Hack Music Theory

    How to Write Polymeter DRUMS   Step 1. Kick in 7 The new Periphery single “Atropos” (from the album Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre) opens with a classic djent polymeter, which we love! Staying true to Meshuggah’s original polymeter recipe, the kick is in odd time while the snare and cymbals are in 4|4. So, start by programming a one-bar kick rhythm in 7|8. And just cos you’re in 7|8, doesn’...

    How to Write a Layered Guitar RIFF   Step 1. Bass The first thing you notice in the opening riff of “Ego Death” by Polyphia is that there are two layers. There’s a bass line and a lead melody all in one riff, played by one guitar. By adding bass notes below the melody they’re implying chords and creating harmony. This adds a beautiful depth to the riff. And yes, this technique is not new. In f...

    Drum Secrets of Hip-Hop Legends   DOWNLOAD This Tutorial as PDF Includes Bonus Hack, MIDI & WAV file examples   Could you hear the missing ingredient in our drum beat? (click play above). If not, don’t worry, that’s because the beat is actually pretty good the way it is. The kick pattern is a two-bar rhythm, which gives the drum beat variety. There’s also some off-beat kicks, which add gro...

        Why You Struggle to Make Music   Do you sometimes find yourself staring at a blank screen, with absolutely no ideas? Then we have the solution for preventing that from ever happening again. How can we be so confident that this solution will eliminate writer’s block? Because I’ve been writing music for over 30 years, and I’ve never had writer’s block. Ever! So, what’s this magic solution? M...

    Sound Design Is Ruining Your Music   Have you ever opened your digital audio workstation (DAW) because you’re in the mood to make some music, but then you end up spending hours searching for the right bass sound? Then, feeling frustrated because you’ve wasted hours and didn’t even find the right sound, you close your DAW and open Instagram instead. If you’ve ever done that, then we have a huge...

    Stop Looping Melodies This Way   DOWNLOAD This Tutorial as PDF (includes MIDI file)   When you loop a melody, do you just copy and paste it? If so, that way of looping could be ruining your melodies! But the good news is that in this lesson you’ll learn a creative way of looping, which will actually make your melodies better than they were before you looped them. Seriously, this looping hack c...

    Wrong Notes for Better Chord Progressions   DOWNLOAD This Tutorial as PDF (includes MIDI file)   Can you hear the weakness in this chord progression? It’s a common weakness that you hear in most songs. Did you spot it? If not, here’s the answer: all the chords are in the key! Wait, what?! Isn’t that a good thing? Well, not always… You see, there are only seven chords in a key. That doesn’t giv...

    How to Write a Bass Line like Gorillaz "New Gold"   In the new Gorillaz single “New Gold”, there’s a music theory secret that makes their song feel totally different to the other new releases out this week. That’s what you’ll learn in this lesson, as well as how to use it to write a Gorillaz-style bass line. But first... Tea!   INTRO Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmon...

    How to Write a Bass Line like Red Hot Chili Peppers "Tippa My Tongue"   In the new Red Hot Chili Peppers single “Tippa My Tongue”, there’s a ridiculously funky variation of the blues scale, which we’re calling the RHCP scale. And that’s what you’re about to learn, as well as how to write a bass line or guitar riff using it. But first... Tea!   INTRO Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kat...

    Steven Wilson: See Sound, Hear Images   "You imagine something as a guitar part, but then you transpose it to the bass, and it just seems somehow more exotic because of that."  –Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree songwriter-producer)   WELCOME Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make...

    Steven Wilson: Change Your Workflow   "I’m not thinking like a bass player would. It gives you all of these possibilities as a bass player to play melodies, riffs, chords." –Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree songwriter-producer)   WELCOME Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make musi...

    Steven Wilson: Biggest Metal Guitar Mistake   "It's all played on telecaster with an almost clean tone, and to me, it sounds heavier than if I'd played it with a whole bunch of overdrive." –Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)   WELCOME Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! I...

    Steven Wilson: How to Be Creative   "An amateur is someone who does something because they love to do it. So, professionalism is sometimes not a good thing." –Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)   WELCOME Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if y...

    Steven Wilson: Song Structure SECRET   "I love that idea of the callback to the intro. Making sense of the fact there is this intro, by using it as the basis not for the main song (not for the verse, not for the chorus), but going back to the intro in the bridge. You don't hear a lot of songs that do that!" –Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)   WELCOME Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate...

    Steven Wilson: Common Songwriting Mistake   “Nowadays, with so much music being written on the computer, we’ve lost that natural push and pull that an ensemble and a band will have if they’re playing outside of a tempo map. A lot of modern music tends to get stuck in that single tempo across the duration of a piece of music.” –Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)   WELCOME Hello revolutionary music...

    Steven Wilson: The Songwriting Process   "For me, writing music is like standing in front of a brick wall. You go to that brick wall, and you start to hit your head against the wall. And after about an hour, you stand back from the wall and you see if you've made any dent at all in the wall. And sometimes you haven't, and it's very frustrating!" –Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)   WELCOME Hello...

    Steven Wilson on SHRED GUITAR   "I'm not a fan of the whole 'guitar shredder' phenomenon. I love that people can play like that, but the fact is they feel the need to remind everyone they can play like that constantly. To me that's not music, that's sport. That's like an Olympic sport." –Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)   WELCOME Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA...

    Steven Wilson: Don't Structure Songs Like This   "One of the hallmarks of so-called progressive rock is that it doesn't conform to the conventional way that tracks normally would unfold. A piece of progressive rock can go in very unpredictable directions, in terms of song structure. It doesn't just have to be: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus." –Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)   WEL...

    Steven Wilson: Make Music Like This   "Accentuate the things in what you do that are unusual, and that a big record company guy would probably tell you you shouldn’t be doing!" –Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)   WELCOME Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new...

    Orchestrate Drum Patterns for Better Beats   Beginner beats usually use only three elements of the drum kit. So, in this lesson you'll learn how to make pro beats by voicing them over the whole kit. But first... Tea!   INTRO Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’...

    How to Make Polymetric Beats   DOWNLOAD This Tutorial as PDF (includes MIDI file)   In this tutorial you’ll learn a 3-step hack for making polymetric drum beats. We invite you to work along with us through the following steps, so by the end of this lesson, you’ll also have a finished drum beat. But first... Tea!   INTRO Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolut...

    Odd-Time Hack for Better Beats   In this lesson you'll learn how to use odd time signatures, but without them sounding odd. But first… Tea!   Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Musi...

    Bass Contour Rule   Learn how to write better bass lines by creating melodic contours with 3rds and non-harmonic notes. But first… Tea!   INTRO Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Mu...

    Melody Interval Rule   In this lesson you’ll learn a common fault that many songwriters and producers make when writing melodies. More importantly, though, you’ll learn our theory hack for quickly and easily fixing this fault. But first… Tea!   Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to...

    Frustrated Music Producer? This Is For You!   Music is an art, so technically there can’t be any mistakes. But, and it’s a big but, there can definitely be faults, as faults are weaknesses. And unfortunately, when songwriters and producers compose by ear, their music ends up with many faults! For the record, though, it’s not their fault. It’s the fault of our current music education system tha...