Cadences, Changing Keys Notes Within a Chord

6.0.Cadences

Now it’s time to start talking about cadences. A cadence is 2 chords which make a phrase; there are several types of cadences. These cadences are listed as: Perfect cadence, imperfect cadence, interruptive cadence and a plagal cadence

A perfect cadence is a 5 – 1 progression and is usual meant for a very pure sound and sometimes signifies the end of a phrase

A half cadence is either; 1-5 2-5, 3-5 4-5 and an half is useful for writing more filler areas if you’re stuck. It’s considered a weak cadence

An imperfect cadence is just 1-5 cadence. It is weak cadence however it is usually given in areas where you want to keep the flow going

An interrupted cadence (or deceptive cadence) is 6-5. It usually gives a hanging feeling and is considered a weak cadence as a result

A plagal is 4-1. A plagal cadence is useful if you want your piece to sound religious very common in Bach pieces and Baroque music

This should give you some idea on how to end pieces, end phrases and give the piece more feeling

7.0.Melody

Now once you have selected a set of chord you have to make a melody, this also has to be in the same key using the same sharps and flats you discover from researching your key you picked.

Now to do a melody you have to get your chord and play some notes relating to that key over it, best bet is to research whatever genre you are aiming for and make your melody like similar artists. For example let’s use C major and for a melody use the C major scale and play notes within the chords. Now if you want something a bit more interesting use quick notes that are outside the chord which adds a bit of spice to the piece

For this there is a diagram showing the notes within a major or minor chord, showing you which notes you can use

7.1.The Melody to Chord chart

Major Chord => Root, Major third, Perfect Fifth

Minor Chord => Root, minor third, Perfect Fifth

Diminished Chord => Root, minor third, diminished fifth

Major Seventh Chord => Root, Major third, Perfect fifth, Major Seventh,

Major minor seventh chord (aka Dominant 7) => Root, Major third, Perfect fifth, minor seventh

Minor seventh Chord => root, minor third, Perfect fifth, minor seventh

Half diminished aka minor 7 flat 5 chord => Root, minor third, diminished fifth, minor seventh

So for this you must select your key, play a chord and from that chord you can use either a 3rd or a 5th

So using C major as an example

1 (C major) C, E, G

2 (D Minor) D, F, A

3 (E Minor) E, G, B

4 (F Major) F, A, C

5 (G Major) G, B, D

6 (A Minor) A, C, E

7 (B Diminished) B, D, F

8 (C Major Full Octave) C, E, G

C minor melody notes

1 (C Minor) C, E, G

2 (D Half Diminished) D, F, A

3 (Eb Major) E, G, B

4 (F Minor) F, A, C

5 (G Minor) G, B, D

6 (Ab Major) A, C, E

7 (Bb Diminished) B, D, F

8 (C Minor Full Octave) C, E, G

Once you have something good, make that your chorus and then write some less catchy for your verse but make the verse and chorus the same throughout, maybe change keys if you want but you can see my other posts for what key to change to and how to change key. This will make the piece a bit more interesting

Now whatever your piece sounds like, try and write lyrics to correspond with the feel of it. If the chorus is quite dark and depressing, maybe write about a loss of something? If the piece sounds quite happy and upbeat then write about something you like maybe?

8.0.Changing Key

If you have picked a key, get your chord pattern from that scale. If you are working in D major this has a sharpened C and F just to be sure. You can use the chords; D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm and C# diminished in that key, however you can make variations such as sus2's, sus4's and 7th's

Now if you want to change key you will need to select a key. If you are working in D major you can go to a few different keys. These keys can either be E major, A major, G major or B minor. Now whichever key you want to go in you can use 2 conventional harmonising methods. These are either by a 5-1 cadence or by using a swing chord.

Now a 5-1 is taken the 5th chord of the new key and the 1st chord of the new key. This is a very common way of doing it and it sounds very nice. Let's take for example going into E major from D. Now the chords in E major are E, F#m, G#m, A, B, C#m and D# diminished. Now to do this 5-1 cadence you have to use the B major chord then E major chord then you will be playing in the key of E. This is the same for going into any key

Now the other method is a swing chord (or pivot chord). A swing chord is using a chord that both keys have within each other. So you're in D major and for the purpose of example I will use E major this method is also a much more common these days because it is much easier and sounds smoother

Now D major has: D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm and C# diminished

and E major has: E, F#m, G#m, A, B, C#m and D# diminished

Notice they have some similar chords? Now to change key using this method you will have to use a chord within both keys and for this method on this example we can use either F#m and A major.

Now if you play that chord you can go into the new key however this swing chord is usually followed by a 5th chord. So for this example you are In D major, play an A major chord then a B major chord. This will show that the B is no longer a minor and that the key has been changed.

Both of these methods are very conventional but they sound good and are very useful methods for changing key

8.1.Keys you can go into

This post is about keys you can and should go to and chords you should use.

You said you're in D major right? This means that you're using the chords, D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm and C# diminished. Now the keys you can go in are usually the 2nd in the original key, the 5th of that key, the 4th of that key and if you want it to sound depressing the relative minor

Now the 1st, 4th and 5th ones are fairly easy, you're D so D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm and C# diminished which means

The 2nd Super Tonic= E major

The 4th Sub Dominate= G major

The 5th Dominate= A major

These are all fairly simple and easy to grasp changing to and if you refer to my guide on changing key, you can learn how to change keys. However the most common one is A major especially when going to chorus’s, however going to the super tonic is fairly uncommon but still a very used key change

Now the relative minor is a bit more complicated. Now you're in D major and to get into the relative minor you have to go 3 half tones down. 

A half tone is indicated by a flat or sharp. For example F to F# is going up by a half tone and B to B flat is going down by a half tone. Now from D major you have to go down 3 half tones so that's B minor this will make the piece sound depressing that's the choice you have

Chord Writing

5.0.Chord Writing

Once you have selected the key you are going to be in you having to think about the chords you use. Chords in a key can be broken up into numbers between 1 and 8; I am going to use an example of C major. C in the key of C major is the 1st chord, D minor is the 2nd, E minor is the 3rd, F is the 4th, G is the 5th, A is the 6th and B is the 7th. It then comes back to C as the 8th which is an octave higher than the 1st C major. This same pattern of major and minor chords is the same with all major keys

For Major keys the pattern is Major, Minor, Minor, Major, Major, Minor, Diminished

Now the use of chords depends on what sort of mood you want to make. If you want to make the piece sound a bit more depressing but remain in the major key then consider using minor chords while if you want to have a more perky piece consider using major chords.

There are loads of different chords as a chord is two or more notes put together and there so many endless combinations of chords, what is played in the bass and what key the section is in. However I will give you some suggestions that I use in my music writing style however you are free to research your own chords but you have to remember what key you’re in otherwise it will sound incorrect, playing a G major when it should be a G minor can make a section have an overall incorrect feel and will also sound out of place. SO without further ado, here is the list of chords that I use

5.1.Majors and Minors (As standard chords)

7th’s, usually I do it when I am ending a section but you are free to use it at your own risk. A 7th is getting the chord, finding the 7th and adding it to the chord. For example I will sue a C major chord which has C, E and G in it, now if I were to add a 7th this would be adding a B to the chord. This method can be used on both major and minor chords

You can find a seventh by getting the bass note in the chord and by finding either the major or minor 7th. For this I would recommend using this chart which shows note intervals going up in half tones. So to find the 7th you should get your bass note, see which place it is in the key determining if it is major or minor then adding either the 10th or 11th half tone depending on if it is major or minor

0(same note)-unison

1-minor second

2-Major second

3-minor third

4-Major third

5-Perfect fourth

6-Augmented fourth/diminished fifth/"tritone"

7-Perfect fifth

8-minor sixth

9-Major sixth

10-minor seventh

11-Major seventh

12-Octave

So your chords should look like this using a C major and C minor as a diagram

5.2.Major key seventh chord chart

1 (C) Major 7

2 (D) minor 7

3 (E) minor 7

4 (F) Major 7

5 (G) Dominant 7 (aka Major minor 7)

6 (A) minor 7

7 (B) half diminished 7, aka minor 7 flat 5

5.3.Minor Key Chart

1 (C) minor 7

2 (D) half diminished 7 aka minor 7 flat 5

3 (Eb) Major 7

4 (F) minor 7

5 (G) minor 7. This chord is also commonly Dominant 7 (aka Major minor 7), especially when the next chord is 1 (c minor)

6 (Eb) Major 7

7 (Bb) Dominant 7 (aka Major minor 7)

Sus 2’s and sus 4’s. These chords instead of playing the 3rd you will play a second or fourth in the chord. I will show you an example; in D major you play a D, F# and A note, now in a D sus 2 you will play a; D, E, A note. While a D sus 4 you will play a D, G, A notes. As you can see the F# is the removed from both chords and the F# is the 3rd and has been replaced with a major 2nd or a perfect 4th. A useful technique I have discovered is to play a sus chord then resolve it to the regular chord especially when ending a phrase as it sounds really nice. Please do note that sus 2nds won’t be completely tonal when used as a three chord but they can still make your composition sound more interesting

The final chord I use quite regularly is the minor 6ths. A minor sixth is done on a minor chord I find best in a major key. A 6th is a chord that instead of having a 5th has a 6th instead. For example I will use a C major chord; a usual C major chord is C, E and G note in the chord while a 6th has C, E and A note in the chord. Now this same logic applies to a minor chord but I just used a C major chord for easy of example sake

I do encourage you to experiment with the chords though, these are not all the chords I use and they should not be the same chords that you use

Chord patterns

4.0.Basics

Okay well to take it from the top to write a piece of music you need chords to make a melody and lyrics to fit the melody.

First pick a key, a key is either sharp or flat and either major or minor

4.1.Sharp Major Keys

C Major- C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

G Major- G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G

D Major- D, E, F#, G A, B, C#, D

A Major- A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G# A

E Major- E, F#, G# A, B, C#, D#, E

B Major- B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#, B

F Sharp Major- F#, G# A#, B, C#, D#, E#, F#

C Sharp Major- C#, D#, E#, F#, G# A#, B#, C#

4.2.Flat Major Keys

Open Key/Atonal (you do not want to do that though)

F Flat Major- F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F

B Flat Major- Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A, Bb

E Flat Major- Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb C, D, Eb

A Flat Major- Ab, Bb C, Db, Eb, F, G, Ab

D Flat Major- Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb C, Db

G Flat Major- Gb, Ab, Bb Cb, Db, Eb, F, Gb

C Flat Major- Cb, Db, Eb, Fb, Gb, Ab, Bb Cb

4.3.Or Sharp Minor Keys

A Minor- A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A

E Minor- E, F#, G, A, B, C, D, E

B Minor- B, C#, D, E, F#, G, A, B

F Sharp Minor- F#, G#, A, B, C#, D, E, F#

C Sharp Minor- C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A, B, C#

G Sharp Minor- G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#

D Sharp Minor- D#, E#, F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#

A Sharp Minor- A#, B#, C#, D#, E#, F#, G#, A#

4.4.Flat Minor Keys

Open/Atonal (again you don't want to)

D Minor- D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C, D

G Minor- G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G

C Minor- C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, C

F Minor- F, G, Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F

B Flat Minor- Bb, C, Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb

E Flat Minor- Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb, Db, Eb

A Flat Minor- Ab, Bb, Cb, Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab

Now once you have picked your key you will then have to pick a list of chords. Within a key it has a list of set chords, for example in C major it goes C Major, Dm, Em, F Major, G Major, A Minor and B Diminished

Each major key follows the same pattern and each minor key also follows the same pattern and there is a diagram for that below. I am going to use C major and C minor to demonstrate this because all major keys follow the same pattern and all minor keys also follow the same pattern

4.5.Major Key chord pattern

1 (C) Major

2 (D) Minor

3 (E) Minor

4 (F) Major

5 (G) Major

6 (A) Minor

7 (B) diminished

4.6.Minor Key chord pattern

1 (C) Minor

2 (D) Diminished

3 (Eb) Major

4 (F) Minor

5 (G) Minor. This chord is also commonly Major, especially when the next chord is 1 (c minor)

6 (Eb) Major

7 (Bb) Major

Now for saving time in this post I will just say research which ever key you pick on Wikipedia and see what minor and major chords you have to use in each scale but you if you compare the keys template and the chord pattern template you can see which chords to use

However I would recommend against diminished chords unless you want your piece to be shocking and dark. If you truly want your piece to sound dark though I would suggest going to the relative minor though

Intervals

 I am doing it in sets so it's easier to read and learn. Trying to read all of this at once is a nightmare, I should know, I tried to teach someone all of this at once

3.0.Intervals

I have been asked this by a few members about intervals, an interval is the difference between one not and the other. Now I have a method for this, you should obvious look at pitch.

However the key signature is very important with this and the starting note, so for this is what I do:

1. Check the key

2. Listen to the first note

3. Hum the first note and go up in half steps until I find the next note

The last one takes some practice to be able to do but if you can do it then you will find intervals much easier. For this, get a Piano or guitar and just learn how to hum an octave from playing a chromatic scale (chromatic being all half tones). Once you have remembered how to do all of that then you will have no trouble in finding intervals

Reading Music

2.0.Reading Sheet Music

Music is played via notes, common western music has is diatonic and thus uses set notes, this stops the piece sounding atonal and really from sounding terrible.

An example of these diatonic notes is the C note. A C note is largely considered the starting note on most musical instruments and throughout this post I will use the C note in examples. A C note is a C because when you say the note at the correct pitch it sounds like a C due to the mouth position you have to make. It is a set a frequency’s which indicate a pitch of a note and this is the same for all notes

Now western notes are broken up by half tones and whole tones. A whole tone is the difference between one named note (bar the E to F note) and another while a half tone is the difference between the note being sharpened or flattened. For example a C major scale starts of on C because that is the scale now a diatonic scale in C major goes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C which is a full octave. This logic applies to all scales such as G major which goes G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G. 

Notice that the F is now sharpened, in every key apart from A minor, C Major and atonal keys a key has sharps and flats, your best bet is to research how many sharps and flats a key has because it can change the entire sound of the chord with different sharps and flats. However between the F# and a G is a half tone difference which if the F was double sharpened it would become a G note.

These are the list of notes ascending in half notes and these will be used throughout so make sure you remember these:

•          C (or B#)

•          C# or Db

•          D

•          D# or Eb

•          E (or Fb)

•          F (or E#)

•          F# or Gb

•          G

•          G# or Ab

•          A

•          A# or Bb

•          B (or Cb)

•          C (or B#)

I have write out the entire scale for each key. If you look at the scales I have written out you can see that a scale gains more sharps and flats as you modulate further. This can be shown on a piano via the piano notes, see the picture below

2.1.On a Piano

This looks like this on sheet music in treble clef

2.2.Piano Notes to Sheet Music

For your right hand read the top line, for your left hand read the bottom line. However female singers can use the top line and male singers can use the bottom line

You’ll find that most instruments that are not guitar, bass or drums can and will use these charts because it’s the concert pitch

Which, translates to this on a guitar

2.3.Note Reading on a Guitar

With guitar players I suggest learning how to read tablature as it is easier and most music with guitars have got tablature notation for it.

For bass parts reading is the same as reading guitar parts except lower and with only 4 strings. This can be seen as in this diagram

2.4.Reading Bass Sheet Music

Drum reading is a bit different though. Since drums do not play the melody and add backing to the rhythm, melody and singer they have no true pitch. Reading for conventional western music is different as each notation displays a part of the drum kit itself instead of a pitched note. His looks a little something like this

2.5.Drum music reading

Some other musicians write in different ways and for speciality parts of a kit (such as a percussion) but this is usually stated within the bars, phrase or section

However understand why and working out keys is not necessary to making songs so for the time being I will not write up about this

Music Writing

Alright, I have decided in the up coming days, I will blog my "How To Write Music" thread. I originally posted this on The Escapist during my exam revision period because it helped me realise what I did know and what I needed to brush up on. My guide is very long, about 9,600 words in total so I can't put it all into one post and I will need to edit it so it's in a format for this site so but if you want to view the full thing in all it's glory check it out at this link

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.198377-Music-Theory-The-basics-updated-V7#comment_form

So, without further ado, here is my guide to writing music

1.0.Introduction

2.0.Reading Sheet Music

2.1.On a Piano

2.2.Piano Notes to Sheet Music

2.3.Note Reading on a Guitar

2.4.Reading Bass Sheet Music

2.5.Drum music reading

3.0.Intervals

4.0.Basics

4.1.Sharp Major Keys

4.2.Flat Major Keys

4.3.Or Sharp Minor Keys

4.4.Flat Minor Keys

4.5.Major Key chord pattern

5.0.Chord Writing

5.1.Majors and Minors

5.2.Major key seventh chord chart

5.3.Minor Key Chart

6.0.Cadences

7.0.Melody

7.1.The Melody to Chord chart

8.0.Changing Key

8.1.Keys you can go into

9.0.Writing Lyrics

10.0.Rhythm

10.1.Rhythm Diagram

11.0.Texture

12.0.Writing in different styles

12.1.Classical

12.2.Jazz

12.3.Blues

12.4.Pop

12.5.Rock

12.6.Hip Hop

12.7.Metal

13.0.Modes

14.0.The end

14.1.References

1.0.Introduction

Hello there. You may have seen me around The Escapist and most know me as The Rockerfly, I am a musician. I have been playing music for about 10 years and have been writing for 3 years. I have an A level in music, grade 7 guitar, grade 5 in tuba, play the drums part time and sing for a group as well. It has come to my attention though lots or people wish to become musicians or are in the process of becoming musicians and this guide is here to help you on your journey

Now to write music it is useful to have theory however it is NOT essential to writing music however it is useful if you to progress and write things out of your comfort zone

I know it is hard to know where to start with the theory and I find writing this article very difficult so please excuse me if you feel that I have not written it to your standards, every musician has been taught differently so their theory will be different

Introduction

Okay I have finally started blogging after about 3 months of promising friends and loved ones that I will and since I am off to university I have decided truly to start

Right first things, I am a musician, I enjoy video games, I do Tai-Kwon-do, I like economics, politics and business studies.

With my instruments I play; guitar, tuba, acoustic, drums, can play the piano and I sing at a tenor/baritone pitch and I will be writing about music I listen to, how to write music and how to play music

Finally if you don't like what you read, respond! Make a response, tell me why you disagree because I really like to hear others opinions, especially different ways to look at something



Thank you very much and I hope you enjoy my blog