Electronica (and other) Music Theory

[deadpnk]

Well i thought there wasn't any topics of this type so i thought i would make my own

 

Any one of you guys or girls studied music theory? (im kinda teaching myself)

My teacher didn't like electronica or dance music (actually he kinda hated it when i would put daft punk or deadmau5 on lol until like the last day of school)

 

I've gotten fascinated about keys, diatonic scales, the circle of fifths, and so on... now due to the fact that ive gotten a faster computer I've downloaded DAWs (digital audio workstations) to use and experiment on... ive actually started making my own melodies. (i dont really have much time to make a full song lol)

 

Basically, what im looking for is somewhat of a new aged music theory (my teacher just played us the beatles and boring mundane rock songs to learn lol... i learned more from the internet than i did with my teacher)

 

So, what i'm kinda asking, what have you learned about music these days that seemed to stand out technically...

 

*insert tech geek text here*

like, for example in one of my favorite electronica tracks of all time: Deadmau5- Faxing Berlin...(its my fav dont read or listen if you don't like it)

the tempo is 128 BPM (straight with no swing)

the key is D# Minor (or E-flat.. its so processed i don't know i can't tell, i don't have perfect pitch lol) with at least i think the A#m chord a bit suspended? (again, perfect pitch not my gift)

and it has two bridges and a somewhat of a 8/16 time signature lol (or just 4/4 because thats the drums anyway lol)

and it progresses in a organized fashion (at least every 30 seconds to a minute something changes in its structure, the drums or the synth)

i don't even want to talk about the mechanical process of producing this track.

 

its interesting to me and probably why its been my favorite deadmau5 track so far because its surprisingly simple(and probably boring to some because it starts out that way, at least for a minute in my opinion)....

here's the track for those that want to know what I'm talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnEUfeiSKt0

 

 

Well. i just wanted to point out this because I've always been fascinated about it and how now these days computers, and actually laptops are being used more than ever to make/produce music especially in the electronica category like House, Trance, and obviously ''Dubstep''.

 

Also to DJ with; laptop dj's lol, sorry for vinyl, it still has a place in my heart.

i thought about whether it can replace bands and just have one person produce a track from their laptop...

but id like to have the real thing since some things can't really be replaced, like the human voice.

 

so if anyone has learned something it would be nice to share

 

if anyone doesnt know what im talking about then just put songs that have a intresting melody or hook or something that catches your ear

 

thanks for the time reading all this post (unless you just scrolled all this... cheater)

[Jorz]

you should count beats when a new 'element' comes into the track,not seconds,at least thats how it works when beatmatching after the track is made

Internet is your friend,just put the daw you use on youtube search and the genre you produce and you will find anything you need.

[ecLipse~]

I started making electronica music hmmmm.. 5 years ago, I can remember using only fruity loops and I hosted my music on soundclick.com. I can give you some links of my stuff here. I'm uploading them now on youtube, as for music theory I never really went to any school to study it, it was mostly a natural thing for me.

 

my music genres were Drum and bass, house, UK dance. dance, trance, and some random noises and w/e my mind felt like doing I completely stopped making music in mid 2009, was only frustrating me and I tried to push myself to making something I couldn't make. so I just stopped it, maybe I'll go back to doing it again though

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRJFAXggXJQ

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWId3Deyf60

 

Edited December 2, 2011 by Ryan<3

[SunLight]

I don't think there is any set of rules that turns anyone into a composer, but if you like a music genre and you find that there isn't much theory on it around, just analyze it (as you are already doing), and try to understand what the underlying structure is from all the possible points of view (rhythm, harmony, musical form)

 

Some music has even elements that the ear alone cannot grasp, like 'rules' that can be only checked on the score, giving an extra layer of information, some structures provide contrast just by evolving and evolving, others have some form of (varied or not) repetition in one or more parts.

 

I think that you listen to a piece of music the same way you read a novel, some music is like a novel with a good plot, where it all makes sense in retrospective, other music seems just like a sequence of beautifully written pages but without any plot or meaning and going nowhere, that doesn't mean necessarily it is bad.

 

As regards computer music vs real performers, when I listen to something played by someone (aside from the obvious differences between the 'mechanical' performance of a computer and the more varied one of a human, especially on some instruments) I think there is also some kind of 'wow' factor involved, when you see someone performing something difficult. Of course the same can be said of something composed skillfully, it's not just the performance.

[deadpnk]

you should count beats when a new 'element' comes into the track,not seconds,at least thats how it works when beatmatching after the track is made

Internet is your friend,just put the daw you use on youtube search and the genre you produce and you will find anything you need.

 

well thats when u beatmatch... of course i would count the beats.... its usually after 16-32 beats or 2-4 bars something changes lol i probably shouldve wrote that .... i noted seconds because its pretty much timed interestingly according to its tempo (where its 128, or 2.13... beats per second lol)

 

I don't think there is any set of rules that turns anyone into a composer, but if you like a music genre and you find that there isn't much theory on it around, just analyze it (as you are already doing), and try to understand what the underlying structure is from all the possible points of view (rhythm, harmony, musical form)

 

Some music has even elements that the ear alone cannot grasp, like 'rules' that can be only checked on the score, giving an extra layer of information, some structures provide contrast just by evolving and evolving, others have some form of (varied or not) repetition in one or more parts.

 

I think that you listen to a piece of music the same way you read a novel, some music is like a novel with a good plot, where it all makes sense in retrospective, other music seems just like a sequence of beautifully written pages but without any plot or meaning and going nowhere, that doesn't mean necessarily it is bad.

 

As regards computer music vs real performers, when I listen to something played by someone (aside from the obvious differences between the 'mechanical' performance of a computer and the more varied one of a human, especially on some instruments) I think there is also some kind of 'wow' factor involved, when you see someone performing something difficult. Of course the same can be said of something composed skillfully, it's not just the performance.

i agree 100% with that.

yea i don't think there's any set of rules also but the music --(at least electronica, which is been popular these last couple of years)-- i keep listening that gets hits on youtube and the radio seemed to sound kind of similar to each other... like Lady Gaga, LMFAO, or rihanna with that song with calvin harris lol

 

i'm not trying to say i wanna be like them, its harder to be like them and to stand OUT. that's the issue i want to avoid. as of matter of fact this is probably gonna just stay a hobby for now since i'm gonna start school this year and i probably wont have time to think of ideas and stuff.

 

simply put, i made this topic for people to point out interesting songs they hear and analyze them, kind of a critic topic for technical nerds (like me) and also have these types of conversations like what these are

and from that probably figure out some kind of system there is now about music these days and how people react to it....

maybe i should have put Musicology or Music Psychology or Philisophy along with the topic o.O

Edited December 2, 2011 by deadpnk

[deadpnk]

mccloud i like those songs (especially the last 2) ...

old school house ftw