One quick cheat: walk down the notes from one to the other. If you're moving from a Gm to an F, walk your D down to C, Bb, then A (which is the 3rd of F) and boom - fancy chord transition. Might be worth a video sometime!
Venus Theory very true! Its also fun to point out that voice leading can really really help you get away with pretty much any transition between key signatures, Obviously knowing your keys is super useful, but knowing how to do those walking down trills into a major chord, can pretty much carry your ear to whatever tonic you want. Ooo ooo ooo, another fun and nifty theory trick, Is that if you take any of the white keys and make it the “tonic” You can construct all of the modes just using the white keys, Like D as the root and then travelling up, produces D Dorian, F and then travelling up to F produces F Lydian. And so on and so on, So you can sort of bluff your way through a whole different set of sounds just using the white keys, If you change the “root” from c to any of the other white keys! My second nifty piano trick for SPICY chords, (and I mean jazz vibes spicy) Is if you play a triad on the keyboard but then instead of playing the 3rd you play the two black keys, Or the two keys adjacent on either side of the chord, And you get something that’s functionally the same as a triad, but hella weird and dissonant and tense and jazzy. Also, I just remembered I love these music theory videos, thanks for putting it out, Honestly nifty short cuts for this kind of stuff are so fun to find and they really make playing with your instrument a lot more fun! So if you’ve got a list like that, that’s helped you find you way round music and your instrument, I think it would be an awesome video, that I would be super keen to watch, idk about anyone else lol But yeah, oh and thanks for showing me surge! And a whole bunch of the compression and distortion plug ins I use regularly for a solid mix!!
Very interesting approach. I usually just stack two different triades on top of each other and maybe change like one note but this seems way more effective
Hey Cameron, great ideas here, thanks for taking the time to share this. I'm guessing that when you move the 3rd up to a different note (not the same note in a different octave), it changes the major/minor tonal mood of the chord to something more ambiguous, which may then lend itself to being interpreted more by the listeners own current emotional state. I also noticed that adding a 5th of the 5th results in a 2nd, just an octave higher, which creates an open sus2 chord that also carries a degree of emotion with it. Sus2 (and sus4) chords also make great transitions between 2 chords that share no common notes, making the whole thing sound a lot smoother. Your explanation of it, though, is superb and I'll be off to try this out myself for some atmospheric tension music I'm working on. Also, great work on the Reason Studios live stream the other day - I haven't watched it all yet, but it's all good so far. Cheers :-)
For sure. Without getting too deep into it all, basically this added sense of complexity lends itself really well to making your chords more open/vague than just your standard major/minor stuff which is awesome. Sitting down and aiming to write 'super amazing emotional chord progression #4246235' can be really frustrating so this is a great way to transform basic stuff into more interesting ideas. Glad you enjoyed the stream too!
7th chords, adding the 7th (the note just before the root of the chord) can add a sense of minor to major, and add a sense of major to minor. Check out “music theory for guitar”s video on 7th chord and his other video on extensions if your really want to get into some really really fun chords! He gives a fantastic description of how to work out what the 7th 9th 11th and 13th of a chord is really quickly and easily. To the extent it can be generalised to a piano really really easily
So essentially mid-90s era Jungle that was made with 2MB RAM Akai samplers is today made with 32GB piano sample libraries and is then called Liquid D'n'B.
Because there's no gigs and I'm bored let's play a game... Group intervals - an interval is the 'distance' between two notes - into two groups: steps - semitones and tones - and leaps - minor and major thirds, perfect 4ths and 5ths, major and minor sixths. There are more 'leap' intervals but we'll ignore those for now. Write a sequence of eight notes where each note is 1 bar long and try to stick to the following rules: (1) make the first and last notes the same. (2) no more than two notes in one direction eg ascending or descending. (3) no chromaticism i.e. you can't have two semitone intervals in a row. (4) keep the line within a one-octave range. (5) make the interval between the 2nd last note and the last note either a fifth moving down to the last note or a minor 2nd moving up to the last note. If you can't satisfy all the rules don't worry, neither could Bach. And it might happen that you DO satisfy all the rules and come up with a line that's boring as fuck. OK, now it's time to write a second line above the first. Here are a few rules for the 2nd line: (1) like the first line, the 2nd line sits above the first line with a 1 to 1 correspondence i.e. the 2nd line has eight notes and each note lasts for a bar. (2) You can only use 'leap' intervals as harmonic intervals so no semitone or whole tone harmonies between the two notes. (3) No parallel 4ths or 5ths i.e. if your previous harmonic interval is a 4th or a 5th the next harmonic interval has to be something else. (4) If the note in the bottom line moves up to the next note, try to move down from the corresponding note in the top voice to the next note. Try as much as possible to move in the opposite direction with the top voice to how the bottom voice is moving. Congratulations you've just written harmony in contrary motion. (5) No more than two consecutive major or minor 3rds or 6ths. (6) Try to avoid octaves. (7) If the previous interval is smaller than a 5th, moving from that interval up to a 5th is prohibited. The same applies to 4ths: don't move up to a 4th from a smaller interval. This is NOT an arbitrary rule: ignoring this rule results in a lame sounding progression. If in the process of doing all of this you start to 'wander' from whatever key you think you're in, then so much the better. And if what you've written sounds like music that was written by people that died a long time ago, don't worry, we'll all be dead soon. Oh I forgot rule (8), the two lines can't cross over.
Super helpful thanks. I often find that writing the 1st 2 chords in a progression comes easily and then I really struggle with finding the last chords so the progression feels like it is moving somewhere - hard to explain! any tips on chord progressions that evolve would be great
For sure. Another great songwriting trick one of my mentors shared with me once was just swapping chords as it usually works well. If you've got like C G Em D, and need a chorus or something, just do something like C Em D G or whatnot. Great 'on the fly' trick to avoid thinking too much.
Hi Cameron. Noticed that JRR Shop just put up an ad for Chromaphone 3. Awesome to see you did some patches for that! Hoping you’ll do a video on it! Edit: whoa, this remains one of my fabourite synth engines. Your Voltage Modular tutorial on Modal Synthesis got awefully close though. A follow-up on that one would also be great!!
Hey thanks! Honored to be a part of the factory sounds, that was a super fun project and I'm glad it's finally out haha. I'll be doing a video on some physical modeling stuff here soon - just need to prepare my notes a bit more and there are a few other videos on my to do list first. And glad to hear it! I do have some ideas for Voltage Modular tutorials on the channel sometime, but as I also produce a lot of their video content it's kinda taken a backseat haha. Voltage is super fun though!
Call me a prude but I think it’s better being played. I’m working on getting more jazzy and all of the sudden I’m practicing piano rolls in 7ths, 11ths and 13ths and it has completely changed my sound. I’m a heavy metal guy on guitar but my keys are whatever works to write a tune and I normally don’t use the piano in the recording but change that into pads, background vocals or S&H or a combination. Great video in theory! I’m just not DAW writer
I use a lot of limited voice synths, so I gotta do this but be selective about which notes I use. It’s actually kinda fun cause I have to pay attention instead of just assault the page with harmonies.
Learning the way chords are being used in modern jazz can become with time of great help to classical musicians. Even Stravisnsky used that sort of knowledge
Hi, great vid, sounds amazing. I noticed you have an enormous reverb on the piano, since the preset says small piano room I assume this is something you've added? Sounds great, can you tell us what it is and what settings pls? Thanks.
Okay I'm pretty sure I understood but let me make sure: You take the initial chords and change the 3rd to an octave or another note in the scale and then are adding the 5th of that note on top?
In a way yes. In simple terms the trick I'm talking about is pairing two different sets of fifths together that are in key. So, if your track is in Gm and you play a Gm, take the G+D, then instead of the Bb (or with it, doesn't matter really), play another note in the scale (let's say F for example) and then add a fifth to that (so, F+C). This results in a way cooler chord than just a plain old Gm triad.
Nah, @@VenusTheory (assuming you mean one of those Keurig machines, or something like them) -- you just need to grab an AeroPress, a French Press, or put together a small Pour Over rig. A setup like that will let you brew in basically the same amount of desk space as your coffee cup is already taking up, and there are numerous upsides: 1. You'll be drinking MUCH better coffee - any coffee you want (rather than what's on offer in the pre-packaged plastic cups), roasted recently (rather than months ago) ground just before brewing (rather than back when it was packaged in the factory), brewed at the right temperature (the water temps in those machines are notoriously low), etc. Freshness (from roast to grind to brew, and from brew to consumption) is an oft overlooked, yet game-changing variable when brewing a good cup. 2. The entry costs to get started can be *much* lower than buying one of those k-cup machines, and the ongoing per-cup costs are also significantly lower (at least as compared to using the pre-packaged single-serve cups that they sell for those machines). 3. You very well may find that you enjoy the process - there's a bit of a ritual to the whole thing... 4. You'll have all sorts of fodder for caffeinated b-roll for the channel. ☕ Something to consider anyways... Also... Thanks for the great chord tips! This sort of content is extremely helpful!
@@WillStufflebeam man the french press is so simple, easy to use and makes so damn tasty coffee that any other coffee will taste like ass lol. I love it! good rant;)
hi Cameron you made the same similar track on mixcraft pro studio 9 if I am right ? so what do you think is there any difference in audio quality between these daws m9 and bitwig which is the best?
Yo! Correct. Most DAWs really don't have all that much different these days in the audio engines. I'd saw both are very comparable! Bitwig maybe has a bit more fine control on the exporting end, but I can't say there's really a reason to choose one over the other purely speaking in terms of the audio engine as I believe they're both more or less the same.
Hi Cameron, I just finished watching your live stream for Reason, which was awesome. I left a comment there, but wanted to leave one here for you, personally. I concluded that you are seriously the GAS-X for musicians with your incredible know-how on field recordings and making our own sounds from what we have around us to create sounds that no one else has, without having to resort to sound packs or yet more gear. A++ to you :-)
Haha well awesome, glad it was inspiring! Hopefully I'll be on with them again soon. I always think learning what you have is infinitely more powerful than just grabbing something new. I think a lot of people would be surprised at the overlap of it all when it comes to gear.
@@VenusTheory it sure was, and I agree 100% about learning what we already have, but it’s difficult, which is why so many get tempted by the low hanging fruit and short term ideas of the constant barrage of new toys etc., myself included lol
Pants off? Talk about it, be about it. Prove it. BTW... I like spicy Cameron better than sad Cameron. Some of your vids are about the struggles of being a musician... I am well aware of them, and I do not have your talent, yet. Keep your stache up and bring some heat. Id love to see you on one, showing out.
Thanks! Vocals I made myself from a free sample pack from Musicradar with some processing. I have a video out on my channel with some vocal chop processing tips!
@Venus Theory: OK! This is not fair, handsome and cool? Please tell me you're only 4' 2" at least. Or even better a complete psychopath? Oh no, that would just add to the coolness. And here I am with a full set of negative traits. LMAO Brilliant video, subbed and liked.
The MIDI here is long gone - check out Hooktheory though if you're looking to learn to make better chord progressions! I've got an affiliate link with them you can check out at: hooktheory.com/affiliate/209.html
Thank you. How does someone can keep this chord progression, but make it different during chorus? I've seen a few of your videos, but didn't find something about this.
I suppose one easy trick is just to swap one chord for a new chord, or swap two chords around! Instead of E G Cm D, you could do E A Cm D Or, even simpler, instead of E G Cm D, switch to E Cm G D Lots of little tricks like that to switch things up and keep them from getting boring!
@@VenusTheory Thank you! That was quite helpful. When it comes to ambient music, I think some producers such as Lauge mostly rely on modulation than note changing. But I like changes in chord, it just feels less hypnotic, but emotional.
I'd respectfully like to make a point. In my long experience of playing and producing, and also LISTENING to every type of music made from the beginning of musical recordings, I have come to the conclusion : The most interesting music ever made, does not stick to any musical rules, and is made by musicians without any musical training or theory knowledge. Sticking to 'rules' just restricts you, and makes your music sound the same as everyone else's who also sticks to the same rules. People who simply make music without rules by just using their EARS to decide what they think sounds the best way of doing things, sometimes make the best music of all.
Yo! E Flat is the note one half step down from E, or the black key below the E on a piano if that helps. I would definitely recommend checking out musictheory.net to learn some basics about music theory - the lessons are totally free and really easy to follow along with! Even in an afternoon, you can learn a LOT of stuff!
@@VenusTheory Yea cool thanks! Helps alot! Checked it out already and written down a lot of Informations for better learning process :P Made also some nice Chord Progressions with this technique!
I find this tutorial very helpful. Btw I always think your songs' bass tone is incredibly rich. Where can I find the video that you talk about how to mix bass and kick?
That's the point...there's a different between "five half steps" and "fifth". The fifth means the fifth note in the scale, and the root note of the scale and the fifth note are actually 7half steps apart. (For example in C major : C(root), G(fifth)
Scales are weird - a fifth is actually 7 semitones. If you haven't ever used it, check out musictheory.net - there's a ton of lessons that are really easy and there's a good chapter on scales and intervals that should get you up to speed in a few minutes.
Historically, chords came about as the secondary effect of the laws that govern how independent lines move in counterpoint writing. If you approach music from the point of view of assuming that chords are what harmony is based on then you're making a mistake. The idea of keeping all the notes 'in key' being somehow correct is an idea that is guaranteed to produce boring chord progressions. If you're in the key of C you can use notes outside of the key as long as you resolve back to a note in the key of C. These plugins that people use to squeeze everything in to a certain key are turning harmony into a horrible emotionally stunted thing. Also, it's close intervals like semitones and whole tones that, when used harmonically, make chords interesting. Blah blah blah...
Lol, I mean, yeah but if you want to market music to people you want to guarantee they sound good if they’re paying a lot of money for the software “Good” being diatonic and in key, But I like really dissonant stuff, I like tritones and minor seconds and weird out of tune stuff. Not even on the 12 tone grid let alone diatonic LOL But they’re all really really fun things that you can play around with if you get deep into harmony. Staying in key is hilarious, You’ve got 12 notes, play all of them. And make it sound good. And forget about keys. (At least until you can come back to them as a tool for improvising and knowing where you can go from one chord to the next) Personally, I like to think of each root note in the bass as a harmonic space that I can stack all 12 tones on top of So long as the dissonant intervals are 4 octaves apart from the bass note, you can get away with anything God bless pedal point and 12 tone harmony lol
That’s a tough one, listen to traditional forms of music from Asia & Africa. Many times pentatonic. And yet still has soul and emotional impact. They use different things, like pitch inflection (bends), to be expressive (also like blues, which came from african music roots). Just because someone chooses limitations on their note choices doesn’t mean they’ll make bad or emotionally dead music.
A 5th (interval) is actually 7 semitones up! 5 semitones up is actually a 4th. If you aren't already aware of it, I'd highly recommend the free musictheory.net lessons here! www.musictheory.net/lessons/31
Now we need the super easy trick for playing the variations and fill-ins of the chords.
One quick cheat: walk down the notes from one to the other. If you're moving from a Gm to an F, walk your D down to C, Bb, then A (which is the 3rd of F) and boom - fancy chord transition. Might be worth a video sometime!
Venus Theory very true!
Its also fun to point out that voice leading can really really help you get away with pretty much any transition between key signatures,
Obviously knowing your keys is super useful, but knowing how to do those walking down trills into a major chord, can pretty much carry your ear to whatever tonic you want.
Ooo ooo ooo, another fun and nifty theory trick,
Is that if you take any of the white keys and make it the “tonic”
You can construct all of the modes just using the white keys,
Like D as the root and then travelling up, produces D Dorian, F and then travelling up to F produces F Lydian.
And so on and so on,
So you can sort of bluff your way through a whole different set of sounds just using the white keys,
If you change the “root” from c to any of the other white keys!
My second nifty piano trick for SPICY chords, (and I mean jazz vibes spicy)
Is if you play a triad on the keyboard but then instead of playing the 3rd you play the two black keys,
Or the two keys adjacent on either side of the chord,
And you get something that’s functionally the same as a triad, but hella weird and dissonant and tense and jazzy.
Also, I just remembered
I love these music theory videos, thanks for putting it out,
Honestly nifty short cuts for this kind of stuff are so fun to find and they really make playing with your instrument a lot more fun!
So if you’ve got a list like that, that’s helped you find you way round music and your instrument, I think it would be an awesome video, that I would be super keen to watch, idk about anyone else lol
But yeah, oh and thanks for showing me surge! And a whole bunch of the compression and distortion plug ins I use regularly for a solid mix!!
@@VenusTheory what reverb are you using on piano
those notes arent even in g minor or gminor scale
Wow thats so simple. I throw the third up often but i never thought of actually building off anything but the root
“Morning Coffee with Cameron: Midnight Blend” actually does sound really cool.
How about Midafternoon Coffee with Cameron; I Got Up Late Edition"
Fifth above the third is the seventh for those who care
Thank you! I was trying to make sure I was hearing that right. He's essentially moving the 3rds up an octave and putting the 7th at the top
@@aarongarlington8499 Yeah
Aaron Garlington thanks, that’s a really really useful way of thinking about :)
Ah-Cheers! 👌
If that's the case why was the "7th" in the second chord out of key.
The light just came on! I just now have to get my fingers to play these spaced out chords....great tutorial
Venus "casually making a sick track during my break" Theory
Thanks for the tips !
Ha, my middle name. Glad you enjoyed the video!
@@VenusTheory what reverb are you using on piano
On the money as always. Once you start analysing chord shapes and voice leading it never ends. 😃
You pour your coffee at the intro, and my ASMR senses mildly tingle.
This was so helpful. Thank you
I don't think the chords are boring at all. They sound beautiful (with that VST). I can easily sing a melody over them. Good tips though.
nice! I might try that one on my boring pads. That is really useful, thanks Cam
For sure, works great for pads too! Let me know if you make something cool with it!
Very interesting approach. I usually just stack two different triades on top of each other and maybe change like one note but this seems way more effective
For sure, it's a similar idea but it eliminates a lot of the trial and error I find.
@@VenusTheory what reverb are you using on piano
Hey, really appreciate your work, great tips, been watching some of your videos in a queue.
Glad to hear it! Hope you're enjoying the channel!
Now we know why he's called Venus THEORY 🎵
My secret revealed.
@@VenusTheory what reverb are you using on piano
And there is no difference between theory and practice... in theory.
Cameron: "so we're deleting this F#maj7 because it sounds off"
Me: nooo get my dorian harmony back nooooooooooooo!!!!!!
Great video, thanks 😁
Hey Cameron, great ideas here, thanks for taking the time to share this. I'm guessing that when you move the 3rd up to a different note (not the same note in a different octave), it changes the major/minor tonal mood of the chord to something more ambiguous, which may then lend itself to being interpreted more by the listeners own current emotional state. I also noticed that adding a 5th of the 5th results in a 2nd, just an octave higher, which creates an open sus2 chord that also carries a degree of emotion with it. Sus2 (and sus4) chords also make great transitions between 2 chords that share no common notes, making the whole thing sound a lot smoother. Your explanation of it, though, is superb and I'll be off to try this out myself for some atmospheric tension music I'm working on.
Also, great work on the Reason Studios live stream the other day - I haven't watched it all yet, but it's all good so far.
Cheers :-)
For sure. Without getting too deep into it all, basically this added sense of complexity lends itself really well to making your chords more open/vague than just your standard major/minor stuff which is awesome. Sitting down and aiming to write 'super amazing emotional chord progression #4246235' can be really frustrating so this is a great way to transform basic stuff into more interesting ideas.
Glad you enjoyed the stream too!
7th chords, adding the 7th (the note just before the root of the chord) can add a sense of minor to major, and add a sense of major to minor.
Check out “music theory for guitar”s video on 7th chord and his other video on extensions if your really want to get into some really really fun chords!
He gives a fantastic description of how to work out what the 7th 9th 11th and 13th of a chord is really quickly and easily.
To the extent it can be generalised to a piano really really easily
@@VenusTheory what reverb are you using on piano
@@xyzyzx1253 This is interesting. I kind of like 7th chords on the keyboard, but I cordially loathe playing 7th chords on guitar. Weird.
Awesome, thanks! Always struggling with chords, hope this'll help
Hope it does! At the very least, maybe gives you a few new ideas!
Awesome stuff
THANKS!
So essentially mid-90s era Jungle that was made with 2MB RAM Akai samplers is today made with 32GB piano sample libraries and is then called Liquid D'n'B.
"Morning Coffee with Cameron 2: Electric Boogaloo" kills me! 😂
The trees are not sad. They are getting watered.
Simply gorgeous. I am such a sucker for moody melodic instrumentals
Because there's no gigs and I'm bored let's play a game...
Group intervals - an interval is the 'distance' between two notes - into two groups: steps - semitones and tones - and leaps - minor and major thirds, perfect 4ths and 5ths, major and minor sixths. There are more 'leap' intervals but we'll ignore those for now.
Write a sequence of eight notes where each note is 1 bar long and try to stick to the following rules: (1) make the first and last notes the same. (2) no more than two notes in one direction eg ascending or descending. (3) no chromaticism i.e. you can't have two semitone intervals in a row. (4) keep the line within a one-octave range. (5) make the interval between the 2nd last note and the last note either a fifth moving down to the last note or a minor 2nd moving up to the last note.
If you can't satisfy all the rules don't worry, neither could Bach. And it might happen that you DO satisfy all the rules and come up with a line that's boring as fuck.
OK, now it's time to write a second line above the first.
Here are a few rules for the 2nd line: (1) like the first line, the 2nd line sits above the first line with a 1 to 1 correspondence i.e. the 2nd line has eight notes and each note lasts for a bar.
(2) You can only use 'leap' intervals as harmonic intervals so no semitone or whole tone harmonies between the two notes.
(3) No parallel 4ths or 5ths i.e. if your previous harmonic interval is a 4th or a 5th the next harmonic interval has to be something else.
(4) If the note in the bottom line moves up to the next note, try to move down from the corresponding note in the top voice to the next note. Try as much as possible to move in the opposite direction with the top voice to how the bottom voice is moving. Congratulations you've just written harmony in contrary motion.
(5) No more than two consecutive major or minor 3rds or 6ths.
(6) Try to avoid octaves.
(7) If the previous interval is smaller than a 5th, moving from that interval up to a 5th is prohibited. The same applies to 4ths: don't move up to a 4th from a smaller interval. This is NOT an arbitrary rule: ignoring this rule results in a lame sounding progression.
If in the process of doing all of this you start to 'wander' from whatever key you think you're in, then so much the better. And if what you've written sounds like music that was written by people that died a long time ago, don't worry, we'll all be dead soon. Oh I forgot rule (8), the two lines can't cross over.
DUDE! Amazing video as always, you HAVE to break down that track you just showed us, it sound very like koan sound
Pretty interesting how merely changing the voicing of a simple 7th chord can completely change its feel
It's cool stuff for sure. I want to maybe do a video on this from a more psychological standpoint in the future someday, it's very interesting!
example chune was SICK bruv
Haha thanks. Maybe I'll take another stab at it someday.
this dnb track is super amazing. Do you ever make like dub techno vibes ? If so I am really curious how that would sound if you tried that.
Super helpful thanks. I often find that writing the 1st 2 chords in a progression comes easily and then I really struggle with finding the last chords so the progression feels like it is moving somewhere - hard to explain! any tips on chord progressions that evolve would be great
For sure. Another great songwriting trick one of my mentors shared with me once was just swapping chords as it usually works well. If you've got like C G Em D, and need a chorus or something, just do something like C Em D G or whatnot. Great 'on the fly' trick to avoid thinking too much.
@@VenusTheory what reverb are you using on piano
Awesome 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽😎
I kept thinking evening coffee with Cameron until you said boogaloo...Definitely electric boogaloo.. Definitely
Genius !!!
The Start 😃😃
😂😂😂😂😂 love your sense for humor. 🤘
Hi Cameron. Noticed that JRR Shop just put up an ad for Chromaphone 3. Awesome to see you did some patches for that! Hoping you’ll do a video on it!
Edit: whoa, this remains one of my fabourite synth engines. Your Voltage Modular tutorial on Modal Synthesis got awefully close though. A follow-up on that one would also be great!!
Hey thanks! Honored to be a part of the factory sounds, that was a super fun project and I'm glad it's finally out haha. I'll be doing a video on some physical modeling stuff here soon - just need to prepare my notes a bit more and there are a few other videos on my to do list first.
And glad to hear it! I do have some ideas for Voltage Modular tutorials on the channel sometime, but as I also produce a lot of their video content it's kinda taken a backseat haha. Voltage is super fun though!
Cool, thanks!
Big Fan of your Music 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌
Nice trick man
Call me a prude but I think it’s better being played. I’m working on getting more jazzy and all of the sudden I’m practicing piano rolls in 7ths, 11ths and 13ths and it has completely changed my sound. I’m a heavy metal guy on guitar but my keys are whatever works to write a tune and I normally don’t use the piano in the recording but change that into pads, background vocals or S&H or a combination. Great video in theory! I’m just not DAW writer
Very nice
You’re awesome.
OoooOo this was super helpful.
Glad to hear it!
Excellent 👍
I’m not taking off my pants, but let’s make chords
We welcome all clothing choices here.
Nice piano sound ... May i know what piano sound you use? Thanks in advance
Ok this is really cool trick! Thanks ❤
No problem!
“Chordio exercise with coffee” :) Though not simple/easy after the first chord, but I like the attitude, TNX!
This video is helpful
I use a lot of limited voice synths, so I gotta do this but be selective about which notes I use. It’s actually kinda fun cause I have to pay attention instead of just assault the page with harmonies.
Awesome!!! Thanks man!
Glad to help!
Learning the way chords are being used in modern jazz can become with time of great help to classical musicians. Even Stravisnsky used that sort of knowledge
Hi, great vid, sounds amazing. I noticed you have an enormous reverb on the piano, since the preset says small piano room I assume this is something you've added? Sounds great, can you tell us what it is and what settings pls? Thanks.
Okay I'm pretty sure I understood but let me make sure: You take the initial chords and change the 3rd to an octave or another note in the scale and then are adding the 5th of that note on top?
In a way yes. In simple terms the trick I'm talking about is pairing two different sets of fifths together that are in key.
So, if your track is in Gm and you play a Gm, take the G+D, then instead of the Bb (or with it, doesn't matter really), play another note in the scale (let's say F for example) and then add a fifth to that (so, F+C).
This results in a way cooler chord than just a plain old Gm triad.
@@VenusTheory Okay! Got it! Thank you for responding 😁 Love your vids!
please do more
You have the best voice like daaaayum
Bruv Which reverb were you using ?? Sounds so good.
I want the video where you make awesome chords boring 👀
What about fifty shades of beans.
I love your videos they always make me laugh.
Thanks.
Hey mate. I'm curious how you rationalise this as being in g# minor? Seems like E major would be a much more logical description to me.
Hi, very nice trick, thanks for sharing. Side question - how you make the vocals ? Just processed samples or some other trick ? ;-)
Can someone tell me which piano is venus using plz ?
anyone notice the chords at 3:21 are the opening to bye bye bye by NSYNC? just me?
the send to the last chord you didnt use a fifth pairing what did you do
A day we have some computer , with a special buton ( coffee please ) and the coffee arrived in one minute 🎃
yes please
I should get a bigger desk and get a single serve coffee maker haha.
Nah, @@VenusTheory (assuming you mean one of those Keurig machines, or something like them) -- you just need to grab an AeroPress, a French Press, or put together a small Pour Over rig. A setup like that will let you brew in basically the same amount of desk space as your coffee cup is already taking up, and there are numerous upsides:
1. You'll be drinking MUCH better coffee - any coffee you want (rather than what's on offer in the pre-packaged plastic cups), roasted recently (rather than months ago) ground just before brewing (rather than back when it was packaged in the factory), brewed at the right temperature (the water temps in those machines are notoriously low), etc. Freshness (from roast to grind to brew, and from brew to consumption) is an oft overlooked, yet game-changing variable when brewing a good cup.
2. The entry costs to get started can be *much* lower than buying one of those k-cup machines, and the ongoing per-cup costs are also significantly lower (at least as compared to using the pre-packaged single-serve cups that they sell for those machines).
3. You very well may find that you enjoy the process - there's a bit of a ritual to the whole thing...
4. You'll have all sorts of fodder for caffeinated b-roll for the channel. ☕
Something to consider anyways...
Also...
Thanks for the great chord tips! This sort of content is extremely helpful!
Will Stufflebeam I really appreciate how much you care about your coffee
@@WillStufflebeam man the french press is so simple, easy to use and makes so damn tasty coffee that any other coffee will taste like ass lol. I love it! good rant;)
hi Cameron you made the same similar track on mixcraft pro studio 9 if I am right ?
so what do you think is there any difference in audio quality between these daws m9 and bitwig which is the best?
Yo! Correct. Most DAWs really don't have all that much different these days in the audio engines. I'd saw both are very comparable! Bitwig maybe has a bit more fine control on the exporting end, but I can't say there's really a reason to choose one over the other purely speaking in terms of the audio engine as I believe they're both more or less the same.
You should have stared into the camera while plaing the liquid D'n'B 😂
Hi Cameron, I just finished watching your live stream for Reason, which was awesome. I left a comment there, but wanted to leave one here for you, personally.
I concluded that you are seriously the GAS-X for musicians with your incredible know-how on field recordings and making our own sounds from what we have around us to create sounds that no one else has, without having to resort to sound packs or yet more gear. A++ to you :-)
Haha well awesome, glad it was inspiring! Hopefully I'll be on with them again soon. I always think learning what you have is infinitely more powerful than just grabbing something new. I think a lot of people would be surprised at the overlap of it all when it comes to gear.
@@VenusTheory it sure was, and I agree 100% about learning what we already have, but it’s difficult, which is why so many get tempted by the low hanging fruit and short term ideas of the constant barrage of new toys etc., myself included lol
Whoops, you messed up and taught me some theory !
whered u get the bk rounds sounds from
Pants off? Talk about it, be about it. Prove it. BTW... I like spicy Cameron better than sad Cameron. Some of your vids are about the struggles of being a musician... I am well aware of them, and I do not have your talent, yet. Keep your stache up and bring some heat. Id love to see you on one, showing out.
the track at the end is great, how did you do the vocals? What kontakt library did you use?
Thanks! Vocals I made myself from a free sample pack from Musicradar with some processing. I have a video out on my channel with some vocal chop processing tips!
@@VenusTheory thank you, I'll check that out
Much like
@Venus Theory: OK! This is not fair, handsome and cool? Please tell me you're only 4' 2" at least. Or even better a complete psychopath? Oh no, that would just add to the coolness. And here I am with a full set of negative traits. LMAO Brilliant video, subbed and liked.
Hi, can you share the Midi so that I can use it for analysis, so I can learn from it? Thanks 🙏
The MIDI here is long gone - check out Hooktheory though if you're looking to learn to make better chord progressions!
I've got an affiliate link with them you can check out at:
hooktheory.com/affiliate/209.html
@Venus Theory Ok Thanks a lot I always look forward to your videos. 👍
The Return of the Son of Morning Coffee With Cameron?
Dear God tell me that is not black coffee...AAAARRRRGH
LMFAO with the intro
nice verb
Reverb is life
Thank you. How does someone can keep this chord progression, but make it different during chorus? I've seen a few of your videos, but didn't find something about this.
I suppose one easy trick is just to swap one chord for a new chord, or swap two chords around!
Instead of E G Cm D, you could do E A Cm D
Or, even simpler, instead of E G Cm D, switch to E Cm G D
Lots of little tricks like that to switch things up and keep them from getting boring!
@@VenusTheory Thank you! That was quite helpful. When it comes to ambient music, I think some producers such as Lauge mostly rely on modulation than note changing. But I like changes in chord, it just feels less hypnotic, but emotional.
What type of camera 📸 are you using?
Yo! I use a Canon M50 with a Sigma 16mm 1.4 for my videos currently. Editing is done in Davinci Resolve
@@VenusTheory it looks great
Epic
🙌
Hilarious 😂 👊🏽✊🏽✊🏽💪🏽
I'd respectfully like to make a point.
In my long experience of playing and producing, and also LISTENING to every type of music made from the beginning of musical recordings, I have come to the conclusion :
The most interesting music ever made, does not stick to any musical rules, and is made by musicians without any musical training or theory knowledge.
Sticking to 'rules' just restricts you, and makes your music sound the same as everyone else's who also sticks to the same rules.
People who simply make music without rules by just using their EARS to decide what they think sounds the best way of doing things, sometimes make the best music of all.
What does e flat means? Can someone explain it to me pls :O 5:30
Yo! E Flat is the note one half step down from E, or the black key below the E on a piano if that helps.
I would definitely recommend checking out musictheory.net to learn some basics about music theory - the lessons are totally free and really easy to follow along with! Even in an afternoon, you can learn a LOT of stuff!
@@VenusTheory Yea cool thanks! Helps alot! Checked it out already and written down a lot of Informations for better learning process :P Made also some nice Chord Progressions with this technique!
I find this tutorial very helpful. Btw I always think your songs' bass tone is incredibly rich. Where can I find the video that you talk about how to mix bass and kick?
Glad to hear it! And thanks so much! Don't really have a video on that at the moment, but I can definitely note that down on the suggestions list.
how do you work out a fifth
A fifth is 7 semitones (steps) above whatever note you're playing! You can also use 5 semitones below for the inverted 5th.
I always forget to subscribe but I didn’t this time 😂
Fifth from a note means just 5 half steps up?
7 semitones. "Fifth" refers to scale degree. For example, the fifth degree of a C major scale is G. C major scale is CDEF(G)AB
That's the point...there's a different between "five half steps" and "fifth". The fifth means the fifth note in the scale, and the root note of the scale and the fifth note are actually 7half steps apart. (For example in C major : C(root), G(fifth)
@@marcusdegagne5051 sry, your
comment hasn't loaded yet when I wrote my comment, so now there are two answers...oops
7
Scales are weird - a fifth is actually 7 semitones.
If you haven't ever used it, check out musictheory.net - there's a ton of lessons that are really easy and there's a good chapter on scales and intervals that should get you up to speed in a few minutes.
So basically 7th chords and other chord extensions.
The 7th above an octave is a really nice touch though :) and the fifth giving it a warm hug feels good too
Xyz Yzx yeah that’s true
In a way yes. The approach here being that it's more 'pick note in key to play on top of chord, add 5th to it' to avoid overthinking things.
Venus Theory For me its easier to think 1 3 5 7 instead of 5 above 3 but people learn in many different ways and I think its a cool new way.
Historically, chords came about as the secondary effect of the laws that govern how independent lines move in counterpoint writing. If you approach music from the point of view of assuming that chords are what harmony is based on then you're making a mistake. The idea of keeping all the notes 'in key' being somehow correct is an idea that is guaranteed to produce boring chord progressions. If you're in the key of C you can use notes outside of the key as long as you resolve back to a note in the key of C. These plugins that people use to squeeze everything in to a certain key are turning harmony into a horrible emotionally stunted thing. Also, it's close intervals like semitones and whole tones that, when used harmonically, make chords interesting. Blah blah blah...
Lol, I mean, yeah but if you want to market music to people you want to guarantee they sound good if they’re paying a lot of money for the software
“Good” being diatonic and in key,
But I like really dissonant stuff, I like tritones and minor seconds and weird out of tune stuff.
Not even on the 12 tone grid let alone diatonic LOL
But they’re all really really fun things that you can play around with if you get deep into harmony.
Staying in key is hilarious,
You’ve got 12 notes, play all of them. And make it sound good. And forget about keys. (At least until you can come back to them as a tool for improvising and knowing where you can go from one chord to the next)
Personally, I like to think of each root note in the bass as a harmonic space that I can stack all 12 tones on top of
So long as the dissonant intervals are 4 octaves apart from the bass note, you can get away with anything
God bless pedal point and 12 tone harmony lol
That’s a tough one, listen to traditional forms of music from Asia & Africa. Many times pentatonic. And yet still has soul and emotional impact. They use different things, like pitch inflection (bends), to be expressive (also like blues, which came from african music roots). Just because someone chooses limitations on their note choices doesn’t mean they’ll make bad or emotionally dead music.
Tokyo Ghoul type beat
Need to check out Tokyo Ghoul someday, heard good things!
Man whatchu know about electric boogaloo lol
Everything because I'm a funkyboi
@@VenusTheory turbo > ozone tho 😂😂
I could not tell the difference between basic and spicy... Im afraid I might be tone deaf... 😔
But
Yet
Not unfiltered eh?
EZ FIRST !
This is the part where I present you with a special sticker. Treasure it with your life 🌟
You lost me @ the 5th of B is F#. I obviously can’t count. How is that 5 up? Lol this is why I hate music theory
A 5th (interval) is actually 7 semitones up! 5 semitones up is actually a 4th. If you aren't already aware of it, I'd highly recommend the free musictheory.net lessons here!
www.musictheory.net/lessons/31