Seven Lions - Strangers | Theory & Arrangement Breakdown 

I love these!!:D Learning so much and he explains everything so good!! Would really enjoy a breakdown of one of Audien's tracks, Leaving you for example!

yeh, audien would be awesome

Beatnick '

The man was born to teach, seriously.

yeah i play WITH this guy all the time, youtube is so great, this is way better than buying some program like Captain Chord and cheating LOL

Thanks Nicholas!

Thanks!

Yeah I don't know why everyone thinks of this as a Seven Lions song when listening to the production style Myon and Shane 54 had a much greater influence.

The question is: which tonal center does the chord progression and the melody point to? It's not Eb Major if it point to F, it's not F-Dorian if it points to Eb.

Major and minor tonality has more to do with the ways the chords are used rather than the actual notes in the scales. While they both have a note that sounds like "home", the tonal major/minor music is more strict in how chords are used (think hard-and-fast musical rules from the baroque and classical eras) and puts a lot of emphasis on cadences, especially V-I. Modal music is a bit more "free" in the sense that the notes are more of a guide to the chords and typically sounds less cliché -the "overuse" of tonality coming from what was established and heavily relied upon in Western music from the baroque era up until atonal composers in the 20th century decided to do their best to break these rules.

I'm not pyramind but genres are ever-changing creatures that have very basic rules most of the time but the best way for you to understand a genre's rule-set is to listen to a lot of it. If your goal is to make DnB you need to listen to a lot of recent DnB and understand what is different from DnB in 2016 and DnB in 2010 for example. It is only when you listen to a lot of it that you can understand which rules are able to be bent and which rules should never be broken (can't make DnB at 60 bpm no matter how much you try) It's best if you listen to many different artists too because one artist will tend to have his own set of unique patterns he uses that don't exactly allign with typical DnB.

Thanks so much for the feedback Vivante, will definitely try that. I want to make progressive, experimental fusion ROCK music. So let me define the terms. I want rock for the reason you mention about the bpm because I feel that rock is versatile in terms of speed/tempo and want to definitely use drums, guitars mainly and also piano because it'll give me the versatility of using synth and other instruments and sounds. Progressive to me means movements and unpredictability in terms of progressions, musical form, transitions, cadences and time signatures Experimental: I want to use some other instruments and blending of genres (fusion/modes)such as ambient/jazz/blues/oriental/classical (counterpoints for melodies and rhythms) Those are elements I want in the music and I know I won't be able to use all of them at once on every track. I want to have a clear reference on how to blend genres instantly, effectively and use most of the time composing good melodies harmonies counterpoints and rhythm instead. Bands like Animal as Leaders and Opeth are bands I like because of how they use some of those elements. Sometimes even those bands sound forced and I want to sound as smooth as possible.

It seems like you have a solid understanding of what you're listening to so all I can say is the only thing stopping you from making it not sound forced and sound smooth is to go and try it! I'm not an expert at those genres but it sounds like you're trying to do something NEW that no one has done before so no one is gonna have the answer for you on how to make it smooth, it's all on you now. I have a lot of respect for people like you because you're paving the way. It's just time for you to jump in and do it! If it sounds bad, Whatever, try something else, change it up a bit, if it sounds good but it's unconventional then who cares, it sounds good to you. A lot of producers I know focus way too much on what to do and don't focus enough on just sitting down and making bad music for 90% of the time and eventually arriving at the last 10% that will be awesome as hell and innovative. Get out there and slap some ideas together and hope they stick~ Best of luck!

After some time and reflection I found the answer to my own question. It was interesting since I had never thought to process harmony in this way, but essentially you are comparing it to F natural minor which has a Db. Being self taught in music I also had to go research into your use of calling it a bIII, and I will tell you this blew my mind once I understood the reasoning for it. It's a steep learning curve when starting out to understand even just the major scale, and then when you get into minor scales it all seems so daunting. Imagine my distress when I learn there are 5 other modes and how long I feel it will take me to grasp all of this information. But low and behold, come to find that there is a much simpler and shorter way to process all of this information and instead of learning about 84 different scales, I can just know 12 and relate everything back to these 12. Music is a hell of a drug

D# Major has 6 sharps and 2 double sharps. Eb Major has 3 flats. Which key would you like to think of it in? However in B Major, the third scale degree is a D# because of the key signature. They are the same frequency.

Egeto Mario read the description..

He was talking about how Matt never mentioned or referred to M&S54 in the actual video idiot.