www.MarkTAW.com/music/MusicTheoryfortheMasses.html (printable version)
Music Theory for the MassesWhat Is Music?
I'd like to talk about what Music is before we talk about what composition is.
The simple answer is, "If you say it's music, then it's music." To be honest, I'm not sure if I can improve on that definition. I'm also tempted to say something like "Music is a series of sounds put together that are intended to have an emotional impact on the listener." Of course, then a baby crying or a cat mewing would be music.
Is it in the ear of the beholder? How about "Music is a series of sounds that causes a feeling in the listener and that the listener would want to listen to again."
Webster's tells me that music is an art of sound in time which expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color. Color? Perhaps they meant Timbre. Most music has melody, harmony and rhythm, but more experimental music can exclude any or all of those elements.
However you define music, this article should help you compose it, if you should be so inclined, and hopefully give you a new way of thinking about it.
Here we'll be talking about Western Music that uses the Diatonic (literally "seven tone" - Dia = 7, Tonic = tone) scale as developed by Pythagoras, Bach and others, but some of the really theoretical stuff applies to all music. I'm also somewhat biased towards guitar because well, I play guitar better than piano or other chordal instruments, and because with a guitar you're closer to the music - you actually touch the strings. So my description of harmonics and how to produce them is biased towards guitar or other stringed instruments.
I've indented technical and potentially confusing stuff. Feel free to skip it, and don't feel bad if you don't get it, it doesn't impact the whole if you don't understand these parts.
The Basics - Rhythm
Melody, harmony and rhythm. Is that what I said? Let's start with rhythm. Rhythm is simple. You bang two things together (a stick and a drum for example) repeatedly and create a rhythm. You can get a circle of drummers and percussion players together and they can do some really amazing stuff. Lots of Latin, and African music has some amazing rhythms. The off-Broadway show Stomp creates music that is rhythmically interesting but has little to no melody or harmony, though I'd be willing to entertain arguments to the contrary.
A drummer might argue with me, but for most music there are only two rhythms you have to know. 3/4 and 4/4. Ignore the bottom number for now, it'll just confuse you, so it's just 3 and 4. (There are also 3/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, 8/8, 9/8 and so on).
Put simply, you can count while you're playing. A typical rock and roll drum beat - "the 4/4" (pronounced "four four") is counted 'One and Two and Three and Four and One and Two and Three and Four.' This corresponds to 'Kick and Snare and Kick and Snare.' If you're coordinated enough to play air drums try it. Alternate between counting and saying Kick and Snare. Most drummers play the kick solidly on the One, the Snare on both Two and Four, and play with the placement of the kick on or near the Three.
What you're doing here is counting "eighth notes." So called because you're dividing the bar into eight parts. A bar is a length of time that allows you to complete a musical thought. If you've ever programmed drums you're familiar with the bar... it ends where the drum beat starts over.
The eight notes are the four numbers (one and two and three and four and), and the four "ands" (one and two and three and four and). This still leaves a lot of space to fill up. This leads us to sixteenth notes. Here we'll be inserting notes in between each eighth notes. Lots of latin music uses sixteenths. Rock tends to emphasize the beats, other music emphasizes the off rhythms... the parts that aren't one or two or three or four...
For sixteenth notes you count as follows: one ee and ah two ee and ah. Typing it just now I was reminded of a train. Chugga chugga Chugga chugga... Basically you step up from counting eights to counting sixteenths when the music calls for it.
The Basics - Notes
Before I talk about melody let's talk a bit about Harmony.
Let's start with one note. What is this note? A note is a vibration carried through the air to our ears. It's tempting to think of this vibration as simple, but it rarely is. This one note we've played is actually a complex series of vibrations.
A pure note, a Sine Wave - sine is a mathematical formula, so you know this is pretty theoretical stuff that doesn't happen much by itself in real life - will have just one vibration, the note itself, known as the Fundamental.
Pluck a guitar string and put a strobe on it and you'll see all sorts of patterns in the string. If you don't have a strobe light, put your guitar so the strings are between your eye and the TV or computer monitor, or look at your guitar in the dark by the light of your monitor.
In the US televisions flicker 60 times per second (60hz), as to most computer monitors. The lowest B on a bass guitar is 61.735hz. Hz is a measure of frequency measured in cycles per second. Other B's will be multiples of this number. Play B and the wave will come close to standing still. Tune it up a little bit and it really does. Try playing other notes and see what happens. Some monitors have different refresh rates. Play around on the guitar and see which notes slow down when you play them near the monitor.
The first one is the whole string. This is known as the Fundamental. All of the other vibration are known as Harmonics. While the string is vibrating, gently touch the string at the 12th fret (this is the midway point on the string) and you'll hear the octave (I'll explain this later). This is the string vibrating in two parts - to either side of your finger.
Try to picture this, you have one big wave like girls playing jump rope of the string shaking back and forth. At the same time you have this half string wave of the octave. Pluck the string again and touch the string directly over the 7th fret - now you're cutting the string into thirds. Again at the 5th fret cuts the string into fourths.
If you listen carefully, you can hear each of these tones when you pluck the string. Play the 12th fret harmonic and then play the full string and you'll hear a bit of the 12th fret harmonic in with fundamental. This is what gives an instrument it's Timbre (pronounced Tamber, don't ask me why, I don't know). A Timbre is caused by the overtones made by an instrument. A Sine wave has a particular timbre because of the overtones it has (or in this case, doesn't have). A Piano's overtones cause it to sound clacky compared to a violin.
A guitar's harmonics will be different from a flute's, and this is why they sound different. All sine waves sound alike. Some instruments favor even numbered harmonics, others odd numbered harmonics. Some have fewer harmonics and sound duller, others have more harmonics and sound brighter.
Adding Other Notes - Harmony
Back to that octave. When you put your finger on the 12th fret you cut the string in half. Each of those halves vibrated twice as fast as the original note - the octave. Western music divides the octave up into 12 notes (the Chromatic scale. Chromatic, like colors, a scale of all the colors) this is where we get our 12 frets from. Or tally the notes between middle C and C above middle C on a piano, both black and white and you'll get 12 notes. If you count 13 it's because you're counting the root and the octave. Kind of like counting yourself twice when figuring out how many tickets you need to buy.
Not all of these sound good with our original note, so we just don't play them. The Greeks were obsessed with the number 7. They thought there were 7 planets, they invented Indigo because they wanted there to be 7 colors. These seven notes are Do Re Mi Fa So La Si Do - the second Do being the octave.
aside: yes they invented Indigo. Remember when you learned about colors, the three primary and three secondary colors, yet when you learned about the rainbow it was ROY G. BIV - Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet. Well, Indigo isn't a real color. They made it up.
If you're wondering about my use of Si rather than Ti, it's because I'm using the French fixed pitch Solfege rather than modern moveable pitch Solfege.
So if you went to your guitar, and on two different strings, played a note and it's octave (say, an open A and the 7th fret on the D string) you'd see that they sound good together, sort of blending in to one another. This is because their vibrations work well together.
Now that you're adding notes, you're going to have to have names for the different notes. The lowest note is called the Root note. This isn't 100% accurate, just accept that for now. We then name them according to the order in which they happen on that seven tone scale. - 2nd, 3rd, etc. the 8th note is the Octave (Oct - eight). Remember, the octave is the same note as the original, just twice as fast.
Let's add another note now. This is another one that works well the root note - the 5th. On the guitar this would be open A and 2nd fret on the D string. To my ears the 5th has a sort of holy sound, like chanting monks. You were playing the octave of this note when you were playing the 7th fret harmonic, so you can see why these notes would work well together.
These harmonics are known as overtones, and which overtones an instrument emphasizes is largely where it gets it's character from. From the clank of a piano to the woody sound of an acoustic guitar. The overtone series to the sixteenth partial is as follows:
Root, First Octave, Fifth, Second Octave, Third, Fifth, Flat Seventh, Third Octave, Second, Third, Sharp Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Flat Seventh, Natural Seventh, Fourth Octave.
These are approximates from our somewhat simplified even tempered tuning.
Adding Color - the 3rd.
Okay, we have the beginnings of a chord here, a root note and a 5th. The most common addition to these is the 3rd, making your chord 1, 3, 5 - the triad.
If the fifth sounded holy, then the third sounds human. It's a very sweet sounding note. The fifth has to be more precisely defined than the third, and there's more of a range that will be accepted as a third to the ear. While the fifth doesn't add much harmonically - it's very closely related to the root, the third adds a whole dimension of sound.
The way this note's vibration interacts with the root note's vibration colors the sound of the chord.
On your keyboard or guitar, there's less room for expression, it's just there, you put your finger down and that's it. The third. But even here there's some room for expression. The area that encompasses the third crosses two notes! This is what's known as Major and Minor. You have the Major Third and the Minor Third. They're right next to each other, and they sound very different. Major chords are usually characterized as happy, and Minor as sad.
Play the open A on your guitar and the 2nd fret on the B string. How would you characterize this sound? I know it's hard to tell because it's so stark, but it's happy. To see what I mean, now play the open A and the 1st fret on the B string. Ahhh. Now that sounds sad!
There's quit a bit more to chord construction than this, especially when it comes to fun stuff like inversions (putting notes other than the root in the bass), or adding notes (like the "7th chord"), or raising or lowering the 3rd or 5th to create suspended, augmented, or diminished chords... but this is a heck of a lot more than most people know. You know now the difference between the major and minor triad.
This lesson is a bit low on the math - there are two half steps that make up a whole step, a minor third is one and a half steps away from the root, etc. and I admit that stuff is important, but there are plenty of places you can learn that, and I'll address it a little later in more depth.
I had previously stated that the fifth is mathematically defined, and that a range of notes can be a third. There was some confusion over this. Every note in the scale has a mathematical relationship to the root, otherwise the system wouldn't be describing anything. What I meant was that the fifth has a stricter relationship (it's 1.5), and while there is a mathematical relationship for the third (major third = 1.2, minor third = 1.125), the ear accepts a larger range for the third, and allows for much more expression here.
Each note on the scale has a mathematical relationship to the root. You already know that the octave is half the string, and vibrates twice as fast. You also know that you get the fifth by dividing the string into thirds. Here are the mathematical relationships of the remaining notes in the scale to the root.
root (1:1), second (9:8), minor third (6:5), major third (5:4), fourth (4:3), fifth (3:2), minor sixth (8:5), major sixth (5:3), minor seventh (9:5), major seventh (15:8), octave (2:1)
These can be expressed as 3/2 or 2/3 (for the fifth). 3/2 refers to how much faster than the root note the fifth vibrates - 3/2 or 1.5 times as fast. By the same token, stopping the string so that 2/3 of it can vibrate gives you the major fifth.
Chord Progressions pt 1 (keys and more chord construction).
Music, of course, exists in time - you learned that when you played the A with it's major third. Not particularly thrilling. From here on out I'm going to assume you know not necessarily how to construct chords, but how to play them. C major, a minor, etc. You can get a book and study the shapes on the instrument of your choice. Of course, that instrument has to be able to play chords, so keyboard is in, saxophone is out. Even if you play an instrument that can't play chords, it'll pay off if you learn to play another that can. In rock and roll guitar is good because you'll have to communicate with guitarists. In composition piano is good because it has a wider range than guitar, and you can play SATB (four part harmony) on a keyboard.
Do you remember when I said that there were 7 notes that go well with the root note? Well, the fun part is you can combine those notes together as we did before (remember 1, 3 and 5 - the major and minor triads). You can start from nearly any place (except for the 7) and construct a major or minor chord just by skipping numbers.
When I was talking about chord construction, I called the bottom note in the chord the Root. Now I'm going to introduce the concept of a "Key" and it also has a root note.
The same way different notes worked with the root note of the chord, different chords work well with the root chord of the key! (confused yet?)
For the sake of simplicity let's use the key of C major. C major is C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C (do, re, me, fa, so, la, si, do). These are the notes in C major, and a C major chord uses C, E, and G (1, 3 and 5, feel free to count them).
Now any of those notes can create a chord as well. You just skip notes the same way we've been doing. To construct a d chord (d happens to be minor, so we use the lowercase "d"), simply start on D and skip every other note - D, F, A.
The numbers bit. The space between two consecutive notes on the chromatic (remember, chromatic is 12 tones, all of the possible colors) is called a half step. I have no idea why. Two half steps is called a whole step. Now to get the 7 tone (diatonic) scale, you have to lose 5 tones. The space between C and D is a whole step - there's a note in between them (called either C# or Db (C sharp or D flat, when one note has two names it's called enharmonic).
The 12 tone scale starting on C is C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C. Feel free to count them, just remember C natural (not sharp or flat) happens twice. Sharp means up, Flat means down. When you're singing "flat" it means you're either a little or a lot below the note. You can be so far flat you're actually sharp of the next lowest note.
The 7 tone scale starting on C is simply C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Our musical notation was made to look nice in the key of C major, again, don't ask me why, maybe it was really designed to look good in A minor (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A). We dropped a note between C and D, so that's a whole step. We didn't drop a space between E and F so that's a half step.
The Major scale is constructed of "Whole Whole Half Whole Whole Whole Half" and the minor scale "Whole Half Whole Whole Half Whole Whole." PHEW quite the mouth full.
Also we have Key, Chord, and Scale. The 7 tone scale starting on C is a 'C Major Scale.' When you're talking about chords in that scale it's the "key of C major." Any particular chord in that scale is, well, that chord, named either for it's letter name "e minor chord" or for it's number in the scale "iii chord" - We use roman numerals for chords in a key so as not to confuse ourselves with notes in a chord. Lowercase always for minor chords.
Note that even if a chord starts on the ii of the key, the first note in the chord is the 1 of that chord, so a ii7 (pronounced "two seven") is a chord that starts on the ii of the scale, but has the 7th tone of that chord in it. (!?!)
A Major key looks like this: I, ii, iii, VI, V, vi, vii. A minor key looks like this: i, ii, III, vi, v, VI, VII.
I don't expect you to get any of this if you don't already understand music, you'd need a lot more practice at seeing these patterns to get it.
Chord Progressions part 2, Music in Time
So now we more or less know the chords that make up a key. Now it's time to talk about Chord Progressions. The most common chord progression is I, IV, V. The good ole 'one four five' that makes up lots and lots and lots of rock and roll music. Everything from Wild Thing to twelve bar blues is made up of this progression. It's a very compact progression.
In the key of C it's C, F and G. In the key of A minor it's a minor, d minor and e minor. On a guitar it's easy to recognize this shape, especially with barre chords (one string over, two frets up), on a keyboard it takes a little more work, but a with a little practice you should be able to play the "one four five" anywhere on the keyboard/guitar/etc.
While there are songs that don't really change chords, and others that seem to change chords randomly. Most of the songs you hear on the radio have standard chord progressions that can be learned, the I, IV, V is a good example of this.
This is where the fun begins, where the listening comes into play. You can't go too far wrong if you stick to the chords in a particular key. Each of these chords have different characteristics, different relationships to the root chord -aka- the I chord (pronounced one chord).
Think of it as a color wheel. You start at blue, this is the predominant color in the painting. Opposite blue is orange, next to blue is green and purple. Diagonal to blue are red and yellow. Well, you start at the root chord, and move out to the other chords in the scale. These are actually given names, which I can never recall, but if you want them here they are (I looked them up). These are notated for a major key.
I - the root or one chord, Tonic
ii - the two chord, the Supertonic
iii - the three chord, the Mediant
IV - the four chord, the Sub Dominant
V - the five chord, the Dominant
vi - the six chord, the Submediant
vii - the seven chord, Leading Tone
The names give you some indication as to the function of each, the fact that certain chords have similar names can further help. The iii and vi chord (Mediant and Submediant) have similar sounds, serve similar purposes. The ii and IV also serve similar purposes (despite their naming).
Plenty has been written about the relationship of these chords to each other, it's a very complicated subject. Playing the progression I - IV - V is different from playing I - iii - V, and the V changes a bit based on what preceded it. Here's some of my observations, but take it with a grain of salt, go listen for yourself, learn how to play some songs you know and name the chords as you play them, listen to them, how do they feel, are they anxious? are they calm? how would you describe them? Naming things is what music theory is, feel free to create your own words for things but remember that in order to communicate with other musicians you should know the common language (which is what this essay is all about).
The number one rule you'll find is that the V chord makes you want to return to the I chord. Try it. In the key of C play "C, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, C" and you get that "ahhhh" when you play the final C. You haven't even defined a key before playing G, yet somehow you want to return home.
The iii or the vi chords (the vi is the 'relative minor' of the tonic, more on this later) has an anxious traveling feel. In a lot of songs these are used for the bridge, the bridge is actually in a different key from the rest of the song, the key of the relative minor (vi compared to the tonic). That means you re-build out from the vi chord (it becomes the one chord of this new, minor, key). So a song that's primarily I, IV, V will move to vi or iii for the bridge. This isn't hard and fast, it just happens a lot, like 60% of the time.
The IV chord has a sort of relaxed feel to it when compared to the I chord. Play C, C, C, F, F, F, C, C, C and you'll see what I mean. (or not, you're might perceive any of these relationships different than I do).
Staying away from the tonic for a long time (often called wandering) increases the AHH you get when you finally do return. A good example of this is the "Heart and Soul" chord progresion - more on this below.
The 7th note, the Leading Tone, is called the leading tone because it wants to lead back to the root. You get this sort of gravity when you play the major 7 that makes you want to return to the root. I learned the sound of the 7th from 3 songs. 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins, Untouchable Face by Ani DiFranco, and that one hit by Three Pence None The Richer, Kiss Me. I'm sure there are tons of other songs with the major 7th, but these are the ones I learned, and they feature them *very* prominently.
In the winter of 2001 the Gap played this song "Give a Little Bit" by Supertramp over and over and over and over and over and over again. The song starts with a I, IV, V progression over the 'give a little bit' part. Then we go wandering for 'See the man with the lonely eyes' he jumps to a iii chord, then goes to a vi, then a ii, then a V (remember the V makes you want to return to the tonic) and when you can't take it any more, he returns to the one (ahh) "Give a little bit..."
I'm told that this progression is actually more complex than this, and I believe it. I never listened to the song too closely or tried to transcribe it accurately, but sitting in front of the TV with my guitar I happened on these chords and they sounded right.
This is known as the Heart and Soul progression because of that song every kid knows how to play on the piano. You know the one I'm talking about, they played it in the movie Big... That wandering (iii, vi, ii, V, and return to I) is a progression based on the "cycle of fifths." I've never found the cycle of fifths particularly exciting, but this is a good example of it. Note the wandering feel of this progression. (No, I'm not going to go into it, there are plenty of other resources that will help you with the Cycle of 5ths.)
If you still don't know what I mean when I say Heart and Soul progression, play this:
C C C... C B A B C D.. E E E. Recognize it now?
Again, listen to a lot of songs and learn how to play them. After a while you'll gain a repertoire of chord progressions. Listening to the Supertramp song just now reminded me of the Ednaswap song Natalie Imbruglia covered "Torn." The bridge to that song started on, I believe a vi (possibly a iii) chord. I know the sound, and I can name it. Next time I hear it I'll be able to name it as well, or if I can't when I look it up I'll smack myself on the head and add that knowledge to my repertoire. That's the power of music theory - being able to hear a sound and name it, and then relay it to other musicians, or play it yourself.
Melody
Any instrument can play a melody. Drummers have been known to tune drums to notes and play melodies on them. Traditional arrangments are organized into Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass (SATB). Bass being the deepest, Soprano being the highest. This is also known as Four Part Harmony. The notes in Soprano and Alto overlap, same for Tenor and Alto, Tenor and Bass.
You can have melody in any of these parts and in any composition you might want to have melodies going on in all of them at different times or at the same time. Usually the melody is defined by the Soprano, but that's definately not a rule. Melodies in the other lines are typically known as counterpoint. They accentuate in one way or another the melody.
In SATB, typically only one person is "singing" (or playing) the third, the other three notes are either root, octave of root, or 5th (or octave of 5th). Again, once you know the root, the octave and 5th are almost mathematically defined, the third is where the expression happens.
I'm told there is a mathematical relationship that defines the major and minor third, and I'm sure there are, otherwise how would you find them? My point is the third is often expressed as a range so you can put a lot of emotion into it.
Melody should obey lots of the chord progression rules and guidelines, singing on the 5th will make you want to return to the root, as will singing on the 7th. Melody is fun because you can sing the note or within the chord, or even outside the chord. If you're rooted in the key of C, you can sing around a G chord or on the note G itself. I remember a song my band used to do that was rooted in G, and while we were playing an a minor chord, the singer was singing a D, the 5th of G. Now this isn't in the a minor chord, but worked because it led into the G - it added to the tension that was resolved when everyone, instruments and vocals went to G.
Like all of the parts of music, some would say especially so, the melody should be interesting. Sometimes I listen to country music and other folk musics that are based on common chord progressions & rhythms, such as 12 Bar Blues, and I think that lyrics and melody are the most important aspects here, from a creative standpoint. The common form is just a vessel, a convention (like 7 tone scales) that let you be creative lyrically and melodically without worrying about the rest. Then there are songs that have a set melody and you just invent lyrics.
Melodies can slide up the scale or chord slowly, or jump. Each one has their own affect and you should come to know each of them in time. Going up or down a scale or chord using adjacent notes might sound smoother or more natural, but it might also be less interesting. Jumping around might seem artificial but it's more interesting. You can use a mix of the two to create natural sounding interesting melodies. Again, experiment and see what works for you, get to learn how different ideas sound.
Coda
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it's a really stupid thing to want to do."
-unknown (often attributed to Frank Zappa or Elvis Costello)
If you can actually grasp everything in this 5,800+ word essay, you'll have a pretty solid understanding of music theory. I know some people would disagree with me, and say you're just scratching the tip of the iceberg, and that I did more damage than good, but hey, I think I'm doing good here.
This is where things get exciting, as you build your musical vocabulary you'll become more critical of the music you listen to, you'll recognize more of the things you're hearing, and your own compositions will become better.
Questions or comments are welcome. If I totally flubbed something, let me know. There's so much more to music and music theory than this, lots of it I know, tons more I don't know, but this should give you something to start with.
Learning music theory is like learning language. The more you can point to things and name them the better off you are. "Cat" "Dog" "Minor Third" "Major 7th" "One Four Five Progression." This is what's meant by having good ears. You hear things and recognize them. I've been able to stun my friends from time to time by naming chord progressions I've heard. It's not often I can do it, but it's really great when I do. When arranging I can hear where a song needs to go, and because of the theory, I can name it too. Other times I don't know where a song needs to go, so I can call upon my theory to serve as a springboard for creativity.
For me that came from learning my favorite songs, and that's still my favorite method of teaching. Go out and learn songs. Like native people's gathered around a campfire telling stories, music is a tradition passed down by repeating not by reading. For years I knew what a 4/4 beat was in theory, but didn't know where the beats fell. Then one day I realized what I was doing wrong. Words on paper or on a screen can never replace hearing and doing. They're just representations, just like the word Cat. You can't really know what a cat is until you've lived with one.
Learn the language of music by playing it before you study the grammar in a book. You wouldn't try to teach your 2 year old grammar or spelling before they learned words or could form sentances. Don't try to learn music by studying the 'grammar' without beaing able to 'speak' the language.
A lot of songs I listen to suffer from a limited understanding of music theory. This is more of a case with amateur songs than with professional songs (duh), but you can hear it in some stuff on the radio too. A songwriter writes some chords and a melody and some lyrics. They know they need a chorus, so they put in a chorus. They know they need a bridge so they put in a bridge. The problem is, they don't know HOW to play a chorus or a bridge. So 80% of the time the vocals do the right thing, but their fingers don't. They know what a chorus sounds like, and can sing it, but don't know what a chorus looks like, and can't play it on guitar.
A potentially good song now sounds like crap because the songwriter wasn't able to follow the sound their voice was making, or that they heard in their head. There was a disconnect between their hearing and their knowledge. They simply didn't know where to put their fingers next, and tried to force either the verse chords, or some other random chords to fit. This often results in the "Verse, Verse Louder" syndrome as I like to call it. My old band used it so much we practically invented it. The chorus is the same chords as the verse, only louder. Sure the vocals do something different, but the chords stay the same as the verse. I won't even get into the bridge. The bridge should be a sideways motion, a relief from the endless forward forward of the song... In these circumstances, it's the verse chords but with a different rhythm... Sigh.
Not that this is always bad mind you, some of my favorite songs are constructed this way. The vocals and the arrangement manage to carry you through each part without them having to be radically different chord wise. Don't think you have to add chords just to add chords. I'd rather you have the right chords for the song than the chords that you think would work in theory.
Music Theory can help you express yourself. Yes it can also make you sound like an egghead, but if you're not an egghead to begin with, that's not very likely. And if you are an egghead, music theory can free you by giving you the tools you need to express yourself. And if you want to be a session musician, arranger, songwriter, or other behind the scenes but earns a living type person, then it's absolutely essential.
Good luck!
Further Reading
Music Theory Made Easy by David Harp
This is a very thin, simple volume that goes over the basics in a very straightfoward manner. I bought this book years ago because it serves as a compact reference for everything from chord construction to twelve bar blues. It's not advanced, but a good reference for the beginner.
Writing Music for Hit Songs by Jai Josefs
This book probably has enough music theory for rock and roll, and some of jazz and classical as well. It really covers just about everything you're likely to come across from the aeolian scale to chord inversions to pentatonic minor. It's really a solid book that seems to cover all the basics.
I'm not a fan of Jimmy Webb and came to know him through Paul Zollo's book Songwriters on Songwriting. As a beginning songwriter (but longtime musician) I found a lot of great things in this book. This means I have no reverence for Jimmy Webb & am reading this as a simple student of songwriting. I'm about halfway through with it right now.
Jimmy Webb's dedication to his craft is obvious, and it comes through the pages. The increadible amounts of work that go into writing a song are tracked momenty by moment in this book. Just about every step to songwriting, all of the options are in these pages. From various "tricks" of chord substitution to which rhyming dictionaries he likes and why - it's all here. His approach to songwriting is that of a master craftsman, and he doesn't hold back in his lessons.
One odd thing. As a musician I was able to follow through as he introduced different elements - inverted chords, 7th chords, etc. The novice, however might have difficulty. He introduces each piece individually, but then makes logical leaps that I still don't quite get. Specific examples escape me, but he'll take great pains to describe something simple and a paragraph later give you an example that incorporates something he hasn't yet introduced to you. He'll go on about how to construct a triad, and then jump PAST 7th chords. I was able to follow it, but I've been playing music for 10 years.
I also disagree (but this is personal preference) with his chord substitution ideas: just find any chord with one note in common. Maybe he brings it all together in a later chapter, but he should let the reader know that he's wandered into the land of Chordal Compositions (compositions with no particular key) and away from the diataonic world that dominates Western music. Then again, maybe I'm just an old stick in the mud who Likes Diatonic composition. :)
These two points aside, this book still rates 5 stars. I've learned SO much from this book that it's earned a permenant spot on my bookshelf. I thank Jimmy Web for giving this gift to the world.
Somewhat more pedestrian, but also reccomended is "Writing Music for Hit Songs." It may pay to go through that book before getting into this book. It may help fill in some of the gaps I mention above. It's a straightforward good book.
The Original Article that inspired this one.
Discuss this article on kuro5hin.org
GNU Solfege I haven't tried it, but it's a free program to help you with ear training.
Ear Training for Musicians & Audio Engineers (another article I wrote)
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