The Zen of Tracking

"I just came up with a melody, and then tracked it down.. then I put drum/basslines on it and noticed, hey this is 10/8 tempo :).. I think its much more fun tracking without thinking of any music 'rules' there might be, and then afterwards I can take a look and see what I've really done :)" - Radix

Tracking music without knowing theory is not only possible, but it can produce incredible results. Still, as they say: "There is no knowledge that is not power." This section is provided to give you a healthy dose of music theory-- enough so you can look back and see what it was you were really doing, at least... :)

Okay, we'll start with the very, very basic... If you're at all familiar with this stuff, you should read the first few words of each paragraph until you're into new material. I'll warn you now: I start from the VERY bottom. : )

Music is divided up into notes, as I'm sure you well know. Well, each note is assigned to a particular pitch. Pitch is synonymous with frequency, which can be described as "how often a sound wave repeats itself." A middle-C (the note at which most samples are recorded), repeats itself 261.78 times per second-- pretty fast.

As you are also most likely aware, notes are grouped into things called scales. There are typically seven notes in a scale, though that can change from style to style... A common example of the scale can be found in that cheesy "Sound of Music" movie, which has a song in it that goes "Do, a deer, a female deer," and so on. Basically, they outline the seven steps of a "Major" scale. And you probably also remember that at the end of the scale, it "brings us back to Do"... That is, the scale repeats itself on the eighth note.

What I'm trying to get at here is the physical representation of this repeating pattern. The frequency of the eighth note in a scale that starts at middle-c (which, you recall, starts at 261.78 beats per second) is 523.56-- exactly twice that of middle-c. This repetition is a phenomenon known as the octave. An octave above any note is exactly double the frequency of that note.

Okay, so we have an octave now. How is that octave broken up? Well, into scales, yes, but there are different kinds of scales. Take, for instance, the melodic minor scale, used is songs like Bach's Toccata and Fugue (think of vampires-- the music you probably imagine going along with it is Bach's T&F.) There's a distinctly different "flavor" to that baroque piece and "Do, a Deer"... That is accomplished by using a different set of notes between octaves.

It's most useful to look at a piano, here:

(On a piano, pitch is represented as going up as you go to the right, by the way.)

You can see a repeating pattern... It's most noticeable with the black keys: a pair of them, a space, three of them, a space [repeat:] two, space, three, space. Each repetition is an octave. Unfortunately, we're more interested in the white keys right now. You can see that the first white key (which is the 'c' key, by the way) is immediately to the left of a pair of blacks. Count seven more keys (ie: get to the eighth key from the left), and you are once again immediately to the left of a pair of black keys. There's your octave, and there is your major scale of seven notes. (In fact, octave is abbreviated as "8ve", since it's the eighth note in a typical scale.)

So what are the black keys? Just a reference? Hell no! Those of you who have some background in music might think of those as "accidentals." And those of you without training are wondering what mistake they've made to get a name like that... They're called accidentals because they create an "accent" to notes in a scale. Not through volume, but through pitch. I could explain to you why Gregorian chants brought this about, but that would be even more boring than the music itself. Basically, it's these "pitch accents" that formed what we know today as scales. The name stuck, though the concept evolved. Thus, we have the "accidentals" that transform one scale into another.

A commonly-asked question is "why do we start a major scale with 'C'?" (Well, the answer to that is also based on the Gregorian chants, which were always in a modified minor key, which started with "a", really) The answer would be "it doesn't." A major scale on the piano that uses only the white keys starts with 'C'. You can play a major scale starting with any key, but they would all require using some black keys.

However, that question does being us to the point of giving these keys a name (other than "white keys" and "black keys", which will get you pummeled when used in the company of musicians). As we've said several times, the first key you see there is the one we call 'C'. You'll remember that there are seven notes in the scale-- well, we use the corresponding letters to name the notes: a-g, except, as noted, we start with C, get up to G, change to A, and head on up.

"AUGH!" you say? Let me run that by you one more time. The "white keys", as you see them above, are called (from left to right): C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F... and so on. So one scale is C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Seven notes, seven letters.

"So what about Do Re Mi, etc?" you ask? Well, that gets even uglier, so I'll skip it for the most part right now. "Solfege", as it is called, is used specifically for singing. We're more interested in instruments, here. So ignore Marry Poppins or whatever her name was...

Let's move on to the accidentals ("the black keys")... Accidentals are relative. They have no identity of their own: they borrow it from the keys near them. The names we use to show that relation are "sharp" and "flat". Sharp is higher in pitch, flat is lower in pitch. (Remember that higher pitches move to the right on a piano.) Why sharp and flat, you ask? Gregorian chants, you guess? Well I don't know!!! It's pretty natural, I think. Flat things are generally lower in height than sharp things... [shrug]

So, that first black key there would be called "C-sharp", right? Because it's to the right (= higher in pitch = sharp) of the first key, which is the 'C' key. Sure.

Wait, no... It's to the left of the 'D' key (second "white key" over), which makes it "D-flat", yes? Okay... That's right too. Those "black keys" can be called by either name. What you call them is based on two things: personal taste, and what "key" you're in (Not to be confused with the 'keys' on a piano...)

Oh great. Another bit of music jargon. So what's a key? Keys are the meat of music. If music is magic, notes are only your components (you know, wing of bat, eye of newt?)... Keys are the spells. By the time you're through with music, you will be a master of using keys to your advantage.

Keys are very closely related to scales. In fact, they're pretty much the same thing: a bunch of notes sandwiched between an octave. Indeed, the 'major' and 'minor' labels that we used to describe scales are also used to name keys. Where keys vary from scales is where they begin. Scales are just the notes relating to each other. Keys allow you to move that relationship around. Still, before we get into keys, let's take a closer look at scales:

Referring back to the piano, you'll see that now-familiar major scale, going from the first 'C' key to the 'C' key an octave above it. Reviewing, that's C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and another C. If you count them, it's still eight notes. That will never change. But what about when we throw in the accidentals? One, two, three... Twelve! Where'd that number come from? Long, long story. Has to do with physics, which we won't get around to until a little later. For now, just remember that there are 11 notes in an octave (12 re-starts the pattern).

The way we denote this in music is with steps. If you only count the notes in the scale, you come up with seven. We call those whole steps (with an exception, which I'll explain in short coming). When you count the accidentals, you get 11. Those are half-steps. (No exceptions.) There are always eleven half steps in an octave.

So we have half- and whole- steps to work with now. And what about those exceptions? Well, again, looking at the piano, there are two places in an octave where there isn't a black key to separate the white ones. Specifically, they're the B-C pair, and the E-F pair. Well, those are half steps, not whole steps (sorry, I lied to you earlier). So that redefines our scale, doesn't it? Now instead of a nice neat group of seven whole steps, we have:

Whole-, Whole-, Half-, Whole-, Whole-, Whole-, Half- Steps.

Yes, sir. That is a major scale. Again, assuming we start from 'c' on the piano, we basically count the number of keys (both colors): two keys are a whole step, one key's a half.

So what would a minor scale look like? Well, if you remember that a simple minor scale on a piano starts on the 'a' key, you could just count the keys... In any case, the answer is:

Whole-, Half-, Whole-, Whole-, Half-, Whole-, Whole- Steps.

No big surprises, here. A minor scale uses the same notes as a major scale, only offset... In fact, it's worth noting that a minor scale is offset three half-steps down from the major scale. As a real-life application: If you can figure out how to play a major scale, you've also figured out how to play the minor scale that starts three half-steps below it. Just use the same notes, starting three half-steps back. In other words, the one of the minor key starts at the six of the major key.

So how does this relate to keys? Ahhh: Directly. The major scale we keep outlining, here (starting with 'c') is the key of C-Major. And the minor scale? That's the key of a-minor. Why? Because it uses the minor scale: (1, 1/2, 1, 1, 1/2, 1, 1 steps), and it starts with 'A'.

So what? What good does that do you? Well, you can take those scales you've learned, and play them ANYWHERE on the keyboard. Just use the same pattern of whole- and half-steps, and start from wherever. Let's say you want the key of G-flat-minor. No problem. Find G-flat (the 'black key' just to the left of 'G'), and start counting. First, a whole step. That gives you A-flat. Then, a half-step: 'A'. Next, a whole step, for 'B', and so on. The result would then be:

G-flat, A-flat, A, B, D-flat, D, E. There are our seven notes.

Well, alright, but there are two things that make this wrong. First, we've got two occurrences of the same letter twice (A-flat and A, and D-flat and D), and we're missing a C and an F. We can fix that by changing everything we called a flat to a sharp:

F-sharp, G-sharp, A, B, C-sharp, D, E. Still seven notes!!!

And the second problem is very small: Writing out '-sharp' and '-flat'. It's rather annoying, really. So instead musicians use those funky symbols you see on sheet music: 'b' for flat, and '#' for sharp. Well, they don't really use 'b'... They use something that looks like a 'b' designed in a wind tunnel. For those of us who use ASCII, 'b' will suffice. Just be careful not to confuse it with the note "B"! A B-flat would be written "Bb", which may be ugly, but it's easier than typing them out. : )

So, once again, the key of Gb-minor is really F#-minor, which uses the notes F#, G#, A, B, C#, D, and E.

Well, you could go and fiddle with a piano and figure out all twelve keys (well, 24 if you want major and minor)... But let me make your life a little easier (that's my job):

And now you have all the keys at your disposal. There are many variations on keys, however, and we should probably note those before moving on... They're known as 'modes': (I got some of this material from Leviathan in TraxWeekly #1:)

Modifications to the Major mode: The major scale given above is just a plain old major scale, also known as the "Ionian" mode. This is the happy-go-lucky mode, and the most commonly used throughout music. You can get (at least) two modifications to major: by flatting the fifth, you get what's called the "Lydian" mode. This gives the song a pretty funky feeling... A flatted fifth creates what's known as a tritone, which is a nasty-evil crunchy pair of notes from hell... Try hitting C and G-flat at the same time. Not too pretty, eh? The tone is somewhat angry or violent. Anyway. You get a mode called "Mixolydian" if you flat the seventh,(not the fifth). (And no, these names are not really important. It's trivia, really.) The Mixolydian mode is very smooth-sounding... It avoids the strong cadences that you get in the natural major mode, (we'll go over cadences soon), making the music flow together a little more... Bach used it quite a bit, as do many classical composers.

Modifying the minor mode: The minor mode given above is called a "natural" minor, or "Aeolian" mode. The minor mode is usually used when you're looking for something either sad or "haunting"... It's a powerful sound, which can either be beautiful or threatening. There are two major variations on this minor, the first called the "melodic" minor, which varies depending on the direction you're moving... As you go up the minor scale, naturalize the six and seven. As you go down, play the natural minor. This is used quite often in "classical" music, to get a cool mix of the major mode's strong cadences and the minor mode's 'evil' tone... The next variant is the "harmonic" minor, which is, quite simply, the same as the natural minor, with a naturalized seven. You'll find that this mode is the most useful of the minor modes, since the naturalized seven brings back those nice major-mode cadences without loosing the feel of the minor at all. There are also other minor modes: the "Dorian" mode naturalizes the six only. That's a pretty funky thing to do... I'm not sure of it's uses... (Anyone, anyone? Beuller?) The "Phrygian" mode is the same as the natural, with a flatted second (I use this one a lot...) Very spooky. There are a bazillion other modifications to the minor mode. That's kind of what the minor mode is used for: fooling around with funky combinations of tones. In fact, in sheet notation you can generally spot the pieces in minor by the number of accidentals (sharps and flats, remember) that are used in odd places... The more of them you see, the better the chances are that it's minor.

Other modes: There are many other modes which are used in music. Here are just a few: the "diminished" mode looks like the minor, but flats the second and the fifth, and can be called the "Locrian" mode... Another spooky mode! There's also the "whole-tone scale" which has only six notes in it, all of them one whole step apart... (Looks kind of like the major scale, but with a sharp four, five and six, but no seven at all)... This is something you hear in those "dream sequences" that you see in cartoons. : ) There are modes that sound distinctly Indian (try playing it with an oboe sample: dancing snakes!), which flat (from a major mode) the two, three, and six, and sharp the four... (I think that mode is called the "Bohemian" mode? No... I can't remember. Something like that, though.)

Now that you've got keys, you need to know what to do with them... That's covered in the next section:

This section is growing monthly, check back now and again.

Here's a bit about Chords that JRice wrote for TraxWeekly:

Let me first refer you to several excellent articles in past issues of TraxWeekly: In issue #12, Necros brings us "Advanced Tracking Tips", which covers some basic chord progression theory. In addition, Bibby has been supplying us with a vast well of knowlege in the past few issues of TW (try #102 and #105)... His familiarity with theory puts my own to shame. I would (loosely) recommend you acquaint yourself with these articles before proceeding.

Voicing, however, is something these articles shy away from. While it's great to know you can progress from IV to ii to V and end on I, it helps to know which voice of the chord should move where. But first, some history.

In the day of the 4-channel mod, trackers had little room in which to breathe. Thus, chords were often comprised of two samples: a major and minor chord, both in root position (for example, the sample (C-Major) would be voiced something like C4 E4 G4). While this did serve to form a chord progression, is causes a hollow feel to the piece. A recent composition by a friend of mine used this technique: M5R-COTF.ZIP, which certainly would have placed, if he'd broken up the chords (and yes, he knows about this... He was pressed for time. It's still an excellent tune, check it out).

It didn't take long for people to pick up on this. Later modules improved the situation by including a few chords in various inverted positions. (The same major chord above might have been G3 C4 E4, which is the second inversion, or 6/4 inversion. Bear with me, I'll explain.) In fact, many poeple still use this same method (Basehead, for instance).

Now that we've got 30+ channels open to us, we have the freedom to voice our chords dynamically. There are a few basic techniques required to make this effective. First, we need to learn about inversions. While this is covered in several places (including on the Zen page), I'd like to re-cap inversions here, if you'll bear with me.

When you boil a chord-- any chord-- down to it's most basic nature, you end up in _root position._ A C-Major chord would be voiced C4 E4 G4 in root position: all of the pitches are seperated by thirds, and the lowest possible value is in the bass. (Assume 'the bass' just means it's the lowest pitch played with the chord sample, and does NOT mean it's played with Kosmic's sine-to-saw samples!) :) If you add a (major) seventh to that, it would look like C4 E4 G4 B4.

In truth, root position (as well as any inversions) only care about the voice in the bass. If you were to voice your chord C4 G4 E5, you would still be in root position. The only aspect you've changed is that you are now in an 'open voicing' instead of a 'closed voicing' (the meaning is fairly intuitive).

There are always the same number of inversions to a chord as there are notes above the root. Thus, in three-part harmony (typical in modules), there are two possible inversions (not to be confused with voicings... By stretching the number of octaves you're covering, you could have an almost limitless number of voicings). In four part harmony (the more common in the real world), there are three.

Starting with triads (another term for 3-part harmony), the two inversions are often called '6' and '6/4', or 'first' and 'second'. To understand why, it helps to see the inversions themselves:

 
 Name     Voicing         Notes
 ----     -------         -----
 Root:  C4 E4 G4          [yawn]
    6:     E4 G4 C5       More formally known as '6/3' 
  6/4:        G4 C5 E5    Often used in cadences 
 

          E5  \ sixth           6
        / C5  /         or
 fourth \ G4 /                  4
 

Still, that doesn't exaplain the 6, right? Well, E5 to C6 is still a sixth. The other interval (the third) is ommitted simply because this is a very old form of notation, and people got tired of writing 6/3 all the time, so they all agreed to shorten it to 6. It makes some sense, since the first inversion is 'simpler' than the second.

Okay, enough of that. Let's talk voicing. Traditionally, there are only two rules to voicing: 1) move as little as possible, while 2) avoiding parallel fifths and octaves. Parallel fifths and octaves are when two voices move in the same direction to land on a P5 (C# and G#, for instance... seven half- steps apart) or octave (ex: C5 and C6).

So, if you're moving from a I chord to a ii6 (first inversion, you'll remember), you might voice it like this:

 
 C5    E5    G5        (I)
 F4    D5    A5        (ii6)  BAD
 

 C5    E5    G5        (I)
 A4    D5    F5        (ii6/4)
 

 C5    E5    G5        (I)
 D5    F5    A5        (ii)  VERY BAD
 

In any case, the second rule is less important that the first: don't move around too much. This is also known, and hereafter refered to, as 'leaping'. A 'leap' is, technically, any movement greater than a third. Where this can get fuzzy is augmented thirds (C and E#) (and, yes, E# is really F) or, more often, diminished fourths (C and Fb) (Yes, Fb is really E). Technically, moving from C to E# is okay, and moving from C to Fb is a leap. But we won't worry about this distinction, since both of these intervals are quite rare.

There are a few instances where leaping is allowed, however. The bass, for instance, leaps quite often by a fifth (usually down) or a fourth (usually up). This is seen most often in a strong cadence:

 
 G4    D5    B5    F6        (V7)
 C4    E5    C6    G6        (I)
 

One thing to keep in mind when the bass is leaping: counterpoint. You may have heard this term, but not known exactly what it meant. It's quite simple-- counterpoint is keeping the bass and the soprano voices moving in opposite directions.

In the above example, the soprano voice moves up by step to the 5 of the chord, which is contrapuntal (meaning 'in counterpoint')-- the bass is moving down. This keeps the sound rich and full.

You'll also hear basses make octave leaps a lot. This serves, like the above example, to move from closed to open voicing, or vice versa. When changing in this manner, it's less important to move the soprano by step, but (for obvious reasons) you should still use counterpoint.

Sopranos are also allowed to leap (by fourths, fifths, and octaves) when a dramatic 'lead' is being written... It certainly grabs the listener's attention! Therefore, you want to avoid leaping in the soprano voice when you've got a lead playing at the same time... You want to keep the backup subtle, and leaps that high in pitch are anything BUT.

Inner voices (alto and, in four-part harmony, tenor) should avoid leaping unless absolutely necessary, and then should limit themselves to fourths. Anything larger sounds abnormal in alto and tenor voices... They're there to accentuate a chord, to give it harmonic value... to stay sutble.

That's it for now... I'll get to the rest in a week or so.

Here's a cool list of scales & chords, compiled from all over the place: TraxWeekly, (Modsquad rocks) : ) programs (quite a few from Syntrillium's WindChimes), the web ( like this site)... I'll break it up into useful sections at some point...

Major Pentatonic:

C D E G A
Neapolitan Minor:	C Db Eb F G Ab B C
Neapolitan Major:	C Db Eb F G A B C
Oriental:	C Db E F Gb A Bb C
Double Harmonic:	C Db E F G Ab B C
Enigmatic:	C Db E F# G# A# B C
Hirajoshi:	A B C E F A
Hungarian Major:	C D# E F# G A Bb C
Hungarian Minor(Gypsy):	C D Eb F# G Ab Bb	Mad
Kumoi:	E F A B C E
Iwato:	B C E F A B
Hindu:	C D E F G Ab Bb C
Pelog:	C Db Eb G Bb C
Gypsy:	C D Eb F# G Ab Bb C
Major Phrygian:	C D F E F G Ab Bb C
Major Locrian:	C D E F Gb Ab Bb C
Lydian Minor:	C D E F# G Ab Bb C
Overrtone:	C D E F# G A Bb C
Leading Whole Tone:	C D E F# G# A# B C
Arabian:	C D E F Gb Ab Bb C
Balinese:	C Db Eb G Ab C
Gypsy:	C Db E F G Ab B C
Mohammedan:	C D Eb F G Ab B C
Javanese:	C Db Eb F G A Bb C
Persian:	C Db E F Gb Ab B C
Algerian:	C D Eb F# G Ab B C D Eb F
Aeolian:	C D Eb F G Ab Bb C
Byzantine:	C Db E F G Ab B C
Hawaiian:	C D Eb F G A B C	The F is a grace note only.
Jewish:	E F G# A B C D E
Mongolian:	C D E G A C
Ethiopian:	G A Bb(or B) C D Eb(or E) F(or F#) G
Spanish:	C Db E F G Ab Bb C
Egyptian:	C D F G Bb C
Japanese:	C Db F G Ab C
Chinese:	F G A C D F C E F# G B C
New Pentatonic:	C D E F# A
Japanese Pentatonic:	C Db F G Ab
Balinese Pentatonic:	C Db F Gb Ab	Freaky! = Db-Maj7dim4?
Pelog (?) Pentatonic:	C Db Eb G Bb	Dreamy
Hemitonic Pentatonic 3:	C D Eb G B	Spooky
Pentatonic Variation:	C E G A Bb	Smooth
C-MajDom7:	C E G B	[yawn] A major scale.
C-minDom7:	C Eb G Bb	A minor scale. Whoopie.
Harmonic MinDom7:	C Eb G B	Phantom minor
Melodic MinDom7:	C Eb F A	Really an F-MajDim7, 2nd Inv.
'Esoteric' 6th:	Cb D F A	Dreams?
Augmented:	C E G#	Ouch. Very tense.
Diminished:	C Eb Gb	Also Tense!
Minor 3rds:	C Eb Gb A	Again, tense, vagely dreamy.
Harmonic Minor:	C D Eb F G Ab B	Sad
Melodic Minor:	C D Eb F G A B	Nice, quiet...
Whole Tone:	C D E F# G# A#	Whoa, trippin!
Augmented:	C D# E F# G# B	Nasty tension
Diminished:	C D Eb F Gb Ab A B	Sad. Ab, B are really Bbb, Cbb
'Enigmatic':	C Db E F# G# A# B	Indeed, very strange
Bizantine (Gypsy):	C Db E F G Ab B	Spooky-ish
Locrian (Arabian):	C D E F Gb Ab Bb	Drunk
Persian	C Db E F G A# B	Scirrocco's secret! : )
Spanish 8-tone:	C C# D# E F F# G# A#	Ummn... Spanish? :P
Native American:	C D E F# A B	Bold. BTW: which tribe?!?
Major Beebop:	C D E F G Ab A B	Funky major & minor mix.
Barber Shop 1:	C D E F G B D F G B	Full, fairly nice.
Barber Shop 2:	C G C E G B	Same as 1, but kinda sad.
'Rain' (7b5+9):	A# D E F# G# C D F# G#	Messed, pissed off.
'Crystaline' min9#7:	C G B Eb G D Eb Bb D Gb Bb F Gb Db F A	VERY phuq'd, MAD AS HELL. Track this NOW.
Popular Blues:	C D# F F# G A#	Pissed, crunchy
Blues ][:	C D# E G Ab D# G	Spacy, dissonant mess-up
Total Disharmony:	C Db E F G Ab B C D Eb F# G A Bb C# D	Ouch. Thunderous.
Sus2:	C D G	Also called a 'nine'. Cool.
C-phuq'd:	C F Ab Bb
Db-Grace Major:	C F Ab Db F G Db Gb
E-Blues:	C D E G Ab Gb Db F

There. Now go track up a storm.

We'll cover the basics of a good base line here, and what aspects to avoid.

(This section is being written off-line. It will be here sometime, not sure when.)

MusicTheory101|Chords | Bass | Leads | Drums | Fine Tuning

Updated Sept 24th, 1997
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