Transcripts
1. INTRO: all right, so welcome to my new course music theory and cores for beat makers. So in this video, I just want to break down the fundamentals that we, as producers, need to know about music theory. Counting beefs, knowing about notes, chords, all that kind of stuff that you can get up and running, making your beats. Now it's actually not that hard. It's actually quite simple. You just have to have your eyes revealed to fundamentals towards music theory. Now, as a beat maker, we really don't need to be going to school to be studying, you know, in depth music theory and sheet music. And, you know, knowing all the different scales and all that stuff as long as you know the fundamentals which I'm gonna teach you in this course, it kind of opens up your eyes toe, allow for the improvisation that is required for us beat makers because as a beat maker, you know, we can really make a B out of anything. It's just a matter of knowing, you know what notes you're allowed to play at what time different types of cords went to use those cords and stuff like that. So That's what I want to cover in this course. Okay, so we're going to start off with, you know, counting beats. I'm gonna explain, you know, what are the notes that are available to you as a producer? I also would like the courts, and then we get into scales, which is gonna be really, really eye opening to you. Uh, that's gonna be the turning point that's gonna reveal. You know how music really works isn't scales. We're gonna break down some chords, you know, just kind of the major minor as well as the touch. Wants more little advanced cords just to get you going. This course is just more for the basics. However, you know, even if you've been producing for 56 years, I'm sure this course will still help you out. And then finally, at the end of this course, I'm just going to kind of put it all together with you will kind of build a little drum loop. We'll play some chords and you'll see how implying the knowledge I've shown you to make a B , as they said, you know, as a beat maker, there's not tons We need to know, But As soon as you are revealed to the fundamentals, you'll see how easy beat making really is. And then that really opens up the doors for your creativity to flow your style of music. You know, however you want to create it. Okay, so if you guys want to take the course again, this course is called music theory and cords for beat makers, and I hope to see you guys inside.
2. 1 - Counting Beats as Beatmakers: Okay, so I'm going to start off our course with understanding how to count beats. Now, as a producer, this is probably one of the most fundamental things for you to really understand and fully grasp. It should just be something that comes natural to you because a lot of people do struggle with knowing how to count beats and staying in time. You know that at times you see that those videos of someone trying to snap their fingers to like a song, you know, get through us into in a public place. And there's always that one person who has trouble keeping in time with the music. So knowing how to count beats is this very, very important. And, you know, it may seem really simple to you, but I just want to start it off because it is fundamental to know, as a producer. OK, so you know it is pretty much just 1234 And that is common. Time is called 44 time. That is the time signature that is the most common in like our Western society for music on . What that means is that there's 4/4 notes, um, per bar and each quarter note is a beat. Now in all honesty, music theory and all that kind of stuff. It's so confusing, even for myself, after producing for however long I've produced for even reading into this music theory and everything is just is just always so confusing, you know, And how we make my beats is that I never even think that way. I just know how to count beats. And then I know how to be creative with my drum loops, which I'll show you a little bit in this course to all show you how to build a little drum loop to get you going. But like I'm saying so when we're talking about things that like time, signatures and like the circle of fists, so a time signature, You know, there's lots of different ones out there, but don't worry about it. Okay? If you're if you wanted to make beats, I'm gonna keep this a simple as possible. And all you need to know is 1234 And then if you want to get a little bit more advanced, you can start going one and two and three and four or do you take it another step further. You can go like one and a two and a three and a four. And where the end comes in and the off comes in, you can start adding in different sounds for a different touch. I'll touched on that a little bit later as we proceed in this video here. Okay, so to keep it really, really simple, we work in 44 time, which is common time. And so what that's telling us is that we have four beats in a bar and, as you can see, appear in FL Studio in our play list. You can see this is 1234 So that's a bar. Okay, so from 1 to 2 is a bar. And if we look at the lines here, So one, 234 1234 So each of these lines is it be okay. And so there's four beats in a bar. So 1234 And now we're back to, um one again on the second bar. Okay, So what I'm gonna do with you is I'm just gonna play this guitar loop and this and the drums here, and I'm just gonna actually count with you. 1234 Just for you to kind of, you know, see how to count. It may seem simple for some you, but you know, we're starting at the basics, and we're gonna proceed into more in depth music theory with cords and kind of how to be creative and improvised. Azaz a beat maker. OK, 123412 34 1234123412341234 And if I remove the drums and put the guitar back in 12341234 And if you want to get creative again like I was saying, you can do this. Okay, So one and two and three and four or one and a two and a three and a four and one and two and three and four and one, 234 So, as you could see, as I was counting there, I switched up in between my counting. And that's also how you can be creative and like your drum loops and stuff too. That way, everything just doesn't sell so repetitive. We'll also throw one little trick with you here. Um, I have a kick drum here, and it goes like this, but it wasn't really standing up very well. So added a layer, and it's just a click. Okay, so that's just a little sigh. Little tip. I did there to help this, uh, the kick drum Stand out better. Okay, So what I want to do is I just want to hop into the guitar loop that I've created here, and I want to introduce you to something called Syncopation. Okay, so when we count beats, you know, that was 1234 Now, don't feel that you have to be placing your notes always on 123 and four again. Like I was saying on the end and stuff like that, you could be placing notes there. And so as we look at these many notes here, you could see our first notes in the first bar. Okay, so number one there on beat. This is one, and then we go to to case the one to write. So these notes there on beat because they're just on the line here. OK, so we're going to the beat three now. you can see that it's on beat. But you could see when it goes to be four that I have no notes there. Okay, so this is what you call Syncopation, and what Syncopation is is it's off beat. And what it does as a listener is that makes things kind of sound unexpected. It adds variety, and it also makes your music mawr enjoyable to listen to. So again, as you can see, all these notes are on B 123 We go to four. There's no notes there thes air off beat, but it makes it sound more like a dance track. If I were just to move this over and grab these two and I'm just gonna delete thes two and was going to stretch these Oh, in length just to make it sound similar to the other ones. And what I'm gonna do is just highlight the first bar here and we're gonna listen and you're going to hear it. Kind of sounds kind of bland. It's not really dancy. Okay, so Well, listen to this case was really boring. Writes like 12341234 But watch if I go back to our other notes You're gonna hear it. Sounds more like a dance track. Okay, so listen to that again. Okay? So 123412341234 Again, there's no notes on the four, but it's staying in time with, uh, the track. Now, as we continue on through our other notes, you'll see that all I did was I just repeated the same rhythm. So we go to the second bar now, and as you can see, 123 So these knows air all on beat up here. 2123 Then we go to our next notes and you can see that they're off beat again again. All these six don't there on beat we go to the next four notes and their offbeat. And then again on the fourth bar, the 1st 3 beats 123 are along beat. Now I'll throw one other kind of cool trick that I did in this track. Just get your mind stretched. And for creativity, you'll notice that in the first bar I only have a single note in the upper. Okay, So single, single, single, single, single. We go to second bar gave me a single single, but you can see I start adding in a layer on top of the upper. Okay, this just as for fullness and a little more excitement in the loop. So it's kind of like the odd bars. I kept it a single notes. As you can see, these are all just single notes. And I went to the fourth bar and you can see that I've played like, I've kind of like a little court up top and all that. You listen to that, okay? And just listen to the excitement and the fullness that adds when the actual double note is on there. This is just a cool little trick. These look, the subtle things that make your music a little bit more exciting to listen to. So listen to that way. Doubles. Listen to that with the drum loop. Okay, so so far. Pretty simple, right? You know, 1234 That's all we're doing to be creative one and two and three and four or one and A to end A. And, um, I also introduced you like Syncopation. You can kind of place notes off time Sometimes that's something that you have to be creative with and just kind of play around with. Um, You know, I usually always start like my my notes. So, like, the one and then from there on, you know, you can add it on. That's the fourth step here. So sometimes that this was sound cool. So in this case, it would be on. I'd have to put it here and put a space in between. Um maybe we'll just switch it up a note here just to kind of show you for demonstration purposes, like, you know. So I'm gonna go back, though. So, you know, that was again kind of the Syncopation stuff. But now what I want to do with you is that I want to create a quick little drum loop to show you where you can place your sounds, Um, and be creative with your drum loops. Okay, So so far, I only have the kick drum and in the kick drums layer. Okay, So what does go to some of my sounds here? Well is Ah, get a get a clap here. Can you all start layering? This is a trick that I do a lot. Got it. Well, out of staring there too. Go for maybe two snares. Okay, So typically, we play our clap on the two and on the four. So 12341234 Okay, someone's gonna place that here and here. And I'm just gonna copy and paste and paste and paste so we listen to that. Okay, So now, sometimes what I would do is maybe I could even add in another another stair here. Now, you might be thinking, Oh, this is a lot of snares, But sometimes this is what it takes. Tow. Have a nice stare sound. And I'm going to show you some tricks I do to make it even more creative. So maybe just one more stairs sound. Okay, here we go. So what I'll do is I will play it here, but I won't play this near here. So what that's doing is I'm making it so that each snare hit is unique. So this snare plays on the first clap on the on the to and this near plays on the fourth again, just for variety. Now, on these two stairs. So I'm gonna bring this one down. So what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna move this one. I'm gonna panic to the left just a little bit. And I'm gonna pen this one to the right just a little bit. That just makes the snare hit sound wide. So we're gonna listen to that with the guitar loop here. Quickly. Can turn these down this a bit. Okay. So, like I'm saying, if I were to remove some of these snares, you're gonna hear some kind of land, you know, Just kind of sounds like a bigger production. Now, more full production. Okay, So really, really simple on the clap. Now, what we're gonna do is we're take a high hat cables. Take just this one here. Now we can play this on the and so if this is on beat, we have 123 and four. So if I were to say one and two and three and four, so that would be one. And so this is halfway in between and then 2.5 way between the three halfway and, um four. And okay, so we listen to that. This is a really, really common technique that you could use in, like, dance tracks with your high hat, You play on the off beat the And now, if I just take another high hat, okay? And maybe just one more case What I'm gonna do so much to take this one, and I'm gonna have that one played the end. And I'm just going to use Ault and the up arrow key and I could move it up. So this is gonna be selling book a shaker now, volumes a little bit. I want to use this high at the start of this one as kind of Ah, you know, kind of like what a high hat is used for in dance tracks. You know, a lot of times using a filler like this, for example. So right now, that's kind of sounding boring because you want it to be humanistic. So if I right click on it, you can Ah, you know, a just like your velocities in here and just kind of be creative with it. You know, I'm not doing anything specific. This is just for balance, Um, so that everything doesn't sound just so the same. So we listen to that now. Okay, So this is pretty cool. Now we don't have to play that on every, uh, this is 1/16 notes. Each step is 1/16. So to go back quickly to the two that 44 times. So what that's telling us is that 1/4 note is acting as a beat, and we have 4/4 notes in a bar. Okay, so I know it's confusing. So in other words, we have four beats and four of these equal a beat. Okay, so in the case of 44 time that saying that each of these is 1/16. So right now all these high hats are playing on 16th and if we had two of them together, that's an eighth. And then if you add 4/16 together, that is 1/4. Okay, so I know it's confusing, but that's how this music stuff works, just like with fractions and stuff like that. But like I'm saying, I don't think of it this way as I'm making my music, all I think about when I am making my beats because I keep it simple. It's about the music, you know, as long as you can count beats and you know no kind of generally where you can start placing your sounds. Then you could start being really, really creative, you know? So again, just 1234 These are just just steps in between and you could be creative with, um ah, on the end is a very, very common one. So I guess that's unlike your 3rd 16th No, or third step. Um, you know so here. Like, we don't have to play on every single 16th. No. So for exactly take it off here and maybe here and here. Um, this is how you can kind of create different rhythms, and sometimes you can make them think this is like the difference in a track. So we'll just listen to this. I have no idea how it's gonna sound. That's pretty cool movie here, you know, And compared to all of them, right? You know, now we can add and maybe another high hat just to be, you know, in the in betweens or something. Take that one there again. A lot of this stuff is this trial and air and playing and stopping and listening and then tweaking. You know, that's that's That's how I make the music anyway, So we listen to this, caso, I'm going to remove some of these. I kind of like this how this one plays when everything else is kind of quiet. I'm gonna play this. So this one's, like on that Syncopation you can kind of hear so far. So LoDo sounds like this, right? So playing altogether. It sounds OK, case. So you know what? Like I'm seeing a lot of this is just like that trial and air. So I'm just gonna leave it like that and Richard down just a little bit. Now, I'll just quickly talk to you about the and, uh okay, uh, so one. And, uh so this is something that I have kind of discovered over the years. It's something that I call safe spots. And I'm actually working on a book on this. At the moment, I may be releasing on Amazon soon. I currently have one book on Amazon is called audio painting, but a topic that I talk about a lot of my blog's something called safe spots. And what safe spots are like what? I describe them as our places in your drum loop where you know that you can place these sounds for them to sound good every single time. And then it's just up to you to decide what type of sound you want to play there for. You know, for the sake of the type of genre you're creating. Ah, the different groove and vibe that you want to get out of it like you kind like the more of a flavor. Because if you set up a drum loop a certain way, like for example, let's just say that you put clean hip hop sounds in there. OK, you know you have a clean hitting drum, clean hitting stare, you know, clean high hats. But then you swap those out to sampled drums like off of, Ah, vinyl record and a sample Steira again off a vinyl record and sampled high hats. You might have a lot of more grit and grime in there, and it's gonna make that drum loops sound quite different, even though the notes are hitting at the exact same time. You've just swapped out the sounds, so it gives you a different feeling. But what I'm trying to get across is the sounds are still hitting at the same time, and these are like those safe spots that I'm trying to get. You don't trying to explain here. So, you know, we have, like, the one to the three and the four. Those are always going to be safe the and is always going to be pretty safe. It always depends, like on like the genre you're creating. But typically you can you almost always throw in a high hat, high hat there. You might have to kind of tweak the sound you're working on, for example, like if you chose on open high hat and maybe was too long in length. Whatever. A lot of times I come into here in FL Studio and I'll normalize it. I use this trim knob and then I can adjust the end of the out knobs that allows me to kind of mold the sound toe how I want. Like I'm saying, if the open high hat was just too long in length. So if we go back to the 16th so your 1st 16th is always safe, your third, so like you're in between, is usually always safe. But what's tricky is the second step and the fourth step care so Let's just take some percussion sounds here. So maybe that when you get a bongo Trump on a bongo, Okay, so six and seven. So let's just drag those in. So, like I'm saying, the second and fourth step are the trickiest ones to make work in your drum loops and in your tracks, and that goes for every single beat. Okay, so So even the second beat, you know, this 2nd 16th And I guess your 4/16 year, um, is just, you know, those are always the tricky ones. But I'm just going to show you that typically on your first beat, you can usually play. They go bongo here or something, and I put the same bungle their bullets into that s that's very, very loud volume. So we're turning it down. Another thing I haven't talked about eyes swing. So what swing does is it actually nudges that second and fourth step over a little bit? So it makes the music again sound like that Syncopation kind of off beat. Um, but it can add a lot of groove to your music. It could really change up the style of your track. You know, if you were building your drum loop in years. Kind of like I don't really like it, you know, Go ahead and try swing and really here the groove It's adding to your music. And the nice thing with FL Studio 12 now is it also applies it to the midi notes. In previous versions, it didn't. So if we click on a sound here, and if you order the wrench Ah, you can see here has ah swing. So if you don't want to sound to be affected by swing or you just wanted to be affected a little bit, you can actually adjust this knob on the individual sounds. So whether that be a cure instruments or your individual, like high hats, whatever you can make, those not be affected by your swing amount, which is really, really cool. So tons and tons of versatility that efforts Did you It gives you there. So, like I'm saying, your bongo on you can usually play it here. Um and then he was put this one on the and so the two and and then again, you know, if every sound is the same volume, a lot of times that makes it hard to fit. Nice. So if I use some velocity in here, maybe might make that blend a little a little better make it kind of sounded more like a real bongo hit. I've turned it up in volume a little bit. The, uh some are bunco hits right here and again. We just adjust the velocity on those. So But that went down in volume in this one up a little bit bad. Now again in this area, I don't really like fully how this second bungle sounds. So again, I'll use normalized use The trim the trim just allows you to use the in and out knobs. And again, if you don't use normalize, what's gonna happen is ah, you're not gonna see anything. But if you get normalized, it stretches the sound to zero volume because in digital, your audio works from zero downwards. Okay, so, for example, minus 14 And if we want minus 18 well minus 18 is quieter than minus 14. And as we work our way back up to zero, that's allowed us that we can get in digital audio. So when we had normalized, it puts it to zero. So as you can see when I highlight this. Followed my mouse up here. So if you look up here it now as a highlight normalized. This is normalized to zero db. Okay, so what that's doing is right now this is like a super super quiet sound, but we're expanding it and making it really, really loud. And this allows us to mold or bongo to whatever we want. So, for example, this is a bungle, the second bongo that is in a solemn ticket because I used the ending out knobs. So what I want to do is just gonna just kind of play around with it a little bit. So listen, just a swing here, so no swing lost down a little bit. So too much swing. Get something around there. So again, that's just counting beats. Um, I just kind of broke down again how to build a little drum moved with you just to kind of give you a real world example. But again, it's just like that 1234 And then it just kind of showed you how to be a little more creative with that with the end and the, uh um and then I also talked to you about the Syncopation so you can kind of place notes off beat. Um, but like I'm saying, this is the fundamental concept for you to really grasp. It's just four beats per bar. So again, that's one, 234 and you can see it goes to the next bar and just rinse and repeats. So, as you can see, it goes on and on and on for however long your song is.
3. 2 - How Notes Work in Music: Okay, So in this video, I'm gonna be talking to you about your notes, So it's really, really simple, but again, it's very, very important for you to know and understand. Ah, the notes available to you as a producer. So I'm just gonna open up the piano roll here in FL Studio, and this is how a piano works. OK, so as you can see, we have C five and then see six. So what that means is it's it's an OCD of Okay, so it's an octave higher, and that's kind of important to understand as a producer, because when we're dealing with different octaves, because each note is actually a frequency. Okay, So, for example, if we open up the mixture here and on this guitar, I'm just gonna open up e que. And I'm gonna show you a frequency spectrum. OK, so we have are high frequencies and we have our low frequencies, you know, And as we increase, you know, they get higher. So there's 50 hertz, 100 hertz, 200 hertz, 505,000 hertz, 10,000 and 20,000. So, as humans, we can't hear anything under 20 and typically we can't hear anything over 20 20,000 Hertz. Okay. And what that means is it's just a cycle. Okay, so you guys can look it up on Google. It's just a sine wave. Okay? So as the sine wave goes in a cycle, it's telling us that it does that 20 times a second. And as we go up to the higher frequencies, that means that that's oscillating at 1000 times a second, and it gets very, very high in pitch. So I'm just gonna play C five here, okay? And we're going to look for the fundamental frequency, so that is kind of the base note of that sound. Okay, so that's about 200 hertz in this case. Now, this guitar isn't tuned properly, so just because I'm playing C five on my keyboard doesn't mean that is actually playing a C five. That might be a little bit confusing. It's not like you're playing a V s t like science one or serum or something, which is properly tuned. And it's like if you're playing C five is that you're actually paying c five just kind of bear with me that, you know, on the keys here. If I'm playing C five, let's just go with on plan C five because it's hard to hit a note in serum. For example, it would actually play the proper pitch because if you went on to Google and you typed in, you know C five, uh, frequency, it will explain it to you. It'll show you. So, for example, a four. So right now this is C five, we go to a four, which is right here. Its frequency should be 440 hertz. And as you can see, you know, um you know, it's kind of hard to tell with a sound that has lots of different harmonics, and what that means is just different frequencies. Okay, so let's keep this simple. OK? So if we're with C five, so now if I go to the to the opera C, which is a new octave higher. So see six, you can see that it has gone an octave higher. It was about 200. Now that is about 400 hertz. That they're okay now. If I go up an octave higher, that should put us to 800. Richard. Probably right about here. Okay, exactly like it is because it actually just doubles. That's all that happens. You just doubling the frequency and it becomes an octave higher. So, for example, if you follow me playing these notes here Okay, so we have 123456789 10 11. And then we have 12. And then again, it just repeats slows the exact same notes up here. Is that just an octave higher? And they're actually doubled in frequency from the previous one. So it's a really simple concept to understand. You have 12 notes on your keyboard that are available to you, and then they just repeat in the higher octave or lower octave. Now, in the next video, I'm gonna talk to you about scales. And just because you have these 12 notes available to you doesn't mean that you're allowed to play all 12 notes, Okay? The key and scale that you choose, those dictate what notes that you're actually allowed to play within that scale. Okay, that it's gonna be an eye opening video for you. I'll just quickly cover the notes with you and by me, tell you these notes you'll read online. You know there's flats and sharps and stuff like that. I'm not going to get in depth into, like, the terminology, because in all honesty, I've really don't fully understand it. It's to do with, like, the circle of Fifths and all this kind of stuff. Um, which again is just sometimes, you know, it's nice to know this extra information, but I really don't feel that it totally benefits you as a beat maker, because as a beat maker, you know, you just want to have your eyes open so that you could be creative and kind of start to flow. Okay, so when it comes to the sharps and flats, you know, my terminology could be wrong, but at the end of the day, it's still the same note. It could just be kind of be confusing. Okay, so we're just gonna start from C five here, Okay. So I'm just gonna go over the notes with you. Okay, So we have seen C sharp d d sharp e f f sharp g g sharp a a shirt be And then again, back to see, and it just repeats. But like I'm saying, just because you have those 12 notes doesn't mean that you're allowed to use the 12 notes. The scale and key that you choose dictate what notes were allowed to play, which in turn tells you what chords you're allowed to play. That's a big eye opening thing, because once you understand what notes and chords were allowed to play, you can start to improvise on the piano. But another reason why why I want to tell you about frequency and stuff like that is because when we're dealing with multiple instruments, that's to do with the tuning. So, for example, if all these different instruments were in the proper tuning, then everything is going to sound off. Tune right is going to sound out of tune. But if everything is in tune right, that's when you know they have their strings, whatever. And you always hear them kind of, you know, turning their knobs to try and tune their instruments. It's because you know they're a has to be the same frequency as a on the other instrument. So it's all kind of simple knowledge. For the most part, you know, the stuff I've explained. It's just kind of, you know, more just being aware of it. Okay, so in our next video, we're gonna is going to be talking about scales. Okay, that's gonna be a really, really awesome video for you.
4. 3 - Understanding Scales: Okay, So in this video, I'm gonna be talking to you about scales. Now, this is the video, which is really go to open up your eyes and allow you to be really creative, uh, with understanding the notes that are available to you, the cords that are available to you and you know, Then you'll start to be able to flow as you make your beats. You know, you're not really gonna be restricted except for just your creativity. So here in front of me Ah, I've typed in, um, Piano World Helper into Google, and I've went to piano world dot com. And I went to this little, um, piano here. So a virtual piano chords and scales. This has been an amazing tool, which I have used to help me learn chords and scales over the years. Um, but before we get into this, I just wanted that you guys know that I have created a course toe learn the piano, so the course is actually called learn piano for beat makers and producers. So if you guys were actually wanting to learn how to play the piano and improvised, you know, and and also learn the piano as a beat maker. You know, because of the beat maker. We're always trying to create loops and stuff like that. Then you guys can check with that course again. It's called Learn Piano for beat makers and producers by Riley Weller or my artist and producer name Gratuitous. Okay, so let's get into this. So what I'm gonna do is we're gonna start in C, major. Okay? And what you're going to see isn't C major. There is seven notes available to us. Okay, As you can see, they're all highlighted in blue. Now, I told you that the piano per octave has 12 notes, but as you can see, there's only seven notes here which are available to us to play. So let's count them. So 12 3456 and seven and then it just repeats back onto the sea, which again is an octave higher. So see, Major is the easiest scale to understand how scales work. Um and the reason for that is, as you can see, there's absolutely no black notes, so there's only white notes and see major, which means that those are the notes that were allowed to play for our beats to sound good . So by looking at these seven notes which are available to us, this is telling us the notes that are available to us. It's also letting us though the cords were allowed to play because our cords have to contain these notes. Okay, so, for example, if a cord had a black no, in it well, we can't play that chord in here because once we go on to the court video, you'll see that between the major and the minor courts, you can see that, you know, sometimes it could have a black No. Or sometimes you could have, um, white notes, okay. And the difference between a major and a minor chord. It's just where the third finger place. So if you put your right hand up and the back your hand is facing you, so your thumb is your one. Your index is your to your middle fingers. Your three. Your ring finger is your four, and your pinky finger is your five. Okay, so where your third finger plays determines a major or a minor. So it's how many notes are between the first, which is your thumb and the third, which is your middle finger. So as you can see here, if we go to Major, we have one, 23 So we have three notes in between. For a major. If we go to a minor, we only have two notes. Okay, So with me telling you that when we go to major and minor scales this well, tell us, you know, if we're allowed to use a major or a minor court just for example, if I were to go see minor chord, it's like was you can see as the sea has the d sharp. So a black note and then a G In this case, C minor is not in the scale a C major, because we can't use the black note. But if we go to C major chord, you can see that yes, it is. But for example, if we would go to D, we go like the D major. So as you can see, a D major court actually has the black and, as you can see as 123 Okay, so that means that it's a major chord. So what that's telling us is that there's actually d minor in the scale of C Major because we only need white notes. Okay, we'll cover that in our court video. Now, See, Major is actually the easiest scale to understand because, as you can see, there's only white notes. Right, However, see, Major is also the hardest scale a lot of people say to play, and the reason for that is because there's no black notes, and when we have black notes, it allows you to feel on the keyboard where you're actually playing. So, for example, if you go up higher, you go down low. You can kind of reference where you are on your piano, but when you have only white notes, there's nothing. There's, like nothing to reference right. It's just, you know, there's only white notes, so it's really hard to know. So that leads me into ah pro tip that I want to pass on to you something which I've discovered over my years. So when you're first starting up, it's really cool to figure all these scales. And you know, you have your starting to have your eyes open toe. What notes are in the scale, and then you can start playing with that. But after you kind of ah, have kind of tinkered around a little bit. I really suggest to you to pick a scale and work in it. And the reason why I say that is because this allows you to make the most use of your time . So, for myself, I like to use C a minor, and I don't click minor here, actually. Go to scroll this down An eagle. Pure minor. Okay, so C minor is actually my favorite scale. It's the scale that I play most of my music in. And the thing is, with Dawes, you know, our music programs is we can always transpose our music if he really needed to To make it into a different scale, you rate. That's the awesome thing with technology. But practicing the piano is all about muscle memory. Okay, so the more you keep practicing one scale, the more G build up muscle memory knowing what notes are in that scale. What chords Aaron that scale. So when it comes to practice, you're making the most use of your time. So that's just a little pro tip. Want to pass on to you? Okay, pick one scale. Practice it learn it very well. And then you will be able to expand from there. Okay? And so now I'm just gonna throw a little curveball, actually. OK, so in major scales, the seventh note is a note which is very, very hard to play for a cord. It's very hard to add in this case, the B chord in the C major scale in your music. And the reason for that is because it makes it diminished. And so if you look here, there's like, a dominant there's, like, sustained, um, So there's different types accords that you can play. This is just a basic major court. If we go C major chord. So it is called like your You know what your triad, so like, your thumb is on the sea, your middle fingers on the e and your pinky would be on the G in this case, right? But then again, if we go to minor the differences between your first, which is your thumb and your third, which is your middle finger and in this case is only two notes in between making it minor. But I actually don't think that this scale helper has diminished for some reason I remember looking into this before, but anyway, so it's a cord and it's called a diminished chord. And that's what the B is here. Because if we look at an actual be court, okay, so remember, if we go to see Major is telling us that there's absolutely no black notes in the scale a C major, that means that has to be white notes. When we come to a B chord, okay? And I'll show you that. So we're gonna go to be we're gonna go, Major, you're going to see that. Here's the B and it has two black notes. Okay, We go to be minor now, and you can see that there's two white notes, but there's still a black note, but it's like, Well, you can't have a major or the minor court of B because it has a black note. So that is why it's diminished and this comes down to the f. Okay, so on this B chord in the C major scale, it's actually B D f, and for myself, as I'm producing my music and stuff like that, I typically just stay away from a B chord. I just never used the B chord. Um, if I was in C major. Right, Because every scale, whatever key you're in, if you're in a major scale, um, it's always the seventh note. Okay, so, you know, if we went to, like, a major, um, sorry here, it would be this g sharp here again. So if we count so 123456 then use their seventh. So it against your g sharp, which would want to stay away from. So if you look into Wikipedia, it's called a leading tone triad. And this is something that I'm not sure who this guy is. But I remember researching this as I was making my piano course, and ah, it's actually really interesting quote. He says The sub tonic. The leading tone court is founded upon seven of the major keys. Okay, So the seventh key, I believe, and it is diminished just like I'm explaining to you. And then it's also very, very neglected among composers and then possibly a little overworked by others. Okay, so it's occasional use gives character and dignity to a composition. So for myself, like I just I neglected most the time I find it very hard toe add into my music so I would stay in the six, uh, courts within that scale. Now, that's not to say I don't use be as a single note around in my music. It's just when it comes to the cord. I typically stay away from that now to continue on off of that as we are dealing with a minor scale now again. So I don't use minor there. How? Use pure minor down here. It's the second note. Okay, so when you're in a major scale, it's the seventh, which is tricky. And then when you're in a minor scale, it's the second, which is tricky. Okay? And again, it is just to do with the way how the cord lines up. With the scale, it becomes like diminished. So that's just a little breakdown of scales. So it's just important for you, you know, pick a key. And typically I think people choose keys because it allows the music to be ah, kind of higher or lower in pitch. I know sometimes, Ah, singer, sometimes you know they would change the song. You know, they say, Oh, well, let's sing this in the key of D or all that sickness in the key of G because, you know, maybe it's easier on their voice to sing within that frequency range.
5. 4.1 - Comprehending Chords Within Scales: Okay, So in this video are just gonna be talking to you about the cords that are available to you in a scale, and then you can translate this knowledge onto other scales. Other keys, and it all translates very well. He'll be able to pick up and move on very, very fast. Okay, So I'm gonna cover two scales with you. What would be a major? And then one will be a minor. And then again, this will just translate into other scales if you want. So we're just going to start with the notes, see here. Okay. So since we're in the scale of C major, we have See, now we go to major. So do we have a major or do we have a minor chord? Okay, so I'm gonna click minor. It's like Okay, well, no, we don't have minor because Minor has the black. So that means that we actually have a C major chord in the scale of C major. Pretty simple right now. Let's go to D. So I covered that in the last video, so I'm going to go to courts. Were gonna go, D argo. Major, it's like Okay. Well, no we don't have a d major chord in this scale. We have d minor chord. Okay, so so far, we have c major way. Have d minor. Okay, now let's go to e. Okay, so c major scale again? No. So it's telling us that we haven't e in here. Okay, so I'm gonna click e here. We're gonna record. So do we have a major or a minor? So I'll tell you right now, it's minor. Right? Let's check out the major. So again, the major is three notes in between. That's the difference between a major and a minor court. A major has three notes in between your one, which is your thumb in your three, which is your middle finger. And a minor chord has only two notes between your one and your three. Okay, So, again, as you can see here, one to three, that means it's a major chord, and it has a black. So that's telling us that e has to be minor for our core. So we have a We have a minor e chord in the scale of C major. So Okay, now we're going to go back to scale. We're gonna go to see Now we're onto F. Okay. So what do you think we have? Do we have a major or a minor court? Now we can actually find out without even clicking on here. Okay? Because like I said, we have three notes in between our thumb and our middle finger R one and R three. Okay, so let's count. So from here, So one, 23 So on it, I'm gonna say we have a major f Okay, because there's going to be 12 and three, and now we need the major. So we have an f We're gonna have a and then we're gonna have C. Okay, That's going to be our c major court. So we go, major, and there you go. So C f Major has no black notes again. 12 and three. There's three notes between your first and your third, and now that's telling us we have an f major. So that makes sense, right? We go to F minor. We only have two notes 12 and has the black. So f minor cannot be in the scale. A C major, we have f major, which has all whites go to see what a major and it's like. Okay, so now these are the cords that so far you can start using in your music. And then from this point on, it's all about trying to find how these cords blend together in your music, you know? And then it's a little bit like your rhythm if you want to, like, just as a little quick example there. Okay, so let's go to G here. Okay, so now we're going to see if we have a major or a minor chord again. Let's count it out. So from here we go 123 again. This is going to be a major G chord. Okay, so have a G major. So from G 123 a lands on the B, and then we're gonna have it on the DIA's Well, So we're going to go G major court and, as you can see, so from G 12 and three, Okay, so that's telling us it's a major court and it's on the B, and then it's also on the D. So if we go to a minor, you'll see that there's only one and two, so it's not too. In between. They're making this a g major court. Okay, so let's go to a Because we know C has only white notes. We click on a here. A major is not in this scale of C Major because it has the black so fecal. A minor chord. That's what is in the scale of C major is an a minor chord. Okay? And then finally were onto the B. Let's go to see major scale. And so from everything I've told you. Okay, we look at be here, and we're only allowed white notes. So if you come down to here we go to be and everything we've been doing so far, we're gonna go be we're gonna go be major chord. It's like, Oh, well, OK, it can't be a b major chord, right? Because so we have b here. So 12 and three. Okay. Well, then, um, this has to come down here to make it a B minor chord. Right? Because then we're gonna have to be We're gonna have the D, but then it's like, Oh, well, what about this? No, this is black still and everything we've been talking about so far the third has been moving right. This is the only note that's been moving, which is gonna, you know, if we want to make it a minor chord, it's gonna bring this down to the D. But we haven't been talking about this No, like this. No. Hasn't moved at all. Throw any of our courts so far. Because, like I said, the difference between a major and a minor chord is Onley between your one which to thumb and your three, which is your middle finger, which is 12 and three. So this is where you have to use that diminished chord. And I remember that this didn't have diminished, um, from your options, and that's what was confusing. So let's just check o b minor here again. Like I just said, the difference between a major and a minor chord is the amount of nose in between the first and the third. So 123 This is a major chord. If we want one to put this to D like like I was gonna happen, you're going to see if this goes to D. OK, boom. So we have B, we have G, but this is on F sharp. It's like, Well, there's no f sharp in c major scale. So that means that this f sharp goes toe f making it a diminished chord. Okay, I know tricky when you're first starting up, but that's that's just kind of how it goes. And that's the reason why I stay away from the B chord in my music. So now let's cover. Um, the C minor scale. See? Pure minor. Okay, so see pure minor. So you can see here now that, um the difference is the third, the sixth and the seventh. And you can see that if we went to a C chord, so see, it would be e and G would be a major, right? But if we count from C So 12 and then So this is now a minor chord. Okay, cause if we have three notes in between. So 123 that would mean that we'd have a C major chord in the scale of C minor. But we don't k is telling us that it has a black note there. So we're in the scale of C minor and now we're going to see Do we have Ah, major sea or a minor. See? Okay, so we're gonna click. See major here. It's like a well, we don't have a c major chord, because, um, the scale of C minor has the black here, so we're gonna go see Minor. Okay? And again, it's 12 onto the d sharp there. So we're gonna go to pure minor now. Now we're going to go to D. Now, remember? Like a told you in a major scale, it's the seventh dough, which is diminished. That court. Okay, in a minor scale, it's the second note, which is a diminished chord. Okay, so let's just check out the d major and a D minor chord just to see what it gives us. Okay, So from D, remember, if we have three notes, that's a major, and if we have only have two notes in between, it's a minor chord. So let's check out to sea for this f sharp. Okay, cause that's saying that we don't have this note in our scale. So we go from D, I'm going to go 12 and three. Okay, So that is telling us that we can't have a major chord. Okay, cause that would be 12 and three and that we would be playing here on the major. So if I go d major chord k, you'll see that as D has the f sharp and then the G so we don't have f sharp in the scale of C minor, right? We don't have the f sharp. So what that means is that Oh, well, then d minor must be what it is. So if I go d minor, okay, it's like, OK, well, but then we don't have the A in the scale of C minor. So watch if we go. So if you look at the A here, okay, we're gonna go see pure minor and you'll see it's like, Oh, well, we don't have D A in scale of C minor. So again, I know it's kind of confusing, but when we're dealing with a major scale, it's the seventh note, which is a diminished chord and in a minor scale, it's the second note, which is diminished. Okay, so what's happening is on this d minor court. Okay, so we have d minor so far, but what's gonna happen is this a is actually going to go to the G sharp, and that is going to be making it diminished. Okay, so you're gonna have the D, the f and then the g sharp, and that is the court again, This is the reason why I avoid the second chord within this scale, since I am working in a minor scale, so the other ones are going to be easier now. So now let's go to D sharp here, okay? And again, we could just count to see if it's a major or a minor court, so we'll do just that. So 123 Okay, so since we don't have, ah the f sharp in our scale, that's telling us that this D sharp court cannot be minor because would be 12 and then we would actually playing here for his minor. But since it's major 1 to 3, that means that we're actually playing on the g o. K. So I'm going to say that we have ah, major d sharp or e flat court again. You know, I'm just calling it d sharp for simple nous. So if I click d sharp here we go, major. So as you can see we have the d sharp. We have the G and then we have the Asia. Okay, so again, this Just check that out on our scale here. So again, D sharp, G a shirt. Let's see if we have those notes. So see, pure minor. We have the d sharp. We have the G. We also have the a shirt. Okay, so we're good to go. So in the scale a C minor, we have a d sharp major chord in the scale of C Byner. Okay, so let's move on so f now. So let's just see if we have ah, major or a minor chord. So from F So 123 So I'm going to say that we have a minor chord because otherwise we would be playing on the A, which is not in the scale of C minor. So we're gonna go f and it's to see Do we have the major? Okay, so, no, it's the minor. So we have an f minor chord because we have the black there again if we count so from F So 123 Okay, so this is telling us it's a major chord and we don't have a within the C minor scale. We have, uh, the G sharp. Okay, so G and then g sharp. So we're gonna go see we're going to go pure minor. And as you can see, you know, we don't have the A. OK, so that's telling us that we have an f minor court. Okay, We're gonna carry on to the G. So from G 123 Okay, so we don't have be in the scale of C minor. That means that we're gonna have ah, g minor chord. Okay, So if I go chief, and then if I go minor, you'll see that it goes G has the a shirt and has the d. Okay, Because again, if I want 1 to 3, that means that we would be playing on the be. And if I go see pure minor so there's no be within the scale of C minor case. So now we're onto G sharp here. So from G sharp this discount again. So 123 Okay, So this is telling us it's a major chord. So g sharp were destroyed on here, So we have g sharp here and we gonna go major Okay, so we have the G. We have the sea and we have the d sharp. If I were to go minor, we don't have the b b is not in the scale of C minor. And just to confirm. So we're gonna go g sharp minor. And as you see, you know, we don't have that be so it has to be a g major court, right? Because we have G shirt we have. See, we have d sharp. Go back to see your minor, and we have g sharp. We have the sea, and then you know what's not showing it here, but we have it down here. Okay? This is what you call an inversion, which I will cover in another video. OK, so as you can see, it's no highlighting the whole thing. So if I went g sharp, we have c and then we have the D shirt. OK, so as you can see or sick that Okay, so let's go on to our next one. So Ah, we're onto our last note, actually. So this is a sharp. Okay, So from a Sherpa, let's just council 123 and sort, I'll just do this for you because I think it'll be easier. Okay, so again, we're on a sharp right here. Okay, so we're in a council. 123 So this is going to be in a sharp major cord, because we we need the d. We don't want the c sharp. OK, so it's a c c sharp d d sharp e. So let's go to a sharp here, okay? And I'm just gonna remove this kind of confusing, Okay, so we're gonna a sharp and I'm going to go, major. And this is the cord, which which we want. Okay, cause a sharp it's the d, and it's the F. But if we count so one too, so it can't be the minor. And that's just how simple it is, like I know. Ah, it can be a little bit confusing to get your head wrapped around, but as you're making your beats, you know, choose a scale, and then as you're looking at it, Okay, so in this case, I'm just gonna go see pure minor. Okay? So as you're looking at it, it's like, this is telling you that these are the notes they're allowed to play and then. Now, if you're wanting to actually play those chords within your music, those of the cords which are available to you, they have to match the notes which are in this scale. So, for example, you know, you just can't be going and throwing in any chord or like any kind of major or minor. It has to be the same notes which match up to the scale. And that's the reason why I was telling you just to pick one scale toe, learn and practice because you don't have to go on. Memorize all these different notes. All these different scales, always different chords. You know, the notes which are available to you and it's up to you. If you want to play like this, for example, you could just Okay, I'm playing in C minor right now, So it's gonna open up fl studio. Not sure you my keys, you know? So scroll down here, you know? So I was playing this with you right now. So as you can see over my years, I have just memorized notes which are available to me in C minor Again. You guys can check out the piano course if you want to learn to play like that? I'm self taught, and I just pass all the tricks and tips, which I've discovered over the years, you know, specifically as a beat maker to learn the piano and all this knowledge that you seen with scales on the course. Now, so far, all I've done is I've just applied that. And then it's just the muscle memory of knowing how to at the rhythms and add the left hand with the right hand and stuff like that. But by no means do you have to take the other course, you know, to be a good beat maker. As long as you have a good comprehension of chords and knowing how toe blend them together , which will be in our future videos. I'm gonna show you you know how to use some chords and the scales over like a the drum loop that we've created here. You don't like this, but what I'll do is it will just remove these guitar notes, and we'll put in our own cords, and you can just kind of see how you can start applying this knowledge into your music.
6. 4.2 - Advanced Chords and Inversions: Okay, So in this video, I want to talk to you about more advanced cords as well. A something called inversions. These will allow you to have more creativity in your music by, you know, allowing you to have more sound choices. Also, something happened on this piano world. Helper has the keys you could see. Ah, you know, the black notes had, like, these lines going through him, but it still works. You know, um, I even tried refreshing at the browser and wasn't able toe to fix it. Okay, so anyway, so we're first going to start with something called Inversions. So right now, if I'm in this on a C major chord, this is what you call the root position. This is where your thumb is on the sea, your middle fingers on the e and your pinky is on the G. So this is the root position. Now there's a first inversion, a second inversion, and then back to route. But it's just a octave higher. So with an inversion, what you're doing is you're playing the same notes. You're just playing them in a different order. Okay, So for example, this see down here, where we actually stop playing the see down here, and we just move it to this. See up here. So now your thumb would be on the E, I believe. Now, on the first inversion, it's recommended to use your index finger, so you're too would be on the G, and then your pinky would be up here on the sea, and we're no longer playing the see down here. Okay, so that's the first inversion we ever thumb on E R. Index on G and then our pinky on. See, that's the first inversion. Okay, Now, to go to the second version, we would now stop playing the heat down here, and we would move the e up here. So now we we would be playing the G, the sea and the E, and it's the second inversion. Okay, so our thumb is on. Ah, the G. Okay. Our middle finger is on the sea, and then we can put our pinky on the e u K. That's the second inversion. And then to go back to root position, but an octave higher this g, we would stop playing down here. We would move it up here, which means that our thumb is on C our middle fingers on e. And then our pinky is on G, and that is an inversion. Okay, so if we just go to efforts to do here, Okay. So right now this is the court Candice's root position. But as you can see, I have a c appear right. So now what I'm gonna do is going to stop playing the see down here. And now I'm playing the e. I'm playing the G still and then in plain to see up here. So that is just the first inversion off to see major court. Okay, down here's room way. Stop playing the see you Stop playing to see. Okay, so one more time. So this route we removed the the lower seat. We're just playing the e and the G Still. Now you just need to see up first inversion. So now what I'm gonna do is this e I'm going to remove it, and we're gonna play it up here, cancel us. You down here, moving up here. So now we're playing the G, the sea, which is an octave higher, and the e, which is an octave higher. So this is the second inversion. Okay? And you're playing it with your thumb under G your middle finger on the sea and then your pinky on the e. Okay, And then now to go back to root position. But it just an octave higher. I'm removing this G and I'm playing the g up here. Okay, I'm so down here. It's not like this. Now again, that's the same C major chord. Were just playing different inversions of it and the benefits as a music producer. And even if you're a composer, mic on the piano is it just allows you to reach different frequency ranges. But you're still playing the same court. It's just a different inversion of it. So, you know, try that out. It's a really, really cool trick. It allows this for more creativity in your music again, sometimes down here to call, maybe it just a little bit too low. We'll maybe try playing the sea up here instead of the sea down here just a little bit higher. So sort of this it's this. Okay, so that's inversions. Okay, so now we're gonna look at ah sussed four and a suss to court. OK, so as you can see this is a C major chord. The middle finger. We would be playing the e So on a suss for what you're doing is you're moving this e up one . Okay, so you're moving it to the F so says for it here. So now instead of playing on a C major, which is this My middle fingers on the e My, um, ring finger. My four is playing the f. Okay, so go to FL Studio to look at that. Okay, so right now, C, e and G is a major court, Okay, but the suss has this f so it kind of creates a little bit of tension. And then the suss to is actually we're playing the C and the D together, okay. And then the G as well. So it's like this. So sometimes what you could do in your music is you can kind of play. Okay, So you could see him playing the e. I'm playing the f. I'm playing the d and back to the Okay, So that's just sometimes it's a little bit of variety in your court, so sometimes you can be okay just for a little quick example. OK, so just to go back quickly. So again, instead of playing on the E, this sussed for is playing on the F k. And then this us to is you're playing on the D. So try those out. Those air. Really, really cool. Okay. I was quickly introduce you to a major seventh at a minor seventh. Okay, so we'll click the major here. Your thumb is on the sea. Your index finger is on E. Now your middle finger is playing on the G and in your pinky is playing on the B, as you see here. Okay. So, personally, this isn't a court I used too often. I usually do. Just stick with the majors. Sustained fourth on the sustained second. I just really haven't worked with seven tons. Sometimes I just feel that they give your music just a little bit of a different sound. A lot of times, like a sound I'm not going for or I've not really tried toe work them in. Um, you know, maybe that will be later my production career. But right now, um, again, I'm mostly using the major, the minor, the suss four. And this us too. okay in the minor. So in case of C minor courts again that c d sharp go back Teoh fl studio. So C d Sharp would have the e right with the d sharp and then the G. But in this case, we have a shirt in there now, too. So like this. Okay, so go back here. So that C d g and then the shirt. Okay, so those are just more advanced cords for you to play around with again. I mostly just used major minor, um, this us four and assess to If you use those, I'm sure you guys will be able to get some really kind of cool court sounds out of your music.
7. 5 - Putting Chords into Real-World Practice: Okay, so now it's time to actually apply the things that I've shown you into riel world practice . So we're going to try implementing some chords, notes and just be kind of creative with it. Okay, So I'm going to keep referencing back to this. Just you guys can kind of see how I would use it. Just a reference it nowadays. I never use this anymore because I have the scale of C Minor memorized again. It's just Ah, that's just how I play. That's just how I float. But we will be working in the scale of C minor and will kind of, ah, just play some chords and I'm sure you have to kind of get started. Okay, So I'm just going to remove this guitar here, and we will still use this guitar, but we will just kind of start, um, you know, adding some chords in. So just for some pointers, when you're working with cords now, I usually like to have four chords minimum. Um, but every single song is different. Like, don't get me wrong. There's been some songs wherever, only used to cords or whatever, but I usually like to have about four chords that usually creates a nice variety for your listener. There's always a nice change of going on. So, for example, it would be kind of like Okay, so in that case, I actually added in a new chord on the other Come around of the next bar. So I'll break down. What I what I just did there. Okay, so let's just open up the guitar piano roll here. And so, um, let's just play. Ah, see court here. Okay, so right here. So she's play it like like this. So typically, when I if I were to click in notes ah, usually do play with my left hand on the keyboard, and then I just kind of click him in. And then if I want to keep repeating those notes, I can hold on control and click and highlight, and they're gonna hold on shift and click, and I could duplicate them, So there's gonna put this kind of off beat that Syncopation stuff, and, ah, we're just gonna place it in here, OK, so so far, this is what it sounds like. And I usually be or bar that way when I click in Ah ah pattern in here. It actually fits perfectly where it goes. If it wasn't, you know, would have to zoom in to make sure it was so so far we got this. Okay, so in this case, let's go. Ah, different chords. So again referred in the scale of C minor. These air the notes available to us. So I'm working with C right now. Okay, so it's C minor. We're going to go back. Um, when you go down to G, uh, minor. I guess this is gonna be the G. Now, this is gonna be a little bit faster Pace to K because you know it's gonna take forever. If I keep trying to explain, like the cords of their major reminder, you'll have to watch the previous video so that you can grasp the concept of the difference between major and minor chords. Okay, Um but went to fold the previous videos and come back and watch this. Everything will start making sense for you. OK, so I'm just gonna play a g minor here. You No, no, this is just a really, really simple way to get you started. OK? Like when it comes to courts and stuff like that. So it is hot. Ladies, go off. Be here again. So again, this is like that Syncopation. Okay, so the first notes are on beat the second. The second set of notes is not on B. Okay, it's off. Beat it. But then the third set of notes is on be. It plays on the four, right? 123 and four. And then I'm just going to repeat that. So right now, it'll just sound like this. Okay, so, you know, if you wanted to have it like this, You know, um, this is like a bass note in here. Like usually I would always create a separate instrument, and I would ah, that way, when it comes to like the base, I could actually mix it differently and, you know, mold it, But watch if we just put like this, um, and then we'll go down lower to the G. So we got g here. So I'm gonna do something kind of creative here and be like Do do do so Okay, because now F is in this scale of C minor. So I'm not sure if I want to go like the f maybe do something like this. So, you know, remove that one. We'll try the T shirt. And now, if you want to be creative, you can kind of start playing notes of higher. But you have to make sure that we're using the same notes that Aaron that scale. So again, we have C g D sharp, F g g sharp, a sharp and then back to see OK, so just to confirm So we have seen d T shirt, F g T shirt, A and C. Okay, again, I know I'm going fast, but that will make this video just not so long on that stuff. And I'll show you how to actually use into real world practice. So, um, now is just where you can kind of be creative. So since for playing a c court here, you know, yes, we could maybe add, like, a g d sharp or survival open up an octave higher on that. Okay, so, you know, we could still put a c a d sharp or G. You know, not that safe like that's gonna work, no matter what. However, sometimes you can still add in notes that are not a part of that court. But since they're still in the same scale, a lot of times you could still get things toe work. So, for example, I could pay like the F or the G sharp. But sometimes, you know, it all depends like the song. So all just improvised here a little bit. And let's just see if we can kind of create anything castle , you know, just kind of hitting the notes. But as you can notice, I'm playing notes which are in that scale, and that's the difference. Now if I play notes, they're not in this scale. Listen, OK, so I'm playing the E A Plan B. So those notes are not in the scale. Now when I play my chords like I'm or just kind of improvised and as I'm playing the piano , I'm always focused, really on creating loops, okay, loops that are really, really catchy. And as I practiced the piano, that really is like my sole purpose, like, is to learn catchy loops. And he usually always have about four chords in that loop. So, for example, for that for my chords, I'm gonna be playing Ah, CNG can and usually with the left hand. You said I don't play that that middle. No, in the triad, a lot of times, especially when it comes to like the mixing and stuff. You can kind of sound congested. Kind of. Ah, yeah. I think that's part of the best way to say it. It doesn't sound clear. Whereas if you just play on your pinky and on your thumb, then just like the outside of that court, it will sound a lot clearer. Come Mixed time. That's the cool little trick. So I'm gonna play see? Okay, We'll go down to G. You can just the outside's in this case, it would be the minor, so a sharp would be in there. But look at the left hand. I'm not. So I just play the g going to go up to the G sharp, Okay, which is also with the sharp. That's the upper. And then I was gonna go to a sharp which has the f k. So So c g okay. And with the right hand, I'm just going to be creative, and we're gonna try and find a little cut you loop. And that's the exact way how I created the loop previously, uh, at the beginning of this video like this one. Okay, so let's just see if I can create another little loop like that. Um, you know, cause like I'm saying, as I practiced the piano, I always just try to find these catchy loops. And actually, let's to study that one just quickly again. But as you can see these other four No, it's like this would be like the four chords. And then all I did was I just repeated it again, does the exact same thing. It's just repeated just the notes up here or what changed in this four bar loop. So let's just create our own loop now, OK, so this school, like again and we go see her, I'll open up the general. You could see so on a c g g sharp. So ah, and a really cool thing. And so you weren't nearly able to see my upper notes. I wasn't scrolled up, but really cool thing. NFL studios like, OK, I just played those notes that sounded awesome. How do I get them back? So if you go up here to the tools, you can see this thing called the dump score log to select a pattern. So I'm gonna go the last two minutes of what I played. And this is what I want right here. Okay, so if you listen to this so maybe it's here, starts around here. No, that's not us. We won't go a little bit more. Verio's, that's that's us. That's just played. So let's work with that. OK, so what I'm gonna do, some was gonna hold on control, click and highly all that to here. I'm gonna hold on Control and X to cut that. Okay. And then I'm actually gonna press delete not backspace, but actual delete. And it will remove all these notes. And now I can pace this end, and we're going to zoom in on it. And then I'm just gonna Kwan ties with controlling Q, okay. And then I'm just gonna bring it all over here. Okay, So So do this now. Oops. I want to make sure it stays on the same notes. So there we go. Um, now I just want to ah, make sure that things Aaron time. Ah, this no is probably off time, as I could see right here, but we'll only know if we can hear. And sometimes when these notes are off time, sometimes that sparks creativity nearly. Oh, I like that. I'm gonna add maybe a note in here now with it or something. So let's just listen to what I have here, and I'll make this big screen so we can see better. So I'm just gonna work with a bar at a time. Okay? So I'm just gonna highlight this, and we're actually just gonna bring this back one. Okay? Now it kind of puts everything back on beat. I can see that this note right here is playing on, like, the second step of this third beat of the second bar. Okay, so you can kind of follow this a little better when you kind of understand, Right? I'm in the second bar, and then we have 123 So this is the third beat, right? And then I could see that this is like, on the second step of that third beat, Um, and this is going to be off beat. So I'm assuming that this is gonna have to come either here or put on be on the three. I'm gonna say it's you know, here. But we're not going to know until we listen. And this is just how I work. OK, so let's just make this so we can see it. And what s So this has to go over and kiss. So this actually has to go further over just like that kiss. So maybe this has to go on beat and we'll start from here now. Kids will get precious all Ford a bit again. I was gonna work with a bar at a time. That way it's just not gonna confuse everything. And we will highlight this, too, and we'll move that over with it. Okay. So, again, as I'm referencing, this is I'm editing my notes. I am just, ah, kind of looking to see what what is on beat. And then are other notes supposed to be off beat? So in here, You know, I'm assuming that this this one could be off beat. This allows that Syncopation, but we'll listen. Castle kind of sounds a little weird. They're a little rushed. Okay, I'm gonna say this comes back with this. I'm gonna say, actually, all this comes back one. Okay, so this feels like the Syncopation. This is still off beat, but a kind of remedies like that Syncopation. It's kind of in between the two and on the three. This is on the end, Que so it's kind of a safe spot still. Okay, so this place on the sea the sea is at the beginning off the loop. So as you can see, I've playing the sea employing the gene on playing the G sharp When I go back to a and and concede goes right back to see right here where we are and that's just ah, court progression. But as you can see, it starts in the sea here. And C should be playing on that one again. So it repeats. So I know that this is supposed to be here. I'm gonna put that there. And now I just have to kind of solve whatever's in between. Uh, here. So I'm going to assume that this one goes here and we're gonna listen. Uh, we will play it from the third bar. No. So I'm gonna bring these over like this in here. It's like it's all kind of off beat, but it's so close to being a potential melody a little loop for us to work with. It's very, very close, right? I wasn't super happy with this fourth bar here, but once we complete, our whole loop will be able to hear it. Now, another thing I just want to mention to you is in his 1st 2 bars, I have these four chords. Okay, so go see G g sharp and then up to the a sharp. Okay? And then all it's doing is on the third to the fourth bar. It is literally just repeating on this third and fourth bar. A lot of times, I would start with that. See, go to G. And then sometimes you can actually swap these two chords with, like, two different cores. And sometimes that can give a different melody. Or I believe in this case, um, actually changed it up here, which is actually really good example. So this is what I'm talking about. So from bars 1 to 4, I have Ah, the C g g sharp A. And it repeats twice on the on 5 to 7. Okay, so from here? No, sir. I guess five and six again go. C g g sharp. A sharp it goes back up to see. Okay, so this just these notes are out. This should probably be on the seven, because it goes back up to see, But as you could see, it goes from C to G sharp and then g sharp actually continues on. And then I actually just go back up to see it Looks like if if that's what I want when it's all done. But I actually I think I didn't really play that the azure appear that just allows for more variety for your listener. So it's just not the same loop over and over. You can kind of change of your progression with one or two records near the end sometimes. And that's what I wanted to kind of explain to you. So let's keep fixing this loop here, okay? It's kind of get where we got a loop on Wilson to it with the drum loop, and hopefully this kind of breaks down these chords and scales and stuff just in more of a real world practice, especially with, like, the notes of the editing and how I approach it. Okay, so here we go way kiss. So I'm gonna put this on beat way. We're gonna move this forward beginning, sons. Fine. Yes, It was a little bit weird. Here. Let's see. We're on the fifth bar. This is where we are right now, okay? And we're gonna look for this note right here. I'm gonna reference back to the 1st 1 come over to the very, very first bar. So a lot of times, once they have the loop, that sounds good in the beginning of the loop. OK, So it in the first few beats, whatever. Ah, LA times all reference back to see the placement so that when it comes to, uh, my further beats in the future bars, I could line up and can kind of get a similar melody and groove going on. Okay, so I think I kind of got this fifth bar here in the sixth. This has been a tricky one. Don't want to spend tons of time on the editing. I wanted more show you like the cores and stuff like that, so Ah, but I do feel that this will probably help you if you use that full studio and how to edit the notes and stuff. So gonna hit play here. We're gonna listen to my edit there a little bit weird here. So I'm just going to actually just ah, move these ones and this note over. Maybe not this one. They will leave this one. I think he's just has to go over one, OK? Because you like this is only the second step when others should be on B or should be on the off bees. Okay, so it's a little bit rushed there. Okay, so, behind the scenes, I just in editing just to kind of speed that up so I can get it were, you know, it all kind of made sense. So listen to that. Just fully here. So as you can hear that, Lupino, it just sounds nice and repetitive. It's really catchy, You know, It sounds really good to my ears. Anyways, um, to take it the next level, you know, you can kind of do things like note nudging for more of a humanistic sound to it. You can also implement, like that swing stuff from or Groove. One thing I did notice here is we're listening right here. There's Ah, note. That sounds quite loud. Eso around here. Um So what we can do is you hold on, Ault in the scroll wheel and you can You just kind of makes her notes quieter. Sorry. Here. This is the note. That's loud. So much better kiss. So in our next video, we will just work on just a little baseline so I can kind of show you. You know how you can kind of create a baseline to this, okay?
8. 6 - Working with a Bassline and Seeing How Our Music Theory Lines Up: Okay, So now what? We're working with the baseline. Typically, this is what I would do. I'm going to hit escape. I would right. Click on my pattern. Undergo clone. Now, in this case, I'm kind of making my music with a unique approach. This is actually a single guitar note, which I am playing as melodies. Okay, I've actually created a course on this is called organic beats. You guys can search here. It's going you to me and on his wells in skill share. Um, And what I do is I show you how I record a single guitar. No, actually, record the guitar note with you guys, and then I create a full composition out of it with life. The baseline, and then also in the highest case is kind of a unique approach, but this is what I'm gonna do. So I've cloned that guitar. No. OK, but if you were to be using, like, a fiesty like science one or whatever again, I was still clone your fiesty, and then now you would choose a base preset. But in this case, I'm just going to label this base Que So There we go. Now. I was gonna put also to a different pattern because right now seven is being routed to something's mixture inserts for the reverb and stuff. But if I go to eight, you'll hear it sounds very, very dry. Sorry, one of eight, not six. The Rio cases like this, but if we go to seven, you can see that it's being routed to um, you know, all these different sense is what you call sends. I also have a course on the mixer. It's called FL Studio Mixer. Workflow breaks down the whole mixer and how to Roatan stuff. You just hear the difference, right? So watch if we listen to this guitar lute and I put it to a different mixture, insert very, very dry, right? You know, not much flavor. Very, very dry. No, not really. Groovy. Go to seven were resorted to the river. Been stuff here radio. So now in this video, we're gonna be talking about the baseline. So how do you go about creating a baseline so again? Sometimes you can get away with playing different notes within the scale here. Okay, because these are all the notes that are available to you. However Ah, lot of times when you're working with the baseline, you typically want to follow your progression for the most part. So in this case, since our progression is see, it is G. It is g sharp, Okay? And then it goes to Asia case. So it's literally just this, you know, that was there. So if I just highlight thes and extend them around there, that's that's that's good for now. So what you can do is you get hold and control and the down arrow key, and it's gonna transpose that for us. So now it's actually lower. So I don't think that this is still gonna be low enough, Priscilla strangle one lower. You know, that sounds not bad. Now, you just gonna make sure there's no overlapping with your base. You know, you just want nice and clean. I kind of liked it up a little higher, too. So maybe we'll try this. This is kind of a cool approach you could do. You can actually layer your ah, you know, like the upper and the lower way. So in this case, let's just remove these, though, and I'm gonna bring these back up, and sometimes it's nice to play the bass line up high with these ghost notes. If you don't have the ghost, don't enable you can click the arrow up here. You can go to helpers and you go ghost channels and or you just hit all TV for the shortcut . This allows you to see different notes which are on the same pattern. Okay, That way you can kind of reference them back and forth. But what you can do is you could play typically the notes which are in the cord for your baseline. Now, I'm not saying to play. I'm all like this, but what I'm saying is, ah, these are the notes that are available to you at this time. So maybe we can do something like this. Okay, Kind of make like a more of, ah, little progression with her base. So if you're more like this Okay, so they tried the same thing here. So with G, I want the deal now and then I'm gonna go to the a sharp furnished with a small note there . And let's just listen to this, OK? And I'll bring this down in an octave now, So it kind of sounded weird. So what we have here? We have cheat and playing it on that. So we'll go back down to the G and we go down with Morocco. Okay, so maybe the baselines moving a little too fast. Um, but it's all about kind of finding what suits your track. Like sometimes a fast baseline can work very well like this. This is a trick. Sometimes you could just make it all off beat. So did you like this? So keep this off like this. And sometimes when the notes plan like this, sometimes you can highlight them. I'm gonna hold on, Alton. Click here. And I just make a little gap in between because sometimes it won't allow. Like the initial transient to cut through. It was kind of overlap. Maybe here we can kind of keep you can keep the GL like that. So when cycled, remove those and Oh, go all off. Beat here. We'll keep it like this Sometimes It's what you can do now. Right now, it sounds weird because it's playing the same instrument in the same octave, and it's just kind of sound like a repetitive note. But if I bring it down in October Just like that? Um, it might sound a little better. Okay, So Well, listen to this. So down when we're active. Sounds OK, but as you can see, what I'm doing with the baseline is I'm literally just following the progression. Um, now, you can't break free from this, because if you always make your base sounds like this, it can kind of sound a little boring, because it's just following. You know what you've already done. But for the most part, this could really make your music sound really, really good. So where is gonna highlight these? These and ds, and we're gonna hit, delete other. Still eat this and we will just stretch this one play here, play here and then here. Now again, Just make sure it's not overlapping. And this one movie we can extend and again, like I'm saying so this baseline is actually just repeating over and over. Oh, actually, in this case, it played sooner, so it actually changed on. So I played the same chords. But I played the timing different as you can see. And then I just holding on control and clicking and highlighting holding on shift and clicking, I can bring him all over. And this is just a really simple way to do your baseline. Okay? So you don't really have to worry about playing anything. You're literally just following the notes that you've already played. That's just kind of the benefits of these ghost channels. So in this case, I don't even have this A. But I'll show you a little trickier. Okay, so I'm going to extend this about here. Now, What we can do is because since we have these notes available to us, you know that we're already playing. That means that we can play our baseline on any of these notes for the most part. And it's going to sound pretty decent. So, you know, just for a little bit of variety. Ah, lot of times what you want to do at the end here, loop is somehow bring the loop back in for your listener. What I mean by that is here. What we could do is we can maybe make the baseline kind of walk down. So, for example, we can do like this, so it's gonna play. It's gonna go, Boom, boom is gonna walk down, and then the local rate back into C case. So if you listen to it from here, Okay. So again, right now, the note is in the same octave as the actual melody. So let's bring it down an octave down an octave. Can I have it all these and bring other velocities up Case, Let's go up a little bit. We could make that a little bit more fun. So it kind of sounds a little slow in here, so we'll hit play kiss. So since we have multiple notes here Okay, let's be Repeat that again. Right here. Okay. Maybe a little bit more energy. Oh, actually, maybe Let's just try a different tone here. So what do you want? Tea here? They don't know how that and go control down arrow that way. I know exactly the No, you know. Yes, I can look here and see it's this one that have to find it here. But if I just literally drag it to that note and then just use control and down arrow just a fast waste that you know, it's the same note. Just an octave lower now So bring it down kiss So I don't like the timing of that at all. Here's the cool trick. So I'm going to extend this out. I'm gonna use something called the Slide and we're gonna slide that up to here, OK? And so when it's a lower octave, the note is actually longer being back a little bit. Well, you hear that kind of slides ups kind of a cool trick living in us. Slide that down to hear that g again. I'm just kind of playing around here, So I'm gonna show you how to be creative, What you content to do stuff So and maybe we can Ah, to some like this. So you could hear that the overlap there. So listen to it again. So it was really, really bad. So you got to make sure that nothing is overlapping. Another thing you can do with your base, you can right click on it and make sure you cut itself that way, whenever a new note plays, it instantly cuts off the previous know that way when you're working with, like, a baseline, whatever, you don't worry about the overlapping like you can't have it open lap if you want. I think maybe just do this on, uh, will play us one more here and again, Like I'm saying, so does. If you put a little gap in between these, sometimes it could make it a little more prominent. Just a little gap there. You Justin's love better. So So it was the beginning. So it might be a little bit too much with, with all of these kind of Ben's going on, right? Kind of like kind of hitting the note before it goes in again. So what's another Get que let's listen to that with the drum of See what what we're working with. I don't like that. So again, as you can see, it's just kind of the trial and air over and over and over. Um, but that's kind of how I would work with the base sonic. I know the dose that are available to me because, you know, if it's a C Well, since I'm in C minor, I know I have the c. I have the d sharp and I have the G. I could use those for sure doesn't mean that they're going to sound good, but it is worth a try just to kind of see you know what? What is possible? Let's just hear this. Kind of like it was trying to say this another thing too, is Ah, when you're working with a recorded single note, you can actually just like the 80 s are so like you release the stuff. That way, when you do have a note that is, like kind of like this If you just like the release, for example, um, it would extend that no message, Let it go. So right now it's containing to play, So don't lower. So impressing that no and letting go as soon as I can and is continuing. But if I put the release very, very short, knowledge is something so it so it sounds Hey, bring a little bit a little bit longer case a little bit longer. Okay, so I don't want it that long, but just to kind of show you. So what I'm saying there is. When I had a little gap in there, it sounds a little bit kind of abrupt, almost kind of weird. So if we bring the release up just a little bit, kind of makes it a little bit more natural, you know? Then This also just comes down like the mix, and you over think your thicker base here. So since you're working with the individual note and using the same note for everything, you kind of have to mix it a little bit to get it toe where it sits. Nice. Especially like a baseline of especially a recorded baseline. If this was like a V S t. You know, it's typically a lot cleaner. So if I kind of like this down in here, get a distortion on that slaps a distortion on that right away. Sure is a different patch here. Okay. So just to kind of give you a little idea with your baseline. Um, so again, in this case, I was just simply following the court progression that we previously did here. Um, maybe we just do one little quick walk through of the baseline for this may be, for example, So as you could see, if we come back to this one now, So this is the first loop at the beginning of this course. So one thing that you could do is you could literally just called on control clicking. Copy. I'm going to go to the base here. Now, this is the same pattern, and I could literally just paste in here in the screen down an octave. There's sound like this. Now you bring up a doctor so again with a copy and paste that and we'll bring it down an octave. Um, so now we have the upper and the lower might sound a little bit cleaner. So again, with his release. So it extends it or sounds really, really tight just a little bit longer, Mrs. With no effects on. That was really simple for that baseline. But again, you know, since we didn't see, you know, if we can Ah, but the d sharp here because this is still the same cord up to this point. And then once it reaches this point, the court then changes. So you know, we can't really be used in the c d Sharp and the G, which is a part of that cord. We're now on to the a sharp. So it would be a shirt d and in the half, in this case, so, you know, let's see here so we can add in out of the d or the f here, so maybe like the d and so would try this. Go back so trust again so g would put a d highlight this best control C control and be being over being a productive, the aggressiveness distortion bring up just a little bit. Maybe not so steep. So the reason why I'm filtering that it was just, ah, kind of make the distortion also aggressive, But we're still kind of getting the benefit of the distortion toe add frequencies in to make it sound a little fuller. So that's just a little walk through of your baseline. How to kind of play around with it. I'm just simply just following the cord and tryingto add in notes, you know, kind of where suits the song. It's always different for each song, but typically to stay safe. You can just follow that bottom note of the cord on the left hand. Okay,
9. 7 - Making Our Music Sound Better with Available Free Tools: Okay, so this is just gonna be kind of a little quick video, and I'm just going to talk to you. Just spoke some tips on how to make your cords and your loops on a little bit more professional, a little bit more humanistic. Okay, so I was gonna open up this first guitar lute that we worked on, OK, The very, very beginning of the course. And it just sounds like this. I was getting on this base, and this is bring that back Castle's little better. So what we could do to spice this up a little bit is you can actually hold on shift and the scroll wheel, and you can actually nudge notes a little bit. So in this case, you know, that was quite aggressive. But typically, if you zoom in here, you can actually, uh, move over your notes just a little bit. And it will give a more humanistic sound to your music. So in this case, it actually sounds pretty good the way how it is. But especially when you have multiple note being hit at the same time, you can hold down the bolt and click and hold and bring it over, or you can hold on the vault and just a scroll wheel. So you like this? So, for example, you know that just a little more of a humanistic flavor to it, Or if you want it really robotic, you hold on control on cue and you'll see that it goes quantities is almost back together. Right? See how those shift needle here shifts over. Right? So controlling Q is quantity Kwan ties, is it? And what it does, it snaps it to whatever your grid setting is which ever you've chosen up here, another thing you can do is offer velocity. Okay, so, um, sometimes a certain no is too loud. So just imagine this court right here, but hover my most over the a sharp here. Better hold on, Ault and everything is a scroll. Well, now you can boost up the single note. Now you'll notice that this one no is gonna be is gonna be way too allowed compared to the loop. Okay, so what? We're gonna go back to the first bar. We're gonna listen Now listen to this note right here. I'll just highlight it. You could hear is too loud. So I have to do is just happier most over it. Use the scroll wheel. Bring it down. Listen, one more time, case and we're gonna bring it down, make a little make it blend a little bit better. Okay? So again, to give your music more flavor, I typically like to use about three or four chords. And then, you know, knew at the end of the loop, a lot of times I will change up the loop in a sense of changing up the cord. So, for example, right here we have Ah, we have four bars, right? So which means that that 16 beats so 1234 and then times that by four now. Okay, so let's 16 beats, Right? So on the 1st 8 beats, you know, I might keep the progression like this, but on the second part of this progression, you know, I would probably keep the sea. I'd probably keep a sharp and then here, you know, on these notes I might change this up. So instead of it being g and then g sharp, maybe I would go. Ah, you know d sharp and then ah, back to a sharp or something, you know, something like that, for example. So let's just listen to that for a second, and that's without the baseline. Just sort out the change The base notes because right now, the bass notes would clash with what I just did there. So let's just listen to the change I did in Bar four again. This is sometimes just for a variety for the your listener sake as well as your saying to you is your a Z Keep listening to over and over. So listen Okay, on another big thing, too, is also the quality of your sounds, too. If you're working with kind of cheap sounds, it is going to make your music hard to make good music because, you know, this sounds cheesy or they sound kind of, you know, cheap sounding. But if you have really high quality sounds, it does make the difference. Okay, guys, so that's this course. I'm going to make one more video just for the conclusion. Wrap up and we'll get into
10. OUTRO: Okay, guys. So that is our course on music theory and chords. You know, the biggest thing is just understanding your scales case we're gonna go to that page here is just understanding the scales again. I really recommend starting and see Major. Okay, Circle C Major learning. Um, a really, really cool progression goes. See C major. It goes, G major. I served up an octave higher Sogo's and that is such a catchy Okay, so it goes C g s. Okay, so that's C major. That's G major as a minor. And then it's f major. So this is to a quick look at that. So it's C major kit. It is g major. It is a minor. Okay. Doesn't have the black in there because, see, Major doesn't have a black no f major. Okay? Because it doesn't have the black there, so we want the major can. So that's a really, really catchy one. I'll play it for you over time. Yeah, you know, over like the drum loop, for example. Um, just go to that drum loop, play this. So here we go. But hopefully this is really eye opening to you. So that when it comes to your chords and scales that you know the notes that are available to you. And then, since you know the notes, then you know the cords that are available to you. And then it's really just up to you to figure out the progressions that you like personally for myself is that play the piano whenever I'm playing. I'm always trying to find new progressions on my left hand. Like with the cords. They always global three or four chords, and then sometimes I mix up those cores on the last bar of my loop. So I really hope you guys enjoyed this course. You don't hopefully kind of sparks your improvisation and creativeness in your beats again . If you guys want to learn piano, you guys can check up my course. It is called Learned piano for beat makers and producers. They really help you excel and improvising and thinking as a producer with the piano complained Piano as a producer, if you guys could leave a review, I would really, really appreciate. It goes really, really long way with my online course business here, and if you guys have anything you want to say to me if you have any questions or would like to see a new course for me, you can always leave me a message or leave a comment. And thanks for taking the course. I'm gratuitous and hope this you guys in future courses of mine.
Riley Weller, FL Studio Trainer
