Use This Chord to Transform Your Progressions

Learn how to write a non-diatonic chord progression with a music theory hack from Dirtyphonics "Rise from the Dead", by using a borrowed chord (chromatic diminished), and more!

1:09 - Theory
French group Dirtyphonics just dropped their new single “Rise from the Dead”, which boasts two powerful hacks that make the chord progression seriously stand out. Firstly, they play each chord one note at a time (known as an “arpeggio”), which makes their progression sound like a melody. Secondly (and this is the hack you’ve been waiting for), they make the third chord in their progression super spicy, which builds a ton of tension that totally captivates you. And then when that tension is resolved with the fourth chord, you feel so amazingly satisfied! So, what chord can create this level of spicy sorcery? A diminished chord. But, this ain’t no ordinary run-of-the-mill diminished chord. No, this is a non-diatonic diminished chord! What the hell is that? Well you see, both the major and minor keys contain a diminished chord. And yes, that diminished chord is somewhat spicy and will create some tension, but, as it’s in the key (known as “diatonic”), its tension is somewhat limited. So in order to create that next-level tension that Dirtyphonics are bringing, you need to not only use a diminished chord, but a diminished chord that’s not in your key (known as “non-diatonic” or “chromatic”).

2:22 - Set-Up
Alright, now you’re gonna learn how to use this theory to make your own version, and what you see on the screen right now is our version that we made earlier. So, start by setting up four bars of 4/4, with your grid set to 1/16 notes, and your tempo set to 75 BPM. The Dirtyphonics track is in the key of F minor, but we actually used A minor for our example, because A minor consists of only white notes, which means it’s easy to distinguish between the diatonic notes (i.e. in the key) which are white, and the non-diatonic notes (i.e. not in the key) which are black.

2:50 - Step 1 - Chords
Dirtyphonics’ chords are based on a classic (and therefore, overused) minor key chord progression, which starts on the I (Am), and then drops down to the ♭VI (Fmaj), and then goes up to the ♭VII (Gmaj). And with such a friendly and familiar starting point, Dirtyphonics are able to throw in a mega dissonant chord, without the progression ending up too spicy. Here’s how they do it. They insert a non-diatonic diminished chord in between the two friendly major chords, which softens the spiciness of that non-diatonic diminished chord. And the chord we’re gonna insert there, is F♯dim*. And that F♯dim also creates these awesome ascending semitone steps, which add even more tension. And, notice how the Fmaj and F♯dim chords only have one different note, which makes that chord change super smooth, even though it’s such a spicy chord!

*If you’re interested in where F♯dim comes from: It’s a borrowed chord (i.e. a chord borrowed from a parallel mode) from A Dorian.

4:25 - Step 2 - Arpeggios
Right, now that you’ve got your block chords, it’s time to break ‘em up into arpeggios, so let’s start with the first chord, Am. And Dirtyphonics break up the chords in their intro into 1/16 note arpeggios, in a very common grouping of 8+8. But, when they bring this chord progression back later in the song (at 2:08, if you wanna check it out), they do something very clever: they play their 1/16 note arpeggios in the unusual grouping of 6+6+4. And just for fun, we played ours in the unusual grouping of 7+4+4+1, but you can use whatever grouping you like for your arpeggios. And once you’ve worked out a grouping you like for your first chord, then apply that to the rest of your chords, like this. And lastly, for some extra melodic interest, and to add to the climbing feel of these arpeggios, we moved one of these high root notes of each chord up to the next note in the scale.

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ABOUT
Hack Music Theory is a pioneering DAW method for making great music that stands out, so you can move and grow your audience! Taught by award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony, and his protégé wife Kate Harmony, from their studio in Vancouver BC, Canada. Ray is the author of critically-acclaimed book series "Hack Music Theory", and has made music with Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and more!

MUSIC

COPYRIGHT
© 2019 Revolution Harmony
Revolution Harmony is Ray Harmony & Kate Harmony
All content (script & music) in video by Revolution Harmony

[SoulStBlues]

Your videos on harmony single handed pushed me over the hump to get down to simply creating songs. Thank you so much!

[WizardOfArc]

Thanks for the spice! And congrats on the anniversary!

[GroundSound]

Dude looks like Deadmau5 combined with Statham and is absolutely lit

[ClaudeYoung]

Congratulations on your 2 year YouTube Anniversary! Love your vid's and purchased your books!
Here's to many more years of success!!!

[HackMusicTheory]

Hello revolutionary music makers! We’ll be hanging out today (7 Feb) from 12pm - 1pm PST, drinking tea and chatting with you here in the comments, so come say hi :)

[Funkrocker]

Hey folks, congrats for your 2-year-anniversary! Did you celebrate it that much, that now are perfect fourths and fifths allowed ;)

I'd love to see a Hack on how to write a funky guitar part like Nile Rodgers in Daft Punks GET LUCKY.



Greets

[SHTMusik]

I´ve got a quick tip for all you guitarist/songwriters out there. Ater seeing the F#dim chord I went, probably like many, to the internet to find out how best to make this chord on the guitar. Well there are tons of different voicings and I found most to be pretty darn awkward. My solution was to keep the bar on the first fret after the F chord and use the middle finger for the low E on the 2nd, the ring finger for the third (G) string on 2nd fret and the pinky for the high E on the second fret as well. The index finger bar takes care of the 2nd (B) and 4th (D) strings. At least when moving from F to F#dim to G this is the easiest and fullest/sounding voicing that I could come up with. Just to be clear, the chord spelling is (from high to low) 2-1-2-1-X-2, with the middle finger hitting the 5th (A) string and muting it.

BTW, bought the Hack Music book and it was money well spent. Hack Music Theory has really helped me improve my understanding of the structure of popular music without all the boring stuff. I have learned theory but painlessly delivered. As a teacher myself I can appreciate how valuable this is. There are those who know and those who are entertaining but to be able to have both is truly special.

[Multi-Waves_Music]

Arpeggios are my most favorite element in music

[jremil]

One song that I would love to see you hack: Band: District 97; Album: Hybrid Child; Song title: Mindscan VI: Hybrid Child.

In this song, they managed to write a beautiful melody on top of a chord progression which uses only major chords selected around the circle of fifths… so no apparent key…

[dbk]

Thank you so much for all your content .. if i have no idea what to do next in my production i randomly grep a video from your list and new ideas came up...

[aureliomarty]

2 years already? Feels like yesterday. Congrats! And when are you showing that 100k youtube plaque that's another achievement!

[chrisdunnettmusic]

Love me some Demolished chords...uh, I mean Diminished ;). What's really cool is when you go to Harmonic Minor then you have 2 Diminished triads and if you make them Diminished 7th chords they become 1 in the same which actually gives you 4 Diminished 7th chords. The other cool thing is anything a whole step below or a half step above will sound like it resolves and is the Root note so it's a clever way to change keys ;). Yes, I have spent way too much time on my guitar lol.

[wrench]

While it isn't a full track, but one of the best solos I have personally ever heard was on Vader's Revelations of Black Moses. That is full on goosebumpy sorcery right there. Which is funny considering how dissonant a lot of their tracks are.

[nandakoryaaa]

Hi Kate & Ray! :) Thank you for another great video!

[Marxlrose]

OMG beard! you been talking to Paul LeB (my beardcrush) and moving house - you folks been busy! Great lesson as always, I'm about to put it into practice. Good luck in your new pad, i hope its got a barbers chair :)

[felinephase]

Hey the grooviest couple of Canada spreads Harmony with endless hack again! ☻
Congrats for the channel.
Nice track. It opened me another way to view arps... Nice. ☺

[eross]

Nine inch Nails, please explain Trent Reznor’s use of flats to make dissonant chord progressions

[muhammadrezahaghiri]

Hello!
You know, when I subscribed to your channel I really had bad days (not my worst days but it was bad, what's the difference?) and your content helped me turn my face away from those depressing thoughts. At least, you helped me write and record better music. But enough talking about depression, I have good news for you! I'm waiting for my professor to give me feedback for the project, and isn't that cool to have a computer engineer in the community of revolutionary music makers?
I'm almost graduated, I recorded three pieces for my lute album and I'm getting better at piano.
And for the artists hacks, I suggest Federico Albanese, Jon Hopkins and Sebastian Plano (sorry my friends I think those three are just different names for Olafur Arnalds :D )
And have a nice week and weekend!

[juliansolo]

This tutorial is awesome, love it!

So we are in the key of Amin with Am(i)-Fmaj(VI)-Gmaj(VII) + F#dim(vi°) from A Dorian in third.
Ray, could you please explain to me why is there a "b" before the VI and the VII degree?? What does it mean?

You guys are doing a great job, Thanks a lot!!
Best

[halvdunkel]

Hey im glad I got the bell so I'm early
So anyway question, is there any hack or tip in a chord progression to know which Chord sounds good (or right) with the following ?
For example if I start with Dm is there any way to known what chord (or type o chord) goes well and doesn't sound "bad"
Thank you so much