aspect of writing your music, It helps you in composition. So that is also another very critical aspect, the composition aspect. A lot of times people producers who don't have at least some basic understanding of theory, we'll say, I hear this song in my head, but I'm unable to put it down in a way that it doesn't sound like the way I heard it in my head. That's a common thing that a lot of producers with no musical theory think of. So that's also a very critical point. Also knowing the music theory helps you to structure your musical ideas better. And to be able to maybe use chords, we play things that we're comfortable with. But when you are able to read music and you're able to study other musical compositions, you're able to incorporate some of those musical concepts into your own compositions, which makes your own compositions improve and get better. And then I would say the final aspect through as a music producer. Sampling is very big right now in general in terms of music production. But it is becoming harder and harder to use samples of other people's music, audio samples of other people's music. As a basis to compose your own music. So it's better to be able to express your own musical ideas through music theory, to put them down, so you don't have to rely on samples. Not to say, don't use them at all, but you can rely on your own musical composition ideas to be able to put them down, write them and express them through music theory. 5. Basic Notation: Okay. Okay, now let's get more into the Nittigrity of it. How does one write music down? I would say the basic element is the musical staff. Now, the musical staff is kind of the the palette on which you write as a musician, your musical notes, which a note, let me say corresponds to on a keyboard, let's say, on a piano. Every key that you play corresponds to a particular note that can be written down and expressed that when somebody reads, they're able to see that this is what you're playing. So the staff is sort of the canvas on which you put down the notes that you're writing. The staff is generally comprised of five horizontal lines. Five horizontal lines. And then each one of those lines corresponds to a particular note, which can be translated onto a piano. We can say this note corresponds to this line on a musical staff. So the staff is composed of the five lines, and then the space is in between the lines, which also comprise musical notes. So In essence, Yeah, each line each line is a note and then the spaces in between are notes. So the five lines, the lowest line is a note, the space in between is a note, the second line is a note, the other space like that. So the five lines and the four spaces. So that is the case for both broadly speaking, the right hand and the left hand, and that's where clef, the concept of clef comes in. Clef is there are two clefs in music theory, the treble clef and the base clef. The treble clef is broadly corresponds to the right hand. So the treble clef, when you see the treble clef, you're really looking at working on a On a piano framework, you're looking at your right hand. That's the treble clef. And the notes that you're playing are using your right hand. The bass clef corresponds to your left hand. And it's notes that you play. Again, also, it's five lines and four spaces in the same way. And so the base clef corresponds to the left hand and playing notes on that left hand and the treble clef is notes on your right hand. Now, as far as notes in general, the musical notes use the first seven letters of the alphabet. So ABC D E F G. And then they repeat again. So on a piano at These are the white notes on a piano. You've seen there white keys, and then they're black keys. So they're white notes, and then they're black keys that are like two black keys, and then some white notes, and then three black keys, and then some white notes like that going from one end of the piano all the way to the other. Now, all of those keys correspond to a particular note, and they just repeat. So let's say you're starting at A, the note of A. It will be A B C D E F, G, and then it starts again A B C D E on the white keys. And then the black keys, which are also notes, they are used in the concept of flats and sharps. We'll get into it a bit later on. But just for now, to know that every note corresponds to a line on those musical staffs that I'm talking about, either on your right hand or on your left hand through the treble clef or the base cleft. And then there are the white keys that have those notes of ABCD E F and G. And then the black keys, which are little steps from those white keys that also have names of notes, which we'll get into a bit later on. 6. Introduction to Treble and Bass clefs: Okay. So now that we've explained the music staff, we can now look at notes being put on the music staff and what note corresponds to what line or space on the musical staff. Let's start with the trouble clef, which remember I said was the right hand. U This is the treble clef, and these are the five lines, one, two, three, four, five, and these are the four spaces. Now these are nodes on the lines and in the spaces between the lines. Let's start with the spaces because there are fewer. The first space above the lowest line is the note F. The second space is the note A. The third note, the third space is the note C, and the final space up here is called E. So I would advise to just memorize the notes. What line corresponds to what note and what space corresponds to what note. There's an acronym here that is spelled in the spaces, FACE. So face, you know that that is the spaces. Those are the spaces in the musical staff on the treble clef on the right hand. Now, the lines, there are five lines, as we said, the lowest line This note, which is the circle around the note, around the line is the note. This is the note E. This second note here on the second line is the note G. The third line, the note is B. The fourth is D, and the fifth is F. The acronym that spelled is EGB dF. When I was learning, I memorized it by every good boy deserves fudge, but feel free to use whatever you think will help you memorize it better. Think the more time you take to memorize this at the beginning, the better once you've memorized it, it will be to be able to move around quickly and flexibly. This is the treble clef. Now let's look at the base clef, which is on the left hand. Again, it's the five lines and the four spaces. The bottom line is the node G. The second line is the note B. The third line going from bottom to the top is D. The fourth is F, and the fifth is A. Now, these are all notes that correspond to keys on a piano. Now that spells out GB D F A. As you can see here, grizzly bears don't fear anything, or when I was growing up, it was good boys, deserve fudge always. Of course, they do. The spaces there are four spaces. The lowest space is A, the second space is C, the third space is E, and the fourth space is G. That is now on the left hand. So joining them together now is here. Up here on the right hand, we've got the treble, and down here, we've got the bass clef. And now, I'm just going to explain this concept, which is one of the more critical notes on the piano from which then you're able to map out the rest of the keys on the piano. Think of this is the lowest line, but think that there's an imaginary line below that line. Below this lowest line, it's denoted by this note with a line through it. It's called middle C. In the middle of the keyboard, and most times, we measure from middle C going up on the right hand and going down on the left hand. So if this note is, middle C, the space below this bottom line is the node D, and then E F g, A, B, and then it starts again with C, and then D E. From here, it's always going to be C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and then the keys will repeat again. Now, on the same, if you look here, on the base clef, the middle C would be an imaginary line above the bottom line where we draw the node with a line through it, it's still middle C, these two keys are the same. These nodes are the same node. When you put it down here below the treble clef, it denotes you're using your right hand moving up, and when you write it here above the base cleft, you are signifying that you're using the left hand moving down. From here, this would be middle C, then B is above here, and then A G F. I'm sorry, C, B, A, g, F, E, D, and then C again, and then B, A, and then it repeats all the way down the piano to the end, and here repeating all the way up to the end. So this is kind of the middle point of the piano. That's inputting notes in a nutshell. 7. Notes on A Piano Keyboard: So here I was showing you the notes and calling them out as I was going up and down. We can look at this drawing here. This is from middle C, which we said, was the imaginary line below the lowest line here on the treble clef. Middle C corresponds to middle C here on the piano. Now, on the piano, you'll see that it's like two black notes and then three, and then two, and then three. Every time you see these black notes of two, the immediate note to the left is always C. And then middle C is the fourth C on a full size piano. The very bottom C would be C one, C two going up, C three, and then C four, middle C is in the middle. It's this note. Now, D that I talked about was just below the line is here, E is on the first line, that's this note, F in the space, G, the second line, A, the second space, B, the third line, and then we start again at C, which is the next C up, and then D and E. That F AC E acronym for the spaces, and the EG D, every good boy, that acronym I was talking about. These are all the nodes laid out. Then from the same middle C going down on the base clef, this is C, the node to the immediate left is B, A, G, F, E going down the second space, D, and then C, and then below that would be B, and then the final one down here is A. This maps out all of the nodes across and how they map out onto a piano keyboard. 8. (Clapping Demostration) how to count beats: Okay, so now having explained the basic concept, I'll clap out the rhythm to sort of demonstrate how it works in a four, four time signature. We'll start with 44. Here, as you see, this is a four, four times signature, meaning there are four quarter notes, four notes per bar. Four beats per bar. So this top line on the treble clef, you see there four quarter notes. So there would be a certain tempo of the song, let's say, it's one, two, three, four, two. That would be the second bar. So, one, two, three, four, two, two, three, four, three, two, three, four, and four, two, three, four. So now let's go through just the treble lines of these, and I'll clap out the rhythm. One, two, three, one, two, three, four. That's this top line here of four notes per bar. Now let's go here. There are two half notes. One, two. So each one of these is two beats because they're half notes. And then here, there are eighth notes. So one, two, three, four. So it's like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Then this last one here is a whole note, so one, two, three, four. So doing all of this at once, starting from the first bar, going this way and then this way. One, two, three, four, one, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Now let's look at the bottom line. These are half notes, so one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. That's a four, four basic time exercise. 9. Rhythm Concept: Okay, so now that we've looked at the staff and then the basic inputting of notes onto the staff, we can now look at the aspect of rhythm, and the rhythm is determined primarily by note values and time signatures. So let's start with note values. You saw on the previous diagram entering notes, notes pending on the way that they're drawn, can have different lengths and time values. So looking at this diagram here to explain it, we were using quarter notes when we were inputting the notes. But the longest note is a whole note. And it's called a whole note. It's just a circle. It doesn't have a stem, as you see, these others have kind of a stem of a line on the right. And it is open. It's not colored in. It's not all black. It's open like this. So that is called a whole note. Maybe before going into in depth the note aspect, I can quickly talk about a bar from a rhythm point of view. A bar is a section of the musical staff. That is comprised of a certain number of beats in that bar. You can think of it as a container with beats in it that goes and 1 bar is a certain number of beats. Now, I will explain time signature, but for now, a whole note takes up a certain number of beats. That would be determined by the time signature, how many beats. Now, a whole note can be split into 22 half notes. Half note, two half notes make up one whole note. A half note is the same circle that's not colored in with a stem on the right. That is a half note. To half notes make up one whole note. And then a half note can be split into two again, which is a quarter note. A quarter note looks just like a half note except it's colored in black. So it's a solid, it's not open. So four quarter notes, I'm sorry, two quarter notes, make up one half note. Just like two half notes make up a full whole note. And then a quarter note can be split again into two notes, and they're called eighth notes, and they are denoted by the two notes with a bar across combining them. So two eighth notes make up one quarter note, two quarter notes make up a half note, two half notes make up a whole note. And in this, there's also the concept of rests. There is a rest which takes up a whole note for the same length of a whole note, which, if it's written in the staff, means, play nothing for the length of time of this note. And then there are also that is a sort of square hat upside down hat. The right side up hat is a half note rest. So this and this are the same time. And then a quarter note rest, which this is what it looks like, which is equal to one of these notes, which means when you see it written in there, it means you don't play a quarter note, play nothing for this length of time. And then an eighth note rest. But We'll get into those much later, but primarily the main thing to understand now is the notes and the length of time that the notes can take, starting from the whole note, going all the way down to the eighth note. 10. Time Signatures: 10 seconds. That was okay. My scores Okay. Three quarter ting exercise, 34. Okay. Good. Two, one. Okay, so now we're going to look at another time signature. This is the second most common in all of music. It's called the 34 time signature. It is the main signature used in I don't know if you've heard of the waltz in terms of a type of dance. I don't know the composer offhand, but da da da da da d d d d d d d. So it's the kind of one, two, three, one, two, three That is a 34 time signature. So again, the top note denotes the number of beats in the bar. And then the single unit is a quarter note. That's a little confusing, but the main thing to understand is that there are three beats per bar. So here, it's counted like one, two, three, two, two, three, that's the second bar, three, that's the third bar, four, two, three, one, two, three, two, two, three, three, two, three, four, two, three. Let's look at this top line here. As I said earlier, these are rests. So this rest denotes a rest that takes the place of one of these notes where nothing is played. And this upside down hat that I was talking about is a rest for the entire bar of beats. So let's just look at this top line, and I'll clap out what the rhythm would be. One, two, three, that's this bar here. Same here, one, two, three, and then here would be the half note is 2 bars, two beats. So one, two, and then a rest, which means silence. So one, two, three. Same here, one, two, three. Here, we'd be looking at these are quarter notes, I'm sorry, eighth notes. So two notes per quarter. So this would be one, two, three and then here would be one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, rest, rest. So going through this whole thing on the treble clef, would be one, two, three, two, two, three, two, 22, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, rest, rest. So that is basically how you would count out the three, four timing in the same concept of quarter notes and half notes. 11. Time Signature & Notes: Okay. Now having explained those concepts, we can look at time signature, which is basically on a musical staff. It tells you and gives you guidance on the, the rhythm that the notes are supposed to play in. And they are these numbers that you see here next to the treble clef, which by now you should recognize and the bass clef. There's this like a fraction 4444. What that means? There are different time signatures, but 44 is the most common and basic form of time signature that exists in most of music today. That means that in 1 bar that I was saying is that container that has a number of beats. Um this is a bar. This is a bar, this is a bar, and this is a bar. And the bottom what this means is that the unit of measure is there are four beats in every bar. So there are four beats in every bar and the unit of measure of each beat is a quarter note, which is why if you see here, this is 1 bar, There are four notes here colored black. This is these are four quarter notes. There are four beats in 1 bar. And then down here, these are half notes. You see they're transparent there. There are two half notes in 1 bar. This denotes the rhythm, which I think we can demonstrate this would be one, two, three, four, and one of these takes up two beats. So it's like 123, four, and then same here 123, four. Then here it's one, one, two, two, three, three, four, four, and then a whole note, which is just the whole four beats, one, two, three, four. I just did a basic time exercise here to go over what 44 sounds like. Maybe I'll just clap along with it. O's. 12. Time Signature Two Four Time Signature: Okay, I'll just look at one more time signature that is one of the more common ones, the 24 times signature. What this means is two beats per bar. That container in a bar has two beats this time. Again, the each beat corresponds to a quarter note, but there are only two beats in a bar. This would be counted out in general, the 24 times signature, it's one, two, two, two, three, two, four, two each bar has two beats. So this would be counted out like These are quarter notes, one, two, one, two. And these are rests for the whole bar. So all of this, I haven't done anything here on the base clef. But on the trouble, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two. Let's do it again just to be sure you caught it. To beats per bar, quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes. One, two, two, two, three, two, four, two, one, two, two, two, three, two, four, two, and that's the basic two, four time signature. Really, it just needs practice to get the values of the notes and how long they need to be held for if they're being held or played and being played. But the more you practice it, the more it becomes second nature to you. 13. Scales & Key Signatures: Okay. Now we can look at the concept of scales in music in music theory. A scale, broadly speaking, is just a sequence of notes, musical notes played together in a particular sequence that sounds a particular way. Every note has a scale. And a scale is a seven, it corresponds to seven notes, which is just in ascending order of some type or descending order in some type, a sequence of seven notes, which play a certain musical sequence. Every note has its own scale, and every note has what is called its own key signature, which we'll get into as we're talking about it. But the key signature, every node plays a particular sequence, and that sequence has a particular key signature. So we'll dive into that in much more depth. 14. Key Sigature Demo : Okay, so now that we've looked at the basic scales, there's this concept of key signature. A song that that is written, will have a certain key signature, just like it will have a certain key signature in terms of tempo and rhythm. It has a key signature in terms of the note, which will be the root note of the song. So as I was saying that in them, the root, If you're using this as your base in your playing the key signature will be the key of C. It can be. This is which is this note. So the key signature would be D. So playing. Let me make a quick example. This is all of those chords are in the key signature of C. That is the key signature of the So that's the key signature we have. So the key signature will be determined by the note of the major the scale that you're working on. So again, with you would do well to spend a good bit of time learning different notes and their scales to be able then to use that in the key signatures. Um As long as you just keep remembering that formula of from the beginning, whole step, whole step, and then the third one is a half step, and then whole step, whole step, whole step till the end. Every note that you can think of on the piano that you start with. Remember they're all repeating. They'll just keep repeating after every seven cycles. But start on C, and you should be good. 15. Basic Chords & Progression: Okay, so now we're going to look at the concept of chords in in music theory. The chord is the basic element that when you play, it sounds a particular way that conveys a particular emotion or whatever in the music that you're composing. Now, In the concept of musical scales, you saw that each each note in the scale, beginning from the root note that you're beginning with corresponds to a numerical number of one, and there one, two, three, four, five, six, seven notes in a scale. Now, chords are a certain combination of those notes within a particular scale to play a particular musical sound or musical Yeah, idea that you're conveying. So we'll look at major chords and minor chords and the idea of musical progression, which is using some of those basic chords in a particular sequence. You'll find that which you'll see as we get into the explanation, demonstrations, that a lot of music that you're familiar with that you've heard over the years uses the same musical chord progressions from these basic ideas that we're going to talk about. So we will get into that in great depth. 16. Common Chord Progression : Three, two. Okay. So now let's look at basic chords and chord progressions. Remember that I said that the nodes are numbered in a scale. In C, we had said that the node C was the one. Two, F C. So the most basic ord, it's normally it's a triad, and it is called, let's say the C major chord there. Each node corresponding to the number. The most basic chord would be the one I said, This is two. This is three. This is four. So one That's record. It's made up of the w. So across keeping the same distance between the notes. 135. This is now from the note number two. Number three, um, mm six number, and then back. Two. So this is the one. Two. This is three. This is the four. This is the five. This is the six. This is the seven, and then back to one. So these are basic trigs. And so every key, and every note when you go through the scale has them. If we look at the note of d, and if this is one, will be one. This would be the two. This would be the three. This would be the four, five, six, seven, and then back to the eight. So let's keep it simple and on the C K of C for now. Now, one of the musicians, especially in the professional world, if they don't talk the staff the staff and the notation and things we've been doing, they talk numbering. So, they'll say something like L et's play a basic one, four, five combination in the key signature of C. Now, that means that's the one and it's in the key of C. That's the f one, two, three, four. That's the f. That is what they mean when they say that. It would be one of the most basic combinations that has written, many pop songs all across the ages is the five combination. So again, that's 1452 and the key the key signature of C major. So, there are many different ways you can play them like it does. That's the one. Still the same or using the same nodes. So we can go through examples, maybe one or two examples of songs using that 14 or five combination, which are very, you know, well known classical songs. As one example, the beatles, which are, you know, one of the recognized greatest groups of all time. One of their biggest songs, Twist and Shout is a 145. It's just a basic 145 combination. Let me give you that example. I'm playing the road notes. So song 151515. Okay. Okay here that it's basically a 145 combination. Another example is a Bob Marley song. It's very well known. It's called steer it. But it's still the same. Whether the left hand moves a bit or the right hand moves a bit, but it's still a 145 combination. There, but you get the idea that I'm trying to say. But that's the one. So those are just two simple examples. But the point in all this, you should be beginning to see now how all of these concepts relate together. The chord progressions come from the scale comes from the notes. And the half step and whole step concepts that we talked about, how you play them comes down to the time signature of how you're playing them. The time signature relates to the bars and the beats. And from there, the staff and the bass cleft. So when you learn all of the notes, and it's true, it might be a bit of memorizing at the beginning. But when you learn the notes, it kind of it unlocks a world of possibilities in terms of your music composition because every Western song that you can possibly think of. I think Asian scales are slightly different in some areas and Middle Eastern scales, but almost every Western song you can think of. Go back to the 1800s up til now, they're all centered around the same concepts of the one and the chords, and it's just adding different notes and meanings and understandings to a few of the basic concepts. It will unlock the ability when you're writing music to be able to play more complicated arrangements than maybe you play now if you really take the time to learn that basic music theory. So it's a worthwhile investment to do that. 17. Class Project Assignment: For your class project, I'd like you to practice the C major scale. Also work on the D major scale, and then put the 14, five progression of C major, play it, and the DMjor scale of 145, practice those. Take an audio file or a video file of those and send them to me below.