One of the most common phrases you hear from people producing dance music on their laptops and home setups is, "I love writing beats, but I'm just no good with music theory". Luckily, you don't need a music degree to write good beats, or even chords and harmonies. But having a basic knowledge of these things can help you out a lot - when you know what key something's in, you can try lots of simple ideas quickly, and so you might hit on a great loop much earlier on. So let's take a look at the principles, and how these will help you find your way!What is a "key" anyway? A "key" is essentially a set of notes, used in a scale. It tells you which notes will fit together, which notes are in the scale, what harmonies will sound pleasant or dissonant. All the basic keys are much the same, just moved up or down the keyboard. The key of C is pretty much like the key of F. But you need to know the difference. For the purposes of this article, we'll use the key of C for everything, as it's just all the white notes. It keeps things easy!
So, start on the note of C, and just play up to the next C, all the white notes. That's your C major scale (C is called the "root note"). If you're in C major, any of the white notes will work in a melody. Want to know what the difference is between a major and a minor? It's basically the third note of the scale (so that's E). In a minor, it's moved down a semi-tone. So play the same scale, but with an E flat (black note below E). It's as simple as that.
How to write a melody in a key then? Let's take a look at a good recent example - dubstep star Joker's track "Digidesign". It's in a minor key, so the third note (of the scale) is flat. You can hear that the melody starts and ends on the root note (and returns to it a lot in between), and it just uses the first five notes of the scale - usually in order, too. Check the descending run at the end. If you play the melody yourself, you can see that it pretty much goes up and down the scale – there's nothing technical or advanced, but it's still a very catchy and memorable hookline, and it totally makes the track. Come up with a melody like that, and suddenly your productions can be a lot more simple while still keeping your listeners engaged.
A chord is just several notes played together. The most common type is a "triad" which, as the name suggests, is made of three notes. The simplest, in our key of C, is to play C, E and G together. That's a C Major chord. (Now try playing the minor version, and see how it sounds different). They don't all have to be next to each other though - you could play a G further up the keyboard, or an E on an octave below. The chord will still work, but it will sound subtly different.It's a bit more advanced, but these chords can all be built up further– see how you're playing every alternate note in the scale? Well, try going one further by adding a B on top. That's called a 7th chord (because a B is the 7th note in the scale) and you'll hear it's got a slightly jazzy flavour. You can keep going up as far as you like, although it starts getting complicated soon after that!
Going simpler, try playing just C and G. That's called a fifth interval, and you'll hear it sounds kind of strident, and you can't tell whether it's major or minor. Fifth intervals always sound solid, as these are the bedrock notes of any scale. You can play a fifth any time (try E and B, or G and D, and so on...) and they'll always have a strong relationship with your main key.
Hopefully you've noticed, then, that two of the most important notes in a scale (after the root note itself) are the third and the fifth – or in our key of C, they're E and G. So if you want to harmonise a synth line, try putting something a third (four semitones for major, three semitones for minor) or a fifth (seven semitones) above it, or below it. Likewise if you just want to make a chord.
Scales and harmonies can get super-complex, but really they're just the same thing repeated across the keyboard. A bit like the way a mixing desk is usually just one channel repeated 24 times – it looks complicated at first, but when you can work one channel you can work them all! On this note, in fact, if you haven't seen a harmony wheel, try googling for it – they're just a small tool to remind you which keys work well together. Basically, they tell you that fifths sound good next to each other, which you now know already, but they can be a useful visual aid anyway.
This has been just a simple intro to the world of scales and harmonies, but when you know the basics, you can really save time and hassle for yourself by knowing where to start, and which basic ideas might work, and which won't. So jump in, dust off that controller keyboard, and get harmonising!
