{"id":604,"date":"2022-07-11T04:57:09","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T04:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianstack.com\/?p=604"},"modified":"2023-02-15T11:11:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T11:11:36","slug":"music-theory-producers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianstack.com\/music-theory-producers\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Theory For Home Studio Producers: The Key To Unlocking Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Music theory is often thought of as too difficult, especially by home studio producers who make electronic music and those who don’t play an instrument. The premise of music theory is pretty simple. Let’s get to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Music theory for producers should involve knowing what a “Key” is and how it relates to the scale they are using, along with the relevant chords in that Key. The Key will outline a particular starting note, scale, and chords that can be shifted through the musical scale. All genres use this.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article will cover the basics of music theory that a producer needs to understand to create better tracks, melodies, chords, progressions, harmony, and songs more quickly in any genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suffice to say that almost anybody can power on a laptop or pc, open up their DAW and start creating music with a few clicks of a mouse button. However, many home studio producers neglect the fact that understanding music theory can take their tracks from mediocre to a hit song that is world-renowned just by understanding the most fundamental keys, scales, progressions, and chords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This applies to all producers, including beat makers, EDM producers, electronic musicians, and home studio producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take into consideration that all the great producers have a solid understanding of music theory and not just that of knowing how to use their DAW well. From the likes of Quincy Jones to David Guetta, the greatest producers in the world know music theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The misconception that music theory, especially the amount necessary to produce unforgettable melodies, progressions, chords, and songs for a track, is demanding and pushes producers away. Thus, they never learn or understand it, and as such, they produce lackluster songs at best. Additionally, many producers think that learning music theory also requires learning to play an instrument, which it does not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s one thing to know that music theory will give you an edge when you create digital music, but where to begin is the real question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It all starts with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). As a producer, you will create, record, and compile live and digital audio to make music in a DAW. All DAWs pretty much work the same way. They might look a little different, but they are essentially identical when stripped down to their nuts and bolts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every single DAW has a “piano roll.”. This is a section in the application that functions as a digital piano. Its purpose is to allow you to use MIDI (digital audio) to create music. By using a piano roll and any form of VST instrument (drums, beats, strings, synth, bass, etc.), you can create any type of music you like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are reading this article, then the probability is high that you have experimented with some form of a VST instrument in your DAW, created some sounds by plotting notes on the piano roll, and played it back. However, you don’t know where to go from here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will now cover the basic principles of music theory so that you, as a producer, can understand how to utilize it when trying to create music in a digital workspace. Comprehension of this section will allow you the create, manipulate, fix and master most aspects of digital music, no matter the genre. Take note that we are breaking down music theory into a broad generalization, but the principle of understanding this is foundational and applies to everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most basic premise you will need to understand is that music is made up of 12 notes. If you look at your piano roll in your DAW or an actual piano, it is easy to understand. The notes of the musical scale are;<\/p>\n\n\n\n C | C# | D | D# | E | F | F# | G | G# | A | A# | B<\/p>\n\n\n\n Find a C note on your piano roll and move up in pitch one note at a time as you play. You will play through these notes. Once you have played these notes, then the musical scale repeats. Take note that when you move down the scale (lowering the pitch), you will be playing the scale in reverse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Playing the musical scale in reverse will essentially yield the same notes in terms of sound, but they are labeled differently. The musical scale played in reverse is;<\/p>\n\n\n\n C | B | Bb | A | Ab | G | Gb | F | E | Eb | D | Db<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take note that “#” means “sharp” and “b” means “flat.”. If you have to play the musical scale from C and move up three notes, or play the musical scale backward from C and move down nine notes, you will hit the exact same note. However, the former will be D#, and the latter will be Eb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No matter if you play the musical scale up or down, the notes will always be in the same place, and this applies to any instrument, real or virtual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Music theory can be understood in its most basic form as that of grouping specific notes together that produce a particular sound. Grouping certain notes together can create an infinite number of sounds that effectively invoke a certain feeling or create a specific genre of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can define grouping notes together as putting them into a “Key.”. A key comprises of one note and then a scale (group of notes) built around that note. That one note is typically referred to as the root note and is the first note in the Key’s scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Understanding the Key will allow you to understand what starting note you build a scale from, the scales chords, the progressions, and the harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hence, grouping notes together is referred to as a Key, and a Key always has a starting note (first note\/root note). The problem arises when you aren’t sure which notes go together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We said that grouping notes together would provide you with a specific type of sound. A scale is a cluster of notes that, when played, will offer a particular sound. The only way to know which scales provide which types of sounds is to go about learning them. That is, you actively memorize which notes work together to give you the sound you are looking for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, there are many scales, far too many to cover in this article. However, there are two main scales that musicians and producers use in modern music that pretty much make up 95% of popular music today, including EDM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two main scales that are used in popular music today are undoubtedly the Major and Minor scales. If one understands these scales, one can produce an infinite number of melodies, sounds, and songs no matter what instrument one uses. This includes using all VST instruments<\/a> in a DAW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Major scale, one could say, has a “happy” or “uplifting” sound, while the Minor scale can be seen as “sad,” “ominous,” or “scary.”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will now discuss how scales are made and how and why specific sounds are produced from them. Take note that these principles are applied to all scales, and in order to grow as a musician, an electronic musician, a producer, a beat maker, or anything else, you should take these principles, apply them and study further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to make the Major and Minor scale, we need to group specific notes together (as we said). Now there is a particular formula (method of grouping notes together) that we will use to create these scales, and each scale will have its own formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, every other scale in existence also has its own unique formula. This unique formula that gives us a scale is what produces each scale’s specific sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, we can say that the scale formula is a fancy way by which we use a particular method to group notes together that will give us the sound we are looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, if you take the formula for a Major scale and apply it to any note in the musical scale (we discussed that there are 12), you will effectively create a Major scale centered around that note (the root note).<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Example, If you use the Major scale formula on a C note, you will produce a C Major scale<\/a>. Applying the formula to an F# note will create an F# Major scale. The same concept applies to the Minor scale. Using the Minor scale formula on a Bb note will create a Bb Minor scale. If you apply it to C#, it will yield a C# Minor scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The formulas we use to create the Major, Minor, and all other scales are produced by combining various intervals. Intervals are simply the spaces between notes. That is, we said that the musical scale has 12 notes;<\/p>\n\n\n\n C | C# | D | D# | E | F | F# | G | G# | A | A# | B<\/p>\n\n\n\nMusic Theory For Producers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Correlating Music Theory And Digital Music<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Basics Of Music Theory (Knowing The Musical Scale)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Grouping Notes Together (Understanding Root Notes And Keys)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Understanding Scales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Understanding The Major And Minor Scale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Making The Major And Minor Scale (Understanding Intervals)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n