In this lesson you'll learn how to improve your Djent riffs using a hack from Meshuggah "I Am That Thirst", which is off their new album "Immutable". But first… Tea!

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

Is your djent riff currently sounding something like this? (click play above)

One of the most common faults in djent is that all the emphasis is placed on writing a crazy rhythm, but then that rhythm is often played on one note. How disappointing! So, here’s a hack from the new Meshuggah single to fix this fault.

Meshuggah use arguably the most djenty scale: the octatonic. This 8-note scale is made by repeating the pattern of one semitone followed by one whole tone. So, instead of djenting your riff away on only one note, add a melodic run into it using the octatonic scale. That way you’ll have a crazy rhythm and a crazy melody! 

Hope you found this hack helpful, and if you did, then check out our DJENT page for more!

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In this lesson you'll learn how to write better bass lines, by using 1/16 rests. But first… Tea!

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

Is your bass line currently sounding something like this? (click play above)

That’s sounding pretty good, but it’s still kinda boring because it’s lacking energy. So, here’s an awesome hack that will instantly add energy to your bass lines!

One of the best ways to energise your bass line is totally counterintuitive. You’d think we’d need to add something in order to add energy, but, arguably the best way to add energy is actually to subtract notes. Yep, a couple well-placed rests (especially 1/16 rests) will breathe new life into your bass. And, how easy is it to delete a couple notes!

Hope you found this hack helpful, and if you did, then check out our Songwriting & Producing PDF.

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Learn how to write better bass lines by improving your harmonic rhythm!

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

Alright, so we’re in the key of D minor, and here’s an example that represents a lot of bass lines these days. Maybe your bass is currently sounding something like this?

That’s a solid starting place for your bass line, but changing notes on the main beats only is gonna get boring real quick. So, here’s a hack that will spice up your bass lines, without losing that simplicity!

This bass line is outlining a chord progression, by playing each chord’s root note. Where the chords change is known as the harmonic rhythm. By making a more interesting harmonic rhythm, you get a better bass line. So, instead of changing chords on the main beats only, move some changes to before or after the main beats. This will add an element of surprise, which will grab your listeners’ attention.

Hope you found this hack helpful, and if you did, then check out our Songwriting & Producing PDF.

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In this lesson you'll learn how to improve your four-on-the-floor drum beats. But first… Tea!

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

Alright, so our tempo is 120 BPM, and here’s an example of a basic four-on-the-floor beat. Maybe your drums are currently sounding something like this? (click play above)

That’s a solid foundation for your song, but it’s gonna get boring real quick. So, here’s a hack that will spice up your four-on-the-floor drums, without compromising that dancey feel we love about this beat!

So, change your grid to 1/16 note triplets, and add a few hits on the toms. Toms are great, because they add groove but don’t interfere with that vital kick pattern. You can also add a 1/16 note triplet on the snare, but be super careful with adding extra snare hits, as they can mess up that dancey feel.

Hope you found this hack helpful, and if you did, then check out our Drum PDFs.

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In this lesson you’ll learn a common fault that many songwriters and producers make when writing chord progressions. More importantly, though, you’ll learn our theory hack for quickly and easily fixing this fault. But first… Tea!

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

FAULT

Firstly, just to clarify. A fault is not a mistake! Music is an art, so if you’re making music from your heart, then there cannot be any mistakes. But, when songwriters and producers don’t understand theory, which is the grammar of music, they’re not able to fully express themselves. Just like if someone was trying to write a poem in a language they didn’t speak. The resulting work of art will undoubtedly have weaknesses. And a fault is defined as a weakness.

So, what’s the fault in this chord progression?

Well, the chords are jumping all over the place (up and down!), and that makes the progression sound like a beginner made it. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with the actual chords in this progression. But, the chord changes sound really abrupt and disjointed, i.e. the progression doesn’t flow at all. And of course, if for some reason you want your chord changes to sound abrupt, then leave them as they are.

By the way, our example is in the key of G Mixolydian, which is all the white notes from G to G, and the tempo is 105 BPM. If you’re not familiar with the happy-but-serious Mixolydian mode, you can use the Mode Hack in our Songwriting & Producing PDF.

FIX

Okay, so how do we fix this progression and make the chords flow smoothly into each other, instead of abruptly jumping up and down when they change? In a word: Inversions. An inversion is just the fancy word for when you rearrange the notes in a chord. You see, if you have three notes in a chord, you can play that chord in three different ways.

For example, let’s take our root chord Gmaj. You can play the notes in the original order of G B D. Or, you can rearrange the notes and play B D G, or D G B. Same notes. Same chord. Just inverted.

Root position: 1 3 5 (G B D)

1st inversion: 3 5 1 (B D G)

2nd inversion: 5 1 3 (D G B)

The different inversions have different names, but those aren’t important, what is important is learning how to rearrange the notes in a way that makes your chords flow smoothly into each other. This hack will instantly make your chord progressions sound super creative and professional! So, how do you do that?

LINK

Well, it’s all about emphasising the similarities between chords. In other words, we need to emphasise the notes that are the same from one chord to the next. These notes are called common notes, and they act as powerful links that connect chords.

Let’s take the first two chords in our progression as an example. Our first chord is Gmaj, which consists of the notes G B D, and our next chord is Em, which consists of the notes E G B.

Now, when we compare these two chords, we find that they actually have two common notes. So, these two chords are literally ⅔ identical, yet when we change from Gmaj to Em, it sounds abrupt and disjointed.

The reason for this is because we’re not making the most of their similarities. If we bring attention to their common notes, it will sound like the Gmaj chord is effortlessly melting into the Em chord, making that chord change flow beautifully.

FLOW

So, how do you bring attention to common notes in a chord change to make it flow smoothly? Easy, you simply rearrange the notes in one chord to make their common notes line up. In other words, the common note should be in the same place within the chords. That’s what creates the powerful link that connects chords!

In our example, G and B are common notes, but we can see that G is at the bottom of the Gmaj chord, and it’s in the middle of the Em chord. So, we need to rearrange the notes of one chord to get G in the same place within those chords.

In the Em chord, if we move the E up an octave, then the G is now also at the bottom of that chord, like it is in the Gmaj chord. And that also lines up our other common note as well, because B is now in the middle of both chords. So, thanks to an inversion of the Em chord, this previously abrupt chord change now sounds super smooth and professional!

ISSUES

Now that you know how to rearrange the notes in your chords to get their common notes in the same place (i.e. bottom, middle, or top), go through the rest of your progression and do the same for each chord change. Just a heads-up though, there are a couple of issues you’ll run into when doing this. Maybe not in your current chord progression, but these issues will definitely turn up regularly.

The first issue is that the last chord in your progression needs to flow back around into your first chord. That chord change often requires a hack to make it flow smoothly. That wasn’t a problem in this example, because our progression actually ends and begins on the same chord, Gmaj. But, usually the last chord and first chord will be different, so you’ll need a hack to make that change flow smoothly.

Then the second issue you’ll come across is trying to make a chord change flow smoothly when the two chords do not have a common note. 

For example, at the end of our progression we have Am (A C E) changing to Gmaj (G B D). Those two chords do not have any common notes. So, what do you do in these situations? You make a common note! Of course that requires another hack. 

And we don’t have time in this lesson to cover these two hacks as well, but if you wanna learn them, they’re in our Songwriting & Producing Course. And the course also includes our Songwriting & Producing PDF that we mentioned earlier, so you’ll get that too, along with permanent access to all the videos in the course.

RULE

So to conclude. Our Chord Flow Rule is that your chords should flow smoothly into each other, by ensuring that when you change chords there is at least one common note linking them, and that common note is in the same place within both chords. Thanks for being here in the Hack Music Theory community, you are truly valued, and we're excited to hang out with you again soon!

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In this lesson you’ll learn a common fault that many songwriters and producers make when writing melodies. More importantly, though, you’ll learn our theory hack for quickly and easily fixing this fault. But first… Tea!

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

Firstly, just to clarify. A fault is not a mistake! Music is an art, so if you’re making music from your heart, then there cannot be any mistakes. But, when songwriters and producers don’t understand theory, which is the grammar of music, they’re not able to fully express themselves. Just like if someone was trying to write a poem in a language they didn’t speak. The resulting work of art will undoubtedly have weaknesses. And a fault is defined as a weakness. So, what’s the fault in this melody?

Well, the melody’s range is too small. The range of a melody is the interval from its lowest note (C) to its highest note (F). In this melody, that distance is only five semitones. That’s small! Listening to a melody with a small range is like listening to a person talking who doesn’t vary their pitch. It’s monotonous, which gets boring! So, just like in speech, a big range will bring interest and life into your melodies.

And by the way, our example is in the key of F Lydian, which is all the white notes from F to F, and the tempo is 90 BPM. And if you’re not familiar with the Lydian mode, you can use the Mode Hack in our Songwriting & Producing PDF.

Okay, so now that you can identify the fault, how do you fix it? Well, it’s shockingly easy to fix, as you simply need to move the MIDI notes up and down to extend your melody’s range. In practice, however, it’s a little more tricky than that. So, here’s our step-by-step method for creating a big range in your melodies:

Start by deciding where the climax of your melody will happen (i.e. the highest note). Using the concept of counterpoint, we suggest playing your melody’s highest note over your bass line’s lowest note, or at least one of its lowest notes. We chose to play our highest note over the first chord, Fmaj.

Once you know where your highest note is going, you need to decide on what that note will actually be. A good place to start is with the 3 of your chord below, because the 3 is the most powerful note*. For example, over an Fmaj chord, the 3 is the note A. And obviously you don’t have to use the 3 as your highest note, it’s just a good note to get your creative juices flowing. We actually used the 2 as our highest note. So over the Fmaj chord, that’s G.

*To learn why the 3 is the most powerful note, read Hack 9 in our free book (link below).

Next, do the opposite: Decide on where the lowest note of your melody is going, and what it will be. We suggest playing your melody’s lowest note over your bass line’s highest note, or at least one of its highest notes.

Now that you’ve got your highest and lowest notes in place, you can create a flowing contour to join them up. If you want a big jump in your contour, that’s awesome, but use those large intervals very sparingly, as they can be overwhelming. For most of your melody, you’ll want to use smaller intervals.

Right, now you’re probably wondering: What’s the ideal range for a melody? Well, just like every person in the world is different, every melody is different too. So while there’s no one-size-fits-all range that’s ideal, you’ll know when your melody’s range is too small, because it will be boring and lifeless. And you’ll know when your melody’s range is too big, because it will be really difficult to sing. Somewhere between those two guidelines is where you’ll find the ideal range for each melody. And yes, your melody should be singable even if you’re writing it for synth, or guitar, or some other instrument. Great melodies are singable melodies! Always. 

So to conclude. Our Melody Range Rule is that your melody must have a big enough range to keep it interesting and full of life, but not too big so that it’s hard to sing. Lastly, if you need more help writing melodies, then simply use our Melody Checklist, which tells you exactly what to do and what not to do in your melodies. The Melody Checklist can be found in our  Songwriting & Producing PDF. Thanks for being here in the Hack Music Theory community, you are truly valued, and we're excited to hang out with you again soon!

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In this lesson you’ll learn our 4-step method for making better drum fills. We invite you to work along with us through these steps, so by the end of this lesson, you’ll also have a super tasty drum fill.

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

In another lesson, we covered the 3 Types of Drum Fills: variation, tension, and notification. And, we also showed you where (and how) to use them in your music. Now in this lesson, we’ll share our 4-step method for actually writing those drum fills. And yes, this method works for all three types of fills!

The first thing you need to do is the last thing! It sounds counterintuitive, but drum fills take your listeners through a percussive journey that has a beginning and an ending. Once you’ve decided on these two points in your music, then you write a drum fill that connects them. It’s sad how many producers don’t think about these beginning and ending points, and merely start and stop their fills at the predictable places. But that won’t be you!

So, how do you choose where to end your fill, and why do you have to choose the ending first? Well, the place where you end your fill will have an accent as a result, so you want to make sure that it’s a point in your music that you intentionally want to emphasize. Most producers end all their fills on beat 1, and while that’s a super strong place for an ending, when every fill ends on beat 1, it’s also super boring!

Listen to your music, it will tell you where it wants you to end each fill. And remember, you can end your fills before beat 1 or after beat 1. A drum fill should only end on beat 1 if that’s exactly what your music wants at that specific point.

In our example, we’re transitioning from the chorus to the bridge, so we need a notification fill to alert the listener to this upcoming change. The bridge has a natural accent on beat 2, so that’s definitely the best place to end our fill.

Right, now that you know where your fill is ending, you can work backwards and figure out how long it needs to be and where it should begin. The way you choose a beginning point for your fill is different to how you just chose the ending. In this step, the first and most important thing to decide is how long your fill needs to be. There will be numerous naturally-occurring accents in your music where you could start a fill from, so trying to decide that way will only confuse you. Instead, loop up a few bars on either side of where your fill is going to be, then listen. The music will tell you how long the fill needs to be, which in turn tells you where to begin it.

And keep in mind, the length that your drum fill needs to be depends on which type of fill it is: variation, tension, or notification. Check out the 3 Types of Drum Fills lesson to learn all about that. Our fill is a notification fill, so it needs to be long enough to prepare the listener for the upcoming change, but not too long, otherwise it will build too much intensity. This led us to the perfect place to begin our fill: beat 2+ (in the last bar of our chorus). So, that makes our fill just less than one bar long.

Okay, so you know where your fill is ending, and where it’s beginning. Now it’s time to connect the dots! In this step, the first and most important thing to decide is the energy contour of your fill. Once again, this depends on which one of the three types of fills it is. But generally speaking, with your drum fills you’ll either want to increase the energy level, decrease it, or keep it more-or-less the same.

As we’re using a notification fill and going into a section with a higher intensity level, we need to increase the energy with our fill. To decide what your drum fill should do, loop up the same bars as you did before, close your eyes, and listen deeply. The energy contour will paint itself in your mind.

Once you know what the energy needs to do, you can start sketching the fill. Tasty fills tend to have a variety of note values, so have fun experimenting with that. But, because a drum kit has so many drums and cymbals, it’s easy to get distracted by all the possible combinations. So to stay focused, we recommend sketching out your fill using only the snare drum.

Right, so now that you’ve sketched out your fill on the snare drum, it’s time to finish things up by spreading out your fill over the whole drum kit. Remember though, a hit on the snare drum is far more intense than a tom or a kick, so be very very careful in this step not to mess up your energy contour.

We used the whole kit in our fill: snare, kick, toms, and cymbals. But, we kept coming back to the snare in order to sustain that momentum. As you can see, towards the end of our fill in the first bar of the bridge, we played the snare on beat 1. Without this vital snare hit, our fill would lose momentum over the bar line. If you feel that your fill is lacking momentum, it probably needs more snare hits. If, on the other hand, you feel it’s too intense, then it probably needs fewer snare hits.

After you’ve finished this step, double check that your final drum fill is still delivering the energy contour that you designed in step 3. If it is, then you’re done!

If you need help making original beats, then check out our Hack Drum Beats PDF. It contains everything you need to know in one PDF. And, it's currently half price, as our biggest sale of the year is on right now (ends 12 December 2021). Enjoy! Thanks so much for being here in the Hack Music Theory community, you are truly valued, and we’re excited to hang out with you again soon!

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In this lesson you’ll learn the three types of drum fills, where to use them, and how to make them. But first... Tea!

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

You know how in some movies there’s a narrator who guides the audience through the story? Well, drum fills act as a percussive narrator for our musical stories. For example, when a song is about to transition into a new section, a drum fill will narrate this upcoming change to the audience, thereby creating anticipation for it. All drum fills can be grouped into three types: variation, tension, and notification. Each type of fill has a different function. In other words, they each narrate something different to the listener. Alright, now let’s jump into each type of drum fill by exploring its unique function, and how to use it in your music.

The function of a variation drum fill is to spice up a section. An example of where you’d use this type of fill in your music, is halfway through a 16-bar verse. Whenever you have a longer section without many changes, there’s a chance of losing your listener’s attention. A fill of this type will gently bring their attention back. You can simply add a few extra notes to your drum beat, that’ll do it. Go for subtlety, and avoid big fills (those will disrupt the flow of your section). We just threw in a few snares and toms, while keeping our kick and snare pattern the same.

The function of a tension drum fill is to build up to something big. An example of where you’d use this type of fill in your music, is leading up to a bass drop (or a breakdown, in the metal genre). Whenever you want to build up the intensity to an energetic climax in your song, the best way to get there is with a fill of this type.

For that reason, it needs to be big and loud! And the longer the fill lasts, the more tension it builds. These fills are often on the snare drum, but you can use anything (or everything) in your kit. Tension fills typically start with 1/4 or 1/8 notes, and build into 1/16, 1/32, or even 1/64 notes, depending on the tempo. You can use whatever note values you want, though, as long as you keep building the tension.

We went with the standard approach, but made it more interesting by using toms, as well as a few 1/16 and 1/32 note triplets on the snare, at the very end of the fill.

The function of a notification drum fill is to introduce something. An example of where you’d use this type of fill in your music, is transitioning from the verse to the chorus. Whenever you want to alert the listener of an upcoming change, use this type of fill. The size and speed of your fill depends on what it’s going into. If you’re transitioning into a higher energy section, then go bigger and faster. If you’re transitioning into a lower energy section, then decrease the overall intensity with a subtler and slower fill. And if you’re transitioning into a section with a similar energy level, then find the middle path between too much intensity and too little.

Also, notification fills aren’t only for transitions, you can use them anytime you want to introduce something new, like a new melody, or a new instrument. You can even use a notification fill to start a song, which is what we did in our example.

Lastly, drum fills are all about setting up an expectation in the listener. Remember though, your songs are your musical stories. You decide the plot. So, feel free to set up an expectation, but then take your listener somewhere totally unexpected. For example, use a tension fill to build towards a climax, then stop in total silence. Or, use a variation fill, but then suddenly change into a completely different section.

If you found this lesson helpful, be sure to subscribe, as next time we’ll be giving you our step-by-step method for making drum fills. In the meantime though, if you need help making original drum beats, then check out our Hack Drum Beats PDF. It contains everything you need to know in one PDF. Thanks for being here in the Hack Music Theory community, you are truly valued, and we’re excited to hang out with you again soon! Until then, we're sending you good vibes and gratitude :)

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In this lesson you’ll learn a simple 4-step hack for writing dark and dissonant bass lines. We invite you to work along with us through the following steps, so by the end of this lesson, you’ll also have a finished bass line. But first... Tea!

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

Start by setting up two bars of 4|4 on your bass track, with your grid set to 1/16 notes, and your tempo set to 80 BPM. After you’ve finished writing your bass line though, play it at a few different tempos and find the BPM that works best.

Now it’s time to write a rhythm that’s gonna get those heads boppin! So, using only 1/16 notes (and lots of rests), draw in a rhythm that gets you moving. We’ll be using C as our root note, so for now, draw in all your notes on C.

Once you’ve got something down, loop up your two bars and put it on repeat. Does your rhythm get you pumped? If not, then keep playing around, cos writing a great rhythm is an essential step in writing a great bass line!

Next, it’s time to choose a scale or mode that will reflect the mood you wanna convey through your bass line. We chose the Phrygian mode, as we felt like writing a heavy bass line that’s dark and dissonant. You can choose any mode though, it all depends on what vibe you wanna create. The steps in this lesson are still applicable.

C Phrygian: C, D♭*, E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭

*Be sure to use the D♭ in your bass line, as that note is what gives Phrygian its dark sound!

And if you need help learning all the modes and their unique emotions, as well as how to use them, then check out the mode hacks in our Songwriting & Producing PDF / Course.

Now that you’ve written your rhythm and you’ve chosen a mode, it’s finally time to get stuck into the melodic element of your bass line. So, have some fun and play around with moving the notes up/down on the MIDI grid. But, always double-check that every note you’ve moved off the root is in your chosen mode. 

And be sure to keep at least a few notes on C, as playing the root note is vital in anchoring your bass line into the mode - that’s the only way you’re gonna tap into its emotion! Also, try to create a contour for your bass line that spans an octave (or more), as a big range like that will help prevent your bass line from getting boring. 

Finally, when you’re happy with all the notes in your bass line, you can extend some of them, so they’re not all 1/16 notes anymore. And try to use a variety of note values, as that will make your bass line even more interesting!

And it's as easy as that! Now you've got a dark and dissonant bass line. A heartfelt thank-you for being here in the Hack Music Theory community, you are valued and appreciated. Hope you enjoyed this lesson, and we're excited to hang out with you again soon. Until then, we're sending you good vibes and gratitude :)

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Learn how to make better melodies with this game-changing hack!

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

First, to clarify. A fault is not a mistake! Music is an art, so if you’re making music from your heart, then there cannot be any mistakes. But, when songwriters and producers don’t understand theory, which is the grammar of music, they’re not able to fully express themselves. Just like if someone was trying to write a poem in a language they didn’t speak. The resulting work of art will undoubtedly have weaknesses. And a fault is defined as a weakness. So, how do you know if your melody has faults?

Easy, you use our Melody Test, which is simply to play your melody on the piano. Yes, it really is that simple. Because, by stripping away all the fancy sound design, you’re left with just the bare notes. This exposes any and all faults in your melody. Then after fixing them, you change the instrument back to your fancy sound, and now you have a melody that doesn’t just sound good, it actually is good!

Alright, so let’s run our example through the Melody Test and see what faults are exposed. And please note, it’s absolutely essential that you hear the melody in its harmonic context, so always play the root note of each chord in your progression below your melody. Our example is in the key of A minor, which is all the white notes from A to A, and the chords in our progression are: Am, Cmaj, Gmaj, Fmaj.

As you can tell, stripping away the fancy sound design removes all distractions and forces our ears to focus exclusively on the notes. We can now hear that our melody has a lot of good qualities already, like its contour, motifs, and rhythm. And by the way, rhythm is usually the most overlooked element of a melody, so be sure to pay extra attention to that. And if you need help, just use our Melody Rhythm Rule.

Okay that’s enough about the good qualities of our melody, let’s get to the fault. By using the Melody Test, we can now clearly hear (and feel) our melody’s fault. What is it? Our melody is lacking emotion!

So, how do you add emotion to a melody? Easy, you use the 3rd note of each chord. You see, the 3rd note is the magic note that actually creates the happy sound in a major chord and the sad sound in a minor chord, so by playing 3rds in your melody, you strengthen it by emphasizing that emotional power!

For example, in our first chord, Am, the 3rd note is C, which we’re not playing. So, by simply moving the D (4) down to C (♭3), we emphasize the sadness of that underlying minor chord. Next, we added 3rds into our melody over the Cmaj and Gmaj chords as well, which emphasizes the uplifting nature of those major chords.

In this melody, we felt that it would be “too much of a good thing” to emphasize the happiness of three major chords in a row, so we didn’t use the 3rd (A) in our melody over Fmaj. This neutral approach of not using the 3rd in our melody slightly dilutes the uplifting nature of that underlying major chord.

And that is a really important lesson. So important, in fact, that it’s part of our crucial 3rds Melody Rule, which is: In your melodies, use a 3rd to emphasize a major chord’s happiness or a minor chord’s sadness, and avoid using a 3rd when you want to dilute the underlying chord’s emotion.

It goes without saying that every note has an emotion, not just the 3rd. But, not all notes have the same level of emotional power, and the note that pulls at our heartstrings the most, is the 3rd. Remember though, a good melody must have a wide variety of notes, because a melody consisting of only 3rds may be strong in terms of its emotional power, but it will be utterly mind-numbingly boring!

Just a heads up, we don’t have time here to get into why the 3rd is a magical note that brings the emotional strength, but if you’d like to know why, the answer is in Hack 9 of our free book.

Lastly, this test is super useful for all the other layers of your music too, which is why we also refer to it as the Piano Test. For example, if you want to know if your bass line has any faults, simply change the sound on your bass track to a piano, then solo it up and hit play. Once again, by stripping away the fancy sound design, you’re left with only the bare notes, which exposes any and all faults in your bass line. Then after you’ve fixed those faults, just change the sound back, and now you have a bass line that doesn’t just sound good, it actually is good! 

There’s obviously many different factors that cause faults in music, so if you want to avoid them all, then use our essential music making hacks, which are available in our Songwriting & Producing PDF / Online Course (if you prefer watching videos to reading PDFs).

Thanks for being here in the Hack Music Theory community, we really appreciate you, and we'll see you next time. Until then, we're sending you good vibes and gratitude :)

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