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COMPUTER MUSIC Presents Handbook PLUS OVER SGB OF TUTORIAL FILES AND VIDEOS TO \ DOWNLOAD! - > WRITE CATCHY HOOKS > TEAR GENRES APART FOURTH EDITION > BUILD A TRACK WITH THEORY COMPUTER sic Presents The Producer’s MUSIC THEORY Handbook HOW TO USE We've got a new system for downloading Uy, files. Whenever you see this icon, you can grab the files on your PC or Mac by going to filesilo.co.uk/computermusic Tutorials featuring this icon make use of our ownem Plugins - find out all about them at bit.ly/cmplugins This icon means there are extra files to help you follow a tutorial feature: project files, audio examples, etc. There's extra video content wherever you see this icon. @ @ = Wwww.computermusic.co.uk [email protected] 3 facebook.com/computer.music.mag _f| twitter.com/computermusicuk | You youtube.com/computermusicmag music The Producer’s The Producer’s Where to getcm PRINT ZINIO instores and online for PC, Mac, Android, iPad & more iOS APP STORE GOOGLE PLAY for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch for Android & Chrome for PC/Mac computermusic.co.uk/cmdigital play.google.com intro / computer music < DOWNLOAD me See page /tofind out yy how to download this book’s exclusive content WeICOMeE The term ‘music theory’ is known to strike fear in the hearts of computer musicians, conjuring up images of stuffy classrooms, clusters of confusing musical notes and incomprehensible languages. However, with all this music-making power sitting on your hard drive, there’s no excuse not to fully grasp the fundamental building blocks of music. Yes, you can get by without any theory skills... but how much better would your tracks be if you could program those MIDI notes with gusto and tickle those ivories with purpose? So if words like “A mega- ‘chords, ‘scales, ‘modes’ and ‘inversions fill you compendium of Siititeiceereranes : We've cherry-picked the MEE Ne th CO ry finest tutorial features 99 from the pages of Knowledge Computer Music and Future Music - each guide created specifically for the computer-based producer - to bring you this mega-compendium of music theory knowledge. And if our step-by-step guides aren't enough, you also gain access to a treasure trove of digital content, available from FileSilo - simply log in, register issue 81 and get downloading. Not only can you follow along with tutorial files in audio, MIDI and video formats, but you can even download Computer Music's exclusive em Plugins collection - over 80 virtual instruments and effects created by the industry's best software developers. ENJOY THE BOOKAZINE Joe Rossitter Editor COMPUTER MUSIC Presents The Producer’s MUSIC THEOR Handbook Future Publishing Ltd. Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA11UA Tel:01225 442244 Fax: 01225 732275 Email: [email protected] Web: www.computermusic.co.uk BOOKAZINE EDITORIAL Editor: Joe Rossitter Compiled by: Drew Sleep & Perry Wardell-Wicks COMPUTER MUSICEDITORIAL Editor: Andy Jones Art Editor: Mark White Managing Editor: Kate Puttick CONTRIBUTORS Dave Clews, James Russell, Lee du-Caine, Leon Bailey Photography: Getty Images ADVERTISING Commercial Sales Director: Clare Dove, Advertising Sales Director: Lara Jaggon AccountSales Director: Kyle Phillips AccountSales Director: Alison Watson MARKETING Direct Marketing Campaign Manager: Will Hardy PRODUCTION& DISTRIBUTION Production Manager: Fran Iwentyman Head Of Production: Mark Constance Printed in the UK by: William Gibbons & Sons on behalf of Future Distributed by: Marketforce (UK),5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E145HU CIRCULATION Head of Newstrade: Tim Mathers LICENSING Computer Musicis available for licensing. Contact the Licensing team to discuss partnership opportunities. Head of Print Licensing: Rachel Shaw, licensing@futurenetcom www4uturecontenthub.com MANAGEMENT Brand Director:Stuart Williams Content Director, Music: Scott Rowley Head of Artand Design: Rodney Dive Group Art Director: Graham Dalzell The Producer’s Music Theory Handbook Fourth Edition (MUB4212) © 2022 Future Publishing Limited We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this bookazine was sourced and produced from sustainable F U T U R E Connectors. managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The paper holds full FSC or Creators. PEFC certification and accreditation. Experience Maker All contents © 2022 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this rs. magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered amnonlebapelatt Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BAI TUA. All information contained in this publication is for information company quoted on the Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility London Stock Exchange Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand for errors or inaccuracies in such information, You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly (symbol: FUTR) with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein. For press freedom with responsibility wwwfutureple.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 Widely Recycled COMPUTER SIC Presents The Producer’s MUSIC THEORY Handbook contents THE PRODUCER'S GUIDE TO CHORDS AND SCALES PLAY KEYBOARD LIKE A PRO HOW TO WRITE PERFECT HOOKS GENRE-BUSTING MUSIC THEORY MUSIC THEORY MADE EASY ARRANGEMENT WORKSHOP BITESIZED THEORY TIPS AND TRICKS GET INSPIRED WITH THEORY REMIXING IN KEY . SUBSCRIBE a ~ —_— PLAY KEYBOARD LIKE APRO Diet WRITE PERFECT HOOKS Vij, Your FileSilo _‘Filesi downloads, exclusive to ad OW Nn lo a ad Ss — Secure and safe online @ access, from anywhere Register issue 81 to access your content 9 iceaccesstor every reader - print and digital Download only the files Plugi abs) you want, when you want Download our exclusive cm Plugins collection for PC and Mac All the downloads from all your issues, in one place Get started ftogragher iCreate Lunyser BDArtist 0 Register your FileSilo account andlog in. Even Tutorial nee Tutorial Files pee escent eS See and hear exactly how it’s done Follow along in your DAW with WAVs, A lean an mae with our expert video guides project files, MIDI clips and more separately or migrate your old — eo Vault account (see step 3) 0 Head back to the Computer Music page (filesilo.co.uk/computermusic) and choose an issue to unlock. You'll need to answer one question to prove you’ve purchased the issue or Free Register issue 8] for for digital instant access to ! our plugins, samples, | Hetelere oe uc videos and files on your d load j desktop computer i Seated ont Vault Migration 0 You can migrate your old Vault account over to FileSilo to retain the issues you've added — head to filesilo.co.uk/vault and enter your Vault email address. Reset your password via the email you receive, and log in MacBook Air < Y { FeObBER 7 i) Oo o00o00nEE - o iz fx eal v Cy | | (ae) a! TRY 8 >make musicnow | — —- WesidcwelUi(esurenegiejrece-ee = » CHORDS rF F FF -make music now < Take the mystery out of music theory and give your tracks the ultimate musical power-up with the computer musicians definitive crash course > An unforgettable vocal melody. A moving chord sequence. An infectious bassline. Nailing just one of these could leave your listeners humming your tunes and whistling your melodies, eager for their next hit of your audio crack. Back it up with a killer production, and you could have another kind of hit on your hands! But the truth is that many computer musicians put the technical side of production first. With sonic standards always evolving, and endless plugins and techniques to master, why wouldn't you? Well, see it from the listener’s point of view: they can’t sing along to sidechain compression or dance to multiband distortion! To keep your listeners coming back for ‘just one more listen’, you'll need to hook ‘em with a catchy combination of notes. So how’s it done? Do we just hit keys at random until a great tune pops out? Well, you could, but there’s an easier, faster way, and that’s by using tried-and-tested note combos as a guide. Yep, chords and scales! Now, if there’s a two-word phrase guaranteed to paralyse producers with fear, ‘music theory’ rT F FF is it... and no wonder: most learning material is textbook-dull, full of jargon, and simply not designed for computer musicians. We’ve long recognised such problems here at cm, with our ever-popular Easy Guide series packing in over 150 tutorials to date. But what if you need a one- stop primer to get you up to speed? You need it easy, you need it fast, and you need it right now! Well, here it is! With this tutorial, you'll be making amazing evocative melodies and jazzing up your chord progressions in no time. You'll learn everything from basic major and minor scales to inversions, suspensions, seventh chords, key changes, modes, exotic scales, and loads more. We'll show you which notes go where, with audio examples, MIDI files, and videos packed with clear annotations and extra explanation. All with zero music notation in sight, and a minimum of jargon. As if that’s not enough, we bring you the CM MIDI Construction Kit, comprising almost 2000 ready-made scales and chords in every key. These include our scale ‘templates’ that show you which notes to use, making composition a breeze! rF F FF > make music now / the producers Notes, octaves and intervals Before fumbling around with chords and scales, let’s get a grip on the stuff they’re made up of: notes and intervals. There are only 12 different notes, and they repeat all the way up the piano keyboard (or piano roll). The piano is easy to visualise, with one key per note, but music theory principles work the same for every instrument. Whichever note you start on, if you go up 12 notes from there, you’re back where you started, playing the same note, but one ‘octave’ higher - it sounds the same but higher pitched. In addition, the pitch difference between adjacent notes is always the same, called a ‘semitone’ (also known as a half-tone or minor second). A difference in pitch between two notes is called an ‘interval’ - so far we’ve covered only two intervals: the octave and the semitone. It all begins with a C The 12 notes are named C, C’, D, Di, E, F, F’,G, G’, A, A and B. After that, the sequence starts over at C, as we've reached the octave point. ‘#’ means ‘sharp’ and is essentially shorthand for ‘plus 1 semitone’, telling us that A’ is the note immediately above A, for example. Notes with no sharp symbol - C, D, E, F, G, A, B - are called ‘natural’ notes and are the white keys ona piano. The black keys are C’, D’, Fi, Giand A‘. Notice that B/C and E/F have no sharp note between them. Also, C (rather than A) is considered the ‘default’ or ‘first’ note in music theory, not A. Some notes lead a shady double life, as the five sharp notes can also be described as ‘flat’, the symbol for which is ‘b’, meaning ‘minus 1 semitone’. So A‘ can be called B’, for example - same note, different name! The full run using flats would be: C, D’, D, E, E, F, F, G, A’, A, BY, B. If you’re finding it hard to take in, just get comfortable with the sharp naming scheme first. Most music software uses only sharps anyway, so to make sure our tutorials translate to your software, we're going to use sharps pretty much throughout (even where they might be considered ‘wrong’ in traditional music theory). Let’s go after the interval It’s time to look at the other intervals - we’ve put a table of the intervals (from O to 12) over on the right-hand side of the page. Notes played one after the other make a ‘melodic interval’, and no matter which of the notes you play first, it’s the same interval - we’d just call it ascending or descending. When the notes are played at the same time, that’s a ‘harmonic interval’. Each interval has its own sound. The ‘unison’ and ‘octave’ intervals sound very clear, since they’re playing the exact same note - no surprise. However, the next clearest are the 7- and 5- semitone intervals, known as a ‘perfect fifth’ and a ‘perfect fourth’ - the reason for this naming will become clear soon, we promise! (Memorising each interval and being able to identify them Will help massively” Next, the 4- and 3-semitone intervals - named ‘major third’ and ‘minor third’ - also sound musically satisfying, with a ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ feel respectively. Memorising each interval and being able to identify them by ear will help massively in making music, and a common trick to help with this is to associate each interval with the opening notes of a well-known tune. For more, see bit.ly/Intervalldeas. Eo any i > MNT woseow BNET wooseow 2 TTT Minor Third 3 Ll il il worms ATT con 5 TIT merece oo WET Perfect Fifth 7 qu it 1] wwsen oe TET wos 9 TTT wwseen oA TEST woseem on (TTT ona 2 TN PLUGINS DUNE Fibre eer ie | Let’s hear intervals in action. Load Dune CM ina new project, select preset 32: Fat Saw Bass RH, set Volume to 25% to prevent clipping, then load Interval Demo.mid on its track. Play it to hear a1-semitone interval (a minor second) between C and C’, first as melodic intervals (ascending and descending), then as a harmonic interval (both notes played together), then a short riff. 10 UNE filiSic AAA This pairing sounds quite “dark”, and the harmonic interval is kind of jarring on its own. Select all C' notes and move them up one step to D for a 2-semitone interval (a major second), which sounds less harsh, but still not that musically pleasing. Now move the Ds up to Di- this 3-semitone interval, a minor third, is a lot more satisfying, with a sad, serious quality. Our riff sounds more like actual music now! Solid/powerful Solid/powerful Upbeat/happy Serious/sad/downbeat The 4-semitone major third also sounds very listenable, with a happy, upbeat quality. There are two more stand- out intervals: 5- and 7-semitones, called a perfect fourth and perfect fifth. Aside from the octave, these two intervals have the purest, most solid sound, if a little less evocative than the minor and major third. See our bonus video (1b) to find out why some intervals sound more ‘natural’.