Modern Music and its theory.

Hi,

i write mainly electronic music and tbh my music theory is pretty bad but i do know there are certain rules that the majority of main stream music uses for its catchy chord stuctures, leads and motfis and what nots. I have picked upa few off these rule such as when doing a "Question & Answer" melody or baseline it is alwasy best to end the question on the 5th since it raises tension becuase it sounds like the peice of music is not finished and for the answer it always best to finish on the root note to make it sound like it is answered. Its these sort of tips that took me years to find out such as ending on the dominant and finishing on the root. But, i want to know other tips and tricks people use, but with sub dominants and mediants and the other parts of the scales. and the other trick that composers use in modern music! what tricks have you heard being used on the radio quite a lot? some more than others? or which tricks do you hear in evrey song, bridges, choruses.

Thanks in Advanced!

Hi,

i write mainly electronic music and tbh my music theory is pretty bad but i do know there are certain rules that the majority of main stream music uses for its catchy chord stuctures, leads and motfis and what nots. I have picked upa few off these rule such as when doing a "Question & Answer" melody or baseline it is alwasy best to end the question on the 5th since it raises tension becuase it sounds like the peice of music is not finished and for the answer it always best to finish on the root note to make it sound like it is answered. Its these sort of tips that took me years to find out such as ending on the dominant and finishing on the root. But, i want to know other tips and tricks people use, but with sub dominants and mediants and the other parts of the scales. and the other trick that composers use in modern music! what tricks have you heard being used on the radio quite a lot? some more than others? or which tricks do you hear in evrey song, bridges, choruses.

Thanks in Advanced!

Music theory doesn't have rules, anyone who tells you otherwise is unenlightened.

Umm, rules for mainstream music and chord progressions? The closest thing would be; play a I-V-vi-IV progression or a variant of said progression and you are set. Or atleast, that is the rule that several of the crappy local pop-punk bands in my area seem to be adhering to.

If you really want to write good "pop" music, but aren't really in it to be popular (Yeah, kind of a contradiction, or as far as the name of the genre goes anyway) what you should do is simply study chord progressions you like, find out why you like them, and use that knowledge to create your own progressions. Also useful is simply improvising chord progressions on the keyboard and seeing what you like. Remember - you don't have to stick to one key, just play whatever! Practically any progression you can think of could be useful if you use it right. Another thing you can do is study different scales and modes; each one has a different flavor.

Why study what some old academic finds acceptable in music when you might have a completely different idea of what sounds good? Why study various inconsistent rules and exceptions to those rules when you can get to the root of the issue and actually study WHY those rules were made in the first place instead of blindly following them? If you get a deep understanding of music (as opposed to learning the rules, which equates to a surface understanding) you will be able to use your OWN judgment regarding your art. Why would you let someone else control the way you make your art?

And this kind of thinking also applies even if you DO want to try and write music for the masses. If you want radio play or not, adhering to rules makes boring and predictable music.

This is an excellent article if you have ever wondered why we use 12 notes to the octave; http://www.h-pi.com/theory/naturals1.html

Rules IN A PARTICULAR STYLE.

If your theory teacher doesn't say this, they're dumb, but the information is not.