digital garden

music theory

random notes on music theory

What elements make a song?

Most music has three distinct building blocks: harmony, melody, and rhythm. How these are written by the musician and combined in new ways form new compositions.

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Harmony has two states: dissonant and consonant.

~ Dissonant harmonies are made up of notes that don't sound pleasing together. The ear can tell that something is "wrong" here. Progressions and transitions won't sound good in this state, and moving into a consonant direction will stabilize the sound.

~ Consonant harmonies are made up of notes that sound pleasing to the ear. Progressions and transitions in this state flow into each other well.

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Melody is what many folks refer to as the "hook" in a song, a melodic line that draws you into the song and keeps you listening until the end. Melodies have no limit in their creation - they can be created with any kind of instrument (such as a guitar, piano, or synthesizer), or simply with vocals.

Melodies also have what's known as different states of motion. There are two states of motion in melodic terms.

~ Disjunct motion involves longer intervals between notes. Compared to conjunct motion, disjunct motion is less pleasing to the ear and may not provide as memorable melodies.

~ Conjunct motion is when notes are shorter in intervals. They flow together well, and provide memorable melodies that are pleasing to the ear.

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Rhythm is the last major building block in a composition. In basic terms, rhythm refers to the repetitive pattern in the composition, or the "beat" of the song, as it is also called.

Rhythms are measured with tempo, or beats-per-minute (BPM). The higher the song's tempo in BPM, the faster the rhythm of the song will be. For example, your average dubstep song is 140 BPM.

scales, octaves, and notes

Octaves are a natural musical phenomenon where two notes are linked in a relationship where the higher note has a soundwave frequency of vibration that is twice that of the note that is lower. Playing the same melody in ascending and descending octaves will alter the pitch of a song, but not the melodies or harmonies.

The root note of a scale is the starting note of the scale, otherwise known as its "tonal center". The root note of a chord, on the other hand, is the lowest-sounding note.

chords

Here are some of your basic chords on guitar:

~ A:

~ B:

~ C:

~ D:

~ E:

~ F:

~ G:

chord tips

As you get better at putting chords together, try mixing some up and putting them in different orders while you strum the strings. Also, try strumming your chords in varying patterns so you can inflect the chords in different ways. You might come up with a cool chord progression!

Begin practicing transitions by finding chords that are easy to switch between. For example, progressing chords from C to F is really easy - you essentially just move each finger down a string on the same frets.

When I was learning, we sorted our strings from low-to-high when we wrote chords and scales down. We had an acronym - "Elephants And Dogs Got Big Ears" - or "E A D G B E". Simple way to remember your strings. Some people learn the opposite way and invert them in their mind from high-to-low, or "E B G D A E". This is fine as well - whatever is most comfortable for you to help you remember your strings and where they're at.