Lesson video

Hello and welcome to your music lesson today.

My name is Miss Al-Hanoush and in today's lesson, we're going to be exploring how you can add extra interest to your chord sequences.

So let's begin by doing a quick listening quiz.

For your listening warmup, listen to the following track, "When love takes over" by David Guetta.

Focus on the chords and answer the questions below.

Do you think this is in a major or minor key? How can you tell? And can you describe how the chords are being played by the piano throughout and then the synth that enters around 10 seconds in? Think about the key and the length of the chord progression to help you.

♪ It's complicated ♪ ♪ It always is ♪ ♪ That's just the way it goes ♪ ♪ Feels like I've waited so long for this ♪ ♪ I wonder if it shows ♪ ♪ Head under water ♪ ♪ Now I can't breathe ♪ ♪ It never felt so good ♪ ♪ 'Cause I can.

♪ So how do you think the chords were being played by the piano.

They were arpeggiated.

And what about the synth that entered later on? Well, that was playing repeated quavers as well.

So what else did you notice about the use of the chords in this track? How many bars was the chord progression? It was four.

And then there's two chords in the last and the fourth bar as well.

So is the music in a major or minor key? This is in a major key.

And in lesson two of this unit, you created a four-bar chord progression using sustained or block chords.

In this lesson, you're going to explore a different variety of ways to make your chords more interesting.

So you can be as big as a producer, as David Guetta.

Let's take a look at what you need before we begin.

Now that your ears have warmed up, in today's lesson you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, and your voice or an instrument, and if you don't have those have an app.

So particularly virtual keyboard works really well.

And also BandLab, which I'm about to explain now.

So you can create music using audio mixing software, and we will be using a demonstration today using a free programme called BandLab.

BandLab is for use for over 13s.

And if you are over 13, you still need permission to use it from your parent or carer.

So please make sure that you have sought permission before you begin today's lesson.

You will also need a quiet space to work in and make sure that any apps or notifications are turned off on any electronic devices so you're not disturbed throughout the lesson.

If you need to pause the video at this point to go and get yourself ready and make sure you've got all the equipment you need, feel free to do that and then resume once you're ready.

Here is the lesson agenda for today.

You're going to begin by revisiting chords and major and minor triads, you're then going to explore harmonic rhythm and learn how to use chord inversions before adding interest to your own chord progression, using a digital audio workstation.

So let's begin by revisiting chords and major and minor triads.

I'm going to begin by playing a selection of notes and chords.

Tell me which ones are notes and which ones are chords.

Those were notes.

What about this one? Those were chords.

How did you know the difference between the both? Well, what is a chord? Yes, that's right.

A chord is two or more pitches that are played at the same time.

And they could be played in a variety of ways.

And they're used as part of the harmony rine to support a melody.

Can you sing a chord? No.

And why not? Because we can't sing two pitches at the same time.

So which instruments are able to play chords? That's right, any instrument that can play more than one pitch at the same time.

Say for example, a guitar, a ukulele, a violin, a piano, et cetera.

I'm going to model something else for you.

I would like you to tell me what it is.

What was I playing? That was a chord progression.

And how many chords did I play? There was four chords there.

So, one, two, three, four, that's my second one, there's my third one, and there is my final one.

And there was four beats in my bar.

So how do I build a chord progression? I place chords in succession one after the other.

So the chord progression that I just played was built up of four different triads, and I'm going to play a triad.

Tell me what a triad is.

A triad is three pitches that are played at the same time which follow this order.

The tonic note, number one, the third degree of the scale number three, so one, two, three and the fifth degree of the scale are dominant.

Four, five And you play them together at the same time to create a triad.

That's what we call a major triad.

To make a minor triad, all you have to do is flatten the third by a semitone.

So take your third and flatten it.

So here's a major and here's a minor.

I'm going to play you a triad, and I would like you to tell me whether you think it is a major triad or a minor triad.

This is in the key of D.

Was that a major triad or a minor triad? That was a major triad and we can see at the keyboard above there, my number one was on D, my third was on the F#, and my pinky finger, my fifth finger was on the A.

Which gave me a major triad.

First, third, fifth.

How would I make that into a minor triad? Well done, I flatten the third.

So I bring that from an F# down to an F.

For your first pause task, now we've recapped what chords are and how to find a triad.

I would like you to take five minutes to refresh your memory of how to play one.

On the screen I've put a box with some different triads that you can try.

And as an extension, how many other major or minor triads can you work out using this method? You might have to research the key signature to make sure you're correct.

Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've revisited chords and major and minor triads, you're going to explore harmonic rhythm.

Let's begin by listening to the following track, "Don't you worry child" by Swedish House Mafia.

I would like you again, to focus on the synth chords that begin straight away and answer the questions below.

How many chords is in this chord progression, and do the chords last for four beats each? If not, how long do they last? ♪ There was a time, I used to look into my father's eyes ♪ ♪ In a happy home, I was a king I had a golden throne ♪ ♪ Those days are gone, now the memories are on the wall ♪ ♪ I hear the.

♪ How many chords did you think were in the chord progression? That's right, there were four in the progression.

And do the chords last for four beats each? No, did you see where they changed or did you hear where they changed? They changed on the beat three and of each bar.

The fact that those chords didn't last four beats each is to do with their harmonic rhythm.

So let's take a look at what harmonic rhythm is.

So just like melodies, chords can also have a rhythm.

And this is known as harmonic rhythm.

In music harmony is to do with anything with chords and chord progressions.

Rhythm is a pattern of sounds of different lengths.

So harmonic rhythm is about the duration of chords and chord progressions.

So why is harmonic rhythm important? Well, would a piece feel differently if chords weren't always sustained? The harmonic rhythm can impact on the character of the music by changing the feeling of a piece of music and that's why it's important.

Let's take another listen to the beginning of "Don't you worry child" by Swedish House Mafia.

This time I would like you to clap when you think that the chord changes.

And what do you notice? ♪ There was a time, I used to look into my father's eyes ♪ ♪ In a happy home, I was a king I had a golden throne ♪ ♪ Those days are gone, now the memories are on the wall ♪ ♪ I hear the sound.

♪ What did you notice about where the chord changed then? Did each chord have four beats? No, take a look at the screen and you can see how many counts each chord had before it changed.

Take a look at the screen.

So bar one, had three beats for D minor before our F came in on the three and.

And then bar two, we had D minor again for three beats, and then it was played again on the and for the three and the four and.

And then on bar three, we had a B flat that was held for three beats and then D minor came in on the and for the rest of the bar.

And then B flat in bar four played for three beats and then our D minor came in on the and until the end of the bar.

Let's just listen to that.

If I play sustained chords.

You can count out loud along with my playing.

Whilst you're clapping this through and listening, I would like you to think about how changing the position of the chord and its harmonic rhythm impacts the way the piece feels.

One, two, three, four.

One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and.

So how did changing where we put those chords add interest to the piece? And what do you think the harmonic rhythm of this piece is? So I'm going to move my F in bar one to beat three, I'm going to move my D minor, the second one in bar two to beat three, I'm going to move my D minor in bar three to beat three, and I'm going to move my D minor in bar four to beat three.

Let's hear how that sounds and change the piece.

One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and.

Was that more exciting or less exciting than playing on the hand beat? So by playing on the hand beat, it made the piece much more exciting.

So what I would like you to do is when you do your pause task, have a play around and see whether you can change the harmonic rhythm within this chord sequence as well.

And see what happens when you move the length of the different chords and which beat they're meant to be played on.

And see what type of feeling it gives to your music when you just switch those around and experiment with them.

For your next pause task, can you play the chords to Swedish House Mafia's, "Don't you worry child" using the harmonic rhythm that they use.

Can you play in time with the pulse? You could always ask somebody at home to count for you if needed, or you could record this straight into BandLab.

Pause the video to complete your task, and then resume once you're finished.

Let's revisit, "Freed from Desire" from last lesson.

Here's the chord progression.

How many beats were held for each chord? That's right, four.

So we had four counts on each.

So how could we vary the harmonic rhythm here? For this example, I'm going to change how many counts I hold down my A minor chord for.

So I'll play my D minor for four beats, I'm then going to play my A minor and I'd like you to work out how many for, and then my B flat, and then my C.

Have a listen to how it changes the feel of the music too.

How many counts was my A minor played for that time? Well done if you said two.

What about this time, I'm going to play my B flat for six counts, my A minor for two counts and my D minor and my C for four counts.

So we make up that four bar chord progression in four, four.

Here we go.

How did that change the feel of music that time? Hopefully now you're beginning to see that harmonic rhythm can really change the way that your pieces feel and engage the listener.

Here's one more example.

For this example, I'm going to steal one of the Swedish House Mafia's techniques.

And I'm going to play two chords on the off beats.

Can you tell me which chords I'm playing on the off beat? So there I played A minor and C on the off beats.

Have a listen.

One, two, three, and one, two, three, and How did that change the feel of the piece of music? By changing the harmonic rhythm throughout your piece of music, you can add extra interest for your listeners so that they don't get bored.

A lot of producers and songwriters tend to keep the same four chords going round and round without changing the harmonic rhythm.

And it becomes quite boring actually, when you start to listen to their pieces over and over.

So have a play with changing the harmonic rhythm in your chord progression and see how many varieties of harmonic rhythms you can come up with.

For your next pause task, you will need your four bar chord progression from last lesson.

Firstly play through the sequence using sustained chords, then have a play around with how you can vary the harmonic rhythm.

Think about how long you need to hold the chord for before you change it to make the feel of your music different.

You can do this on BandLab as well with the chords that you've already recorded in.

As an extension, how else could you vary the rhythm of your chords? So for example, syncopated chords, adding in the root note of your left hand, arpeggiate them, or break, play broken chords, play crotchet or quaver rhythms. If there were other members of your household available, can you play them your sequence using a variety of rhythms, and ask them how changing the rhythm of your chords makes them feel each time.

Take 10 minutes to complete this task, pause the video, and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've explored harmonic rhythm, you're going to learn how to use chord inversions.

So I'm going to show you chord inversions using BandLab.

So if you were with me for lessons one and two, you would have created some projects using your drum machine and inputting some chords as well.

So if you saved those projects, you can use those.

So I'm going to open my project here.

If you don't, you can just open a new one on mix editor and play in there, that's absolutely fine.

So I'm opening mine in mix editor and I should get at my drum machine and my synth strings that I put in last lesson.

Okay, so for the purpose of showing you chord inversions, I want a piano sound.

So I'm going to click add track.

And that should automatically, when I click instruments, give me a piano and I can test that out.

Brilliant, I've got a piano sounds and so I'm going to make sure that this one is highlighted and I'm going to play on here.

So I'm going to start by showing you my chord progression from last lesson.

And I'm going to play it twice.

It's going to be the same chord progression, but the second time I'm going to do something different.

I'd like you to tell me what.

Here it is for the first time.

And here it is for the second time.

What was different? My hand position.

So the first time I actually ranged between pressing over here and you can't actually see it off my keyboard see over here.

Whereas the second time, my range was from here to here.

Now, how did I do that? Well, I used what we call chord inversions and put simply, a chord inversion is rearranging the three pitches of a chord into a different order.

And musicians use chord inversions as it makes it much easier to move between chords and using the pitches placed closest to you, you don't have to jump all over the keyboard.

So let's have a look at this in action.

My first two chords of my progression were D minor and C.

Now I'm lucky there because the pitches for D and C are right next to each other.

So I'd have to move my hand slightly and that's fine.

I don't have to move all over the keyboard.

However, my next chord is an F and I want to avoid moving all the way up here.

So I look out for which pitches I'm already on, that are in an F chord, you got it? I'm already on a C.

And I'll look for my nearest F and nearest A to make up my F chord.

So my nearest F is here, and my nearest A is here.

So all I've had to do is move these two fingers, my third and my fifth up one pitch each.

And again, that's cool.

Doesn't matter which order you play the pitches in, find your nearest.

So now I'm going from D minor, down to C, I move my third and my fifth, I've got my F chord, okay.

My last one then was B flat.

Now I don't want to have to go all the way down here to my B flat.

So where is my nearest B flat? Bear in mind at the moment I'm on an F chord that is up there.

So my nearest B-flat is actually up here.

I'm already on an F and all I need to do is move my thumb to the D and I will get a B flat chord.

Okay, so let's put all of that together.

So D minor, C is normal, move my two fingers up to F, and then move my thumb and my fifth, and I get my B flat.

So on my new instrumental line, I'm now going to mute the drum machine and mute the synth string so I can concentrate.

I've got my count in of one bar, and I'm going to click chord and see if I can play these in time.

Now, my keyboard for some reason seems to keep delaying, so we'll see what happens, I might have to quantize.

Here we go.

I can tell that it's already out.

So making sure that my chords are going to be played in time, I'm going to double click on this and it should bring it up in the midi editor down here.

I can make that a little bit bigger and we can see that delay.

I'm not sure why it's doing that too late.

However, if I highlight all of them, and if I click quantize, it will make them jump, and I want them to be on the beginning of the bar so you might have to do this manually if it doesn't jump.

Hopefully yours will be in time and not have a delay.

And there we go.

So now they're all in time, and if I want them to play the whole bar, I can click legato.

It'll be helpful if I highlight them all.

There we go, now they last for the whole bar.

So let's have a listen to those on their own.

And I don't know why that's gone over bar.

So let us just make that go to bar five.

So let's now take a listen to how that sounds with my drum machine and my synth strings.

I'm going to unmute them.

Okay.

So I can either play them like that and have them late, or I could use them as a second section if I wanted to, or even a third over here look.

So I could put them in on bar nine.

Let's have a listen from bar five, and then when it comes in on bar nine.

Okay, so we've got a kind of a breakdown feel there as well.

So within your next pause task, I'd like you to see whether you can actually create some chord inversions using your chord progression from last lesson and see if you can input them into BandLab as well on a new line.

You can feel free to change the instrument if you want, if you're not happy with the piano, you can change that in the instrument bank down here, and maybe change it to a different synth than you had before.

Let's try that, and let's just see what that sounds like.

So it's now on the soft pad, And it's given it a totally different sound than just playing it on piano.

So have a go and see what you can come up with.

For your next pause task, see if you can use chord inversions on BandLab with your chord progression.

You can either play these in on a keyboard or draw them in using the pencil tool if it's easier for you.

Take five minutes to do this, pause the video, to complete your task, and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've learned how to use chord inversions, you're going to add interest to your chord progressions using a digital audio workstation.

So for the next part of the lesson, we're looking at how you can add interest to your chord progression.

And today we've already looked at harmonic rhythm and we've looked at inversions.

So those are two ways that you can do it.

You'll see on the screen that I've got my original BandLab project up from earlier, and I've just heightened it up slightly.

I've taken out my B rhythm, cause I wasn't very happy with it actually.

And I've put my original chords here and then my inversions here, and I've labelled them just by clicking on them and renaming the region.

So let's just have a listen for my drums and how the drums change and my chords, and then how the chords change with the inversions.

Okay, notice how my inversions have already, have also, sorry, been played down an octave as well.

So I've gone ahead and made a new line so you can do that by adding a track and I've chosen a different sound for this.

So this one I've picked plucked lead.

So I'm actually going to rename that there so I remember what this is.

And you could if you wanted to rename this as what you're playing in say for example, inversions or harmonic rhythm, et cetera.

So the first thing that we're going to see if we can do is once you've chosen your synth sound that you would like by going through the menu and you've got up your new track, you're going to play your chords in rhythm versions, if you haven't already done so, and put them in on maybe a B section if you like where my drum machine is, and then we're going to see whether you can create some different rhythms, using harmonic rhythm for your chords and play those in as well.

So at the moment, my chords are four beats to each bar.

So at the moment they sound like this.

One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.

Apologies if there's a delay on the sound there as well.

So how do I change my harmonic rhythm here? Let's steal again from earlier and let's play them on beat three and a half, okay.

So I'm going to play my D as normal, I'm going to play C on beat three and a half.

So it would sound like this.

One and two and three and one and two and three and.

So I'm going to move my B flat onto the three and as well.

One and two and three and, one and two and three and.

And I feel that my computer is probably going to give me a delay.

So all I need to do is go into here and I can do this manually if it has given me a delay.

So it's fine to do this manually if it's not playing in time for you or you can't quite play in time.

And again, if you want to draw it in rather than play it in, so if you miss a note, you can just actually play it in by pressing command and you'll get the pencil tool and then you click anywhere and draw in your notes.

Let's delete those.

Okay, so let's have a listen to this now and see what this sounds like.

Excellent, okay, and I can loop that.

So I want that to loop for two bars.

So you're going to make sure that it snaps to the grid and you've got your two bars.

So let us just have a listen to that now.

So we can see there lots of development happening just by using harmonic rhythm.

You could then actually go back to your normal longer sustain chords, or you could put your inversions back in and see what happens then.

And you could change the harmonic rhythm again for further development.

So what happens if we now add in a different rhythm? So let's think about adding in some syncopated chords now.

So I want to play them off the beat.

So this time I'm going to use my left hand to play on beat one, and I'm going to play my chords, my triads, on the half beats in between.

There we go, pap.

Let's put that in with my drum machines and my other synth strings.

And actually, let's just see if we can add that as another layer.

So I'm going to add it in, in five as a bit of variety.

And so on, okay.

So there's a different idea that you can do and play around with the rhythms of your chord progressions.

So I've now put my chords in time and I've quantized them.

So I now have a different rhythm on this purple section here.

And I've gone ahead and changed it from piano to vibraphone as well as I thought it might make a little bit more interesting than just playing a piano in an EDM track.

So my piece now starts with a drum machine and it has synth strings.

It then after four bars develops into having inversions and a different rhythm.

And then at bar nine, we'll hear again, a different drum beat and it develops again by playing the same chords, but changing the harmonic rhythm.

So let's take a listen to all of this in action.

And there you have it.

So different ways to be able to play your chords, using inversions, changing the rhythm and adding harmonic rhythm as well.

So how else could you vary your chords? Well, you could use different sounds for each of the layers that you put in, you could try different harmonic rhythms as well, and don't forget rhythm displacement that we talked about in the last lesson.

And as a general rule of thumb, keep developing your piece every four bars.

So the listener expects something new every four bars, and it won't get boring.

On your digital audio workstation, can you record in your chord progressions, thinking about the harmonic rhythm, and also play it in using inversions.

Remember to quantize it and use a different sound for your new chord progression.

Take 15 minutes to do this task, pause the video to complete your task, and then resume once you're finished.

Let us just recap today's lesson agenda.

You began by revisiting chords and major and minor triads.

You then went on to explore harmonic rhythm and learned how to use chord inversions.

You finished by adding interest to your chord progression, using a digital audio workstation.

Amazing job, well done.

For your final pause task, I'm going to take you back to the question that was on the green screen at the beginning.

So on your piece of paper, can you answer the question, how can we add interest to our chord sequences? Take five minutes to answer this question, pause the video, and then resume once you're finished.

How did you get on with that last question? So to add interest to your chord sequences, you can use inversions, arpeggios, you can add a root note in your left hand, and you could also vary the harmonic rhythm.

You could also use extended chords and sus chords if you know what they are too.

So please don't forget to save your work so that you can build upon it throughout this project.

And also don't forget to do the end of lesson quiz so you can see how much you've learnt and if you would like to, we would love to hear it.

So if you would like to share your work Oak National, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

That's all from me today.

Hopefully I will see you again soon.

Goodbye for now.