Music Theory

HERE IS A .SNG FILE WITH A SHORT CHILLOUT IDEA IN IT http://www.mediafire.com/download/dbvjymvbqt3xr7u/Chilled_song_for_you_guys_to_get_ideas_from.sng
HERE IS A .SNG FOR A DNB DRUM BEAT
http://www.mediafire.com/download/6d61bs9aclzkbn9/DnB_beat.sng

It has come to my attention that many people on soundation don’t have a basic understanding of music theory and subsequently some of them find it hard to make there own loops, stay in a key and make nice sounding melodies. I intend to change that by helping those people get to grips with the basics, I will also be giving a few tips targeted at those who already have a good understanding and have to help really improve there musical depth, such as some really neat key changes (Key changes are barely used on soundation), chromaticism, blues notes, extended chords, countermelodies and many more,

NEW!!!!: KRackEd EkHo had the idea of having a communal account so people can see the ideas of music theory for themselves as well as getting useful ideas. the user name is ‘DusksMusicTheoryProgram@gmail.com’ and the password is ‘duskmusicuk’ feel free to add new projects and test your ideas for others to see, I’ll be putting a few things up for others to use and get ideas from. the only things you cannot do is delete projects, change the password or do anything on the community with this account, this account is purely for use in the studio. if anyone does otherwise the account will be shut down, so please obey by the rules.

The Basics:
there are 12 notes on the key board A, A-sharp/B-flat, B, C, C-sharp/D-flat, D, D-sharp/E-flat, E, F, F-sharp/G-flat, G, G-sharp/A-flat, check the link to see how these relate to the piano roll http://www.ehowtoplaypiano.com/piano-lessons/piano-notes-for-songs/
…but you only use 7 at a time because there are only seven in each key, e.g. C,D,E,F,G,A,B,© an octave is C1 to C2 as C2 is the 8th note from C1 (as there are seven in the scale)
The gap between to note directly adjacent to each other (e.g. B and C or D and D-sharp) is called a semitone, 2 semitones are called a tone (e.g. the gap between C and D is a tone, check the piano roll or link to see for yourself)

Major Keys: the pattern of these tones and semitones for a major scale is T,T,S,T,T,T,S (e.g. C,D,E,F,G,A,B,© for C major or F,G,A,B-flat,C,D,E, for F major you simply pick a major key and to work out the scale for that key you use the pattern T,T,S,T,T,T,S to find all the notes.

Minor Keys: For a natural minor Key the pattern is T,S,T,T,S,T,T but for a harmonic minor the pattern is T,S,T,T,S,T+S,S (mess around and see which you prefer), so an A (natural) minor scale would be A,B,C,D,E,F,G,(A) an A (harmonic) minor would be A,B,C,D,E,F,G-sharp,(A). check this site for more http://www.loopblog.net/tutorials/music-theory-tutorials/understanding-basic-scales-more-loop-fun/ or http://www.music-tutors-uk.com/Theory/scales.html

Basic chords: the most common chord is a triad, it has 3 notes and the have intervals of thirds (in others words they have one note in between them (from the scale of the key), e.g. in C major the notes of the scale are C,D,E,F,G,A,B so a third would be C to E or D to F) in this clip, the chord C major is played first, the first note is C, the next note is E as it is a third away (one note in between), then a G is the next as it is a third away from E this gives you C,E,G and this is how you make triads. check this clip and my comments at the beginning for a proper lesson on chords http://soundation.com/user/duskmusicuk/track/the-basics-of-chords
also check these clips for more on scales and chord sequences (more to come) http://soundation.com/user/duskmusicuk/track/simple-chord-sequence-in-c-major-sequence-i-v-vi-iv-1-5-6-4
http://soundation.com/user/duskmusicuk/track/harmonic-minor-scales-a-minor-to-d-minor-pattern-t-s-t-t-t-s-s
http://soundation.com/user/duskmusicuk/track/major-scales-c-major-to-f-major-pattern-t-t-s-t-t-t-s