Ray Harmony's Blog, page 22

Why People Don't Sing Your Chord Progressions

In this Hack Music Theory video, you’ll learn why people aren't singing along to your chord progressions, and we’ll give you two hacks to solve this problem once and for all. But first... Tea!

Hello, we are Kate Harmony & Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to the Hack Music Theory show, where you are empowered with notation-free theory for making great music in DAWs.

HACK 1 - Chords Can Sing
Have you ever noticed how people don’t really sing along to chord progressions? Instead, they’ll wait for the vocals to come in, then sing along to the vocal melody. The reason behind this phenomenon, is that even the simplest type of chord (known as a triad), offers the listener a choice of three different notes to sing. And this choice happens with every chord in a progression. So for example, if someone is listening to a chord progression containing four triads, the amount of note choices is 3x3x3x3, resulting in a whopping 81 potential melodies to sing.

But wait, doesn’t that give them 81 reasons to sing? Nope, because this is the paradox of choice. It’s like when you’re in the grocery store trying to buy a box of organic green tea, but there’s shelves and shelves of different types of organic green tea (welcome to our world haha!), and as a result of the vast amount of choices, you’re totally overwhelmed and can’t decide, so you just walk away. And that is exactly what happens to listeners when they hear chord progressions; the vast amount of note choices totally overwhelms them, so they don’t sing any. Don’t worry though, our Chords Can Sing hack solves this issue once and for all, and will definitely get your listeners singing along to your chord progressions!

Right, so if you’ve used the chord hacks in our Songwriting & Producing PDF, you’ll be starting this hack with a well-written chord progression, which includes inversions and sus chords. Now, you need to pull out a melody from your chord progression (by choosing one note from each chord), for your listeners to sing along to. And once you’ve decided on your melody, copy and paste it an octave higher, so it’s now above your chords. This hack makes it sound like your chords are singing, which will in turn make your listeners sing. It works for two reasons: Firstly, it gives your listeners a defined melody to sing along to, and secondly, our ears are drawn to melodies in higher octaves, cos they’re in the vocal range, so doubling this melody above the chords (instead of below), pushes it to the front of the stage and into the spotlight!

HACK 2 - Motifation
Now that you’ve given your listeners something to sing, you need to give them the motifation to sing it! Listeners will only feel motivated to sing a catchy melody. And what makes a melody catchy? Yep. Motifs! A motif is a short musical idea, and by repeating it, you make your melody memorable. So now it’s time for what we call “motif hunting”. Motif hunting is when you search through your musical content, hunting for an idea that stands out. When you find that idea, you can then creatively repeat it, thereby turning it into a motif. Using our Chords Can Sing hack together with our Motifation hack, will ensure your chords not only sing, but their melody gets stuck in your listeners’ heads!

When we were motif hunting, we found something in our second bar: a beautiful descending melody, which really stands out due to its contour and rhythm. And by repeating that idea in our last bar, we’ll make our melody super catchy. So, let’s move down to the E on beat two, and add in a C♯ on beat 4, so the contour and rhythm match our second bar. And with that, we’re done!

EXAMPLE
The example in this video is the bridge section from of our upcoming single “Down with the Drama”, which features the amazing Sarah Serene on vocals. If you missed any of our previous videos on this song, check out our YouTube playlist.

Lastly, do you struggle to finish your music? If you do, then check out our online apprenticeship course, where you’ll learn how to effortlessly write new sections for existing sections, how to transition between them, and most importantly, how to finish your songs! For more info, just head on over to our Apprenticeship Course. Alright, enjoy the video/podcast.

Kate & Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony)
Music Teachers & Producers in Vancouver BC, Canada

LEARN
1: Read our free book (below) & watch our YouTube videos
2: Read our "Part 1" book & "Songwriting & Producing" PDF
3: Learn how to become a song-whisperer, and effortlessly finish music!

ABOUT
Hack Music Theory is the pioneering notation-free method for making great music. Taught by award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony, and his protégé (and 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), 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 Hack Music Theory method! While these Hack Music Theory YouTube lessons teach music theory for producers and DAW users, they are designed to accommodate all music makers (songwriters, guitarists, etc.) and all genres, from Electronic Music to R&B, Pop to Hip-Hop, Reggae to Rock, EDM/Dance to Metal (and yes, we djefinitely Djent!).

Wooohooo!!! You’re a mere 30 minutes away from being even smarter than you already are. Just head on over to your inbox now for your free download.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

“The most brilliant, fast, easy & fun music theory book I’ve ever seen!” DEREK SIVERS, CD Baby founder

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Published on July 09, 2018 09:00

The #1 Way to Hook People

Learn the No.1 way to hook people with your intros, so your songs don’t end up in the one-quarter of all songs played on Spotify that are skipped within their first five seconds. But first... Tea!

Hello, we are Kate Harmony & Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to the Hack Music Theory show, where you are empowered with notation-free theory for making great music in DAWs.

HACK 1 - Save The Chorus
As we spoke about in our last video, a great intro gives away just enough hooky musical content (to pull your listeners in), but no more than that. This allows you to hold back the vast majority of content, which you can then drip out through the rest of your song, to ensure your listeners are hooked till the very last note. It’s worth noting here, that this approach is actually relatively new. In the old music industry (where people bought music), there was no need to make a hooky intro, as listeners would usually wait until the chorus before deciding whether to buy the song. This allowed us to be way more creative with our intros. However, in the new music industry (where people stream music, and literally have tens of millions of songs in the palm of their hand), listeners are arriving at their verdict within seconds, instead of waiting to hear the chorus. This puts us under enormous pressure to make our intros ultra mega hooky, in order to avoid that dreaded skip button (or the swipe). Sadly though, this leads far too many songwriters and producers to give away their choruses in their intros. But as a result of this colossal compromise, listeners get bored halfway through these songs, as not enough content was held back to maintain their attention till the end. It’s important to remember here, that every song is different, and therefore requires a different structure. So, while using a stripped-down version of your chorus for an intro may work for some of your songs, it will definitely not be the right structure for most of your songs. And yes, there is a way to have your chorus and eat it! All you need to do is write a new section (specifically for your intro), which is super hooky, too. This gives your streaming listeners what they demand, while also allowing you to save the chorus for later in your song.

HACK 2 - Harmonize the Shadow
Millions of years of evolution has hardwired us to instantly connect with the human voice, so the No.1 way to hook your listeners with your intro, is vocals! So, start by writing a short melodic phrase, using just a few notes (we’re using the 2, the 1, and the ♭3). Also, be sure to use syncopation, which is the accenting of an off-beat (we start our melodic phrase on a 1/16 note syncopation, then we follow that with an 1/8 note syncopation - super groovy!). Now, copy and paste your phrase into bar two, and for variation, move it left or right to start on a different beat. Then, copy and paste those two phrases into bars three and four, and mute them. The first two phrases are your lead melody, and the second two phrases are its shadow. This “shadow melody” is gonna be sung in your backing vocals, and your lead melody is gonna harmonize it. But remember, shadows are slightly distorted, so be sure to make a little change to your shadow, for variation. Our little change was adding more syncopation to our shadow, by singing the last note (in both phrases) a 1/16 early. Far too many intros use far too much repetition (in a desperate attempt to hook people), so this hack allows you to use the repetition needed to hook people, but, by passing that repetition over to your backing vocals, it also allows your lead vocals to sing something new, so your listeners don’t get bored. Finally, connect the two halves of your lead melody, by adding a few notes in between, and you’re done!

EXAMPLE
The example in this video is the intro section from of our upcoming single “Down with the Drama”, which features the amazing Sarah Serene on vocals. If you missed any of our previous videos on this song, check out our YouTube playlist.

Lastly, do you struggle to finish your music? If you do, then check out our online apprenticeship course, where you’ll learn how to effortlessly write new sections for existing sections, how to transition between them, and most importantly, how to finish your songs! For more info, just head on over to our Apprenticeship Course. Alright, enjoy the video/podcast.

Kate & Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony)
Music Teachers & Producers in Vancouver BC, Canada

LEARN
1: Read our free book (below) & watch our YouTube videos
2: Read our "Part 1" book & "Songwriting & Producing" PDF
3: Learn how to become a song-whisperer, and effortlessly finish music!

ABOUT
Hack Music Theory is the pioneering notation-free method for making great music. Taught by award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony, and his protégé (and 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), 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 Hack Music Theory method! While these Hack Music Theory YouTube lessons teach music theory for producers and DAW users, they are designed to accommodate all music makers (songwriters, guitarists, etc.) and all genres, from Electronic Music to R&B, Pop to Hip-Hop, Reggae to Rock, EDM/Dance to Metal (and yes, we djefinitely Djent!).

Wooohooo!!! You’re a mere 30 minutes away from being even smarter than you already are. Just head on over to your inbox now for your free download.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

“The most brilliant, fast, easy & fun music theory book I’ve ever seen!” DEREK SIVERS, CD Baby founder

We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer.

DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK

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Published on July 02, 2018 09:00

How to Write a Song Intro - Music Theory Hacks for Catchy Bass Lines

In this Hack Music Theory lesson, you’ll learn how to write a bass line that hooks your listeners into your song within seconds. But first... Tea!

Hello, we are Kate Harmony & Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to the Hack Music Theory show, where you are empowered with notation-free theory for making great music in DAWs.

A great intro is a musical tease! It reveals very little of the song, while totally hooking us in to ensure we keep listening. Think of an intro like a trailer for a song, and just like movie trailers, there’s three types: 1) the trailer that’s so desperate for you to watch the movie, it gives everything away, but now you don’t need to watch the movie. 2) the trailer that’s attempting to lure you in with a mysteriously abstract taste, but you have absolutely no idea what the movie is actually about, so you don’t watch it. And finally, 3) the “goldilocks” trailer that acts as a window through which you glimpse the movie, but now you have questions, and if you wanna know the full story, you’ll need to watch the full movie!

HACK 1 - One. Two. Boo!
The ultimate goal for every intro is to give away enough to keep people listening, while also holding back enough to maintain their interest till the end of your song. And the way to achieve this is through our easy psychological hack: One. Two. Boo! Here’s how it works. Create a simple pattern that your listeners can instantly follow, and then repeat it once - this will trigger their brains’ reward system, as they’ll correctly predict the recurrence of your pattern. But then, at the end of your second loop, vary the pattern unexpectedly. And boo! Thanks to a good dose of dopamine, your listeners are now mentally and physiologically hooked into your song! And as you can see, our simple pattern consists of a couple long F♯s (our root note), played on beat 1 and beat 2+, which is a classic hip-hop rhythm. And then on beat 4 we’ve got a 1/4 note rest, which sets up the expectation of that rest recurring at the end of our second loop, but that’s exactly where the unexpected variation hits! Instead of a 1/4 note rest, we give ‘em a couple quick 1/16 notes and a couple 1/16 note syncopations, which is an accenting of the off-beat that pumps up the energy of your rhythm.

HACK 2 - Vary the Variation
The great irony of variation, is that if you repeat it, it’s no longer variation. This is how an unexpected and thrilling variation can quickly turn into a predictable disappointment the second time round. So, in order to deliver another dopamine hit to your listeners, which will keep them listening beyond your intro, you need to vary the variation! Start by looping your “One. Two. Boo!” pattern, and then, on the second “Boo!”, change it up to totally surprise your listeners yet again. And with that, they settle in and take their fingers off that dreaded Skip button! Yeah so you can see our second “Boo!” is completely different to our first “Boo!”. Instead of starting on beat 4, it starts on beat 3e, and instead of going down, it goes up, and instead of going to a diatonic note (a note that’s in the scale), it goes to a very unexpected ♭2, which is a non-diatonic note (a note that’s not in the scale). And finally, for one last massive dopamine hit, we’re gonna bring back this intro after our second chorus (just before the bridge), which will beautifully tie the song together, while also creating a comforting familiarity right before we change things up in the bridge!

EXAMPLE
The example in this video is the intro section from of our upcoming single “Down with the Drama”, which features the amazing Sarah Serene on vocals. If you missed any of our previous videos on this song, check out our YouTube playlist.

MORE
If you want a more in-depth lesson, we suggest our 15-minute video: How to Write a Bass Line