Music Theory.

gracefullyinfamous asked: I need some help on cadences and the type of cadences.

Well, more specifics would be nice but I’ll give you a broad overview of cadences.

There are -depending on your country- different names for cadences, I use the European system of Perfect, plagal, imperfect and interrupted cadence. Americans Have different words, although there are some states in America that use the European system (don’t quote me on it, that’s from word of mouth).

Cadences use roman numerals to determine which chord out of the standard 7 in a major or a minor you’re talking about. Say for instance you were working in C major; a CEG chord would be a I, DFA would be II, EGB would be III, FAC would be a IV, GBD would be a V, ACE would be a VI and BDF would be a VII. This applies to every key. They use this system so we don’t have to remember cadences for each individual key, we can just use this idea and apply it to any key.

A perfect cadence or ‘authentic’ cadence is a V - I, and sometimes the fifth is extended to a dominant seventh chord. So it can also be a V7 - I. This cadence feels the most resolved out of the other cadences.

A plagal cadence is a IV - I or sometimes know as the ‘amen cadence’ because they both have one note in common. The fifth in a IV is also the same note as the first in a I. Often composers will leave this note hanging over both chords because it gives a finishing feel to it.

Then there’s the interrupted cadence or deceptive cadence, named because a V feels like it needs to come back to the I, however in this cadence it’s a V - to any other chord other than a I (typical a VI). Hence being called and interrupted cadence, because it doesn’t go where it feels like it should go.

An imperfect cadence is any chord followed by a V.

These all apply to minor keys as well as major. In a minor key however a V - I is not a perfect cadence unless the V is a major. This is achieved by using the harmonic minor which raise the minor third in the V chord to a major third.

These are the main cadences but there are more for different modes and all sorts just as one example, a imperfect phrygian cadence is a IV6 - VI (a IV with a sixth instead of a fifth to a VI).

I could go on and name every cadence in existence but there are hundreds of websites that have them all on there so you can just google them really. I haven’t found one that teaches you how they work; they only seem to mention the formulas, but with this information you should hopefully be able to recognise formulas better. Some of the sites also show an example of each cadence on a score, so if you read music i would advise you to play them, because it helps you way more than just hearing them. If you’re confused about what I’ve said or you knew all this and wanted me to go deeper into the subject send me an ask again.

A tip from Bach

The third is a very powerful part of the chord, if can avoid it, don’t have to much of it. However it is very important that you value the third over the fifth.

Take in mind that J.S Bach broke all the rules he set out for his students on the odd occasion. Give it a try next time you’re writing something. If you don’t like it, don’t use it. 

Key signatures.

Key signatures are pretty simple concept. They were invented so the music staves weren’t cluttered with flats and sharps when playing in any key other than C major and A minor which both share the same notes as each other and has no flats or sharps.

Each sharp/flat in a key signature is assigned to a line on the stave. That means that this note is always flat/sharp unless there is a natural sign next to the note.

An easy way to remember key signatures is to know your circle of fifths or be very good at working them out. If you start from C Major and go up in fifths and go up in fifths you can find all the sharp key signatures: C (No #s), G (1 #), D (2 #s), A (3 #s), E (4 #s), B (5 #s), F# (6 #s), C# (7 #s)

And the flats all go back in fifths: C (no bs), F (1 b), Bb (2 bs), Eb (3 bs), Ab (4 bs), Db (5 bs), Gb (6 bs), Cb (7 bs)

I you want to figure out a minor key you can just work it out from using the majors. Every major key has it’s relevant minor key. You can figure this out by moving a minor third down from the tonic note of the major key your in. This note you’ve found is the tonic note of the relevant minor. So Eb major’s relevant minor would be C minor.

Modes.

Modes are always considered like these weird mysterious things that seem to have some kind of magical powers and no one really knows how they work. You have hundreds of people telling you ‘they are starting points from different scale degrees’ or ‘they are all based around small adjustments of a major and minor scale’

Here’s the truth. Both of those things are true.

But if you want to use them practically, thinking about them as another starting point of a scale isn’t going to get you very far. They should be Thought of as a separate scale in their own right. In fact even calling it a scale get’s it into your head, by just saying ‘The Lydian scale’ or ‘Phrygian scale’. By simply thinking about the modes in this fashion it separates them from just your typical major (Ionian) and natural minor (Aeolian) scale, which are still modes just like the rest, but we treat them as scales as we should do with the other modes.

Because we are so used to standard major and minor scales, it can be hard to deviate from them without falling back into playing the relevant Ionian or Aeolian.

I’m going to explain something using Lydian (1,2,3,#4,5,6,7) so you can get an Idea of how to also make the chords feel like it’s in Lydian. The chord progression for Lydian goes Major, Major, Minor, Diminished, Major, Minor, Minor. So we can actually perform a perfect cadence in Lydian without much altering. Some people just accept that and they leave it as it is. However when you extend the fifth chord in Lydian it’s actually a Major 7th chord, which really doesn’t give a perfect cadence at all. So what some people do is they exchange that chord for a Dominant 7th chord. If you continue to play Lydian over it however you’ll notice some funny sounding discordant notes, so by doing this you have to mix and match other modes or scales as we are calling them for the moment. So as the dominant 7th is being played instead of a major 7th we Could use a Mixolydian scale over that chord. So if we were in A lydian and then we exchanged the fifth for a Dominant 7th we’d have to start playing in E Mixolydian (Or any other scale with a 1, 3, 5 and b7) for the duration of that chord. By mixing and matching we can use modes while still creating some of the usual traditional harmony. You can actually figure things out yourself, mix and match chords and exchange different chords to see how you can alter the harmony of any scale, and not necessarily just the fifth chord.

Respectfully, a lot of people like to leave this well alone and just try and get a feel for the scale only using chords from that scale. This happens more often in folk music. Especially older folk music.

It’s not a new thing to do this. They’ve done it to the natural minor scale since the Baroque times. They use the natural minor scale until they come to the fifth and exchange it for a major when it should be a minor, so it creates a whole different feel to the piece. When exchanging the fifth chord they use a different scale called the ‘Harmonic Minor’ (1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, 7) Sharpening the seventh of the scale allows the fifth to be a major chord.

I hope this gives people a better Idea on how to use Modes.

Everyone uses them in a different way but i believe this is the best way to use them effectively. 

Things to think about while writing a solo.

Often when I jam or play with somebody I just wail out on my guitar and use licks that I know work with particular chords, but eventually I end up finding my self in a loop hole where the solo repeats itself as I repeat a lick i already used and it becomes a bit boring (only if I’m jamming for ages though).

So I thought I’d share this idea with you.

When I play with my band I often prepare the solo or the basis of what needs to happen in the solo before hand and here are some things to think about when writing it.

Think outside the box, rather than trying to write the fastest craziest solo in the world, try and look at how you can play something twice and have it sound different on the second time by adding a pinch harmonic, or use the tremolo bar to get to that note rather than straight out playing it. Think about the techniques your instrument can do and how it effects the feel. It’s important that you hit notes that work but you also have to think about the direction it’s heading. A good way to make your solo really stand out as well is to often go the opposite direction to the rhythm guitar or pianist or whatever instruments are in your band. So as the chords gradually step down and down in pitch, you can get higher and higher in pitch. Even Bach said it’s good idea to have the parts heading in different directions. This shouldn’t be taken absolutely literally so that every step your band members goes down or up you should go the opposite direction because it would start to sound monotonous and boring.

Also think about the tone of your instrument, if the piece is smooth, soft and delicate you don’t want to whack up the distortion and play near the bridge, or if you’re a brass player you might want to consider the possibility of a mute. Any thing to change your instrument and the way it sounds needs to be taken into consideration.

I know this isn’t exactly music theory, but i thought most people learning theory want to know how to use it in practice so this is just my experience in how I have improved some of my solos over time.

If anyone wants to ask a theory related questions I have an ask box don’t feel shy at all.

Advanced Improvisation

There are loads of ways you can look at improvisation in music, a lot of people will pick a scale to work with the feel of the piece and try and look for when it changes key.

Now i’m going to straight out say that this is incredibly messy.

If you look at a piece and the chords are Am7 Dm7 E7#9 E7 you could easily look at all all the chords together or even play it and then think ‘Oh right that’s in A minor’ and then solo in A natural minor. Now that would sound vaguely alright but that can create some messy discords in your playing while the E#9 and E7 are being played, because of the flat seventh in the A natural minor interfering with the major 3rd in the E7 and E7#9.

To get out of this messy habit of just picking one scale you could decide to pick a very select few scales that work, A natural minor over the Am7 and Dm7 and then an E phrygian major (The fifth mode of an A harmonic minor) to match the notes in those two chords.

Now the way above works fine, and if you’re in a rock band you’ll sound great, however if you want some jazzier licks in your playing you’re going to have to look at each chord in a much more in depth fashion. 

If you look at an Am7 you can see it has a I, bIII, V and a bVII in it. Now you could open up a book on scales for hours and hours checking out a bunch of scales that have these scale degrees in them and therefore work over an Am7 chord. But I’d suggest not doing that unless you’re playing with a big band, but instead learn the arpeggio for that chord. Now what you need to think is THESE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT NOTES EVER WHEN THIS CHORD IS BEING PLAYED and then chromatically work your way through your playing, but mainly accenting those notes in the chord. Then you can just apply this knowledge to each chord.

If you are playing in a bigger band with any more than 2 people I would suggest learning the scales and then making sure that everyone has decided on a set scale for each chord, other wise it’s just going to be one massive jumble of clashy notes.

Going a little bit more into the deep you can see that jazz often (not always but often) treats each chord almost like a key change even though in a sense it isn’t. Dm7 chord is the fourth chord of A minor and isn’t really a key change, but by using A Dorian Over Am and then D Phrygian over Dm it gives the two chords a bigger change in feel than if you just stayed in A natural minor (Also known as A Aeolian).

Even though I play in a rock band, I use this method of playing and I believe it gives you the most creative space to work in because you have more to work with.

Tips for practice: now if you start off sitting down, figuring out the chords and slowly but surely writing a solo this is fine, but you need to get to the stage where it comes completely naturally to you. To do this i would suggest practicing to a backing track (not the most advised) or just recording a few chords you like and then going through the chord progression using a different scale over each chord (the most advised). When playing to a backing track they often have bass lines or piano lines that suggest specific scales and in the early stages you just want to practice going through those scales with not too many limits, just the limitations of the chords.

Time signatures.

Time signatures are one of those things that often a lot people will think they know, but when they are asked ‘what’s 5/4’ they will reply ‘5 beats in a bar’, But a lot of people don’t truly understand the what the bottom number is. Saying ‘5 beats in a bar’ is actually quite misleading, because you don’t know if those beats are minims, crotchets, quavers and so on. You see the bottom number is actually a division of a standard 4 crotchet bar (or a 1 whole note/breve bar). For example a crotchet is a fourth of a bar, so when the time signature says 4/4 it means 4 crotchets or 4 fourths, which make a whole. So 2/2, 1/1, 8/8, 16/16 and 32/32 are all essentially the same.

The bottom number is ALWAYS the division of a standard bar, even when working in a 5 beat bar or a 3 beat bar. 3/4 means 3 fourths of a standard bar which makes 3 crotchets. This a good way of working out weirder time signatures like 63/64 which means 63 sixty-fourths of a standard 4 crotchet bar, you would know it would be like a normal 4 crotchet bar but with a hemidemisemiquaver missing.

Knowing the simple maths behind time time signatures can help you figure out all the weirder time signatures, although I doubt you will ever come across a time signature like 63/64, although i have came across 15/32 before at the purcell school of music.

If you’re having trouble with this or I haven’t explained in enough depth then post on my ask me. 

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Getting Started

Right! I’m Izzy, and it’s time we get started on the theory side of music. Any one can ask me questions on my ‘ask me’ if they want to know about any part of music they are having trouble with.