Dance Music Production - Fundamental 3: Music Theory - Harmony [Repost]

Fundamentals are our range of video tutorials that are dedicated to the ‘fundamental’ production techniques and procedures that all practicing EDM producers should be completely versed in. Covering topics such as drum programming, music theory, formal structure and ear training techniques, our fundamental series are our best selling products.

In the third edition of the Fundamental series, we continue to discuss the music theory and practice that form an integral part of any dance musicians production skills – this time we concentrate on chords and harmony – more specifically the design of harmony, the composition and construction of chords, chord structures and flow, progressions, and the use of pads and strings.

For this edition close to 4 hours of video tutorial focuses on the musical theory and practical applications for the composition, programming, production and engineering of harmony and pads/strings for dance records. Although it could be argued that some dance records do not employ harmony, many do, and those that don't (such as Tech House or Techno) do benefit from an understanding of chord design as many producers will compose and then sample a chord to create their stabs.

In this tutorial, we begin with an in-depth discussion on the music theory for chords. We introduce the viewer to the theory behind how both chords and chordal structures (harmony) are composed. This includes a look at how chord progressions typically evolve and how this theory applies to every chord progression. The sessions then move on to cover the principles behind chord composition, structure, programming, synthesis, editing and processing of pads and strings in order to add the all important harmony that can be central to many dance records.