tonality Archives

3 Scale Modes That Will Deepen the Emotions of Your Pop Song

If you’re looking to impart a sinister, mysterious, bittersweet, or jazzy quality into your songwriting, do it using scale modes! Here’s how.

Exploring Tonal Hierarchies in Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”

In his ongoing attempts to seek out the answers to why we like the music we like, Hunter Farris has uncovered a melodic hierarchy via Whitney Houston.

We Analyzed Every Dang Song That Cracked the Billboard Top 5 in 2018

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3 Atonal Techniques for Adventurous Songwriters

Inspired by Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School, here are three ways to use atonal composition techniques in your pop music-making!

Why Ariana Grande’s “no tears left to cry” Is So Uplifting, Even in a Minor Key

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Lots and Lots of Colored Dots: A Fretboard Explanation of Pop Tonality

Using the guitar fretboard as a template, music theorist Dean Olivet has redesigned harmonic notation in a colorful, intuitive methodology for learning.

Ten Essential Pieces of Advice for Composers

Stuck in a creative compositional rut? Struggling to think outside the box musically? Here are ten essential tips to help you write something extraordinary!

Get Ur Phryg On! Demystifying Timbaland and Missy Elliott’s Famous Beat

Why is the beat to Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” so infectious? Maybe it has something to do with the mysterious Phrygian scale mode it’s written in…

How to Convey These 8 Emotions Using Chords and Harmony

We polled members of the Soundfly staff and mentor community to ask about their go-to chords and progressions for certain emotional outcomes. Check it out!