The Hidden Grammar of Music
What a music theory book at age 13 taught me about how to look at chords, chord progressions and the emotions they’re capable of manifesting.
scales of all shapes and sizes! minor pentatonic scales, major scales, minor scales, etc.
What a music theory book at age 13 taught me about how to look at chords, chord progressions and the emotions they’re capable of manifesting.
Modern songwriters, producers and artists are reinventing the way jazz idioms and foundations are applied in modern pop. Let’s break it down!
A handy guide for using borrowed chords in parallel scales and modes, to make your chord progressions more refreshing and unpredictable.
It’s not hard to break out of predictable chord patterns with a new mindset on harmony, and a bit of easy help from secondary dominants, too.
Learning to read or write music? Here’s a quick guide to making chords within the various scales and modes you might encounter in music theory.
Learning to read or write music? Here’s a quick-yet-deep primer on how key signatures work across major, minor, modal, blues and other tonalities.
If you’re looking to impart a sinister, mysterious, bittersweet, or jazzy quality into your songwriting, do it using scale modes! Here’s how.
Modes and Key Signatures have a variety of different characteristics and are great for outside-the-box songwriting. Here’s a cheat sheet to remember them!
A lesson on how to use one of the most exciting and practical scale modes for soloing on the guitar in jazz, blues, rock, and fusion.
+ Learning to read and write music? Access hundreds of lessons from Soundfly’s online courses on music theory, songwriting, production, mixing and more — subscribe here. This article originally appeared on Ethan Hein’s blog. Are you trying to learn scales and patterns, but finding it hard to make yourself practice? Do yourself a favor, and practice over actual…