Category Archives: Music Education

Using Modes in Your Guitar Playing – a Beginner Guide

 In guitar music theory, modes carry a reputation for being hard. However, once you know their basic patterns, they can be a simple way of spicing up your guitar playing. Essentially, modes are a set of seven kinds of scale. Yet, they actually can all be grouped based on the Ionian, or major scale. 

What are the Modes in Guitar Music Theory?

The names of the modes come from seven cities in Ancient Greece, and in fact, modes have been with us since ancient times. Also known as church modes, they were traditionally used in church services to create a certain mood. Read on for how you can use them in modern guitar – and how to break down the theory behind them.

1. Learn the Modes As Separate Scales

You may have heard modes described as all variations of the same scale – the Ionian mode, or major scale. To an extent, this is true in terms of music theory. However, it doesn’t help beginner guitarists who want to get into playing with modes as the reality is much more complex. 

Are Guitar Modes and Scales the Same?

It can be hard to think of modes in terms of a single scale due to the nature of the fretboard. Instead, it’s more helpful to learn the modes as separate scales in their own right. This way you can also use the major and minor scales (Ionian and Aeolian modes) as a comparison to help memorize modes.

To learn modes as a scale, they can be divided into whole and half steps. These form the particular sequence that makes up that particular scale – just like with any scale.

What Notes Do Modes Start On?

Modes can start on any note, depending on which mode you are playing. Instead, it is easier to learn the sequence of whole and half steps in a mode, so you can apply them to any key. The sequences for each of the seven church modes are as follows: 

Lydian: W W W H W W H

Ionian: W W H W W W H

Mixolydian: W W H W W H W

Dorian: W H W W W H W

Aeolian: W H W W H W W

Phyrigian: H W W W H W W

Locrian: H W W H W W W

2. Learn Which Chords Go With Which Modes

It goes without saying, but if you want real freedom of composition and to move around the fretboard, it’s best to learn which scales go with which modes. By doing so, it also means you can use modes more consistently in your composition and arrangement and production. For example, if the chorus of a song is in Ionian mode, and the melody then changes into Dorian mode during the middle eight, naturally there’s going to be a change in the chord progression as well.

How Do Chords Relate to Modes in Guitar Music Theory?

Learning the chords that go with modes can actually help you figure out chord progressions. Alternatively, they can serve as a source of inspiration in composition as you can play with certain modes. These can go over certain parts of an existing chord progression to make a vocal line or guitar riff. 

What Modes Work Over What Chords?

Or, alternatively, what chords go best with what modes? The chords that tend to go with each mode are as follows: 

Lydian: major, maj7, maj9

Ionian: major, major 7th

Mixolydian: major, dom7 dom9

Dorian: minor, minor 7th

Aeolian: minor, minor 7th, minor 9th, minor 11th

Phyrigian: minor, minor 7th,

Locrian: m7b5 chords, dim chords

3. Learn The Circle of Fifths to Master Modes in Guitar Music Theory

What does the circle of fifths have to do with modes? It turns out, quite a lot.

Music is full of patterns, and the circle of fifths, a way of arranging the note used in Western music, also provides a tool to figure out modes.

Simply put, the circle of fifths is an arrangement of notes where each note is a fifth above the last one. Already familiar with the whole and half-step sequences that form the basic modal scale patterns? You can use the circle of fifths to find out the notes of any modal scale.

How Do Guitar Music Theory Modes Relate to the Circle of Fifths?

If you follow the circle of fifths in a clockwise direction, you can then change the notes that correspond to the flattened or sharpened scale degrees in each mode. In this way, you can figure out the exact notes your need. This topic is too detailed to fully explore here, but knowing the circle of fifths is a valuable tool that also applies to modes, means they become way less daunting to use in your own music.

4. Learn the Emotional Order of the Modes

Sometimes, the way some forms of music theory explain modes takes them out of context. Ionian mode, or the major scale, is one of the most used in pop and rock music. Thus it tends to be the one guitarists start learning. But the world of guitar is much bigger and more varied than that.

What is the Order of Modes in Guitar Theory?

Often, guitarists learn modes in an order based on the notes of the Ionian, or major scale. However, did you know you can also arrange modes in order of the ‘lightest’ sounding to the ‘darkest’ sounding? Genres such as jazz guitar rely heavily on the Dorian mode, whereas many subgenres of metal like to experiment with Phrygian and Locrian modes. 

Therefore it helps to know the emotions of the modes to figure out which is best to use. Once you’ve learned this, practicing them in this order can help you not only compare them and understand how each developed to create a certain atmosphere, but see the note changes that are responsible for their particular qualities. 

What is the Emotional Order of Modes?

In short, the emotional order of modes arranges the modes from ‘lightest’ to ‘darkest’.

Lydian, Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Aeolian, Phyrigian, Locrian

However, just like the political horseshoe, Lydian mode, and Locrian mode are closer to each other than you might imagine. In fact, using the circle of fifths, Lydian becomes Locrian by transposing every tone (except the root) down a single half-step.

5. How Do Guitar Music Theory Modes Fit Into the Guitar Fretboard?

Of course, there’s no use learning the modes if you can’t use them to play solos or write songs. Learning how modes fit together on the guitar fretboard means you’ll have the confidence to actually manipulate them. This allows you to create compositions from more different elements. 

How Do You Connect Guitar Modes?

At the heart of modal theory, there are two basic ways that you can fit modes into the guitar fretboard. The first way keeps the same scale pattern and uses the emotional order of modes (Lydian to Locrian) which alters only one note at a time. Therefore, it’s really, really easy to learn how one mode goes to the other. 

How to Play Guitar Modes All Over the Fretboard

However, you can also learn to play a single mode all over the fretboard. This is because all of the modes have their own scale pattern. Yet, when put in the context of the same root note, they actually all make the same mode. This way, by learning the fretboard patterns for each mode, you can translate any mode all over the fretboard. In fact, this works in the same way as the more familiar CAGED system.

You can play the same mode all over the fretboard by learning and using the set shapes that correspond to the names of each mode. Don’t let the confusing naming put you off! All shapes can be used for all modes. In fact, if you have learned the CAGED positions, this method uses the same pattern recognition skills.

Final Thoughts

Learning modes is a different process for every guitarist. Sometimes, the most confusing thing about them is how they all relate back to a single scale. This can make them seem paradoxical at first. Yet, after experimenting, you realize they can be thought of both ways depending on what you find most useful. In this way, they are a valuable Swiss army knife whenever you feel like compositions or arrangements are lacking something. 

If you like tutorials, we have a whole section where we dig into different ways of thinking about music here.

5 Killer Tips to Use Jazz Chords in Your Guitar Playing

In guitar music theory, chords are the backbone of any song. And jazz chords are a great way to spice up your progressions, regardless of whether or not you are a jazz guitarist.

Beyond classic sounds we associate with jazz, jazz chords can make your playing more interesting overall. One example is how they can add variety to a bridge or middle eight. Read on for a guide as to how to get started.

1. Learn Modes and How They Work With Jazz Chords

You may hear musicians refer to modes as ‘church modes’. This is due to their history of being used in Gregorian plainchant. However, they have many other uses! In fact, one of the 7 modes of Western music, Dorian, is actually frequently used in jazz. Modes show up everywhere, from adjacent genres, like flamenco, to places like alternative rock.

The reason learning modes can help you use jazz chords is that each mode has a set of chords that works well over it. Many of these are jazz chords, and this gives you a ready-made set of notes to write melodies or solos over more complex chords like dom6 chords. 

Jazz Guitar Music Theory Chords that Go With Modes

Many jazz chords are derived from modes. For example, the dominant seventh chord, often the first jazz chord beginners learn, actually comes from Mixolydian mode. Likewise, Dorian mode commonly shows up in jazz. A classic combination is to play Dorian melodies over a minor 7th chord.

Both jazz chords and modes have a reputation for being tough, but actually, they’re just different. They go together well enough that learning them in tandem can actually make each of them easier to understand. Depending on how you learn, this can fill in the missing pieces of information, translating theory into actual sounds on your guitar.

2. Learn How Jazz Scales Relate to Chords and How to Use Them

What are jazz scales? At their broadest, jazz scales are any scales that are used in jazz playing. However, some of them are more associated with jazz than others, like the Dorian mode or the melodic minor scale.

What Are the Most Important Jazz Scales?

In truth, there are loads of jazz scales, and not all of them will be relevant unless you’re planning on fully immersing yourself in jazz guitar. However, there are some that are great if you want to figure out melodies to use over progressions that contain jazz chords. One significant one is the melodic minor. The other additional scale that isn’t commonly found in pop and rock music is the diminished scale.

Even if you don’t know these scales, they can still help you build chords and, especially, chord progressions. For example, why not learn? the chords that are built off each note of the melodic minor scale? This can help you come up with new progressions that take your playing in a new direction. You don’t have to be a jazz guitarist – even artists like the Beatles and REM have used jazz scales!

What Scales Go With What Chords Jazz?

Often, guitarists approach this question the wrong way. A better question to ask is ‘what chords go with what scales?’ This allows you to learn the general pattern of chrds for a scale, so you can learn it in ANY key. For example, the melodic minor scale corresponds to the following chords – but with this general pattern, anything can be the root note:

I min – ii m – III aug – IV maj – V maj – vi dim – vii dim

Or

I min – ii min7 – IIImaj7#5 – IV 7 – V 7 – vi min7b5 – vii min7b5

As you can see, simply by learning the scale, you have a whole new set of chords to work with that you know will go together – and knowing which jazz chords will fit is generally the hardest part!

3. Tension and Release – The Basic Principles

You may have practiced a handful of jazz chords and learnt how to construct them, but this alone doesn’t show you the right places to use them in your music. If you’re used to major and minor chords, jazz chords might be novel. These chords tend to be tense, richer, and more complex than chords used in basic pop progressions. Jazz chords tend to have this ‘tenser’ sound because they have more notes that are closer together, which cover up the sound of the perfect fifth – the interval considered to be most harmonious to our ears. 

How to Use Jazz Chords in Progressions

With their tenser and more complex sound, how do you use jazz chords? Jazz chords are great for places where you want more emotional tension in your music, especially if tension is followed by release. A classic place is at the end of a bridge that leads into a chorus, where adding a major or minor 7th chord makes things darker sounding before and can make a wide, open chorus melody stand out more. 

Some of the best chords to use for these purposes are maj7, min7 and D7 chords. Dominant sevenths especially can create plenty of tension that ten opens up to resolve on the root note. 

4. Guitar Music Theory – Chords and How To Build Them From Scales

What Guitar Chords Are Used in Jazz?

One thing that can be offputting about jazz chords is the daunting combinations of numbers and letters in the name. For a beginner, it’s quite hard to figure out what a chord like m7b5 is quickly enough to know how to solo over it. 

How to Build Jazz Chords from Scales

It’s possible to reverse engineer this process and learn how chords are built from scales. The key is to think of jazz chords as just extensions of the major and minor chords you are familiar with. It also helps to know that major and minor chords develop around the same interval.

Both major and minor chords use the perfect fifth. The only difference is the triad – the middle note – is alternately one semitone higher or lower. This sets the major or minor quality of the chord. In a minor chord, the third degree of the scale is flat. Whereas, in a major scale, it remains unchanged. 

Chord Theory Basics: The Theory Behind Jazz Chords Made SIMPLE

The numbers that you see at the end indicate which additional degrees of the scale he chord also includes. For example, dm6 has the additional sixth degree of the scale added to it. In this case that’s B. However, as this is a minor 6th chord, it also contains the b7.

How Do You Make Jazz Chords?

To figure out any chord, you can break it down into the following things:

  • the root note
  • the quality (major, minor, dominant, augmented, diminished)
  • any additional scale degrees

For example, Emaj7b5 has E as the root, a major tonal quality, the seventh degree of the scale added, and the b5 indicated the additional information that the fifth is a semitone down. By breaking down chord names, they become much simpler to read, which is handy if you’re working off a chord chart you’re unfamiliar with or improvising over a progression.

5. Guitar Music Theory Chords: What Makes a Good Jazz Progression?

There are common progressions show up in every genre of music and jazz is no different. Like pop and rock have the I – IV – V progression, jazz has the ii V I progression. By starting on a chord other than that which corresponds to the root note of the scale, it has an interesting, complex flavor. 

Is Jazz Just 7th Chords?

Definitely not! In fact, jazz is all about variety. What makes this and any other good chord progressions work is that they find the correct balance. As jazz chords are more complex, sometimes it can be hard to move between them not only for the guitarist but also for the listener. In the key of E major, for example, a jump from B major (the fifth) to C sharp minor flat 5 (a common jazz chord) might be too much, but adding a B7 in the middle can make the progression flow more smoothly.

What Makes a Jazz Progression?

A good progression that uses jazz chords – whatever your genre- uses harmony and appreciates the yin and yang of balance to achieve ups and downs in the listener’s mood. This means a combination of both simple and extended chords, as well as the tension and release we talk about earlier.

Once you’re comfortable playing extended, more complex chords, it can be tempting to use them a bit too much. Remember that less is more – and the right chord in the right place can make all the difference.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to use jazz chords in your playing doesn’t require you to be a jazz master. Great jazz guitar takes years of practice. On the other hand, it’s simple to understand how you can add more complex chords to a progression. Not only does this free you up to use a greater variety of sounds, it can be fun and challenging in the process.

Are you a beginner or intermediate guitarist looking to learn more about music theory? For more theory tutorials from a guitarist’s point of view, check out our section here.

Training Your Ears for Electronic Music Mixing

Often, music mixing ear training is a process many musicians have to go through without formal training. Yet here, we look at one of the best bits of software for guiding you through this process.

Dream studios of tons of gear can make our music sound better. Yet it never hurts to practice getting your ear in tune with the basic building blocks of sound. That way, you can make ANY equipment sound amazing. We’ve reviewed Train Your Ears before, but this time we look at how it can help electronic musicians in particular, so read on.

What is Train Your Ears? Why does it stand out for music mixing ear training?

Martial artist Bruce Lee said ‘I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced 1 kick 10,000 times’. Train Your Ears EQ Edition is an app that focuses on ONE SINGLE yet VITAL part of the mixing process – EQ.

It shows you how to differentiate bandwidths and other EQ processed, plus, how to use this knowledge. By perfecting your ability to use EQ, you will likewise be able to perfect your tracks so they go from amateur to pro.

With Train Your Ears, you’re essentially fast-tracking the process of immersion within the sound that a professional mix engineer experiences in the studio. This immersion is why pros have the ability to intuitively know what to change in a mix. They’ve been surrounded by sound day in and day out and got used to changing the subtlest of parameters by instinct. This happens by zeroing in on one of the core processes of mixing and using it as a perfect training ground to increase your sensitivity to sound in general. Depending on how you use it, TrainYourEars can give you that same in-depth knowledge, in miniature.

The basics: what does train your ears involve?

The train your ears app is available for both iOS and Windows. The best part is it is applicable to a wide variety of genres of music. 

It consists of a set of exercises that are designed to be used alongside a live music player. With this, you can route the signal of your computer’s sound card. Consequently, you can practice with tracks from your iTunes library or recordings from your latest projects. This kind of practice in context makes Train Your Ears stand head and shoulders above other similar apps. Ultimately, it allows all musicians to adapt the practice to what’s relevant to them at the time.

Train Your Ears is a piece of cake to set up. It allows you to use practically any audio source you like, We cover this more in our other article here. 

The real goldmine is the ‘exercise designer’ section. Once you have a piece of music up and running, you can get stuck in with breaking down sound.

The exercise designer includes the ability to: 

  • learn to recognize octaves with a bandpass filter
  • practice with low and high cut and shelf filters 
  • 4 and 7 band EQ emulators (so you can connect what you’re hearing to what you’re seeing) 
  • Q factor exercises 
  • practice distinguishing which bands have been boosted and/or cut 

How does Train Your Ears help with electronic music mixing?

Being able to tell the difference between frequencies is particularly important in electronic music. In some ways, your mistakes are all the more visible. Here are some ways the program helps electronic musicians specifically.

One tip is to keep TrainYourEars open whilst you mix. When the mix is feeling stagnant, practicing with similar songs on the program is a great source of inspiration. It can also help you identify what you do or don’t like about them. Likewise, because it shows you what has been altered, you can work out how to apply a similar sound to your own mix. 

How to use it with synthesis:

Sometimes, you’re not able to fully pinpoint what may be wrong with a mix. This can even be the case with synth patches you may have created. This can very often be an EQ difficulty. It’s hard to tell if an instrument needs more low-end or high-end unless you have a finely tuned ear. TrainYourEars is perfect for helping develop this.

Having a way to break down EQ can also help design your dream sound. As we said in the introduction, you may not have the studio you wish. Nevertheless, you can add richness and tone to your instruments with clever EQ. TrainYourEars is one of the most simple and comprehensive ways to get to the stage.

What else can I use it for? (Electronic Music!)

One thing which can be hard when sculpting sound from scratch is actually deciding on when things sound ‘perfect’. This can be the case with both synthesis of all kinds, and sampling. It can be really easy to get caught up in making small changes.

This is where you can use TrainYourEars to compare multiple different EQ options across different creative ideas. And, this is without having to actually apply these parameters to the track you’re currently working on. How? Reference tracks!

By adding your reference tracks to TrainYourEars, you can hear better predict how changes in EQ will affect the sound you’re going for, without having to tamper with your actual project. This can be life-saving if you want to avoid messing up your mix. Plus, the program can also help you get more in tune with the specific track you are working on. 

A routine for music mixing ear training with Train Your Ears

  • Reference tracks. If you have a current project, add one of your reference tracks to the program and see how EQ changes affect it. Then, you can compare this with your own project to see what bits you need to change.
  • Working through the exercises. It goes without saying, but the program has already done most of the work for you.
  • Working with undertones and overtones. TrainYourEars helps you figure out what bandwidths add richness or remove muddiness. This can help craft your sound from scratch, especially if you’re starting with a pure tone, as with synthesis.
  • Learning the difference between different kinds of EQ. For example, what does a high pass filter sound like when compared to simply cutting lower frequencies? These differences can have huge effects on your mix.

Final Thoughts

We’ve gone on about how great Train Your Ears is, firstly in this review we did last year as well as in our article focussing on how to use it with guitar. One of the things which makes it such a valuable app to keep open alongside your DAW is how it lets you take charge of your learning and do things in the context of where you are NOW in the mixing process and your current projects. However, what makes it especially useful for electronic musicians is it offers you a shortcut through the difficult process of working out the sonic nuance which takes electronic music from good to great.

Train Your Ears is available from their website and is currently on offer for 49 EUR. You can get it by clicking here (takes you to the official website and if you buy using this link we would get a small kickback. Thanks!)

If you love reviews, we have an entire section of them right here.

Train Your Ears for Guitar – Why This Ear Training Software Actually WORKS

For guitar, music ear training apps can be of varying quality. Yet here, we review the best and simplest which shines because it includes the MOST relevant and easy-to-understand parts of the mixing process.

This is Train Your Ears EQ Edition. As a guitarist who tried to learn EQ from tutorials online, I found the immersive experience of Train Your Ears was the missing link I needed. We’ve reviewed it in general before, plus we’re also covering how it worked for electronic musicians this month – but here, read on for why it’s so great when adapted to guitar.

OK, why is Train Your Ears so great for guitar music ear training?

This involves two things that make it stand out. The first is it looks at patterns, not learning by rote. The second is that it’s adaptable to however you want to use it.

When we say Train Your Ears teaches you patterns, this means that the developers have looked at the crucial building blocks of understanding EQ and focused on showing how you can use them and apply them to anything. This links to how it’s adaptable. Train Your Ears doesn’t teach you in a fixed context. It simply gives you the independent ability to apply your knowledge to whatever tracks you like.

As guitarists, who are often more used to doing things by ear, this can work amazingly.

Is Train Your Ears easy to use?

I personally found the setup for Train Your Ears to be really intuitive as they basically do everything for you on the website. After downloading the app, you drag it to the folder you desire on your laptop as usual and you’re presented with a page of options when you first start it up, one of which is ‘play some music’.

To do this you can use any track, whether one of your own or something from your favorite bands. I used a track from the modern UK grunge band Dirty Modal Souls, so there was plenty of delicious crunchy guitar to practice ear training with. However, you’ve first got to get the track to play in the app. 

This is a simple drag and drop to the audio player, so you can add the track as an m4a file from your iTunes library or as an mp3 file or WAV file – the choice is yours and sometimes it can help to use a variety so you can hear the difference between compressed and uncompressed audio. 

Using the app this way makes it fun to practice as you are listening to your favorite music at the same time. 

How can I use Train Your Ears when practicing?

You can actually get the app to play tracks directly from your iTunes library, as in order to do the exercises you need the track to play live. You can do this by routing the audio of your computer so that train your ears receives audio input internally direct from your laptop. 

If you’re using iOS, you need to download BlackHole which fortunately you can do from the train your ears website live player page here. However, when you have the app open it also gives you simple instructions. If on Windows, you can likewise use the program VB cable which you can also get from the website we’ve linked above. 

After running the installer and following the instructions on the train your ears website to route your internal audio correctly, you’re all set and can play from iTunes and other places on your computer. 

Likewise, you can use your audio interface to route external audio such as from an iPod or other music player. 

Best guitar music ear training tips: how to get the MOST out of this software

  • Ensure you’ve got the right song for the exercise 

It goes without saying, but make sure you pick the right song for the exercise. If you’ve always struggled with separating bandwidths in big walls of sound, pick a song that has this and hop on board with the first exercise, recommended by Train Your Ears, which is on guessing which bandwidths have been modified. 

As a beginner exercise, this is simple and easily helps you understand the quirks and nuances of different bandwidths and what they sound like. This ranges from the echoing, booming sounds that come from giving the middle a boost or the way cutting lower frequencies can make your track sound toppy or thin. 

However, the exercises do get harder. 

  • Use multiple tracks in the same genre as reference points 

Another way to get the most out of Train Your Ears is to use multiple tracks so you’re not just practicing within one environment. Using multiple tracks helps you spot the patterns of sound between tracks and genres. You’ll end up knowing what compression or different bandwidth cuts sound like despite what’s going on with the rest of the instruments. 

Ultimately by learning the patterns and processes behind mixing audio, you will end up with an aural skillset that can help you adapt to any track. 

As a guitarist, to vary things it helps to practice on a couple of slow tracks with less guitar (such as ballads) as well as with a couple where there’s more going on, such as anything with double-tracked guitar or layers of sound. Focusing on guitar solos is also a separate area as here you’ll gain experience with frequencies up at the high end of the spectrum and how they change based on other instruments.

So, why does Train Your Ears work so well for guitar music ear training?

The takeaway is, nothing exists in isolation. Although Train Your Ears is deceptively simple at first, it provides a really comprehensive set of exercises that offer you new challenges in new contexts based on the tracks you choose to use, so keep challenging yourself, and it will likewise keep challenging you – and pay off, as well, 

It doesn’t try to teach you – it lets you teach yourself (and it’s easy to set up!) 

Train your ears allows you to adapt the exercises to whatever your preferred genre is. This makes it consistently relevant to your playing, even down to what you may be working on RIGHT NOW> By doing away with orthodoxy, set teaching programs, and conventional ways of doing things, it works with how many guitarists learn in the first play. 

Final Thoughts

Ultimately I found Train Your Ears works because it reminded me of learning to play guitar in the first place – I was teaching myself and learning about how the fretboard worked in the context of my favorite songs. Train Your Ears does just that with the EQ spectrum and more. It covers pairs of contrasts such as high cut and low shelf filters as well as challenging you from new angles such as with exercises that ask you to find bandwidths. Ultimately it’s a program you can keep returning to, because it stays consistently relevant to whatever you’re currently working on. Plus, it doesn’t become too easy, because of the sheer variety of ways in which you can use it.

Train Your Ears is available from their website and is currently reduced to 49 EUR. You can check the Train Your Ears website by clicking here. We are affiliated so if you click on our link and buy the product, we get a small payment which supports the work we do here at idesignsound.com.

If you love reviews, we have more of them in our reviews section where we break down other fantastic software for guitar and more!

How to Use the Major and Minor Musical Scale In Composition

A musical scale is a collection of notes that when played together sound “at home”, “normal” and “natural”. If you don’t consider scales and just compose by ear, your music will risk sounding “dissonant”, which basically means non-musical. The Major and Minor musical scales are the two most important scales in western music and are found everywhere from Christmas music to radio hits. They are some of the foundational building blocks of music theory and one of the first places many musicians begin with their theory knowledge. Generally, major scales sound ‘happy’ and ‘minor’ scales sound sad; nevertheless, a deeper look shows their musical makeup is inherently different. When used in compositions, it can sometimes be hard to tell them apart – chord progressions based off major scales can contain minor chords, and progressions based off minor scales can contain major chords. Breaking down the music theory can help you understand which is which and how to use them in composition.

How to Use the Major Musical Scale in Composition

The major scale is incredibly versatile and used in blues, rock, singer songwriter, RnB, folk, and much more. Like any scale, it is a sequence of intervals (gaps between notes) which creates a set of notes to be used to build chords and compose. It is identical to Ionian mode in modal music. Generally it has an upbeat, climactic, ‘happy’ feeling to it.

To use the major scale, it is easiest to focus on chord progressions. The most common chord progression in the major scale is the I – VI – V chord progression. Notes are numbered in order and each note has a particular chord attached to it These can be major or minor depending on which note in the scale the chord is based off, but the general pattern for the major scale uses Roman numerals to number the chords as follows, with lower case numerals indicating minor chords and upper case numerals indicating major.

I – ii (minor) – iii – IV – V – vi – VII(7)

The fully major I – IV – V progression is often followed by a minor vi chord which provides a sense of tension before the progression resolves to I again. This enables the chord progression to have a mixture of emotions which makes the composition more interesting and varied.

How to Use the Minor Musical Scale in Composition

The minor scale can be used similarly – by building chord progressions based on the notes of the scale. Like the major scale, each chord aligns to each note. However, the sequences of steps between the notes is different. Because the scale resolves (gives a feeling of completion) to a minor note, it is helpful to keep in mind that a composition generally needs major chords to lighten the atmosphere and ensure the song does not get too tense – except when deliberately trying to create a sense of sadness, but also of mystery, suspense, or eeriness.

The minor scale contains a diminished chord, also known as a tritone, which has a flattened fifth. This chord has a particularly tense and eerie feeling which is often used in horror movies or music like heavy metal. The chord numbering for the minor scale goes like this:

I – ii(diminished) – III – iv – v – VI – VII

Both major and minor scales can be used to create basslines in genres ranging from rock, indie, punk, or underground music set up. Knowing the scale means you can work out the related chord progressions which are possible – and from there identify the bass note of each chord.

These bass notes can be used to create a bassline which follows the chord progression tying together a composition in a way which is both satisfying and relatively simple to compose.

With a little bit of practice, the musical scales will come second nature to you!

Want to explore more music theory? Then come on down to our Musical Education category where we have prepared a lot of articles similar to this one – click here!

Is it Possible to Use Both Major and Minor Musical Scales in a Composition?

It is possible to switch from a major key (one based off a major scale) and a minor key in the same composition. This is done with a pivot chord which balances the different moods of the scales. It is a creative way of using the major and minor musical scale in composition, although it takes some music theory knowledge. There are many ways to learn theory in depth – but one of the most comprehensive and accessible courses on the internet can be found on Udemy. Jason Allen’s comprehensive music theory course, teaches theory at a college level, covering chord inversions, harmony, and even technical analysis of the building blocks of music, such as what it means to be in tune. Extremely satisfying for musical inspiration, it has racked up five-star reviews and been enjoyed by over 90,000 students so far.

Here is a representation of the major and minor scales on the piano keys

Variations on the Minor Scale

There are several variations on the minor scale, but two of the most common are harmonic minor and melodic minor. Harmonic minor has a tense sound which comes from raising the seventh note of the scale a half step upwards, making it sharp. The sound is often associated with Eastern scales such as the Persian scale – which uses these kinds of intervals – yet it is also found in Western music from the medieval era onwards.  

As well as the spooky sounding diminished chord, keys based off the harmonic minor scale also contain an augmented chord – with a raised, as opposed to flattened fifth. This creates a complex, jazzy sound which can be used to provide interest and relief – very different from the diminished chord.

This is the numbering of the chords for the harmonic minor scale:

I – ii(dim) – iii(aug) – iv – V – VI – vii (dim)

On the other hand, the melodic minor musical scale differs from the natural minor scale by raising the sixth and seventh notes up a half step when ascending. When descending, the scale becomes the same as the natural minor scale.

Ascending:

I – ii – III – IV – V – vi – vii

Descending:

VII – VI – v – iv – III – ii(dim) – I

Digital Music Theory Tools – Composing With Plugins

Music theory is a topic which, once explored, can be an endless source of fascination and inspiration. Sometimes, it can be hard to know where to stop, or what is and isn’t needed for composing a song. For those who wish to cut through the noise, some nifty plugins can help with doing so right alongside the composition. This does not mean that you don’t need to know music theory, it just means that there are tools to make your life a little easier when you try out different composition parts.

Scaler 2 by Plugin Boutique is fast, intuitive, and great for multitasking. You can get the plugin by clicking here! Reviewed in Beat Magazine and MusicTech, it has so far been given the thumbs up by over 30,000 musicians.

Pentatonic Scale: Music Theory to Create Tonal Quality in Composition

The pentatonic scale is a mainstays of American and Western music from folk, Appalachian ballads, and blues to roots rock and country and western. The minor pentatonic, with its deeper, darker sound, is more commonly used in blues and folk-rock, whilst the major pentatonic scale is more suited to country and western, with a twangier sound used in slide guitar playing and chicken picking techniques.

The major pentatonic scale is obtained by taking the normal (natural) major scale and removing two notes: the fourth note and the seventh note. All the notes that remain (five, or penta) create this scale, which is considered a very stable and strong scale, mostly fitted for bass or melodies where you are certain about the feelings that they transmit.

The minor pentatonic scale follows the natural minor but only has five notes instead of seven. Here, the second and flattened sixth notes are removed, giving a scale which sounds warm and pleasing, somewhere in between major and minor and neither eastern nor western. Also known as the blues scale, it has built modern pop music – pioneers of pop like the Beatles have taken inspiration from the blues and rock’n’roll tracks of their predecessors.

Both the major and minor pentatonic scale have a tonal quality. They do not have any semi tones in them – due to the notes which have been removed, they instead contain whole major third and minor third intervals respectively and this lends them a lilting quality like that found in Celtic music, taking them away from the conventions of classical composition.

If you are looking to deepen your knowledge of music theory, we have a whole category of articles, which can be accessed by clicking here.

How to use the theory of the major and minor pentatonic scale in composition:

Firstly, it depends on what genre you are composing. As above, certain genres lend themselves to certain scales more easily. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that they cannot be exchanged. The third interval in the scale can also be used in composition to provide a lift and drive the bassline and chord progression into the chorus.

Each note of the scale is linked to a chord which is either major or minor, although to preserve the tonal quality of the scales, power chords can also be used. These are chords where the third- whether major or minor – has been removed – meaning that they are completely neutral and can be used to pivot between different keys – or even from the major pentatonic scale to the minor pentatonic scale and vice versa, with the blues/country composition ‘Windy and Warm’ by Chet Atkins being a case in point.

The minor pentatonic scale is also the basis for twelve bar blues. This is a traditional progression of chords from the American South which can easily be soloed over on guitar or used as the building blocks for composition in multiple genres such as those mentioned above.

I – I – I – I

IV – IV – I – I

V – IV – I – V

This is just the start of music theory – even in themselves, the major and minor pentatonic scales are useful for so much more than just soloing and the twelve-bar blues. Find an in depth, completely comprehensive, engaging, and enjoyable Udemy course by clicking here, with Jason Allen – available in seven languages, it covers everything you need and more.

Another useful technological tool for musicians in the Plugin Boutique Scaler 2.

This plugin not only allows you to learn music theory alongside producing your own work, it’s intuitive, simple, and has everything you need to take your music into your hands without having to get into the nitty gritty details – perfect for those musicians who prefer to learn on the go. Of course, it also covers the pentatonic scale. Find it by clicking here!

Complete Beginners Guide to Music Production – VST plugin REVIEW

Hello and welcome to our review of the Producertech Complete Beginners Guide to Music Production VST plugin available on Pluginboutique.com!

Making music is incredibly rewarding, but it can also be extremely stressful – especially for beginners. DAWs, MIDI, chords, tempo – with so much to understand, where do you even start? Created by the pros at Producertech, The Complete Beginners Guide to Music Production from Producertech is a VST plugin composed of eight software programs, and eight courses with over twenty-five hours of tutorials to get you started making music. It also includes notes and quizzes to help strengthen and test your knowledge along the way. This is an extensive and comprehensive package, so what’s it comprised of? First, let’s touch on some of the courses.

And if you are interested in more on the topic of music theory, then head on down to our Music Education category by clicking right here, and then take a stroll through our Tutorials section.

Beginner’s Music Production Guide to Beats Production

This one starts beginners’ off with one of the fundamental elements of making music – making beats. It introduces MIDI and digital instruments for beginner musicians and gives users a basic understanding of musical concepts like rhythm and timing. It also explores more complex elements of composition like looping and how this works in a variety of DAWs.

Beginner’s Music Mixing Fundamentals

The Beginner’s Music Mixing Fundamentals provides beginner musicians with a good understanding of what mixing is and why it matters, covering fundamental topics such as level balancing, frequency and dynamics; and how changes to the shape and balance of different frequencies affect the overall mix. It also covers the use of effects, such as reverb.

The Art of Sampling

Starting from the very basics of what a sample is, beginners in music production will gain practical understanding of how samples are created and implemented. Generally, sample packs refer to collections of sounds music producers make. Their primary purpose is to help beginners in the music production industry produce new music. The music producer selects a sample from the packs and uses it to facilitate the music creation.  

Moreover, music producers use sample packs with MIDI packs or downloadable files that they convert into sound. They can be helpful when the music producer wants to create complex music arrangements, melodies, and drum parts with one click.  

If you’re in the process of sampling, you can check out some providers of sounds and tools online to buy samples and MIDI for your first music production. 

On the other hand, if you want to develop your own samples, this course provides understanding of a variety of topics including musical fundamentals like notes and pitch, to techniques which allow beginners to start creating and implementing their own samples in their music.

The Art of Filtering

From the basics of what filters do and why we use them, users are guided towards an understanding of how filters implicate the overall quality of the sound we create. Technically, filters can be a powerful tool for shaping a sound. They can help improve the frequencies to achieve the sound you want. 

So, if you’re in the process of filtering, you need to familiarize yourself with the different audio filters. For instance, a low-pass filter can be an excellent option to keep the fundamental frequency and eliminate harsh frequencies. Also, if you’re going to eliminate the rumble or any noise below the lowest frequency of a specific sound, a high-pass filter can help.  Aside from the ones mentioned above, you should know other essential things about filtering involved in a music production process.

This course also explores more advanced topics like modulation, and how envelopes and LFOs are used in music production.

What about the software?

The Complete Beginners Guide to Music Production VST Plugin also comes with eight software programs, which include: a free sample workstation, the Zampler//RX; a real-time spectrum analyzer, the Voxengo SPAN; a modern motion filter, the Filterstep by Audiomodern; and the WaveWarden Odin 2 – a 24 voice synth. It also includes Scaler 2 – great for beginners and advanced musicians alike.

The Complete Beginners Guide to Music Production VST Plugin: Scaler 2

This is a powerful VST plugin that can really expand the creativity of your composition – especially for beginners. Scaler 2 detects your audio and MIDI signals, determines the key and scale, and then suggests chords and notes to match. Even beginners who lack theoretical knowledge are quickly able to create melodies, chords, and baselines using this powerful software. Also included, The Producer’s Guide to Scaler 2, outlines the many ways this plugin can improve your compositions. For beginners who are not well versed in musical theory, Scaler 2 is a powerful tool to have in the toolbox.

What’s the takeaway?

If you are interested in making your own music, but lack the knowledge, theory, or confidence to get started, this course just might be the perfect solution for you. Available for purchase and download from Plugin Boutique, the courses and accompanying software really set new musicians on the path of success with a variety of tools and practical knowledge. With everything you need to get started, this program is exactly what it says it is – The Complete Beginners Guide to Music Production.

8 Effective Hacks That Will Help You Learn Jazz

In recent years, people have been captivated by the magic of jazz. People who love this music genre can’t get enough of it and want to learn as much about it as possible. It’s a beautiful style that is hard to reproduce, but easy to appreciate. Are you thinking about taking up jazz? Here are 8 effective hacks that will help you learn jazz in no time.

In recent years, people have been captivated by the magic of jazz. People who love this music genre can’t get enough of it and want to learn as much about it as possible. It’s a beautiful style that is hard to reproduce, but easy to appreciate. Are you thinking about taking up jazz? Here are 8 effective hacks that will help you learn jazz in no time.

1) Learn your major scales

While at first glance it may seem like you are learning the same scales as classical musicians, this is not the case. Jazz has its own set of rules that require special attention. Major scales are important for improvisation and understanding what chords go with which keys. For example, if you play a C major scale over an F7 chord, it will not sound good. Your scale will clash with the chord, which is how you know that it’s the wrong one to use. It’s important to learn your major scales in all 12 keys so that you can avoid this problem.

You may want to sit down and just run through these scales without an instrument, but practicing on an instrument is better. If you play a saxophone, practice your scales while playing that instrument. Use a piano or guitar to practice if that’s what you play. You will get faster at the scale and be able to go over it more efficiently by practicing with an instrument in hand.

2) Use a cheat sheet to learn jazz

If time is an issue, you might consider using a cheat sheet or fake book as it is also called to help you with learning jazz. It’s basically a simple document where you put all the chord changes and lyrics of your tune in there, and then print it out. Put this sheet on a stand right next to you as you practice the chords on your instrument(s). Eventually, you will know the tune by heart.  If you are just starting to learn jazz, then now is the time to get a new fake book to use in the middle of practicing chords. It helps you remember because it offers you a collection of jazz songs you can play in one handbook. Aside from that, the fake book can help you learn music more quickly without investing hours and hours trying to learn songs or recordings. However, all you need to do is to ensure that you get the right one because there are a lot of them in the market today.

3)  Listen to jazz often to learn jazz

This might seem counter-intuitive, but hear us out. The thing with jazz is that it’s an art form based on iteration and improvisation, which means you can’t really learn the  art of improvising by studying a bunch of examples in textbooks or notation alone. You have to practice doing it yourself, over and over again. And the best way to do that is by listening to jazz, which includes musicians improvising on real-time recordings. Listening helps you understand the art more, and gives you the inspiration to try out what you just heard. Honestly, there’s no other way to learn it.

4) Transcribe Music and Practice Your Transcriptions

When musicians are first learning jazz, they often rely heavily on using jazz language to improvise. Once you have a working vocabulary, however, it’s time to expand your knowledge by transcribing. Transcribing simply means listening to the recordings of great improvisers and writing their solos down by ear .

The goal is not necessarily to learn all of the notes, but to learn how great players construct solos. Learning the vocabulary is only the first step – learning how to create with that vocabulary is where things get interesting.

5) Learn your major and minor triads

To help you learn your major and minor triads, many musicians recommend singing the root of the chord followed by the type of chord (major or minor) while playing it on an instrument. This is a great way to get the sound in your head and into your ear. Once you can hear these chords in Major and Minor form separately, you will be able to hear when a jazz musician uses chords from the major or minor scale.

Learning the major and minor triads for every key in your instrument’s range can help you with improvisation, playing backup, and even writing jazz songs in any key.

6) Learning how to improvise to learn jazz

In the words of Bassist Matt Penman , “In order to really improvise well, you have to have a good command of the changes and be able to hear them in your head.” How can we apply this? Here are our recommendations for this one:

Record. A great way to really learn the changes is by recording yourself playing with them over and over again . You will be able to hear your progress, which helps you improve much more than simply playing in front of your mirror (which I am definitely guilty of). Write out solos. If soloing on recordings is not for you, try writing out your solos on paper. That’s right, write it out note for note.

This one is really great for those who are not as comfortable writing or improvising on the spot. If this is you, write down a tune and play it over and over again . Once you have become familiar with it, start to create solos of your own.

7) Learn Common Chord Progressions and Rhythms

Jazz is characterized by a certain chord and rhythmic pattern. If you know these patterns, it’s like learning the language of music. There are four common chords in Jazz: major 7th, dominant 7th, half-diminished seventh and minor 7th flat 5 (which is also known as a minor flatted 5th).

Learning these four chords will give you the ability to improvise with the most common chord progressions in Jazz.

8) Get Your Arpeggios Up to Shape

It’s important to know what arpeggios are and how they apply to jazz. An arpeggio is just a fancy way of saying that we’re going to learn each chord as a separate entity (like learning triads in music theory). So rather than thinking, “I’m playing C Major 7 here,” instead play the C Major 7 arpeggio and hear all of the chord tones. If we learn each chord as a separate entity and get good at recognizing them, it makes transposing and soloing that much easier.

Finally, the next steps of learning how to play Jazz are putting these different elements together and getting your ear involved more. Try spending some time playing songs that you like with a teacher or bandmate. This will help you get comfortable improvising while remembering things like chord progressions and rhythms of the tune at the same time. This will help you learn the changes, melodies and rhythms in each song you are learning. Jazz is a complex style of music that takes years to master, however knowing these key elements can make getting started on your Jazz journey much easier.

TrainYourEars – GREAT Music ear training software – Honest Review

What is Train Your Ears?

Train Your Ears is a revolutionary new Music ear training software tool for fine-tuning your ears and mind to the frequencies of different bandwidths, thereby showing you the differences between different sounds at a technical level as well as comparing before and after a bandwidth is changed. A fantastic product for both beginners and seasoned musicians alike, it goes into the granular details of equalisation, bringing a new perspective to a tool all music producers have encountered yet which is so commonplace that it normally becomes an accepted part of production. Train Your Ears is an incomparable way for all musicians to think more deeply about EQ – and in turn about their own music.

Why purchase this music ear training software?

Outside of simply requesting the user to match EQ bands with examples of noise which has been cut or boosted, this music ear training software allows you to move bands around to your liking and experiment with the interface to fine tune your understanding of how it works. In fact, Train Your Ears lets you literally take sound apart and reconstruct it – simply by listening to the different frequencies which resonate within it. So far, no other product comes close to giving the user this amount of freedom to experiment with sound – Train Your Ears is virtually unparalleled in giving musicians a way to EQ which matches their composition process.

When purchasing a DAW, there are many options for an EQ plugin which works for you. We have just recently reviewed probably the best new EQ software right now – Eventide Split EQ, read the review here. However, all of these tend to leave the user alone in terms of working out how to use them. In fact, they presume a pre-existing knowledge of the EQ process. Train Your Ears is therefore totally novel in letting artists combine it with any EQ plugin they wish to show you not just how the technology itself works but how noise itself interacts, creating real effects on the sounds of a song.

How to use the Train Your Ears music ear training software?

Too many articles on the internet attempt to teach EQ and fail because they are explaining a very nuanced concept in words – and yet it is one which is much better shown than told.

Train Your Ears does away with all the unnecessary written details and goes straight into showing you the difference between two versions of the exact same piece of music – one with EQ and one without. A typical practice session has seven bands which correspond to the division of EQ into bandwidths on a typical DAW such as Logic or Ableton.

It is very important for music ear training software products to provide the user with as much interaction as possible.

After a sample is played, it encourages you to match the audio with the corresponding bandwidth change, determining by how much it has been boosted or cut. Checking afterwards will then confirm how accurate your ear is.

The training session will then ask you to change the EQ’d signal so that once again it manages to sound the same as the original, and you are able to check afterwards to see if it is correct. The product also contains a monitor which allows you to see the exact level in decibels by which the signal has been boosted or cut, allowing a precise measurement of the amount of sound.

You can check the price for this product on the Train Your Ears website, by clicking here.

Once you install the product, be sure to check their own documentation and exercises by clicking here.

Here is an example assignment for Train Your Ears

Personal Review

I personally found that the software easily translated from a digital product to actual, tangible results which I was able to apply to my own music. At first, I was not able to hear the difference between the subtleties of different bandwidths and the smaller, technical divisions music falls into such as bass and sub-bass, but with even a small amount of time spent listening to Train Your Ears, I found myself becoming more finely attuned, simply because I had reference points.

By allowing the usage of songs which are already familiar, the music ear training software product manages to hold attention and makes the process of getting deep into some of the most subtle and technical aspects of music much easier. It translates terminology which is understandable first and foremost to those who are intimately familiar with the equipment into something manageable for most if not all musicians to turn into a fantastic reference for their own production skills.

It could be assumed that the applicability of this technology heavily depends on the style of music you are producing. Some genres, such as heavy metal, have very specific, niche methods of production which do not necessarily align to the customary methods of EQ’ing. Therefore, for those working in these genres, one key point for Train Your Ears would be if it is adaptable to managing other methods of working. Personally, I found the interface had a beautiful cleanliness and simplicity – which means it is flexible enough that in the hands of someone familiar with their genre, it can be adapted to suit any kind of music.

Pointing out the different bandwidths numerologically also means that there is a tangible, logical, concrete result for any EQ changes. EQ changes are not just an abstract wall of sound – instead they are given as precise numerical data so you can see exactly which bandwidth has been changed and where – as well as keeping track of multiple boosts and cuts.

You can check the price for this product on the Train Your Ears website, by clicking here.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Train Your Ears is an indispensable way to get more in depth and understand the full picture of how EQ works before applying it to your own music. Any musician can benefit from it – whether novices or pros, it shows the real vibrations and elements which make up any production. Not only this, it does this in the abstract whilst also directly linking the sound you hear to measurable values.

In this way, it is a really valuable piece of kit – and most importantly gives you a way to change in real time an equalised piece of music to make it match the original again – demonstrating how much EQ’ing can change the sound of a song but also how, with the right skills, it is possible to manipulate it at multiple levels to reach a broader and more nuanced picture of your production, therefore giving the artist more freedom.

How Much are Musicians Making from their Deals? Introducing the Record Deal Simulator

The music production twitter world woke up with a bang, as createsafe‘s latest app took the social media platform by storm.

If you’re not familiar with the app yet, the name should tell you everything you need to know: The record deal simulator allows you to input all the usual terms that go into a record deal (split, deal type, advance amount, etc) and returns total profit for the artist and label given a certain number of streams.

Pretty cool right?

Although record deals are on a downwards trends with more and more artists going independent, this is a pretty cool tool, mostly because there is lots of public information on record deals that can tell us exactly how much an artist and their label is making.

Take for example Kanye West. According to music journalist Cherie Hu, Ye would need to generate 3.2 billion (yes, with a B!) streams to generate 1$ in profit!

If the future of recording deals was already bleak, then surely this tool won’t help it recover.

If you’re considering signing a deal, we highly recommend checking out this tool.

Got any more cool simulations? Share them in the comment box below!