How to Write Captivating Bass Using Displacements for Variations     Download Tutorial as PDF includes MIDI + WAV file examples     Do you ever write a bass line (or synth/guitar riff) that you love, but after a few loops it gets boring? No problem, you think to yourself, being here in the Hack Music Theory community you know that you need to write a variation for it. So you get to work on that. Fast forward an hour, and everything you’ve tried resulted in the magic of your original version being lost. This is a common problem, and Thom Yorke (Radiohead) and his band ..read more

  How to Write Sweeping Arpeggios using a unique layering technique     Download Tutorial as PDF includes MIDI + WAV file examples     Do your arpeggios all sound rather similar? It’s a common problem for producers.   Arpeggios are when you play a chord one note at a time, and it’s one of the best techniques for making your progressions more interesting. And while it’s definitely more rare to hear arpeggios than “block” chords in popular music genres, most of the arpeggios you do hear are rather boring. Merely playing chords one note at a time is not a foolproof w ..read more

  How to Write a Memorable Bass Line using modal ambiguity     Yes, your lead melody is important. But a great bass line has the power to make or break a section. Despite that fact, though, most producers approach their bass as an afterthought. Think about it. How many songs’ bass lines can you remember?   Almost all the bass lines we hear in the new releases each week are not really bass lines, they’re bass frequencies. If a producer merely plays each chord’s root note as their bass line, that’s not a melody (“line” is just an informal word for melody).   In orde ..read more

  How to Write a Modulating Melody using a series of direct key changes     John Carpenter’s “Halloween Theme” is one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the horror film genre. And that’s not just because the movie is so famous, it’s because the music is massively attention-grabbing due to all its original ideas.   One of the many creative techniques he uses is modulating (i.e. changing key) in the middle of his melody. That’s completely crazy! To put it in context. Most music nowadays doesn’t even modulate at all. In other words, the whole song (verse, chorus, and ..read more

  How to Write Haunting Arpeggios using parallel keys and borrowed chords     Danny Elfman’s theme song for the Netflix show Wednesday (officially called “Wednesday Main Titles” on the soundtrack album) is utterly brilliant! It’s just over one minute, but the amount of creative theory it contains is thoroughly impressive.   One of the most unusual sections is at 21 seconds into the track. It’s a crazy creative chord progression, played as triplet arpeggios. The section is so haunting and unsettling, because he slides through three different keys in the space of four ba ..read more

  How to Write a Suspenseful Melody using Bitonality, AKA playing in two keys simultaneously   The dictionary definition of suspenseful is “causing a feeling of excitement or nervousness because you are waiting for something to happen”. That perfectly describes the intro of “Tubular Bells - Pt. I” by Mike Oldfield. It’s easy to hear why The Exorcist (1973) director William Friedkin chose this music for his film. Recall that classic scene where Chris starts walking home alone as the “Tubular Bells” intro begins. Eeek! Talk about “waiting for something to happen”. If you wanna mak ..read more

  How to Write a Mysterious Melody Using the Chromatic Scale     The epitome of a mysterious and magical melody is the Harry Potter theme (titled “Prologue” on the soundtrack album) by legendary film composer, John Williams.   This melody is overflowing with mystery and magic for a few reasons, all of which you’ll learn in this PDF, but the main reason is: chromaticism. That’s just the fancy word for using notes that are not in the scale. While this technique is (sadly) rare in popular music, it’s common in classical and soundtrack music.   However, John Williams eleva ..read more

  How to Write a Technical Drum Beat   If you’ve been in the Hack Music Theory family for a while, you’ll know we love technical drum beats! And there probably ain’t nothin’ more tech’ than polymeters*. While polymeters were relatively popular with those bold “modern classical” composers of the early 20th century, they haven’t been used much since then.   And yes, over the last few decades there have been a few rare examples of polymeters in popular music. But, it wasn’t until a group of hairy Swedes with exceptional talent (otherwise known as Meshuggah) came along and re-popula ..read more

  How to Write a Prog Melody using the Major-Minor scale, aka Mixolydian ♭6   There aren’t many melodies that stand out nowadays. In an era where most musicians are trying to sound like the popular musicians in their genre, the result is a narrowing of musical territory. This should shock the world, as artists have historically been the brave explorers boldly trekking into unmapped cultural regions. These days, though, most “artists” tend to be copycats playing it safe, doing everything in their power (and AI’s power) to stay within the narrow boundaries of what the masses deem accep ..read more

  How to Write an Octatonic Riff Using the Half-Whole Diminished Scale     Almost all popular music (in every genre and subgenre) is made using the major scale or the natural minor scale. That’s a vast ocean of music from only two scales! And yes, some of the more creative producers will use the modes. That’s great. But, the modes are also 7-note scales (just like the major and natural minor scales).   And, like those two scales, they also contain a major 3rd or a minor 3rd. In other words, each one of the five rarer modes sound either like a variation of the major scale, o ..read more