Tutorial - Music Theory part 1
Welcome to a new series of to-the-point articles
designed to give you just enough essential
knowledge of music theory to understand and
use a wide range of scales and chords, as well
as taking a brief look at how rhythm is
organised. None of this will involve prior
knowledge of music, nor the ability to read
music, although as you can see, a couple of
examples have been given in stave and matrix
notation.
Most music is constructed using some kind of
scale, almost always combined with a set of
chords. You may have already put together
pieces from samples and loops and not have
bothered yourself with such considerations,
relying on your ear to mix and match the best
arrangement of sounds; but the people who put
the samples together in the first place were
musicians who played scale and chord patterns
into their computers or microphones. Even if you
don't consciously know the theory, your ears
were intuitively guided in arranging the samples
in a pleasing way, and that intuition was based
upon years of listening to music largely
consisting of scales and chords.
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What you'll need:
Well, nothing really, apart from the desire to learn how
scales, chords and all that sort of malarky work. There
are countless books and online resources you can use to
follow up on this series, although hopefully you'll have
learnt enough by the end of it to make a big difference to
your music.
So what is a scale? The example which
immediately springs to mind is that number
from The Sound Of Music. You know, the one
about deers and needles pulling thread - 'Doh,
Ray, Me', that sort of thing. It climbs up the
scale, step by step. Would it surprise you to
learn that the Italian for ladder is scala? So a
musical scale is a series of notes arranged in
ascending or descending order. And it's also
essential to understand scales before you can
really understand chords properly, but more of
that next month.
There are many different kinds of scale, but the
one which we will concern ourselves with here is
the one most commonly used in western music:
the major scale. We'll also use it later on as a
template to design six other scales, so you're
really getting your money's worth with this one...
Tutorial - Music Theory part 1

If you look carefully, you will see that the

wholetone scale takes every alternate note from
our original chromatic scale. If you play the
wholetone scale exclusively, your ear gets bored
with it pretty soon. Consequently, very few pieces
of music have been written using only the
wholetone scale.

How do I make a major scale then? The major scale uses a mixture of semitone and
A ladder would be pretty useless, in fact wholetone steps and is much more interesting
downright dangerous, if the rungs were not all than either of the two scales above. If we remove
precisely the same distance apart. The distances the sharp notes from the chromatic scale, we get:
need to be predictable for our feet, especially
when descending. In the field of music, however,
a ladder - sorry, scale - sounds just a wee bit too
predictable if all the rungs - sorry, notes - are
the same distance apart. Try the so-called
chromatic scale, where every note is a semitone
(one MIDI note number) higher or lower than the
previous one. A chromatic scale on middle C
would look like this:
This is the good ol' C major scale. You will
appreciate that this major scale consists mainly of
tone intervals enlivened with a couple of
semitones, just to see if you've noticed. The
semitone steps occur between the third and fourth
degrees and also between the seventh and eighth
(which is, of course, the first step of the next
octave). Now really pay attention here, because
every major scale has the same tone and
semitone pattern. This means that armed with this
This corresponds to playing up or down a formula you will be able to construct a major scale
keyboard, moving to the next highest or lowest starting anywhere, even on F #: tone, tone,
note whether it be white to black, black to white semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. If we look at
or (in the cases of E to F and B to C) white to a major scale in a matrix (piano roll) editor, you
white. It also corresponds to going up a guitar can see the distribution of the uneven gaps clearly.
string one fret at a time until you reach the
octave mark. Let's look at a couple of examples of this in
practice. First, D major:
The chromatic scale is absolutely symmetrical - it
sounds the same wherever you start or finish.
Likewise another symmetrical scale, the
wholetone, which consists entirely of tone steps.
Here's an example:

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Tutorial - Music Theory part 1

To turn the major pattern into the first of our

modal patterns, simply tear off the bottom note
and stick a new one on top without changing any
of the notes in-between. So if we start with our
pedestrian C major, remove the bottom note
(C), add another note on top (D) and renumber
the scale from D to D, we get:

Note that we've had to include F # instead of F

and C # instead of C to preserve the tone and
semitone sequence and hence the sound of the
scale. D is now the first degree (or 'root') of the
scale and all the other notes are similarly
renumbered.

The E b scale is just a little harder to grasp at

first glance:
...which is called the D dorian mode, or D
dorian. Notice that the two semitone steps now
occur between degrees two and three and six
and seven, giving the scale, which contains
exactly the same notes as C major, a distinctly
different sound. It sounds distinctly more
mournful than the major and is used a lot in all
kinds of music from jazz to contemporary (What
Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?, for
example). It's the most basic 'minor' scale in all
Why are we calling MIDI note 63 E b (E flat) forms of popular music and a little bit different
instead of D #? Just convention, really. We show from classical versions of the minor. This pattern
all the natural notes (neither sharps nor flats) as - tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone,
naturals, and because we need D natural as the tone - is characteristic of all dorians, and with
seventh degree of the scale and we don't need E this easy to remember template you can go
natural, it makes sense to call our root note E b, ahead and construct similar sounding scales
a lowered version of E, rather than D #, a raised starting on any note.
version of D. The same holds true for the A b
and B b. If you look at the two alternative ways The other most often used mode is the
of writing the scale on the stave (which is where mixolydian. Here is G mixolydian:
these conventions originated) shown below,
even if you don't really read music, you'll agree
that the version with flats (1) looks rather more
like an orderly scale than the one with sharps
(2).

Major scales (apart from C major, of course) are

always written with either flats or sharps, never
an ad hoc mixture of the two. To put it simply,
provided you get semitones between three and
four and seven and eight, and tones in all the
other places, you can't go wrong. Most tunes
and riffs you hear in modern music won't
necessarily contain all the notes of the scale but
will most likely be based on a selection from part
of the scale, perhaps several adjacent notes.
OK, that's majors. What next?
From major to minor
Once you've grasped the construction of the
major scale, which is useful in its own right, you
can use it to construct a series of scales called
'The modes of the major scale', or simply
modes, some of which will sound familiar and
In terms of intervals, the bottom half is like the
major and the top half is like the dorian -
semitones between three and four and six and
seven. Compared to a major, the seventh
sounds lowered or 'flattened' (even though an
actual flat may not be involved). It's a scale
often associated with blues or rock 'n' roll but
can be used in just about every style. Like the
major and dorian, it can be transposed to start
on any note, provided you keep the
characteristic interval pattern. These are just
two of the most commonly used modes, but see
a complete list of modes (as well as their
'transposed to C' versions) derived from the C

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Tutorial - Music Theory part 1

You'll probably find that even if the terms and ideas in this article are new to you, your ears tell
you that the examples make sense. On the CD you'll find an audio track and MIDI file of a lightly
accompanied major scale with a few major riffs, followed by similar excursions into dorian and
mixolydian modes.

Here we have two ways of writing the same scale but as you can see,
the first example looks more 'right' than the second...

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Music Theory For Beginners Part 2

Continuing our series designed to give you a good grounding in the very basics of
music theory, this month we're looking at chords. Theres a lot more you can do with
them than you might think...

What is a chord? Strictly speaking, a chord can be any

bunch of notes sounded together. However, a random
selection is unlikely to be useful for anything but the
soundtrack to a horror movie. The kind of structures we
usually mean when we think of chords can be easily
related to scales. The most basic kind, triads (consisting
of just three notes), are usually formed by taking
alternate notes from a scale.

In the example in Notation 1 (below) - a C major scale -

we can build a chord in any part of the scale by playing
any note (let's start on C), skipping the next one up
(D), adding the next one (E - the third note from our
starting point), skipping the one above that (F), and Matrix 1: All the basic triads that can be created in C
finally adding the next (G - the fifth). This template can major
be moved to any note of the scale, so here's a whole
isn't it? The eagle eyed among you will have spotted this
scale of chords.
month's odd one out: chord seven's fifth is only six
As you will see if you look carefully at the sequencer- semitones above the root, a 'diminished fifth', giving rise
friendly matrix (piano roll) version, not all the chords to a 'diminished triad'. This particular chord isn't used that
are the same. The bottom note (the 'root') of each much though, so you can forget all about it if you like.
chord and the top note (the fifth) are mostly the same
Every major scale, with however many sharps or flats, will
distance apart (seven semitones), but the middle notes
conform to this same pattern of major (I, IV and V) and
of the chords (the thirds) tend to wander a bit. In the
minor (ii, iii and vi) chords with diminished on vii, and the
first, fourth and fifth chords (marked I, IV and V in the
two modal scales studied last month will also reflect the
stave notation, oddly enough), the thirds are higher,
same organisation: the pattern just starts with chord two
four semitones above their roots. This musical interval
(dorian) or chord five (mixolydian). The majority of pieces
is called a 'major third', hence the name, 'major chord'.
in popular music styles (in the broadest sense of the
All the other thirds are a measly three semitones above phrase) tend to contain chords mainly or entirely from a
their roots and are 'minor thirds' (chords ii, iii and vi), single major scale or mode.
giving rise to the name 'minor chord'. Baffling,

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Music Theory For Beginners Part 2
Inversion therapy
Moving on, let's take a look at Notation 2 (above) and
Matrix 2 (below left). Here you can see examples of four D
major chords (notes 1, 3 and 5 in the D major scale). Each
version of the chord has a D, an F# and an A. The first
chord has the root on the bottom and is said to be in 'root
position'. For the next chord, the D has migrated an octave
north, leaving the third (F#) on the bottom, known as a
'first inversion chord', while in the one after that the third
has also been moved up an octave, leaving the fifth (A) at
the bottom, making a 'second inversion'. The really clever
ones among you will be able to work out what position the
fourth chord is in.
But why make life difficult by inverting chords anyway?
Well, chords don't always lead a solitary life; you wait for
ages and then three (or more) come along one after the
Matrix 2: Four D major Chords
Chords Notated: see main text for descriptions
Notation 1
All the basic triads that can be created in C major.
Notation 3
A basic chord progression in F major
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other. Chords are usually found in a sequence or
progression and need to be understood in context rather
than in isolation.
Let's consider this extremely basic chord progression in F
major, which needs a Bb instead of a B to keep the scale's
tone and semitone pattern right (see Notation 3, above).
It might almost be from a simple C&W song: chords I, IV,
I and V (F, Bb, F and C majors). The F chord contains F, A
and C, the Bb chord contains Bb, D and F and the C...
well, we'd hope you know the C major chord by now.
Now even the musically semi-literate can see that the
chords jump around quite a bit. Played as it's written, this
sequence sounds like the same chord shape on a guitar
simply slid up and down the finger board - instant punk.
Now, notice that the chord IV, the Bb, contains an F, albeit
an octave higher than the F which is the root of the F
chord. Suppose we kept that F in the same octave (if you
were playing piano with your right hand, you'd keep your
thumb on it) and move the F chord's A up to the Bb (the
root of the Bb chord), and its C up to the D. This gives a
much smoother progression, the root position F chord
morphing into the second inversion Bb. Your ears will like
it and your fingers have to work less (although your brain
has to work more).
Similarly, the C can be inverted down (the E and G move
down an octave) so that the C is left as the top note (like
the F chord) on the keyboard, probably played by your
little finger. This gives the smoothest possible 'voicing' to
your chord progression, keeping notes which are in
common in the same octave (under the same finger) and
moving the other notes as little as possible, up or down
one scale step, to form whichever inversion of the next
chord fits best. In Matrix 3 (below) and Notation 4 (above)
you can see our revised chord voicing.
The matrix screenshot graphically illustrates just how
smooth our new voicing is. This approach is especially
suited to voicing chords for a pad sound where you want
the chords to just flow and melt into each other without
necessarily attracting a lot of attention to themselves.
Matrix 3: Smoothing out a chord progression using
inversions
Notation 2
Four D major Chords
Notation 4
Smoothing out a chord progression using inversions
Music Theory For Beginners Part 2

Incidentally, if the first line is an example of a keyboard-

type voicing, reasonably reachable with five fingers, the
second line is an example of how the chords might be
voiced on a guitar. This dropping-the-second-line-an-
octave technique is pretty good for generating genuine
imitations of guitar voicings.

Arpeggiate to accumulate
The final chord-type-thing we're going to look at is how,
with a bit of patience, you can make arpeggiator patterns
Seven up
even if you don't possess an arpeggiator. An arpeggiator
Thinking of pads conjures up the aural image of lush
creates arpeggios, but what are arpeggios when they're at
sounds and perhaps the suspicion that our simple, clean
home? More Italian: it means, 'like a harp'. Another name
triads just aren't going to be harmonically fat enough to
for arpeggio is 'broken chord', that is spreading the notes
take care of this particular job. We constructed them by
of a chord out sequentially rather than plonking them all
building up in thirds - root, third, fifth - and we can extend
down at once. If we run the notes of our fattened seventh
the process and stack another third on top of the fifth,
progression through our virtual arpeggiator, set to
giving rise to a seventh.
sixteenth notes, with a two octave spread and an up/down
For the moment, sticking to our set of scale-chords in C, pattern, we get the results seen in Notation 7, above and
here they are with sevenths (C, E, G and B, then D, F, A Matrix 4, below.
and C, etc) - see Notation 5, above. As you can see,
The matrix display sort of looks like an arpeggiator
guitarist-type chords have been added. Notice that, like
sounds. Of course, you can experiment with all sorts of
the thirds, the sevenths come in two flavours: The major
patterns - eg, instead of straight up and down, you could
sevenths in chords I and IV (the note B in the C chord and
zig-zag your way up the chord: root, fifth, back down to
the E in the F chord) are nearly an octave above the root -
third, up to seventh, back down to fifth, and so on. In fact,
11 semitones Ð while the sevenths in all the other chords
even if you do have an arpeggiator you'll probably find
are a mere 10 semitones and are called minor sevenths.
that you can create lots of patterns that the manufacturer
Combined with major and minor thirds, this gives a variety
never bothered to include.
of chord types - the major seventh chords sound kind of
bossa-nova, chord V sounds like blues or rock 'n' roll, With all of these progressions we are assuming that there
while most of the other chords (ii, iii, vi) are minor will probably be a bass of some sort, probably playing
seventh chords and sound, well, kind of 'minory', perhaps mainly or entirely the roots of the chords. There'll be more
a bit jazzy even. about basslines and a positive host of other useful odds
and ends in our third and final dose of music theory next
Once again, chord seven stands out as being different: it's
month.
a minor seventh chord with a fifth which is a semitone
lower than any of the others, hence its 'flat five' tag
(jazzers call it a 'half diminished' chord, but we won't go
there). if you like it, use it, but it's perfectly OK just to
leave this one alone.

Seventh chords can be inverted just as readily as triads.

Notation 6 shows our simple chord sequence revisited with
added sevenths, voiced smoothly and in two different
'spacings' - the second top notes in each chord in the first
line (C, Bb, C, C) have been lowered an octave in the
second line, spreading and deepening the sound of the
pad, making it kind of fatter but also more transparent.
Matrix 4: A two octave arpeggio

Chords Notated: see main text for descriptions

Notation 5
Chords in the scale of C again, this time with added 7th's

Notation 7
A two-octave arpeggio

Notation 6
Back to the start
Revisiting our chord sequence, this time with added 7th's

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Music Theory for Beginners, Part 3: Basslines

In the final instalment of our begginer's guide to music theory, we take a look at the
basslines and where to put them, as well as a few modes to supplement the ones
you've already learnt...

So as not to repeat itself, this article assumes that Slash Chords, Suspensions and Pedal Harmonies
you've either thoroughly read and digested the last two All of the chords and progressions discussed so far have
month's articles on major scales, dorian and mixolydian assumed that the bass uses exclusively or mainly the root
modes, triads and seventh chords, or that you know at of whichever chord is sounding. Some strikingly different
least a bit about them anyway. sounds can be made if the bass emphasises other chord
notes, or even non-chord notes (though usually from the
As was stated in the last article, all of the riffs and same scale). This is notated by following the chord with a
chords presented so far assume that there's some kind slash and then the bass note. Here are a couple of
of bass going on underneath everything. So how do you examples:
create a bassline? You can of course just thrash about
until you come up with something that sounds decent - 1. Bass using thirds and fifths as well as roots.
and there's nothing wrong with that tried and trusted
method - but the fact that you're reading this article Am Em/G F C/E
tends to suggest that you suspect there's just a little bit (A C E) (G B E) (F A C) (E G C)
G/D F/C C
more to it than that.
(D G B) (C F A) (C E G)
The bass is traditionally thought of as the second most (The bass is the first note in each group)
important element in music (after the melody). In much
2. Bass using occasional non-chord scale notes.
dance music you might consider upping that to the
most important - perhaps a joint first with the drums. C Bb/C F G/F
The bass carries much of the rhythm, usually (C E G) (C D F Bb) (F A C) (F G B D)
complementing the drum patterns, and also points up Em D
the harmonic structure - the prevailing chord or series (E G B) (D F# A)
of chords. By far the most important note for the bass
is the root, the name-note of the chord - Bb for a Bb7
chord, and so on. A straightforward bass riff will Have a listen to 'Slash.mp3', which contains both of these
frequently start with the root at the beginning of the bar sequences.
or on the chord change if that comes anywhere else. This technique can be taken a stage further when the bass
Sometimes the bass (along with drums and the chord hovers around a fixed note while the chords change above
instrument) hits just before the first beat, anticipating it. This kind of progression is known as 'pedal harmony'
the new harmony by an eighth, twelfth (eighth triplet) after the habit of organists in times past sustaining a long
or sixteenth note. In a frisky sequence you might also note on the pedals whilst improvising above. You can
get two or more chords in one bar. include some quite dissonant chord and bass combinations
along the way, just so long as it all finishes happily. Here's
The bass part has to take into consideration the an example, to be heard in 'Pedal.mp3':

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Music Theory for Beginners, Part 3: Basslines

rhythms of the drum patterns. With a more traditional

rock type drum pattern, the bass drum will usually have
quite a lot of syncopated patterns (eighths or sixteenths
off the beat) and the bass guitar or synth bass will tend
to lock in with this, either note-for-note the same as the
bass drum or a simplified version, or a more elaborate
pattern but still developed from the bass drum.
Generally, if the bass drum syncopates in eighths, so
will the bass, and ditto sixteenths.
On the CD, 'Rock.mp3' is a short track featuring bass
riffs which illustrate several ways of locking a bassline
into syncopated bass drum patterns, including some
eighth and sixteenth anticipations.
In dance music, where the bass drum is often four
quarter notes - the ubiquitous 'four to the floor' - the
bass will often weave in and out of the steady pulse,
still employing roots or mainly roots with a few other
basic chord notes. Listen to 'Dance.mp3'.
D E/D G/D F/D
(D F# A) (E G# B) (G B D) (F A C)
Eb/D F/D D
(Eb G Bb) (F A C) (D F# A)
Moving the third of the chord around creates a
theoretically unrelated but somewhat similar sounding
effect. This is most often done with major triads or
seventh chords (implying mixolydian mode), where the
third is replaced by the fourth or, less frequently, the
second note of the scale. If we start with a plain A7 (A C#
E G) and substitute the fourth for the third, we get A7sus4
(A D E G). Sometimes this is abbreviated further to A7sus
or even just Asus. Moving the third down gives us a
suspended second: Fsus2 (F G C). Although initially
derived from chords built on stacked thirds, suspended
fourths can be arranged in fourths (eg, E A D G; G C F),
which is a fascinating sound but goes beyond the
beginner's level of this series. Suffice it to say that
building chords with fourths goes hand in hand with a
modal approach.

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Music Theory for Beginners, Part 3: Basslines

A la Mode Ninth Heaven

In the first article we looked at the major scale and a Just as we added another third to our set of triads to
couple of the most used modes (dorian and mixolydian) create seventh chords, if we add another note a third
that are derived from it. If you're unfamiliar with modes above the seventh, we get a ninth chord. Here's a minor
you'll need to go back to issue 28 and review what they're example:
all about. Apart from the major scale itself, there are four
more modes, but the two most important of these are C minor triad: C Eb G
found on the third step - phrygian - and on the fourth - C minor seventh: C Eb G Bb
lydian. C minor ninth: C Eb G Bb D

The lydian is the easiest of the two to grasp; it's like This works beautifully with any chord in our scale of
starting on F using the white notes. F major would use Bb chords apart from iii and vii (try them; if you stick strictly
for the fourth step, but F lydian uses B natural, giving a to scale notes you get a Ôminor ninth' interval - an octave
Ôraised fourth' sound - the first semitone in the scale is plus a semitone - which sounds rather evil over a minor
between steps four and five, although the rest of the scale chord. Of course, you could raise the ninth by a semitone
is like the major. In C this would involve using an F#. The and go outside of the scale...). Ninths add richness or
raised fourth may sound a little surprising at first but is harmonic fatness (nothing to do with EQ) to the sound. If
often used in world music and extensively by jazz players. you're running short of polyphony (or only have five
It's a kind of super-major, even brighter sounding than fingers on each hand) you can omit the root from the
the major. chord, provided it's there in the bass.
To make a lydian sound you must create a melody which
C minor ninth: (omit C) Eb G Bb D
uses the raised fourth reasonably frequently, or a bass, or Bass = C (or mainly C)
a chord sequence which likewise stresses it. Listen to the
short track on the CD called 'Lydian.mp3' which does all of
those things. The phrygian, mode three, sounds even 'Ninths.mp3' is a short progression heard first with triads,
stranger - dark and brooding. Its basic chord is minor and then with sevenths, and finally with rootless ninth chords.
there are semitone steps above both root and fifth which
also need to be stressed in melody, bass or chord C Am F Dm
sequences to bring out its special gloomy quality. It's (C E G) (A C E) (F A C) (D F A)
used, or hinted at, in much of today's music (what does Cmaj7 Am7 Fmaj7 Dm7
that say about our collective state of mind?). You'll hear (C E G B) (A C E G) (F A C E) (D F A C
how it works in 'Phrygian.mp3'. Cmaj9 Am9 Fmaj9 Dm9
(E G B D) (C E G B) (A C E G) (F A C E)
If your chord progression goes from a minor chord up a (Plus roots in the bass)
semitone to a major chord and then back down, you can
alternate between phrygian and lydian sounds using the All important riffs, basses and chord progressions in the
same set of seven notes: (This example uses modes MP3 tracks relating to this article are included in the MIDI
derived from D major, but any major scale would do) file called ÔPart3.mid'. A few drum parts are included
where they relate to the bass rhythms.
F#m7 (F# A C# E): improvise melody based on F# G A B C# D E F#
Gmaj7 (G B D F#): improvise melody based on G A B C# D E F# And finally...
There are quite a few websites out there dedicated to
music theory, many of them intent on cramming you in
(If you haven't twigged already, there's just a hint of this
order to take classical music theory exams. A few which
progression at the end of both 'Lydian.mp3' and 'Phrygian.
aren't include:
mp3'.)
www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca
www.teoria.com
catalog.com/sft/bobf/music.html

We hope you've learnt enough from this brief series to

engage your interest in finding out more about music
theory. At the very least, it should have made you realise
that there's a lot to be gained by understanding how
chords and scales work. Rest assured, this is a subject
we'll return to at a later date.

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