Produce Music With Just 7 Notes And 6 Chords

Do you look at your MIDI keyboard or piano roll in your DAW and just go blank? Or, do you randomly place notes here and there until something sounds descent?

Maybe you’ve watched some YouTube videos where someone counts half steps to build chords and tells you they have no clue of what they're doing but you should do this too.

Everyone wants to keep avoiding the elephant in the room.

MUSIC THEORY!    

"Ooh, scary…"

They keep tiptoeing around just learning some basic knowledge that has helped people create great music over and over again.

Music is a language developed over thousands of years. It’s based on science and math but also a creative art form. It connects us to the universe and our own emotions.

“That's deep brah...”

Stop trying to learn little tricks that still get you little results.

In this mini-course, I’m going to break down how with just a little bit of knowledge you can produce better music at a much faster rate.

This is more important than ever these days since everyone and their uncle is a music producer. Which I think is great. There is so much talent out there, and with technology, has made it more accessible to more people.

But if you're trying not to get drowned out by all the BANGERS!, you’ll need an advantage over the competition.

You might be saying to yourself,

“I’ve tried learning music theory but it’s confusing and boring.”

Trust me I understand. I wasn’t born with a musical gift. I was just like most people. Started playing guitar at the young age of 12 and learned songs I liked and picked up little bits and pieces of theory along the way.

If someone tried to teach me theory without explaining how to use it to be creative, it would just go in one ear and out the other. I just wanted to get funky and rock out.

Even after graduating from MI (Musicians Institute) I still had a ways to go. It wasn’t until I started teaching that it all came together.

As much as we like to think we are logical we are not, we are emotional. Everything is filtered through the emotional part of the brain before the logical. Also, the brain can only handle so much information at a time and it must be something relevant to the learner that can instantly be applied.

So that being said I will do my best to inspire, motivate and educate.

And by the end, if not during, you will have more understanding and confidence in what you are creating.

7 Notes of the Musical Alphabet

Easy as ABC...123...

Can you sing the first seven letters of the alphabet? 

"It’s that easy."

A  B  C  D  E  F  G

However, in music, we like to look at C as the beginning of the musical alphabet.

By starting on C and going up the rest of the alphabet we have what is called the C major scale. This is the mother of all scales and the only scale we will need to learn in this course to make all types of music. 

Scale Degrees

Let’s number the C major scale. Since C is the beginning we would number this as 1. This is the center and home of the C major scale. Also known as the Tonic because it is the tonal center of the scale.

Think of it like the Sun and the other notes are like the planets. They each have a different relationship to the sun. A different gravitational push and pull or vibe as you will. 

This is what we call scale degrees. Simply put, the enumeration of the scale.

C  D  E   F  G  A  B

 1   2    3    4    5    6    7

Try this little experiment. Start on C and go up and down the C major scale (Start and end on C). Play C in different octaves. Now, go up the C major scale but stop at B (7).

How does that make you feel? Do you feel incomplete, irritated, or unresolved?

Now step away for a minute and come back. Play that same note (B).

Does it still have the same feeling? Yes? That's because we have programmed C in your brain to feel like home.

"That’s the power of music!"

If you learn this music theory stuff you can cause tension and release in your listener's mind. Which takes them on an emotional journey.

Check out the video below where I demonstrate this. I also show you how to practice the C major scale on the MIDI keyboard to build speed and dexterity.

You don’t need to be Mozart but, getting your fingers to move across the keyboard will allow you to be more creative when the time comes.

Your creativity will not be hindered by your inability to move your fingers. You’ll be surprised with a few keyboard skills how quickly and often the Muse shows up

If you haven’t put in the work she’s going to look at you and say, 

“This fool ain’t got notin’ for me!”

You gotta bring something to the table.

6 Diatonic Chords in the Key of C major / A minor

Now that we’ve learned about the 7 letters of the C major scale, let’s talk about chords.

In music, scales and chords are our bread and butter. The scale is the single notes, just like the alphabet of a language, while chords are a group of notes like spelling words. 

The most fundamental chord used is what we call a Triad. Simply put, a three-note chord.

Let’s start off by spelling the C major chord. The main note of a chord is called the Root. This is to differentiate it from the main note of a scale.

To build any triad you need a 1  3  5.

What this means is whatever the root is, that’s your 1 and then count up the alphabet from there to get your 3 and 5.

C major chord  (CEG)

C  D  E  F  G  A  B 
1   2  3  4  5 

Now play those three notes together (C E G) and you have a C major triad.

When speaking with other producers and musicians you can drop the word triad and just say C major chord.

"Unless they are nerdin’ out and you want to blend in."

Have you noticed we just skipped every other note? We’re going to do this all the way up the C major scale except for the last note B. The reason why is this chord is a bit wacky and is not so commonly used in pop music.

Here are the 6 chords of the C major scale.

You might be asking,

"Why are some major and others are minor?"

What does that even mean and why?

In music, we have two main tonalities, Major and Minor. You can think happy and sad, day and night, good and evil, summer and winter…. You get the idea.

The ones that are major will have a more uplifting or positive vibe. While the minor will have a darker sad vibe.

For now, just take it for what it is. But if you noticed all these chords were built from just using the notes of the C major scale. This means they will work together well when we are producing a track. 

In the next section, we will discuss how to put these to use to make BANGERS! But for now, practice playing and spelling them.

Here’s how you’ll see them written out as chord symbols. If it’s just the root it’s a major triad and if it has a little baby m next to it, it’s a minor triad.

C  Dm  Em  F  G  Am

Check out this video below where I demonstrate how to build and play chords from the C major scale.

Diatonic Chord Progressions with Roman Numerals

Now that we’ve learned the C major scale and the 6 chords that go with it, we need to apply it to makin’ music.

• Chord Progressions
• Melody
• Bass
• Drums

In this lesson, we’re going to be discussing chord progressions.

A chord progression is just the order of chords in your song. I like to look at chord progression as the scenes in a movie and the melody as the lead character.

The scenes in a movie help keep the story moving and support the lead character.

Imagine you had to watch a movie with just the lead character in front of a green screen. That would get boring real fast. Why? Cause there’s no context. They are not interacting with anything. Just like listening to someone sing the melody to a song, it’s great but put it in context with the chords and the song comes alive.

Let’s start with putting our chords in order and numbering them.

Instead of using Arabic numbers as we did for the scale degrees, we’re going to use Roman Numerals to represent the chords.

C  Dm  Em  F   G  Am
I    ii     iii   IV   V   vi

As you may have noticed, uppercase is major and lowercase is minor.

There are 3 major chords and 3 minor chords.

We number them so we can understand the relationship between them. Since we are in the key of C major, C is the main chord (I).

Just like the notes they have a certain push and pull between them.

Let’s look at them as a family, the Roman Family.

The Roman Family

I = Mom

ii = Dad

iii = Brother

IV = Sister

V = Grandma

vi = Emo Cousin

viiº = Weird Uncle

"You don’t even know if he’s your uncle so we’ll just stay away from him!"

Most songs you know and love just use a few chords throughout the whole song. And a lot of them use the same chord progression but in a different key signature (scale).

If we learn some of the most common chord progressions we can learn hundreds of songs. But also understand which chords work the best together for the vibe we are trying to portray.

"Money Chords"

The number one chord progression to learn is called the “Money Chords”.

 I       V       vi     IV
C      G     Am     F

"It’s because it’s made people lots and lots of money!"

Practice playing this chord progression. Hold each chord for a bar each (4 beats). Rinse and repeat.

Check out the Producers Menu for songs that use this progression.

Play this for you friends and family and they will say,

“I love that song.” or “That’s that one song.”

It’s because it is built into our musical sub-conscience. 

If you have a singer in the room and you play this chord progression what do you think will happen?

They'll start to sing...

you hit record…

BANGERS!…

It can be that easy.

Now take these 4 chords and try different combinations.

“Still makin’ dat money!”

You don’t always have to use all four. Try using just 3 of the chords.

Break up a bar with the first 2 chords and hold the 3rd chord for a whole bar. 

Now go back to the original “Money Chords” and swap one out for a ii (Dm) or iii (Em) chord.

Here’s some examples:

I   V   vi    IV

I   V    ii    IV

I   iii   vi    IV

I   V    iii   IV

One thing you’ll notice is that the IV and V chords have a nice strong pull back to the I chord. Placing one of these chords at the end of your progression will always give it a nice sense of completion.

This is not a hard rule but something to be aware of. Sometimes you want your listener to feel uneasy or build tension. 

If you want a darker sound focus on the vi chord (Am) or the “Emo cousin”.

In conclusion, learn how to spell and play the 6 chords from the C major scale.

Start with the “Money Chords” and then try experimenting with different combinations.

If you come up with something cool write it down.

Chord progression can’t be copyrighted. Otherwise there would only be a handful of songs we could listen to.

How to Write Melodies in the Key of C major / A minor

Remember the analogy I used from the Chord Progression lesson? Chords are the scenes in a movie and the melody is the lead character.

Before we dig into melodies let’s record the “Money Chords” into your DAW of choice. Give each chord a bar (measure or 4 beats). This way we have something for our melody (lead character) to interact with. 

Melodies aren’t meant to be complicated.

Place your thumb of your right hand on C. Now go up and down the first 5 notes of the C major scale. These are the only notes we’ll use for now.

After analyzing hundreds of songs I’ve noticed two basic melody structures that instantly work.

The First one is:

Say something…
Say it again…
Say it again…
Say something different.

Let’s apply this to our chord progression we recorded.

In the first bar play a little idea with a few notes. Keep it simple and think of rhythm. Don’t be afraid of repeating notes. Now play that same Idea for the next 2 bars. For the last bar play something different.

If your main idea went from low to high, maybe make the last idea go from high to low. Think of your last idea (motive) as a conclusion to the melodic sentence (phrase). 

Try this little experiment, mute the chord track and just listen to the melody by itself. Listen again with the chord track. Do you hear how by itself the melody doesn’t really go anywhere? But with the chords, this basic idea has new life every time the chord changes.

That’s the power of a good chord progression. Melody is the star of the song but, placed on top of a bad chord progression, can ruin it or at least make it less moving. 

The other most common melody structure is:

Say something…
Respond…
Say the first thing again…
Respond differently.

Just like the first concept start with a melodic motive (idea). In the 2nd bar respond with a different idea. Restate the first idea in bar 3 and respond differently in the 4th bar.

As we did with the last concept, listen to the melody with and without the chords.

These are not strict rules but starting points. Just listen to some hits and you’ll notice these structures from Taylor Swift to John Williams (Star Wars). 

Now record this chord progression into your DAW of choice.

vi      V     IV    V
Am    G     F     G

This is another very popular chord progression but centered around the vi chord. Check out the Producers Menu for songs that use this progression.

When we focus our song on the vi chord we are theoretically in a minor key.

So C major and A minor are the same scale?

Play the C major scale but start and finish on the 6th scale degree (A).

Do you hear how it has a dark and more emotional vibe?

It’s the same notes but now we are seeing the family through the eyes of the Emo cousin (vi). Where as in C major we are experiencing the family through the eyes of the Mother (I) who is happy.

It’s all about perception.

“Bend your mind, not the spoon..”

Think of it as two sides of a coin. On one side you have C major and on the other you have A minor. 

Now apply the same melody structures over this chord progression but place your thumb on the A (6th scale degree).

Instant BANGERS!

If you're looking for even more of a darker sound just use the minor chords.

When all is said and done use your ears, emotions and intuition to guide you.

Remember, if you practice playing your scales and chords, the Muse will show up more often than not.

What is the Main Function of the Bass

I will keep this lesson short and sweet.

I go deeper into how the bass and drums work together in my book “The Big Banger! Theory”. Not to mention chords, scales and so much more.

The bass is the glue in your track. It adds low end but is there to also support the chords (by playing the root of the chord) and locking in with the drums (mainly the kick).

Record the minor chord progression we used in the last lesson into your DAW of choice.

vi      V     IV    V
Am    G     F     G

For the first example we are going to just play the root of each chord on a bass track.

The easiest and most common is to play the root of the chord for as long as the chords last. Remember this is bass so make sure it’s in the lower register without going to low where it sounds like elephant farts.

For this song it would be A  G  F  G somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd octave.

For the second example program a drum beat to your liking. Copy and paste the kicks into a bass track. This could be an electric bass, an 808 or synth bass.

Now move the “kicks” to the root of each chord. So all the “kicks” in bar 1 would go to A, all the “kicks” in bar 2 would go to G. So on and so forth…

You can then adjust the length of each note to work with your song.

In my book I demonstrate how to take it a step further by using other notes and concepts.

If you felt this mini-course was insightful and helped you rid some of the stigma surrounding Music Theory then don’t hesitate to take it further by grabbing your copy of my book.

“The Big Banger! Theory: The essential elements & language of music for the modern producer”.