Music Theory: Exploring Sound, Rhythm, and Melody on the MIDI Grid

Create 30-60 seconds of music that includes a melody and chords. You may also choose to add a bass line and drum loop. Use your toolkit of theory concepts—scales, chords, rhythms, progressions, and harmonies—to create music that fulfills your creative vision.

Learn how music works so that you can create music more efficiently and creatively. This class from composer, DJ, and producer Fernando Arruda is an introduction to why music matters, how sound works, what musicians mean by individual notes, and basic constructions about note density, chords, and rhythms.

The class is tailored for today’s computer-based producers, musicians, and DJs—it uses no traditional notation, and instead focuses on how to apply core musical concepts to a MIDI grid (the “musical instrument digital interface” used in all audio software).

Whether you use Ableton, Pro Tools, Logic, or another audio program, you’ll be able to apply these concepts to creating, composing, and mixing the sounds you really want to bring to life.

• Trailer
• Does Music Theory Matter?
• MIDI Sequencer Vs. Traditional Notation
• Creating a Practice Schedule
• Sound Waves and the 12-Pitch Palette
• Sharps, Flats, Whole Steps, and Half Steps
• Tension, Resolution, and Musical Forms
• Musical Density
• Simple Meters: Duple, Triple, and Quadruple
• Simple Note Lengths
• Triplets
• Six Major Intervals: Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th
• Four Minor Intervals: Minor 2nd, Minor 3, Minor 6th, Minor 7th
• Diminished and Augmented 4ths and 5ths
• The Interval Project
• Major Scales
• Relative Minor Scales
• Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales
• Recapping Basic Scales
• Major and Minor Triads
• Diminished and Augmented Triads
• Playing Triads
• Two Types of Chords: Major 7th and Dominant 7th
• Two Types of Chords: Minor 7th and Half-Diminished
• Three Diminished Chords
• Reading and Playing Chord Symbols
• Finding the Diatonic Major Chords
• How These Chords Function (Tension and Resolution)
• Exploring Songs Made with Diatonic Major Chords
• Sketching Songs
• Finding the Diatonic Minor Chords
• How These Chords Function (Tension and Resolution)
• Exploring Songs Made with Diatonic Minor Chords
• Chord Knowledge and Songwriting
• Compound Meters: Duple, Triple and Quadruple
• Syncopation
• Complex Meters
• Chromatic Scales
• Whole-Tone Scales
• Diminished Scales
• Listening to a Diminished Scale in Context
• Note Possibilities: Major Chord Extensions
• Note Possibilities: Minor 7th and Half-Diminished Chord Extensions
• Note Possibilities: Dominant 7th Chord Extensions
• Inversions: Root, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Positions
• Rootless Chords
• Basic Principles of Voice Leading
• Modulation
• Modal Harmony
• Common Chord Progressions