May 10, 2025 • 28 mins
Music_Theory_Rebuild — Redefining the Foundations of Music Theory
THIS EPISODE IS A FULL SUMMARY OF MY FIRST 16 EPISODES.
In this transformative episode of our music theory podcast, "Music_Theory_Rebuild", we dive deep into rethinking the core principles of music theory. Whether you're a music student, musician, music theorist, or simply a music theory enthusiast, this episode challenges traditional concepts and offers a modern perspective on scales, harmony, rhythm, and tonal structures. We unpack how classical theory intersects with contemporary styles, and explore ways to rebuild your understanding of musical frameworks from the ground up.
Perfect for those studying music composition, jazz theory, or modern arranging, this episode acts as a bridge between academic tradition and real-world application. Discover how historical models like counterpoint, voice leading, and functional harmony can evolve to suit today’s diverse musical landscape.
Packed with actionable insights and deep discussions, “Music_Theory_Rebuild” is your ultimate guide to refreshing your theoretical foundation and pushing your musical boundaries.
If you're searching for podcasts on music theory, how to learn music theory, or modern approaches to music analysis, this is the episode you can't miss.
🎧 Hit play and start your music theory evolution today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
UNKNOWN (00:02):
So,
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
Hello out there, fellow music theory lovers and
enthusiasts.
Welcome back to The HarmoniousBlacksmith, a music theory
exploration.
That opening guitar track youjust heard is called Lunar
Dreams, and it is an originaltrack that I wrote many years
(01:05):
ago.
Welcome back to the podcast.
I am your host, Kevin PatrickFleming.
Oh yeah, let's get fired uptoday.
Let's have some fun today.
Let's learn and let's enjoy.
Let's beautify music and musictheory makes your life better.
(01:26):
Let's go.
This is episode 17 of season 2and this is a very special and
unique episode.
UNKNOWN (01:41):
Music
SPEAKER_00 (01:44):
That's right, today we are doing what I call a music
theory rebuild, which means weare going to rebuild our music
theory knowledge from where westarted from square one all the
way until we got to the previousepisode about key changes and
(02:05):
modulation.
Now, this is an educationalpodcast, as most of y'all know,
and in education you havereviews, you have summaries, you
have But why am I calling this arebuild?
I'm calling this a rebuildbecause music theory is special.
Music theory is unique.
And there's a reason it's calledmusic theory and not music law.
(02:27):
I want you to think about thatone and I may discuss it more
later.
But the term rebuild means thatwe are going to go back from
square one and we're going toessentially put building blocks
on top of each other over andover again and rebuild our
knowledge of music theory.
This will give you a chance tounderstand what you're strong
(02:47):
at, understand what yourweaknesses are, and even
understand concepts that you mayhave even missed completely over
time.
And those are the holes in musictheory that can really hold you
back from creating the entirefabric that you need in order to
have a strong and confidentunderstanding.
(03:08):
This directly corresponds withmy first 16 episodes.
So if you come across somethingthat you're a little weak on, or
you don't know much about, youwill be able to go back in
season one and season two andfind a corresponding episode
that has that concept.
And by the way, welcome to allmy new listeners out there.
Welcome, welcome.
We do appreciate that you'rehere.
(03:30):
One more thing, check out thesupport the show link in the
description of this episode.
A small subscription of$3,$5, or$7 a month really can go a long
way, even though it doesn't costyou much at all.
I do appreciate your support.
Let's get into it.
So our rebuild of music theorystarts with the birth of the
(03:54):
note.
So what is a note?
A note is a sound created by afrequency, which is vibrations
per second, that is created bysome form of vibration.
Instruments have differentmechanisms of creating these
notes, right?
For me, I play a lot of stringedinstruments.
(04:17):
I play guitar, banjo, mandolin,ukulele, and even some piano, as
well as lap steel and pedalsteel.
That's a lot of strings.
But as we know, we can also getthat vibration by pushing air
through a medium, likewoodwinds, like a clarinet or an
oboe, or even blowing airthrough a metal alloy, like a
(04:37):
trumpet or a saxophone.
And of course, the originalinstrument before all of those
instruments is us, we,humankind, our ability to use
muscle groups to push airthrough our air passages and
create frequencies using ourear.
(04:59):
Singing, right?
That's what I'm describing.
So once we invented ways toharness these vibrations and
these notes, what was thelogical next step?
You probably guess it.
It is to make more notes, right?
To create variety.
So that would create veryinteresting sounds.
And this brought us to one ofthe most important concepts in
(05:22):
all of music, which is calledmelody.
Melody is a series of individualnotes played one at a time that
create thematic or main tunematerial in any music.
Think of melody as being able tostand alone by itself without
(05:43):
any other instrument or anybacking and you can still
recognize it as a song or atune.
Examples include Twinkle TwinkleLittle Star and Row Your Boat
from childhood melodies that weall hear at some point all the
way to epic melodies that spanthe ages like Ode to Joy from
(06:03):
Beethoven's Chorale in his NinthSymphony or Somewhere Over the
Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz.
And eventually others of uswanted to play or sing along And
then that is the birth of theconcept called harmony.
Harmony or harmonization is thesimultaneous playing or singing
(06:28):
of two or more notes.
So if a melody is a single notepassage, it might sound like
this.
And then when you add theharmony in, it would sound like
this.
(06:48):
With harmonization grew amazingpossibilities.
So as you can imagine, all of asudden music starts to sprawl
out into a new dimension.
Not only this horizontaldimension that melody gives, but
now we have a vertical dimensionwhere notes are stacked on top
of each other.
And this led to the next conceptthat we call chords.
(07:14):
A chord is any three or morenotes played or sung
simultaneously.
And I do mean any three or morenotes.
Generally speaking, we associatechords with sounding really
pleasant to our ears because ofhow we use them in the system,
but they don't have to be.
A chord could sound like this.
(07:36):
This is also a chord.
Now, I'm not playing those justto hurt your ears today.
I promise you I'm not.
I'm just making the point that achord literally is any three or
more notes, whether they arepleasant or not.
(07:57):
Okay, so now we have a note,melody, harmony, and chords,
some really major and generaltopics in music theory.
But I want to quickly remind youwhy we study music theory and
what it is.
Music theory is our ability toorganize and analyze sounds in a
collective fashion so that wecan recognize patterns over time
(08:21):
and make music relate to othermusic so that we can understand
how it's being communicated howit's being constructed and
because of the nature of thehuman mind we then devise some
structures that help us organizeall this kind of stuff and the
most important structure that wecreated in all of music theory
(08:46):
is called the scale.
A scale is a group of notes thatare organized in a linear and
stepwise fashion that generallysound pleasant to our ears.
And therefore, we end up usingthem to create all the previous
concepts, the melodies, theharmonies, and the chords.
(09:08):
And really, if you've beenlistening to my podcast, you
know that scales are thebuilding blocks of every
Everything in music theory.
Everything.
So every time you're practicingsome scales on your instrument
and you're like, man, this isboring.
I want to go play my other supercool stuff.
Remember that those are thebuilding blocks of all the cool
(09:29):
stuff you ever play.
A major scale sounds like this.
Minor scale sounds like this.
And of course, there are lots ofothers in between that we're
going to get into, but those arethe main two in our system that
we use, as y'all may alreadyknow.
(09:50):
And scales do come fromdefinitive patterns that were
basically extracted over time.
For example, major scale wouldbe whole, whole, half, whole,
whole, whole, half, and minorscale would be whole, half,
whole, whole, half, whole,whole.
And those are universal patternsthat go across all major and
minor scales.
They give us a starting point oforganization in our system to
(10:15):
continue to be able to createthe desired sounds that we want.
It gives us a template.
Okay, so melody, harmony,scales, and chords.
Now we're getting somewhere.
These things are all organizedtogether and they all start with
the scale pattern.
So there's one concept in therethat I haven't discussed yet
(10:36):
that's very important and it'scalled...
Triads.
A triad is a group of threenotes that are extracted from
the scale pattern using what Icall the skipping method in
music.
And the skipping method meansyou're taking every other note.
So if we go back to our good oldfriendly C major scale...
(11:03):
If I want to create a C chordbased on this scale, it would
start with the first note, whichis the root note.
Then we'll skip the second, takethe third.
Skip the fourth and take thefifth.
And when you put those threetogether, you get a triad.
So essentially, people think ofit as 1, 3, and 5 initially, but
(11:26):
don't forget that there's 2, 4,6, 3, 5, 7, 4, 6, 1, 5, 7, 2, 6,
1, 3, and 7, 2, 4.
And remember, the numbers I'mreferring to are just called
scale degrees, meaning the orderthat the notes come in the
scale.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Right?
And back down.
So how many triads can we createbased on one scale?
(11:51):
We can create a triad on everysingle note in the scale.
So therefore there are seventriads for each diatonic scale.
Okay, so this is how triads areformed.
So what is the differencebetween a triad and a chord?
A triad is a fixed set of threenotes and only three notes that
(12:12):
are based on that skippingmethod we described earlier.
But chords are in fact based onthese triads, but they build on
top of them.
So since a chord is three ormore notes at the same time,
technically a triad is a chord,but chords do go beyond.
They add a fourth note, a fifthnote, a sixth note.
They also replace notes inbetween the skipped notes, doing
(12:35):
all kinds of variations so thatwe can create many different
varieties of chords.
So the one, three, and five in aC scale would sound like this as
a triad.
But then I can double and triplethem and just make the chord
sound a lot bigger.
(12:56):
Which obviously goes beyond theinitial triad.
It just makes a thicker, morelush kind of sound.
And I'll do that with one otherchord like G.
We go G, one, three, five.
There's the triad.
And I can double and triplethose and I get a full chord.
(13:19):
So when I talked about howchords can be extended to four,
five, and six notes, forexample, a four-note chord is
called a seventh chord.
So that's a G7, for example.
It would have the original triadof one, three, and five, but now
we're adding the seventh note ofthe scale.
So now we're going one, three,five, and seven.
(13:40):
It continues with the skippingmethod, though.
That's important to remember.
When you get into extendedchords like sevenths, ninths,
elevenths, it really is just anextension of the original
skipping method for triads.
The idea that we're always goingevery other note in order to
create chords.
So extended harmony includes7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths by
(14:04):
stacking extra notes on top oftriads.
But what about these other typeof extended chords?
Like, for example, a suspensionchord or an add chord.
Where do those come from?
So let's take a regular old Dmajor chord based on the triad
and you just have the one threeand five there the d f sharp and
(14:26):
a that make up a d major chordbut when we talk about these
other chords like suspension andadd chords really what you're
doing is you're replacing andadding notes right a suspension
is a very common and importantchord would be for example if in
d if my triad in d is d f sharpand a from the skipping method
(14:48):
What we're doing is we'rereplacing the third or
suspending the chord by puttinga fourth instead of a third.
So essentially I'm going one,four and five in the chord
instead of one, three and five.
So if I play the full chord, itsounds like that.
And then when I add thesuspension and this would be a
(15:09):
sus4, which would sound likethis.
Right?
It's still the same bass chord.
As you can tell, we're justreplacing this third with this
fourth.
And it gives a little bit moreof a tension, an interesting
sound that is just a littlevaried from the original chord.
(15:31):
So now if I take a C chord and Iwas talking about add there and
add instead of replacing a note,as you can imagine, we just add
a note on top of it.
So a C add nine would have one,three and five.
And we would just add the ninthnote above that root, which is a
D to make a C add nine.
(15:54):
And okay, okay, I got a littleahead of myself there.
Got a little excited and forgotto mention one other concept,
which is called chordprogressions.
A chord progression is a seriesof chords that center around a
tonal center or home base andwork together to create the
(16:19):
harmonic landscape or backgroundin a music through musical
tension and release.
And we denote chord progressionsusing Roman numerals, and there
are more common chordprogressions that we can study
that help us understand patternsover time.
And those Roman numerals docorrespond to the scale degrees.
(16:41):
So if I go through my C major,one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, and back to one oreight, each one of those scale
degrees corresponds to the Romannumeral that goes with it.
So if C is one in scale degrees,it'll also be Roman numeral one
in chords, except now it'll be achord, right?
UNKNOWN (17:01):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
And that brings me to the quintessential chord
progression that is used towrite music throughout time in
our Western system, and that iscalled the 1-4-5 progression.
The 1-4-5 progression includesthe 1 chord, the 4 chord, and
the 5 chord within any keybecause it creates the perfect
(17:26):
chord progression that outlinesmusic at rest or at home base
and It's rise in music tensionthat creates interest and the
return to home base or theresting place.
So again, if we're in C and Igo, okay, well, C is one,
obviously.
C, D, E, F is four, and then Gis five.
(17:49):
So if I just build my chords offof that, I get one.
four and five which eventually Ican turn it into five seven if
you remember from chordprogressions and adding musical
tension right and we return backto one which gives a sense of
relief and that leads us toanother very central concept in
(18:14):
music theory which is called akey A key, which is also derived
from a scale pattern, is a groupof notes, melodies, harmonies,
triads, chords, and chordprogressions that all work
together to create the musicallandscape that is agreeable and
(18:37):
interesting to our ears.
So back to C major land we go,and the key really is based off
the scale.
I need to re-emphasize that.
So I take my C major scale...
And everything in the keycenters around those seven
pitches because your melodieswill come from there.
(18:58):
Your harmonies will come fromthere.
Remember, when we add theskipping method, we're going to
get our triads from there.
And from our triads, we're ableto build our chords and chord
progressions.
So in the key, since you haveseven pitches, you have seven
triads to build off of.
And they are one is major, twois minor, three is minor, four
(19:20):
is major, five is major, six isminor, seven is diminished, and
then back to one.
A very important part of a keyis what we call a tonal center
or what I'm calling a home baseor root note.
So in the case of C major,that's obviously going to be C.
(19:42):
C is home base.
So that's going to be ourresting point within the key and
everything else when we pullaway from that note is going to
add tension.
So again, if I play the C majorscale...
Ah, you hear this rest in thesound there.
So I'll go back to the 1-4-5progression.
(20:04):
Resting sound.
A little bit of tension comingaway.
A lot more tension.
Even more.
And then we return back to theresting point.
Do you all remember theall-important invented tool that
helps us organize and understandkey relationships?
(20:25):
It's the circle of fifths, ofcourse.
And remember the The circle offifths is a tool that really
just allows us to use reallybasic math principles to
understand how keys areorganized, how they're related
to each other, how many sharpsand flats they include in the
key based on the formulas, andwhat the relative keys or
(20:49):
closely related keys are to themas well.
Don't underestimate the circleof fifths.
That is a very powerful tool.
I recommend knowing it down patif you really want to understand
how key relationships work inmusic.
And that brings me directly toour next Rebuild concept, which
is called...
(21:11):
Key changes and modulation.
A key change is when you go fromone set of pitches that are
agreeable to our ears to anotherset of pitches that are
agreeable to our ears.
You can also think of it asshifting from one scale to
another or even one tonal centerto another because now all of a
(21:32):
sudden you're hovering around adifferent chord or root note.
So for example, if I'm in Cmajor, I might modulate to G
major Oh, there's that modulateword.
So what does that mean?
Modulation is the techniquesthat we use to achieve a key
change or to just alter thescale in general.
(21:55):
Okay, again, we're back to thekey of C major.
And that is my tonal center.
And remember, our quintessentialchord progression is going to be
1, 4, 5, and back to 1.
A key change would involve acurveball within there to go to
(22:17):
a different key.
1, Now I'm in D major all of asudden.
Now, I did use a modulationtechnique that we call secondary
dominance, if you recall that.
(22:39):
I won't go too far into it inthis rebuild episode, but I do
have a lot in previous episodeson that and key changes in
modulation.
But now I'm going to go aheadand just grab a couple of fringe
concepts that we've talked aboutin the past.
The first one being calledarpeggios.
(23:00):
An arpeggio is a series of notesthat come from breaking up a
triad or chord into itsindividual notes or components.
So back to C land we go.
I'm going to take a good oldfashioned C chord and really the
basic arpeggiation that we doall the time on guitar, since
(23:21):
that's what I'm playing here.
Is that I mean, I just took a Cchord and all I did was really
randomly dance around the noteswithin the chord because
arpeggios are so cool becauseyou can do them in any order,
(23:41):
any rhythm, anything like that.
And you really have a chance tobe super creative with
arpeggios.
It's one of my favorite thingsin all of music is the use of
arpeggios.
An arpeggio can also be melodic.
So instead of just going likethis, I could also go like this.
And the final fringe topic thatI'm going to talk about in this
(24:10):
music theory rebuild is calledintervals.
An interval is the sound that isproduced directly because of the
distance between two pitches.
The two smallest intervals inmusic are a half step and a
(24:31):
whole step, and those are thetwo we use to create the scales
and scale formulas that are usedin our system.
Recall that a half step on anyinstrument is from one pitch to
the very next pitch up or down.
So that's an ascending halfstep, descending half step, and
(24:53):
then a whole step is just twicethat.
It's from one pitch to twopitches up or two pitches down.
And we use those as the smallestbuilding blocks to create scales
that in turn create keys.
Oh my goodness, we've gone fullcircle here.
Granted, I'm going to do anotherepisode pretty soon on
(25:14):
intervals.
I'm really excited about that.
I do have one episode onintervals and ear training just
to get you kicked off if youwant to go back and check that
out.
But I will have a part twoversion of that very soon.
Okay, so that was a lot ofinformation in what I call a So
it all goes back to thatoriginal note, the invention of
(25:39):
harnessing a sound in music,then going on to create more and
more of them, and eventuallycreating a predictable pattern
using those whole steps andhalf-step intervals I just
described to create what we callscales, the very quintessential
powerful concept that all musicis organized within our Western
(26:01):
system.
So the notes, when they go tothe scale, and then you have the
scale pattern, and the scalepattern turns into triads using
the skipping method andharmonization.
Melodies come from those scalepatterns.
Harmonies come from those scalepatterns.
Also, the chords come from thetriads.
Chord progressions come from thechords.
(26:24):
And when you put all thosetogether, they get organized
within an agreeable sound thatwe call a key.
And it all works together inbeautiful harmony that we call
music theory.
And thank you again, y'all, forsharing this experience with me.
I cannot do it without mylisteners.
(26:47):
Thank you so much, and I reallyhope you enjoyed this episode.
But now it's time for Breakdown.
Today's special episode was amusic theory rebuild.
(27:08):
Taking our very first concept,going all the way through
everything we've learned so farand recapping it.
We talked about notes, pitches,scales, triads, chords, chord
progressions, melodies, chords,harmonies, intervals, arpeggios,
(27:34):
extended chords, keys, keyrelationships, key changes,
modulation, and the circle offifths.
Thanks again for being with me,y'all.
It is absolutely one of thepassions and joys of my week to
(27:56):
be able to share this knowledgewith you.
And until the next episode, Iwill look forward to...
Continuing this music theoryexploration with all of you.
Have a beautiful music-filledweek.
So,
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
Hello out there, fellow music theory lovers and
enthusiasts.
Welcome back to The HarmoniousBlacksmith, a music theory
exploration.
That opening guitar track youjust heard is called Lunar
Dreams, and it is an originaltrack that I wrote many years
(01:05):
ago.
Welcome back to the podcast.
I am your host, Kevin PatrickFleming.
Oh yeah, let's get fired uptoday.
Let's have some fun today.
Let's learn and let's enjoy.
Let's beautify music and musictheory makes your life better.
(01:26):
Let's go.
This is episode 17 of season 2and this is a very special and
unique episode.
UNKNOWN (01:41):
Music
SPEAKER_00 (01:44):
That's right, today we are doing what I call a music
theory rebuild, which means weare going to rebuild our music
theory knowledge from where westarted from square one all the
way until we got to the previousepisode about key changes and
(02:05):
modulation.
Now, this is an educationalpodcast, as most of y'all know,
and in education you havereviews, you have summaries, you
have But why am I calling this arebuild?
I'm calling this a rebuildbecause music theory is special.
Music theory is unique.
And there's a reason it's calledmusic theory and not music law.
(02:27):
I want you to think about thatone and I may discuss it more
later.
But the term rebuild means thatwe are going to go back from
square one and we're going toessentially put building blocks
on top of each other over andover again and rebuild our
knowledge of music theory.
This will give you a chance tounderstand what you're strong
(02:47):
at, understand what yourweaknesses are, and even
understand concepts that you mayhave even missed completely over
time.
And those are the holes in musictheory that can really hold you
back from creating the entirefabric that you need in order to
have a strong and confidentunderstanding.
(03:08):
This directly corresponds withmy first 16 episodes.
So if you come across somethingthat you're a little weak on, or
you don't know much about, youwill be able to go back in
season one and season two andfind a corresponding episode
that has that concept.
And by the way, welcome to allmy new listeners out there.
Welcome, welcome.
We do appreciate that you'rehere.
(03:30):
One more thing, check out thesupport the show link in the
description of this episode.
A small subscription of$3,$5, or$7 a month really can go a long
way, even though it doesn't costyou much at all.
I do appreciate your support.
Let's get into it.
So our rebuild of music theorystarts with the birth of the
(03:54):
note.
So what is a note?
A note is a sound created by afrequency, which is vibrations
per second, that is created bysome form of vibration.
Instruments have differentmechanisms of creating these
notes, right?
For me, I play a lot of stringedinstruments.
(04:17):
I play guitar, banjo, mandolin,ukulele, and even some piano, as
well as lap steel and pedalsteel.
That's a lot of strings.
But as we know, we can also getthat vibration by pushing air
through a medium, likewoodwinds, like a clarinet or an
oboe, or even blowing airthrough a metal alloy, like a
(04:37):
trumpet or a saxophone.
And of course, the originalinstrument before all of those
instruments is us, we,humankind, our ability to use
muscle groups to push airthrough our air passages and
create frequencies using ourear.
(04:59):
Singing, right?
That's what I'm describing.
So once we invented ways toharness these vibrations and
these notes, what was thelogical next step?
You probably guess it.
It is to make more notes, right?
To create variety.
So that would create veryinteresting sounds.
And this brought us to one ofthe most important concepts in
(05:22):
all of music, which is calledmelody.
Melody is a series of individualnotes played one at a time that
create thematic or main tunematerial in any music.
Think of melody as being able tostand alone by itself without
(05:43):
any other instrument or anybacking and you can still
recognize it as a song or atune.
Examples include Twinkle TwinkleLittle Star and Row Your Boat
from childhood melodies that weall hear at some point all the
way to epic melodies that spanthe ages like Ode to Joy from
(06:03):
Beethoven's Chorale in his NinthSymphony or Somewhere Over the
Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz.
And eventually others of uswanted to play or sing along And
then that is the birth of theconcept called harmony.
Harmony or harmonization is thesimultaneous playing or singing
(06:28):
of two or more notes.
So if a melody is a single notepassage, it might sound like
this.
And then when you add theharmony in, it would sound like
this.
(06:48):
With harmonization grew amazingpossibilities.
So as you can imagine, all of asudden music starts to sprawl
out into a new dimension.
Not only this horizontaldimension that melody gives, but
now we have a vertical dimensionwhere notes are stacked on top
of each other.
And this led to the next conceptthat we call chords.
(07:14):
A chord is any three or morenotes played or sung
simultaneously.
And I do mean any three or morenotes.
Generally speaking, we associatechords with sounding really
pleasant to our ears because ofhow we use them in the system,
but they don't have to be.
A chord could sound like this.
(07:36):
This is also a chord.
Now, I'm not playing those justto hurt your ears today.
I promise you I'm not.
I'm just making the point that achord literally is any three or
more notes, whether they arepleasant or not.
(07:57):
Okay, so now we have a note,melody, harmony, and chords,
some really major and generaltopics in music theory.
But I want to quickly remind youwhy we study music theory and
what it is.
Music theory is our ability toorganize and analyze sounds in a
collective fashion so that wecan recognize patterns over time
(08:21):
and make music relate to othermusic so that we can understand
how it's being communicated howit's being constructed and
because of the nature of thehuman mind we then devise some
structures that help us organizeall this kind of stuff and the
most important structure that wecreated in all of music theory
(08:46):
is called the scale.
A scale is a group of notes thatare organized in a linear and
stepwise fashion that generallysound pleasant to our ears.
And therefore, we end up usingthem to create all the previous
concepts, the melodies, theharmonies, and the chords.
(09:08):
And really, if you've beenlistening to my podcast, you
know that scales are thebuilding blocks of every
Everything in music theory.
Everything.
So every time you're practicingsome scales on your instrument
and you're like, man, this isboring.
I want to go play my other supercool stuff.
Remember that those are thebuilding blocks of all the cool
(09:29):
stuff you ever play.
A major scale sounds like this.
Minor scale sounds like this.
And of course, there are lots ofothers in between that we're
going to get into, but those arethe main two in our system that
we use, as y'all may alreadyknow.
(09:50):
And scales do come fromdefinitive patterns that were
basically extracted over time.
For example, major scale wouldbe whole, whole, half, whole,
whole, whole, half, and minorscale would be whole, half,
whole, whole, half, whole,whole.
And those are universal patternsthat go across all major and
minor scales.
They give us a starting point oforganization in our system to
(10:15):
continue to be able to createthe desired sounds that we want.
It gives us a template.
Okay, so melody, harmony,scales, and chords.
Now we're getting somewhere.
These things are all organizedtogether and they all start with
the scale pattern.
So there's one concept in therethat I haven't discussed yet
(10:36):
that's very important and it'scalled...
Triads.
A triad is a group of threenotes that are extracted from
the scale pattern using what Icall the skipping method in
music.
And the skipping method meansyou're taking every other note.
So if we go back to our good oldfriendly C major scale...
(11:03):
If I want to create a C chordbased on this scale, it would
start with the first note, whichis the root note.
Then we'll skip the second, takethe third.
Skip the fourth and take thefifth.
And when you put those threetogether, you get a triad.
So essentially, people think ofit as 1, 3, and 5 initially, but
(11:26):
don't forget that there's 2, 4,6, 3, 5, 7, 4, 6, 1, 5, 7, 2, 6,
1, 3, and 7, 2, 4.
And remember, the numbers I'mreferring to are just called
scale degrees, meaning the orderthat the notes come in the
scale.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Right?
And back down.
So how many triads can we createbased on one scale?
(11:51):
We can create a triad on everysingle note in the scale.
So therefore there are seventriads for each diatonic scale.
Okay, so this is how triads areformed.
So what is the differencebetween a triad and a chord?
A triad is a fixed set of threenotes and only three notes that
(12:12):
are based on that skippingmethod we described earlier.
But chords are in fact based onthese triads, but they build on
top of them.
So since a chord is three ormore notes at the same time,
technically a triad is a chord,but chords do go beyond.
They add a fourth note, a fifthnote, a sixth note.
They also replace notes inbetween the skipped notes, doing
(12:35):
all kinds of variations so thatwe can create many different
varieties of chords.
So the one, three, and five in aC scale would sound like this as
a triad.
But then I can double and triplethem and just make the chord
sound a lot bigger.
(12:56):
Which obviously goes beyond theinitial triad.
It just makes a thicker, morelush kind of sound.
And I'll do that with one otherchord like G.
We go G, one, three, five.
There's the triad.
And I can double and triplethose and I get a full chord.
(13:19):
So when I talked about howchords can be extended to four,
five, and six notes, forexample, a four-note chord is
called a seventh chord.
So that's a G7, for example.
It would have the original triadof one, three, and five, but now
we're adding the seventh note ofthe scale.
So now we're going one, three,five, and seven.
(13:40):
It continues with the skippingmethod, though.
That's important to remember.
When you get into extendedchords like sevenths, ninths,
elevenths, it really is just anextension of the original
skipping method for triads.
The idea that we're always goingevery other note in order to
create chords.
So extended harmony includes7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths by
(14:04):
stacking extra notes on top oftriads.
But what about these other typeof extended chords?
Like, for example, a suspensionchord or an add chord.
Where do those come from?
So let's take a regular old Dmajor chord based on the triad
and you just have the one threeand five there the d f sharp and
(14:26):
a that make up a d major chordbut when we talk about these
other chords like suspension andadd chords really what you're
doing is you're replacing andadding notes right a suspension
is a very common and importantchord would be for example if in
d if my triad in d is d f sharpand a from the skipping method
(14:48):
What we're doing is we'rereplacing the third or
suspending the chord by puttinga fourth instead of a third.
So essentially I'm going one,four and five in the chord
instead of one, three and five.
So if I play the full chord, itsounds like that.
And then when I add thesuspension and this would be a
(15:09):
sus4, which would sound likethis.
Right?
It's still the same bass chord.
As you can tell, we're justreplacing this third with this
fourth.
And it gives a little bit moreof a tension, an interesting
sound that is just a littlevaried from the original chord.
(15:31):
So now if I take a C chord and Iwas talking about add there and
add instead of replacing a note,as you can imagine, we just add
a note on top of it.
So a C add nine would have one,three and five.
And we would just add the ninthnote above that root, which is a
D to make a C add nine.
(15:54):
And okay, okay, I got a littleahead of myself there.
Got a little excited and forgotto mention one other concept,
which is called chordprogressions.
A chord progression is a seriesof chords that center around a
tonal center or home base andwork together to create the
(16:19):
harmonic landscape or backgroundin a music through musical
tension and release.
And we denote chord progressionsusing Roman numerals, and there
are more common chordprogressions that we can study
that help us understand patternsover time.
And those Roman numerals docorrespond to the scale degrees.
(16:41):
So if I go through my C major,one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, and back to one oreight, each one of those scale
degrees corresponds to the Romannumeral that goes with it.
So if C is one in scale degrees,it'll also be Roman numeral one
in chords, except now it'll be achord, right?
UNKNOWN (17:01):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
And that brings me to the quintessential chord
progression that is used towrite music throughout time in
our Western system, and that iscalled the 1-4-5 progression.
The 1-4-5 progression includesthe 1 chord, the 4 chord, and
the 5 chord within any keybecause it creates the perfect
(17:26):
chord progression that outlinesmusic at rest or at home base
and It's rise in music tensionthat creates interest and the
return to home base or theresting place.
So again, if we're in C and Igo, okay, well, C is one,
obviously.
C, D, E, F is four, and then Gis five.
(17:49):
So if I just build my chords offof that, I get one.
four and five which eventually Ican turn it into five seven if
you remember from chordprogressions and adding musical
tension right and we return backto one which gives a sense of
relief and that leads us toanother very central concept in
(18:14):
music theory which is called akey A key, which is also derived
from a scale pattern, is a groupof notes, melodies, harmonies,
triads, chords, and chordprogressions that all work
together to create the musicallandscape that is agreeable and
(18:37):
interesting to our ears.
So back to C major land we go,and the key really is based off
the scale.
I need to re-emphasize that.
So I take my C major scale...
And everything in the keycenters around those seven
pitches because your melodieswill come from there.
(18:58):
Your harmonies will come fromthere.
Remember, when we add theskipping method, we're going to
get our triads from there.
And from our triads, we're ableto build our chords and chord
progressions.
So in the key, since you haveseven pitches, you have seven
triads to build off of.
And they are one is major, twois minor, three is minor, four
(19:20):
is major, five is major, six isminor, seven is diminished, and
then back to one.
A very important part of a keyis what we call a tonal center
or what I'm calling a home baseor root note.
So in the case of C major,that's obviously going to be C.
(19:42):
C is home base.
So that's going to be ourresting point within the key and
everything else when we pullaway from that note is going to
add tension.
So again, if I play the C majorscale...
Ah, you hear this rest in thesound there.
So I'll go back to the 1-4-5progression.
(20:04):
Resting sound.
A little bit of tension comingaway.
A lot more tension.
Even more.
And then we return back to theresting point.
Do you all remember theall-important invented tool that
helps us organize and understandkey relationships?
(20:25):
It's the circle of fifths, ofcourse.
And remember the The circle offifths is a tool that really
just allows us to use reallybasic math principles to
understand how keys areorganized, how they're related
to each other, how many sharpsand flats they include in the
key based on the formulas, andwhat the relative keys or
(20:49):
closely related keys are to themas well.
Don't underestimate the circleof fifths.
That is a very powerful tool.
I recommend knowing it down patif you really want to understand
how key relationships work inmusic.
And that brings me directly toour next Rebuild concept, which
is called...
(21:11):
Key changes and modulation.
A key change is when you go fromone set of pitches that are
agreeable to our ears to anotherset of pitches that are
agreeable to our ears.
You can also think of it asshifting from one scale to
another or even one tonal centerto another because now all of a
(21:32):
sudden you're hovering around adifferent chord or root note.
So for example, if I'm in Cmajor, I might modulate to G
major Oh, there's that modulateword.
So what does that mean?
Modulation is the techniquesthat we use to achieve a key
change or to just alter thescale in general.
(21:55):
Okay, again, we're back to thekey of C major.
And that is my tonal center.
And remember, our quintessentialchord progression is going to be
1, 4, 5, and back to 1.
A key change would involve acurveball within there to go to
(22:17):
a different key.
1, Now I'm in D major all of asudden.
Now, I did use a modulationtechnique that we call secondary
dominance, if you recall that.
(22:39):
I won't go too far into it inthis rebuild episode, but I do
have a lot in previous episodeson that and key changes in
modulation.
But now I'm going to go aheadand just grab a couple of fringe
concepts that we've talked aboutin the past.
The first one being calledarpeggios.
(23:00):
An arpeggio is a series of notesthat come from breaking up a
triad or chord into itsindividual notes or components.
So back to C land we go.
I'm going to take a good oldfashioned C chord and really the
basic arpeggiation that we doall the time on guitar, since
(23:21):
that's what I'm playing here.
Is that I mean, I just took a Cchord and all I did was really
randomly dance around the noteswithin the chord because
arpeggios are so cool becauseyou can do them in any order,
(23:41):
any rhythm, anything like that.
And you really have a chance tobe super creative with
arpeggios.
It's one of my favorite thingsin all of music is the use of
arpeggios.
An arpeggio can also be melodic.
So instead of just going likethis, I could also go like this.
And the final fringe topic thatI'm going to talk about in this
(24:10):
music theory rebuild is calledintervals.
An interval is the sound that isproduced directly because of the
distance between two pitches.
The two smallest intervals inmusic are a half step and a
(24:31):
whole step, and those are thetwo we use to create the scales
and scale formulas that are usedin our system.
Recall that a half step on anyinstrument is from one pitch to
the very next pitch up or down.
So that's an ascending halfstep, descending half step, and
(24:53):
then a whole step is just twicethat.
It's from one pitch to twopitches up or two pitches down.
And we use those as the smallestbuilding blocks to create scales
that in turn create keys.
Oh my goodness, we've gone fullcircle here.
Granted, I'm going to do anotherepisode pretty soon on
(25:14):
intervals.
I'm really excited about that.
I do have one episode onintervals and ear training just
to get you kicked off if youwant to go back and check that
out.
But I will have a part twoversion of that very soon.
Okay, so that was a lot ofinformation in what I call a So
it all goes back to thatoriginal note, the invention of
(25:39):
harnessing a sound in music,then going on to create more and
more of them, and eventuallycreating a predictable pattern
using those whole steps andhalf-step intervals I just
described to create what we callscales, the very quintessential
powerful concept that all musicis organized within our Western
(26:01):
system.
So the notes, when they go tothe scale, and then you have the
scale pattern, and the scalepattern turns into triads using
the skipping method andharmonization.
Melodies come from those scalepatterns.
Harmonies come from those scalepatterns.
Also, the chords come from thetriads.
Chord progressions come from thechords.
(26:24):
And when you put all thosetogether, they get organized
within an agreeable sound thatwe call a key.
And it all works together inbeautiful harmony that we call
music theory.
And thank you again, y'all, forsharing this experience with me.
I cannot do it without mylisteners.
(26:47):
Thank you so much, and I reallyhope you enjoyed this episode.
But now it's time for Breakdown.
Today's special episode was amusic theory rebuild.
(27:08):
Taking our very first concept,going all the way through
everything we've learned so farand recapping it.
We talked about notes, pitches,scales, triads, chords, chord
progressions, melodies, chords,harmonies, intervals, arpeggios,
(27:34):
extended chords, keys, keyrelationships, key changes,
modulation, and the circle offifths.
Thanks again for being with me,y'all.
It is absolutely one of thepassions and joys of my week to
(27:56):
be able to share this knowledgewith you.
And until the next episode, Iwill look forward to...
Continuing this music theoryexploration with all of you.
Have a beautiful music-filledweek.
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