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Introduction to Music Theory for Making Digital Music
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There are a number of computer programs that are used for composing and creating music. A lot of people purchase these programs so that they can make their own music and become famous DJs, for example. It is important to note that you cannot create “live” music in these programs. If you want your music to sound live, it is much easier to find someone that will record a particular instrument for you then to try and create that sort of sound manually. If, on the other hand, you want to create digital music, you have everything you need.
Most people think that creating digital music is easy and this is not far from true. You need a sufficient amount of time spent using a particular program for creating music just to find out all the options you have all the ways to manipulate the sound itself. After that it is up to you to do whatever you like.
But, there is some theory that has to be introduced to someone who hasn’t composed anything or is not an educated musician. A lot of people will say that this is all rather complicated to understand, but this article will prove them wrong. In the following text you will find out how to work with notes and tones and what are certain rules and conventions that you are advised to follow, if you want your music to sound natural.
Since I play piano, I will explain everything on the basis of piano keys. Keep in mind that all the information in the following text is valid for any sort of instrument. Furthermore, almost all the programs that are used for creating digital music have a piano keyboard within their interface that is used for creating melodies.
- Musical Notes
Every sound has a specific frequency. The study that deals with this aspect of sound is called Physics and I will not elaborate on this subject a lot. Theoretically there is an infinite number of possible sounds. However, the convention states that all the sound are categorized in only 12 different sounds. Look closely at the following picture.
As you can see, there is C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, and B. After that, this sequence repeats itself an infinite number of times, in theory. The “#” marks a so called “sharp” tone and the “b” marks the so called “flat” tone. As you can see the C# and the Db label the same tone so, for now, disregard the Db, Eb, Gb, Ab and Bb labels.
The paragraph above describes tone labeling system in western countries. The eastern labeling system differs from the western in two aspects. First of all, the B note is called the H and the A# note is called B.
- Musical scales
In order to explain scales in the easiest way, I will introduce the notion of a “Full Tone”. A full tone is a range between three individual tones. Consequently, a range between two individual tones is “Half a Tone”. So, therefore, if you look at the picture above, every two keys (both black and white ones) have half a tone between them. A full tone is, for example, between C and D, or G# and A#, or E and F#, or D# an F, or A# and C and so on. The arrows in the picture below indicate a full tone.
Now, we can talk about scales. A scale is simply a sequence of 8 notes. The first and the last note are labeled the same. This is because these tones do not have the same pitch. The difference between the two, for example, Ds present in the picture in the fact that the right D has double the frequency of the left D. The same goes for C and C, C# and C#, and so on. The distance between them is called an “octave”. There are two different scales, the so called Major Scales and Minor scales. In order to form a scale you just have to pick a starting tone and follow the instructions.
Because this is the easiest way of doing this, I will explain major scales starting from the C Major scale. This means that the C note will be the first in the sequence. In a Major scale there is a full tone between the 1st and the 2nd, the 2nd and the 3rd, the 4th and the 5th, the 5th and the 6th and the 6th and 7th tone in the sequence. Half a tone is between the 3rd and the 4th and the 7th and the 8th tone. So the C Major scale has these 8 tones:
As you can see, if you follow the instructions above, you will see that this is right. If you start from the C# tone you will get something like this.
You should now have no problem to form a Major scale from the starting point of any of the 12 different notes. Nevertheless I will list all of them, just in case:
C Major: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C;
C# Major: C#, D#, F, F#, G#, A#, C, C#;
D Major: D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D;
D# Major: D#, F, G, G#, A#, C, D, D#;
E Major: E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E;
F Major: F, G, A, A#, C, D, E, F;
F# Major: F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, F, F#;
G Major: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G;
G# Major: G#, A#, C, C#, D#, F, G, G#;
A Major: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A;
A# Major: A#, C, D, D#, F, G, A, A#;
B Major: B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#, B.
This is all of them. Now, let’s move on to Minor scales. A Minor scale has a full tone between every tone except between the 2nd and 3rd and the 5th and 6th tone, where there half a tone. Again, because this is the easiest way, I will explain Minor scales starting the sequence with the A tone.
The A minor scale looks like this:
The principal of identifying a minor scale from the starting point of any tone is the same as the principal in major scales, you just follow different instructions. The labeling, however, is different. Here the tones C#, D#, F#, G# and A#, are labeled Db, Eb, Gb, Ab and Bb, respectively (look at the picture above). I will neglect this formal rule because in almost all programs for creating digital music this rule is also neglected. So, here is a list of all the Minor scales:
C Minor: C, D, D#, F, G, G#, A#, C;
C# Minor: C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A, B, C#;
D Minor: D, E, F, G, A, A#, C, D;
D# Minor: D#, F, F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#;
E Minor: E, F#, G, A, B, C, D, E;
F Minor: F, G, G#, A#, C, C#, D#, F;
F# Minor: F#, G#, A, B, C#, D, E, F#;
G Minor: G, A, A#, C, D, D#, F, G;
G# Minor: G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#;
A Minor: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A;
A# Minor: A#, C, C#, D#, F, F#, G#, A#;
B Minor: B, C#, D, E, F#, G, A, B.
Formally, Minor scales are created this way. You form any Major scale, and then lower (move to the left on the piano keyboard) the initial tone for a full tone and half a tone and then continue the sequence of 8 tones using the tones that were used in the previously determined Major scale. You can see from the C Major and A Minor scale examples above that in both of them only white keys are used. This is because you use only the white keys in the C Major scale, and if you lower the C tone for a full tone and half a tone, you get A, which is, naturally the initial tone in the A Minor scale. However, I think that it is better to remember the previous explanation for forming a Minor scale.
It is important to note that these are just the basic and formal types of musical scales. There are, of course various other types of them, but they are not that common. However you are advised to find out something about them as you progress in your music creating skills.
Chords
When you know how to form scales you will have no problem in forming chords. A chord is a combination of, in most cases, 3 tones. Actually, when you produce the 1st, 3rd and 5th tone in any scale at the same time, you get a chord. These are the most regular chords, and, naturally, they are divided into Minor and Major chords. All the Major chords are labeled as their initial tone (C, C#, D, D#, and so on) while the Minor chords are labeled as with a “m” following the label of the initial tone on the sequence (Cm, C#m, Dm, D#m, and so on). Depending on the instrument you are playing there are various different chords. I will only list some of them.
- The “Maj7” Chord
Look at the C Major scale (above). A regular C Major chord (labeled “C”) has the C, E and G tone (1st, 3rd and 5th tone in the scale), and to form a Cmaj7 chord, for example, you lower (move to the left) the 8th tone for half a tone and add that tone to the previously determined three. So the Cmaj7 chord will have the C, E, G, and B tone. Maj7 chords are commonly used for Major chords, although you can use them in Minor chords, but only sometimes.
- The “7” Chords
The only difference between “7” chords and the “maj7” chords is that the 4th tone you add to the existing chord is not half a tone lower the 8th tone in the scale, but a full tone lower than it. For example C7 chord has the C, E, G, and A# tone. This type of chord can be used in both Major and Minor chords.
- The “5” Chord
This chord just has the 1st, the 5th and the 8th tone in a scale. The C5 has the C, G, and then again the C tone. This means that both for Major and the Minor scales, the “5” chord is the same combination of tones. This is because the 5th tone is the same in both of the scales.
- Conclusion
To sum up, this is actually all there is to know on a beginner’s level of making music. When you know scales and chords it will be easier for you to know where to go after starting any composition or melody from any tone. I personally think that without this knowledge you are not creating music, but just playing on your computer, because you will spend a lot of time aimlessly clicking with your mouse in order to try and determine what is wrong with your melody. All these “conventions” are made because they make sense. If, for example, the rhythm instrument is playing a C chord, the base, and all the other instruments for that matter, should play something from the C scale. Try to follow what you have read in the this article and you will get in the hang of composing music, and making music very fast. Keep in mind that all this is used just for creating melodies with previously generated and loaded sound files. How to edit the sound and how to add beats and various rhythms to your song is a completely different subject. The process of creating music is definitely not an easy one, but be sure to view what you have read as an introduction. It’s about to get much harder.
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2012-11-10 23:26:04
Source: http://www.ivandimitrijevic.com/introduction-to-the-theory-of-composing-digital-music/
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