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Perfect 4ths

Lesson 8 from: Music Theory for Electronic Producers

Tomas George

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Lesson Info

8. Perfect 4ths

<b>In this lesson, I explain what Perfect 4ths are and how you can use them for writing harmonies for your own music.</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

Perfect 4ths

Hello. In this lecture, we're going to be looking at perfect fourths. So previously, we had a look at perfect fifths and perfect fourths are quite similar to perfect fifths. They basically mean they can fit in a major scale or a minor scale. So in C major, the fourth one up would be an F and remember to go back to tone tone semi to tone tone tone semi toone to work this out. You really do need to internalize this. It basically allows you to work out all the notes in the major scale. So let's hop into Ableton live here and I've just written in the pattern tone tone semitone, tone, tone tone semitone. So the fourth note in C major is 1234 is this F and the fifth note is this G, these are both perfect 4th and 5th. So this means in C minor, it will have an F and G and C major, it will have an F and A G. It's just a way of saying it will fit in a major scale and a minor scale. So the fourths are quite useful, we don't really use them for building cords, but they're really useful for inversi...

ons. So if we put down the root, which is ac and the fourth, which is 1234 and F, this is the interval of 1/4. But if we invert this, so if we put the F down here, this actually gives us the interval of a perfect fifth. So these forts are really useful for actually creating intervals. You will hear that this gives a very different sound. Let's get the right note. So we count down this way as well. So if we continue the pattern, so it's 12345, it's 1/5 down. So above is 1/4 up, 1234, the f and below 12345, it's 1/5 down. So if we flip it and invert it, we can turn this fourth into 1/5. This gives a very different sound to us and just gives us a few more options when we're adding and inverting chords. Just remember about the perfect fourth. You can use it in both a major and a minor scale. So that's it for this lecture. I just wanted to show you how you can use 1/4 in your, your music and writing chords. The easiest way I like to do this is to invert it, put it down an octave and then you've got a th which can be quite useful when building and creating different sounding chords at the moment. We've got quite rigid sounding major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished major chords. But if you want to experiment and try some new different ideas, inverting the fourth can give you some new flavors and textures to your chords. Of course, you want to try and stay in key for now. If you're new to music very but experiment and try new ideas and use your ear. Most importantly, theory does help. But if you don't manage to train your ear and you don't write the music that you think sounds good, there isn't really that much point. So just go through an experiment and one of the easiest ways you can do this is putting in the fourth and then dropping it down an octave below the route. And this way you can create some new interesting chords. So let's write in C major here. So we have the root the third and the fifth. So it's 12345 can count up with our major scale here. Then if we put the F down here, we've got a complete different sounding chord. Take out the F add there. It still fits, gives a really different flavor to our cord. You can even add the sea below. So this just allows us to create some new interesting ideas because if we just keep it too rigid and too obvious, you're not really creating anything that's unique or just sounds a bit different and interesting for the listener and this is the easy way and a little cheeky shortcut of doing this is stick in the forth, drop it down an and experiment with this as it's a perfect fourth similar to the perfect fifth. It's going to almost fit all the time. So it gives us loads of new options to work with. So thank you for watching this lecture and I'll see you in the next one.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials

Music_Theory_for_Electronic_Producers_PDF_Guidebook.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

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