Music Theory for Electronic Music: The Bundle (Parts 4-6)

Explore how non-chord tones add life to chord progressions by moving beyond block chords, using passing tones, neighbour tones, and passing chords to improve voice leading.

Explore passing tones as nonchord tones that connect chord tones, using the scale of the key to guide notes, illustrated with F key progression and inner-voice motion for smoother harmony.

Learn how neighbor tones move up or down to reach and return from a chord, separating from passing tones, and shortening notes to blur blockiness in a 3/4 measure.

Blur the blocky sound in a chord progression by connecting dots with passing and neighbor tones, shaping inner and outer motion, and exploring suspensions and non-chord chords.

Insert passing chords between chords in a progression to add motion and color, while guiding voice leading by choosing chords in the key that tie things together.

Explore neighbor chords by moving from B-flat to C major and back, staying in key, with parallel harmony and fifth motion.

Explore suspensions to blur chord progressions in strings and synths by holding chord tones longer, creating diatonic tension with subtle dissonance, and using rhythmic displacement as the key technique.

Displace notes from chords by rhythm, moving one note per chord by half a bar to produce a living progression with a suspension-like tension.

Explore suspensions that stay in key, using diatonic chords, one-note shifts, and top-of-chord movement, with half-step and whole-step crunches to craft pleasing sounds.

explain the appoggiatura as a non-chord tone resolved by shifting the chord to make the tone a chord tone, showing dissonance resolving to consonance through whole- and half-step examples.

Leverage appoggiaturas that descend to create a rolling downhill feeling, making chords seem to go down even when the harmony stays fixed, yielding a crunchy, sad vibe.

Mess things up by adding suspensions and non-chord tones to enliven a chord progression. Experiment with an appoggiatura, passing tones, neighbor tones, and passing chords to blur blocky sounds.

Explore cadences as the end of a chord progression, from the perfect cadence to its implications for electronic music, with insights across classical and pop contexts.

Explain a chord progression in a minor key using a five to one perfect cadence, and a root-position authentic cadence, noting how looping in electronic music shapes ending feel.

Explore imperfect authentic cadences, where a five-to-one cadence lacks perfect root motion. Learn how sevenths or diminished sevenths, and non-root-position chords still resolve to the tonic.

Explore half cadences, which end on the five to create tension, regardless of the preceding chord. See 1 to 5 progressions and learn how this unresolved ending engages listeners.

Explore the plagal cadence in the key of A minor, moving from the four chord to the one, through a softer Amen-like ending that echoes hymns and church music.

Explore deceptive cadences, where the five chord ends a progression on something other than one, often moving from major to relative minor to wrap the piece with a twist.

Explore sequences as pre-made chord progressions that follow a pattern, including diatonic and chromatic sequences in C major, yielding a rolling, harmonically lively sound with a common tone between chords.

Explore how sequences act as ready-made chord progressions, guiding voice leading in the diatonic key of C major, and learn when to break or extend a sequence to craft harmonies.

Explore the ascending fifth sequence (or descending fourth) in C major, tracing the I–V–ii–vi progression from the circle of fifths and applying voice leading to produce smooth, loopable chords.

Explore the descending fifth or ascending fourth from C major, forming a looping one four seven three chord sequence, tightening voice leading and exploring non-chord tones and a weak cadence.

Walks through building progressions by fourths in root position, then flips inversions to change direction, highlighting V–I cadences and the rising or falling feel, with minor-key variants.

Explore descending fifth sequences in minor by moving from a minor key to natural, harmonic, and melodic minor, raise leading tones, and build stronger five-one cadences.

Explore chromatic vs diatonic sequences by transposing a descending fifth pattern beyond the key, building major chords through flats and sharps, and using the result for quick key changes.

Use chromatic sequences to reach a distant key quickly, moving from C major to F sharp major on the circle of fifths, adding a seventh to craft a five-seven-to-one cadence.

Discover the descending third sequence, moving down by thirds to form progressions like i-vi-iv-ii (1642). Apply major or minor, diatonic or chromatic options, often in music theater.

Explores descending thirds in minor, showing how to align F major, D minor, and B diminished progressions with key-centered voice leading and chromatic movement toward a minor cadence.

Explore ascending third progressions in a major key, revealing why they sound less convincing than descending thirds, how they spell seventh chords, and how voice leading shapes the sound.

Explore a progression by seconds built on the diatonic chord progression, then learn how alternating patterns and mixing multiple sequences create more interesting sounds.

Combine two simultaneous sequences to shape a distinctive chord progression, illustrated by a modified sequence inspired by Pachelbel's Canon in D.

Analyzes the canon in d by tracing ascending fifth progressions—d to a, b minor to f sharp minor, g to d—connected by seconds to form a sequence returning to one.

Look ahead to parts five and six, exploring structure with phrases, motives, sentences, periods, hypermeter, and modulation to apply key changes within melodies and tracks.

Learn how structure and form unlock track finishing, beat writer's block, and plan or depart from that plan. Explore harmony, texture, density, and how long-standing forms translate to electronic music.

Choose your digital audio workstation, with Ableton as an example, and gather essential tools; this session emphasizes form and structure and a brief look at waveforms with Audacity.

Apply the techniques to your own music by learning structural analysis by ear, not memorizing tracks, so you can identify transitions and implement those patterns in your tracks.