Radiohead's Thom Yorke “ANIMA” Music Theory

Learn how to write a bass line, using a music theory hack from Thom Yorke (Radiohead) “Traffic” off his new album “ANIMA”. Subtitles/CC available.

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate Harmony and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory. We help you make great music that stands out, so you can move and grow your audience! If that sounds useful to you, then subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit that bell to get notified every Monday, when we publish our new video. Also, if you’re new to our channel, be sure to download our free book “12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords” below. Alright, it’s time to open your DAW to hack music theory. But first… tea!

INTRO

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has been rather prolific lately, and he’s back with another new album. “Anima” continues his journey into electronic exploration, and contains some mesmerising moments, like the hypnotic bass line in album opener “Traffic”, which we’ll be hacking in this video. What makes this bass line so hypnotic? Two things: depth, and syncopation (which is accenting an off-beat). Thom creates depth in his bass line by using a layering technique. And while most people think of layering as adding instruments, you can actually achieve the same effect in a bass line alone, without adding any tracks. You simply write two melodies that work together harmonically, then switch back and forth between them. And Thom assigns his top melody to beats 2+, 3+, and 4+, which results in a hypnotic pumping against his bottom melody that plays on the beats in between. 

SETUP

Alright, now you’re gonna learn how to use this theory to make your own version. And for the example in this lesson, we’ll be using our version that we made earlier. So, start by setting up two bars of 4/4, with your grid set to 1/16 notes, and your tempo set to 129 BPM. And Thom’s bass line is in G minor, so we’ll use it too. 

STEP 1. CHORDS

Musical depth is created from harmony, so when you wanna write a bass line with depth, write your chord progression first. And the chords in G minor that you can choose from, are: Gm, Adim, B♭maj, Cm, Dm, E♭maj, and Fmaj. In our progression, we play Gm for one bar, then Fmaj for half a bar, then Cm for one beat, and then we finish with B♭maj for one beat. 

STEP 2. LAYERS

Now it’s time to split your harmony into two layers: a top melody, and a bottom melody. Thom’s two layers are actually just the same melody played at different octaves, but we decided to kick it up a notch by writing two completely different melodies. We used the root note of each chord for our bottom melody, then we filled in the harmony with our top melody. For example, over the Fmaj chord, our bottom melody plays the root, then our top melody completes the harmony by playing 3, 5, and another 3 an octave higher. 

STEP 3. RHYTHM

Right, the last step is to assign rhythms to your two layers. Thom only plays his top melody on beats 2+, 3+, and 4+, which creates that hypnotic syncopation. So we used a similar rhythm for our top melody, but we added beat 2 as well. And in our second bar, to spice things up even more, we used a few 1/16 notes. The shortest note value Thom uses though, is an 1/8 note, so stick with that if you want something simpler.

MORE

Lastly, we get loads of people asking how to transition between sections, and also, how to structure and arrange songs. And while these are essential skills to learn, please understand that we can’t teach them for free, because that is our secret sauce, which we teach in our online apprenticeship course. So, if you wanna learn how to go from a blank screen to a finished song, then join over 700 other music makers also on the course. And, it helps us pay the rent too, so it’s a win-win!

Kate & Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony)

Music Teachers & Producers in Vancouver BC, Canada

LEVELS

Level 1 - Read our free book (below) & watch our YouTube videos

Level 2 - Read our "Part 1" book & "Songwriting & Producing" PDF

Level 3 - Practice making music using our lessons (PDF+MIDI+WAV)

Level 4 - Learn our secret art of song-whispering & finish your music

ABOUT

Hack Music Theory is a pioneering DAW method for making great music that stands out, so you can move and grow your audience! Taught by award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony, and his protégé wife Kate Harmony, from their studio in Vancouver BC, Canada. Ray is the author of critically-acclaimed book series "Hack Music Theory", and has made music with Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and many more! Kate has the highest grade distinction in Popular Music Theory from the London College of Music, and is the only person on the planet who's been trained by Ray to teach his method. On that note, the "Hack Music Theory" YouTube channel teaches relevant and instantly-usable music theory for producers, DAW users, and all other music makers (songwriters, singers, guitarists, bassists, drummers, etc.) in all genres, from EDM to R&B;, pop to hip-hop, reggae to rock, electronic to metal (and yes, we djefinitely djent!).

COPYRIGHT

© 2019 Revolution Harmony

Revolution Harmony is Ray Harmony & Kate Harmony

All content (script & music) in video by Revolution Harmony

Thumbnail photo of Thom Yorke by Vittorio Zunino Celotto

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