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Chords and Inversions - Part 2

Lesson 10 from: Music Theory for Electronic Producers

Tomas George

Chords and Inversions - Part 2

Lesson 10 from: Music Theory for Electronic Producers

Tomas George

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Lesson Info

10. Chords and Inversions - Part 2

<b><p dir="ltr">In this lesson, I show you how to write chords and also invert these chords.&#160;</p><p dir="ltr">Creating chords and using inversions are essential to learn for creating your own electronic music.</p><div><br></div></b>

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Introduction

00:58
2

Basic Music Theory Terms

08:07
3

Keyboard Layout and Octaves

06:19
4

Working out Major Scales

08:58
5

Perfect 5ths

06:42
6

3rds - Part 1

08:05
7

3rds - Part 2

07:39
8

Perfect 4ths

04:36
9

Chords and Inversions - Part 1

10:05
10

Chords and Inversions - Part 2

09:13
11

Chord Progressions - Part 1

10:22
12

Chord Progressions - Part 2

08:26
13

Inversions

08:53
14

7th Chords

09:48
15

Chord Extensions

08:09
16

Suspended Chords

02:40
17

The Circle of 5ths

04:30
18

Minor Scales

08:09
19

Chords in the Natural Minor scale

09:56
20

Harmonic and Melodic Minor

09:30
21

Write the Chords, then the Melody

09:03
22

Write the Melody, then the Chords

18:01
23

Arpeggios

08:00
24

Writing Bass Parts

11:35
25

Writing Bass Riffs and Adapting Melodies

14:10
26

Song Analysis - Chords, Part 1

10:17
27

Song Analysis - Chords, Part 2

05:58
28

Song Analysis - Melody

08:55
29

Song Analysis - Arrangement

07:30
30

Song 2 Analysis - Arrangement

05:04
31

Song 2 Analysis - Chords

08:55
32

Song 2 Analysis - Melodies

06:34
33

Song 3 Analysis - Chords

11:41
34

Song 3 Analysis - Melodies and Arrangement

06:55
35

Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 1

10:22
36

Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 2

18:47
37

Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 3

18:49
38

Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 4

08:21
39

Create a Song from a Chord Progression - Part 1

08:16
40

Create a Song from a Chord Progression - Part 2

08:07
41

Create a Song from a Melody - Part 1

07:27
42

Create a Song from a Melody - Part 2

09:05
43

Modes Intro

04:10
44

Ionian

00:43
45

Dorian

04:31
46

Phrygian

02:09
47

Lydian

01:35
48

Mixolydian

02:13
49

Aeolian

00:39
50

Locrian

01:50
51

Dorian Mode Example

09:12
52

Pentatonic Scales

12:27

Lesson Info

Chords and Inversions - Part 2

So let's go back to a pattern major, minor, minor, major, major, minor diminish major. And we also need to work out tone tone, semitone, tone, tone tone semitone four G major. We can just use this pattern we used before. Let's just drag this up to G OK. This will give us all the notes. Now in a G major scale, let's just have a look through here and see if the chords that flume use actually are in key and are in scale. We should be able to train our ear that, that song is in key, but it's good to go through and just check. And one thing we can do is we can make our own songs by using someone else's chords rearranging them and adding new chords. Now, we know what chords we can play in G major, we can add new ones, change them around. So it gives us loads of new options. So going back to the chords was ac sorry, A G ad an E minor and AC. So GDE minus C. So let's have a look. So we've got G Yeah. And then day, yeah, then E minor and then see OK, you should be able to train your ears to kno...

w which are major. Major a minor. But if you're not quite there yet, don't worry. So it was one more time. GDE minus C. So let's go back to this major, mind of Mind and major, major mining diminish major. So we have G major A minor, we have B minor C major. So the C and the GS there and D MA major E minor F sharp diminished and then back to G major. So just linking this up, we know that all the chords actually fit in that song. What we can do is actually use some of his cords. So let's use the smoothies over for a bit. OK. So we had a G start off with a G major then dec, so let's just put in de and C, we know the pattern. So we just need to find ad here then a minor and then C major, we can move some of these notes around you just because these go really high up compared to this. So let's put this G or pear so that they are the cords he was using, obviously he used for much longer. There weren't just one beat at a time but say we could move this E over here. Then we could also add in a minor. We can move the C here. Let's just delete these, let's make our own little pattern. Now, by using the chords from Flume and just rearranging them to make our own chords. So if you're new to music production or writing music, I recommend starting off like this. You can use it for my music, use it other people's music. As long as you don't plagiarize it and copy it. You can take inspiration, ideas from people. Let's move this c up here, we're just changing the octaves. We're allowed to do that. We can move the octaves around just because if the gaps are too big, it might sound a bit jumpy. So we move them next to each other, then we have this A, we can move this A up here, then we have this D minor and then there's b let's just move this B up here, decrease the tempo a bit and compare that to the flume song you can hear it's in the same key. It sounds very different. So we've got the, a quicker kind of Stabby groove here. It's a quick way we can throw some calls together and we can draw it in the baseline here. And it's really easy way of just finding out which chords we can use. So here actually move some of the notes around. It's easier to do if the notes are in the right place. But just from looking at this, I know that this is a G. So if we move this back, had the G down here and then this is A D, this is an A minor. This is an E minor and this is ac we've just changed a few of the notes around and made inversions, which is basically where we move the notes. Generally, we want the base to kind of keep the same. So the base here needs to be a B and then a day. So let's just draw this in B than a day. And going back, we had a minor. So this is a really quick way we can make music just from looking at other people's music. And after this, we had an E minor and then ac you can hear it instantly. That's the wrong note that OK, I'm just going to drag this down an octave. OK. That's, oh, there we go. Let's hear this back. Can hear the first note isn't quite right. That's because the first note should be a G and I played it in there as a B. There's no golden rule A B with it would fit, but it wouldn't give the correct sound of the chords. So let's put this back on G but this is a more advanced way called inversions where we basically take the notes of the chord and just swap them around. So that's a really quick way we can use someone else's music. The inversions are a bit confusing. Just start with the chords in the, just the normal position of route, 3rd and 5th. So let's put this G back to route 3rd and 5th route third and Seth, the second chord is ad. So let's put this on AD and F sharp in a, the next chord was an A minor. The next chord after this is an E minor and the next one after this is ac might be going quite fast. But this is how fast you can actually get it. If you learn major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminish major tone tone, semi tone to tone semi toone. If you learn to internalize that, like if someone said to me now, I don't know, play the fourth chord and see major, I know instantly it's an F major. Like you just know what notes go well together and you just realize which chords actually fit and you just internalize these patterns and it's just a really simple way of doing it. And I've got a little bit to advance for you in this inversions. But basically what an inversion is is you just move the notes around just to match up here. There's a big jump. This is all this space here. So all I did is just move, find this G, move it up there, then there's less space. Same here. There's a bit of space here. So if I, I can do this a op and here there's a bit of space so I can move the sea up and now there's less of a jump and, and less space. So it actually fits together a lot nicer. So that's what an inversion is. So, in this lecture, we've gone over a pattern major. Minor, minor, major, major, minor diminished major, you need to get that fast. You really do. You just need to internalize major. Minor, minor, major, major, minor diminished major. So the first chord is a, is a major, second is a minor. Third is a minor. The fourth is a major. The fifth is a major. The sixth is a minor. The seventh is a diminished and going back again to the first, it's a major and the other one going back again is tone tone semitone, tone tone tone semitone. So we need this pattern to work out the no, the notes in a major scale. So tone tone semi toone, tone, tone tone semitone, no matter where you are on the keyboard. If you use this pattern, tone tone semitone, tone tone tone semi to you can work out the major scale. Then from that major scale, you can work out which chords you can play. So major minor minor major major, minor diminished major. So it's really crucial, I've gone over this a lot, but you do need to internalize it. It might take a while just to remember tone tone semi tone tone to tone semitone major minor minor major major diminish major, but you do need to memorize it. And the other thing is four and 54 minor. If you don't use this pattern, if you don't write out tone, tone, semitone, tone to tone semitone. You do, you do need to remember four and five for major five and four for minor four and four diminished. That's basically it. I've also gone over inversions and looking at someone else's song, so analyze someone else's songs. Look at the chords online, just go and Google and type in someone's song, um flume the chords and you can see what chords people are using, find songs that you like and try and backwards, engineer the chords that they use. And then you can go through write these chords out in your digital audio workstation and then swap them around. Move them about, change. The inversions obviously don't plagiarize, don't copy but take inspirations and you can move these chords around. And this is basically how you can write chords in key. So if someone says that's not in key, it basically means the chords don't fit major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished major in the scale, of course, there's other stuff like melodies we're going to be looking at later on. But for now, this is how you write a diatonic chord progression. Diatonic means it's in the key chromatic means it's any of the notes. So this is a diatonic chord progression. So now you should know how to write diatonic chord progression and also move some of the notes around to create version. So I hope you found this useful one more time just remember tone tone semitone, tone tone tone semitone and major minor minor, major major, minor diminished major four and four for diminished four and five for minor and five and four for major. It's a lot to take in this lecture. It's a really in depth in detail lecture. But hopefully you should remember these three things. Major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished major tone tone semitone, tone tone tone semi toone 44, diminished 45, minor five and four major. And then you're sorted, you can write diatonic chord progressions. You know how to write chords for any scale or any major scale that you come across. Later on, you're going to be looking at minor scales and you're going to be looking at writing melodies. But for now, just remember this is how you write a diatonic core progression in a major scale or a major key. Thank you again for watching. I hope you found it useful and I'll see you in the next one.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials

Music_Theory_for_Electronic_Producers_PDF_Guidebook.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Sabrina John
 

This class by Jared Platt is incredibly comprehensive and invaluable for both beginners and advanced users of Lightroom Classic. His insights into organizing and editing are game-changing. Speaking of organization, for those looking to streamline their utility bill management, especially MEPCO bills, I highly recommend checking out the MEPCO Bill Payment service. It makes tracking and paying bills straightforward and efficient.

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