Lessons
Class Overview
01:51 2The Piano Roll Editor
06:16 3Octaves
10:01 4Using Octaves
06:13 5The Black Keys (not the band)
07:55 6Finding C and Middle C
06:08 7Section 1 Summary
03:40 8The Perfect Fifth
06:06Finding Fifths
05:25 10Being "In Key"
05:00 11The Pattern of a Key
06:53 12Fifth Examples
08:52 13Moveable Patterns
05:20 14The Major and Minor Third
04:28 15Building Triads
12:32 16Chord Progressions
05:47 17What is Diatonic?
04:16 18Finding All The Chords
09:10 19Roman Numerals
05:02 20Example Song Analysis No. 1
09:58 21Inversions
08:22 227th Chords - Overview
04:25 23Diatonic 7th Chords
02:02 24Maj7 (Major 7) Example
08:26 25Dominant 7th Chords
06:11 26Blues and the 7th Chord
02:20 27The Fourth
06:45 28The Second
04:37 29The Sixth
01:58 30Song Analysis No. 2
15:54 31Wrap Up
02:32Lesson Info
Finding All The Chords
Okay, so let's find the diatonic chord progression in C major. That is to say, let's find all the possible cords that are gonna work in C major. Okay, so let's start with the usual thing. The thing that I've been always starting with when talking about this kind of stuff is I'm just going to redraw my, ah, all my possible notes in the key of C So I'm just gonna do my pattern. So full step holds the half step whole step, whole step, whole step half step. I told you that it would be handy to memorize that, Um, because it's, ah handy to be able to just print that out on the screen all the time. Okay, so now we know that, nor to build cords, what we can do is we can basically take every other note A song as we stick to a key will be just fine to do that. So let's take this and let's just nudge it over here so we can just barely see it. And let's start with our C major chord hoops. Okay, so there's C major k our first chord. Now we're going to go up the whole scale and build accord using ev...
ery other note eso Here's d and then I'm gonna skip one. Go f skip one, go a now I'm gonna go to e gonna build an e chord Skip one. I have a B now I'm gonna go the next note. Skip on a B two c now G Skip a would be skip. See? Go to D. Now I have to kind of extend up another active in order for this to work, but it will. That's just fine. We go to a skip B, we see skip d on we end up on E scroll up a little bit. Here. Here's RB cord Skip. See? Got a d Skippy Goto f And now we're back to see on Let's put our c in there again. So see, skip D go to e and skip f Go to G. Now this cord eyes the same as this cord. Except it's an octave higher, right. Zoom out. Just hairs. We can fit all that on screen. Okay, let me get rid of our extra corn notes here. Great. So this is our diatonic chord progression. These are all the cords that are possible all the triads that are possible in the key of C major. Okay, so let's just hear it and Ah, get it. Let's just get it in our had a little bit. What? All are possible. Cords are in order. There it is. Let's slow that down. Just a touch. Okay, so that's what it sounds like when they're all in order. Now, when we write a song, we never use these in order. Actually, ah, you'll never find a song that goes from a C chord to a D accord to eke or two NF court to a G chord. That would be really weird. Um, I'm gonna tell you how to put him together later, but, um, I want to point out one more thing. Now, What I did here to make all of these cords was I took the scale and then every other note. Right then I started on the second tone of the scale. Every other no, in the third tone of the scale, every other note, etcetera. But you could look at it another way. What I did here is, if you just follow the bottom notes, it's just the scale going up. That's just the scale. And then starting on the third, which is the third of the chord, which is what we call this note, we have the C major scale just starting on e e f g a e c e. And then right here we have the C major scale starting on G G up, t Uh, right. So it's just the scale going up in thirds. Really? Ah, third and fifth. Um, now, remember that when we did this kind of a thing before we saw that our first ward turns out to be a major court when we're in a major key, which we are now, our second corps turns out to be a minor court. Right? And you remember why? Because the amount of half steps here 1234 Therefore, that's a minor chord. 12345 Therefore, that's a major court. So here is now. Remember a while ago when we learned the pattern for the major scale, the major major are a sorry the whole step, whole step, half step, etcetera. Um, we know when we learned that I said something like, you know, I'm not really big on making a memorize stuff, but this is going to be something that you should really memorize. And I think I said it's probably gonna be one of two things I'm gonna ask you to memorize in this class. So we've come to the other thing that the other pattern that I'm gonna ask you to memorize and that is the pattern of the diatonic chord progressions Specifically, um, the alterations of major and minor chords Because you don't want to have to draw this out every time. You just want to be able to know this off top of your head. So here's what you need to remember. You need to remember that the first chord is a major chord when we do a diatonic chord progression in any key First court is always gonna be a major chord. The second cord is always gonna be a minor chord. The third chord is always gonna be a minor chord The fourth chord eyes going to be a major chord The fifth chord is going to be a major chord. The sixth chord is going to be a minor chord. The seventh chord is going to be this weird, goofy one we call this a diminished court. It's kind of like a super minor accord. Um, remember earlier I said, Ah, we kind of avoid the seventh chord of the scale. It causes some unique problems. So we're gonna call this a diminished court. We'll talk more about it in a minute, and then we're back up to the root, which is another major court. So the pattern that you should memorize is major liner liner later, later liner diminished Major. That is the pattern of a diatonic or progressing. Let me give you a more practical example of why that's useful. Ah, you're writing a song and you say, OK, I'm in the key of C major Just cause let's do what's on the screen. I guess I'm in the key of C major. Ah, what chords can I use? Give me another chord that I haven't used yet. What you can do is you can look through this hole lists and hopefully do it in your head and say, Well, I haven't used ah e minor chord yet, and that fits in key perfectly well, so that would be a good one to use. Maybe I haven't used an a minor chord yet that's totally in key G major chord and F made aboard a D minor chord. Those are all good options. So that's why we care about this. Died for progression because it shows us all the possible cords in a given key and tells us how to find them.
Ratings and Reviews
exoslime
this is great and very helpfull class, i make and wirte music for more than 2 decades and never gave much about theory, i trusted my feelings to what sound good and what not. Bu t recently i became interested but it all seemed very difficult to me and i didnt got the points behind music theory and how everyhing works together. This class was a game changer for me.. music theory is so simple if you have somebody to explain it in words so that you finally can understand it, and thats Anthony, he is a brilliant guy and he explains it in a simple way that you can easily understand whats going on. This is perfectly the case with this course, the sections are short and to the point, not much talking around and leaving the path, you can make fast progress end learn how music theory works, this is a 5 Star ***** course and hopefully there is more to come
Emane Filali
Fabulous course. As a person with dyslexia, trying to remember the notes and chords as letters only is impossible. I love the visual way the chords are demonstrated and explained. I was originally put off by the "electronic" aspect, thinking it was only for learning how to use piano edit roller. However, as a beginner in playing the piano, this course is applicable to all who want to learn and understand music theory in an interesting visual way. Looking forward to next lesson. Will definately be purchasing the course after. Fantastic tutor and course.
Giulio Lazaretti
Very good class!! Makes it much easier to understand and apply the rules of theory. Anthony is also very wise to suggest to trust your ears, even if what you've written doesn't fit into those same rules. I am so very grateful for you putting this together, Anthony, and for making it available for the general public, Creative Live. I am also very glad I was given the opportunity to learn english in my home country (Brazil), in which many barely know how to read and write in our own native language (portuguese) due to our public education being so bad (which, by its turn, has to do with the myriad of vile creatures that inhabit our representative chambers). Tks XoXo!