Music Theory Help

I know quite a few of you guys are quite clued up on the music theory. Im currently trying to learn about it. I have watched the sonic tuts but my question is whats the difference between scales of harmonic minor, melodic minor and natural minor?

Which scale would be the most commonly used in house/dance music. I know Bryan mentions the minor scales in his vids but he just calls it a minor scale then i found at there are harmonic, melodic and natural!!!

Im confused so if any one could give me some feedback in music theory for dummies speak it would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Here is a page with pretty good explaination.

Harmonic is used in classical

melodic is used more for jazz

http://www.tonalcentre.org/Melodic.html

I stick to Am mainly.



Find that most of the 808 / 909 Kicks that I like - and all Kicks in general, are always in A.



Anytime I hear a Kick that I like, its nearly always in A (or sometimes G / G#)



Am Scale is A B C D E F G A



G#m scale is G# A# B C# D# E F# G#



Gm is G A Bb C D Eb F G



Suppose they’re not far off eachother and share a few notes, so I usually play around there.



I’ve ripped a lot of tracks apart in Logic into loops & individual hits & A, F & E are the most popular in Minimal / Tech / Tech House from what I’ve heard.



Its very useful studying a track like that to help you understand & narrow down musical choices. Definitely do that Man & read up on it a bit :slight_smile:


Don’t forget that if you’re using Am you can harmonically combine it with Cmaj scale too.

Good points.

Minor scales are useful in electronic music becuase they create a feeling of tension which helps drive the song. If you’re looking to provide an airy relaxed feeling then stick to the majors.

This is a great link that helps you spell out chords and scales if you’re unfamiliar with them. As I am not a trained pianist (insert 2nd grader giggle for pianist) when I get stuck I refer to these from time to time.

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/ 

Hey man there are many scales out there but i prefer the minor ones!

[url]http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/[/url]



That website has helped me out alot to build chords and choosing a scale its peety much listening and knowing what scale will give what certain feel to your track…



i would suggest Music theory for computer musicians too! its a good book man :smiley:

[quote]jbachjr78 (01/09/2010)[hr]Good points.



Minor scales are useful in electronic music becuase they create a feeling of tensionwhich helps drive the song. If you’re looking to provide an airy relaxedfeeling then stick to the majors.



This is a great link that helps you spell out chords and scales if you’re unfamiliar with them. As I am not a trained pianist (insert 2nd grader giggle for pianist)when I get stuck I refer to these from time to time.



http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/[/quote]



ahaha Dude i posted the same thing ahahahhha without even looking at the comments oh well!! :smiley: ahah

you wanna be using the natural harmonic scale (aeolian scale) :wink:

[quote]Subject 1 (02/09/2010)[hr][quote]jbachjr78 (01/09/2010)[hr]Good points.

Minor scales are useful in electronic music becuase they create a feeling of tensionwhich helps drive the song. If you’re looking to provide an airy relaxedfeeling then stick to the majors.

This is a great link that helps you spell out chords and scales if you’re unfamiliar with them. As I am not a trained pianist (insert 2nd grader giggle for pianist)when I get stuck I refer to these from time to time.

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/[/quote]

ahaha Dude i posted the same thing ahahahhha without even looking at the comments oh well!! :smiley: ahah[/quote]

No worries.

It’s a great site.:hehe:

First off, you should probably stay in minor scales.



As for keeping the root note on an A is dumb. The reason they are on an A, is because A is a perfect frequency. The reason I say this is because the A below middle C is A440. The A before that is A110. The A below that is A55. Etcetera Etcetera. But why anyone would create all their tracks in the same scale is completely beyond me. Why they would even keep the same root note is beyond me as well.

Thanks for your help guys.

From what i can deem from the posts it seems i should be keeping to the minor scales(Harmonic minor to be more specific) is this correct. I understand that you can also produce in other keys such as Amaj but it would see that the minor scales are more widely used in dance music.

So when Bryan mentions the minor scale in his video tuts he is talking about the harmonic minor scale right?

This site helped me out with learning my scales http://musicalscales.com/

:cool:

Better still, avoid the thrid and 6th to leave what you’re doing as ambiguous as possible.

Don’t be scared to change key either.  Most great music meanders through key signatures.

the key 2 me really just helps me know what to tune my kicks/vocals/bass to.



I try to keep the most important sounds (lead, bass, kick, vocals) all tuned together



dont ever stay in the same key for all your songs. that will be boring.



thats what transpose & the spectrum analyzer is for. figure out the key and make it what you want.


I decided to learn more about the harmonic and melodic minor scales as I knew nothing about them. :stuck_out_tongue:



In some respects I wish I hadn’t now. Damn, I thought I had it straight but it’s all gotten so complicated again. So the harmonic and melodic minor scales don’t follow the same step pattern as the natural minor. That’s bad enough but then the melodic minor ascends and descends with different step patterns. So, there’s in effect, an extra note in the scale. Right? :crazy:



It does make for some lovely chords though. So there’s some upside to it. :cool:

Melodic minor is defined differently depending on whether you are talking to a jazz musician or a classical musician. In classical theory, descending melodic minor is a natural minor scale (white keys from a-a). The ascending version raises the 6th and 7th by a half step. Jazz guys refer to the ascending version as melodic minor and use the raised 6th and 7th regardless of context.



I think the two most useful minor scales are melodic minor (in a jazz sense) and dorian, which is the white keys from d-d, (or natural minor with a raised 6th, or melodic minor with a lowered 7th.)

Thanks everyone for their input.

Perhaps we will see the next installment from Bry on music theory soon!