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Perfect 5ths

Lesson 5 from: Music Theory for Electronic Producers

Tomas George

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Lesson Info

5. Perfect 5ths

<b>In this lesson, I explain what Perfect 5ths are and how you can use them for writing harmonies for your own music.</b>
Next Lesson: 3rds - Part 1

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 5ths

Hello, this lecture is all about fifths and perfect 5th. 1/5 is just the fifth note of a chord or the fifth note of the root note. The root note is basically just the starting note, the chord note. So if we're in C, this is the root note playing ac chord and we want to find the fifth, we just go up four notes, find the fifth note of the scale. So C is one D is two, E is three, F is four and G is five. If we don't know the names of the notes in the scale, for example, we're starting on G, you might not know the G scale, the G major or the G minor scale. And you want to find the fifth, we can go up seven semitones. A semitone is just one of these notes, a black note or a white note. So let's go up seven semitones, and seven. So the D is the fifth of G, let's try on a, a 1234567. So the E is the fifth of a, it's quite simple to do if you're using a major scale or a minor scale. A major chord, a minor chord, the fifth is the same. It's called a perfect fifth because it pretty much sounds ...

perfect. It's great for chords and harmonies and it's really simple to work out. If you don't actually know the notes of the scale, just use the seven semitones formula to find the fifth. If you don't quite get it right and you get a little bit lower, it can sound horrible. So make sure you count the right amount. For example, in a A, if you don't hit an E, you hit an E flat or D sharp, it can sound quite bad. This can be commonly known as a tritone augmented fourth or a diminished fifth. And this is quite advanced harmony if you want to use these horrible sounding notes to create something that can work in your music. But for now, let's just forget about that. Basically an augmented fourth is 1/4 note. So ad of the A but a bit bigger. So it's ad sharp or a diminished fifth, which is the E a bit smaller. So it's a ad sharp or an E flat. But for now, let's just look at fifths, cos fifths are really great to start from because they basically just sound perfect, which is why it's called a perfect fifth. So let's go into our digital audio workstation and let's type in AC and let's type in a day. Let's type in AJ. OK. Now we need to find the fifth of AC, if you remember AC major scale, it's a G but let's actually count up seven semitones just so we get used to doing this. So 1234567. So it's a G and let's do the same with D 1234567. So that's an A and lets do the same with G 1234567. So that's ad and let's hear this back. So that's the sound of 1/5. You really have to train your ear to know the sound. One thing I like to do is just play the notes and try and sing in what I actually want. And 1/5 is actually the same as a Star Wars theme. So bam, bam and then it goes da da da da. So, so just remember the Star Wars theme to find 1/5. It's quite easy to do. So there's little patterns for each of the notes for 1/4. I like to think of. Here comes a bride says, boom, boom, boom, boom. And the fifth Star War, there's loads of other ones as well. We go over later. Um six, my bonny fell into the ocean and a few others as well. But that's basically how you can work it out. Just think of the Star Wars theme. If you need to write it in by ear. If you can't actually work it out or you want to just train your ears think of the Star Wars theme cos that is the interval of 1/ or you can just count seven semitones, 1234567 or the fifth note of the scale if you know the key. So for example, D major, you go back to the lecture all about working at major scales. It goes def sharp, G A, so def sharp G A. So we can work out the fifth there. And G, the fifth of the scale is G and ABC D. It's pretty much the same as AC, but it's got an F sharp instead of an F. But let's not worry about that for now, let's just look at fifths. But fifths are really easy ways of just finding some nice harmony. So if you're a bit stuck, you can't go wrong with 1/5 and an octave. So the octave of C is obviously the same note but above same with the A oh sorry, the D and also the G here. So all you have to do is look at this note here and just put it up above an octave. It's that easy. Let's hit this back. This is just a root, which is the starting note, the bottom note of the cord, the G, which is the fif the C and the root as well. So if you're stuck, just start off with root and fifths. And then we're going to continue in this course and look at some more complex harmony. But for now, just start writing with roots and fifths is, is a great starting point. It is called a perfect fifth because it is quite perfect. It works with major scales and minor scales. So thank you for watching this lecture. I hope you found it useful in this lecture. We've just gone through how to actually work out 1/5. We can do it by counting up to the fifth note of the scale. If we know the scale, if we don't know the scale, we can count up seven semitones or we can think of the Star Wars theme to actually do it by ear.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials

Music_Theory_for_Electronic_Producers_PDF_Guidebook.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Sabrina John
 

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