Subscribe to the BlogFL Studio beat class on aspects of music theory. For quite some time, I’ve been composing (e.g. chord progressions and playing lead melodies over them) by ear without having any grasp of music theory. There is nothing wrong with that as I see it. Composing that way is great fun and a technique that is accessible for everyone and to all ages. It simply is a fun – yet challenging – way to create music. Also, I know someone who creates amazing songs without a ‘music theory background’. He cannot read notes yet I have tears in my eyes when I listen to his music. What I am trying to say is that knowledge of music theory is not a must in order to learn how to compose (great) music. Having said that, I am beginning to appreciate the fact that some knowledge of music theory is a great tool when composing. I’ve begun to understand what ‘works’ and what doesn’t and for what reason. Also, I’ve started to see what combination of notes can invoke what kind of emotions in listeners. In this series of beat classes/articles I will attempt to sum up some of the things I have come across. I will keep it simple and spice it up with various examples – as I would like to show you the practical applications of the theoretical understanding. I do risk that some people who really have an in-depth understanding of music theory find flaws in what I will explain. In that case, I invite them to drop comments so I (and we) can learn and make the necessary corrections. Let’s start our engines. I’d like to suggest you read the beat class on composing chord progressions and lead synths (if you haven’t already done that): Making chord progressions and lead synths . What I am undertaking now partly overlaps what I already explained in that beat class (as far as the theory is concerned), but with this new series of beat classes I will take it a few steps further. What is music theory? Music theory defines the set of conventions (e.g. notations) and rules (mathematical) that are used to describe how music works, e.g. related to rythm, melody, harmony, etc. Notes and scales The western music scale consists of 12 notes (the so called chromatic scale). These notes are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet, being A, B, C, D, E, F and G (referred to as the naturals). Between those notes, except for B-C and E-F, there are sharp/flat notes, which are designated by the symbols # (sharp) or b (flat). Let’s write them all down, starting with C: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, which corresponds to C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B. See also the piano keyboard below: Why start with C, you might ask. It is a good question, but music theory really starts with the key of C – so I’ll often take that as a starting point. As you can see, the notes A, B, C, D, E, F and G correspond to the white keys on the keyboard. The sharps (#) and flats (b) correspond to the black keys. Also, C# is the equivalent of Db. Likewise, D# is the equivalent of Eb. This double naming of one and the same note is referred to as enharmonics. Note also that the scale (with the 12 notes) is repeated, where each group is called an octave. That’s interesting. Why does everything start with C again after one has walked through all the 12 notes in a scale? Well, one thing to realize is that each note has a so-called pitch which is determined by the fundamental frequency of the sound. Now, in terms of pitch an octave is the interval between one pitch and another with half or double its frequency. I know it is a bit technical and not really something you have to remember, but C in a particular octave has double the frequency of the C-note in the octave before that, but only half the frequency of the C-note in the next octave. To our ears, they all sound like the note C though. Above all, this is a natural phenomenon. Back to earth. In the Piano Role view FL Studio you can easily switch between the piano keyboard view and the note names using the keyboard view buttons. See below: