Let me tell you about chord planing

When we learn music theory, sometimes we learn to stick to the 7 notes of the scale. But how come so many artists use notes outside of the scale?

Let's look at one reason for that today: the tools we use to compose music often make it easy & intuitive to prioritise the shape of chords higher than any need for them to be in a particular scale. This is called Chord Planing.

We'll look at how this is the case for guitars, sequencers and samplers, using examples from the Pixies (rock), Donna Summer (pop) and Inner City (house).

Content:
0:00 Intro
1:24 What is chord planing?
4:14 Definition of chord planing
4:34 The Pixies - chord planing on guitar
7:16 Donna Summer & Moroder & Sequencers
13:57 Samplers & Inner City Good Life

[thelateraledge]

This is a little off topic but here's a little tip when it comes to sampling chords. When you sample the chord, sample it being played using the higher octave range, then play it back on your sampler at the correct octave range. Sampling at the higher octaves then playing at the correct octave once sampled will create some nice lofi artifacts and grit in the chord.

Back in the day people did this because of the limited sample time available on samplers and the work around was to sample at higher octaves which created a shorter overall sample time length thus saving them vital storage space. They would also do this when sampling from record, if the record was 33 they would sample it at the 45 speed, then play it back at the correct speed once sampled.

If you're trying to recreate those "good life" type chord stabs, using this method of sampling makes a huge difference and gives a much more "era authentic" feel to the chords. Sometimes truncating a little of the start of the chord helps so it's triggering slightly into the waveform, this is nice if you want a more of a sharper sound as you are also extending the original ADSR parameters when pitching the sample back down.

This technique also works really well for pad sounds that have some kind of modulation as it stretches out things like lfo lengths to odd timings or lengths beyond what the original synthesizer was capable of.


It takes a little bit more time to do, but if you sample a chord using both methods and then compare the two you will hear the difference. The higher up the octave you play the original chord before sampling, the more lofi the sampled sound will be, so there is a bit of experimenting to find the sweet spot.

[LestatAlone]

I know that this video is 2 years old, but the message is so important. Theory is a tool, not the law.

[VeziCaEu]

1st video that i can begin to understand the theory... 2 thumbs up... big fan of this channel!!!

[kookiespace]

Some of the gatekeeping around music theory reminds me of linguistics.

Actual linguistics is the descriptive study of language. There's very few things that are linguistically wrong. It's always about trying to explain why people might be speaking a certain way and how concepts are connected between languages. But that's not the view of it you'd get in some corners of the internet.

With music theory it feels very similar: music theory is the descriptive study of music. There's very few things that are music theoretically wrong. It's about trying to explain why certain kinds of music sound a certain way, and to compare concepts.

Maybe that's a comparison you can use too. Feels like a lot of people look at music theory as this beast that's telling them what to do when it's really just an analytical framework

[jnny]

You are a gifted, exceptional teacher.

[schlechtestergtaspielerdek]

"Once you free your mind about the concept of harmony and of music being correct, you can do whatever you want".
Amazing Video!

[flipperpitstudio]

“The tool has priority over the theory.”
I’m saving that one. 😎👍
Awesome vid! Thx!

[DrClocktopus]

Always saw things like the "chord memory" on something like a juno and thought 'why, it isn't in key?' now I understand!

[Cybercowboy_]

You have the greatest music production channel. Please keep up the great work! And thank you!

[MrsYT]

"the tool dictates" - thats why i love to use the TB-303/TD-3 sequencer: the "fuzzyness" while you basicly program in your mind without a display, the outcome is always very refreshing and it gives a feeling of "we both playing/creating together" instead of its just me who program the sequences

[vulvaether]

Thanks maatje your a great teacher! Keep up the great work. Love from Somalia, one day inshallah I will make Somalian techno thanks to your YT channel. Bismillah

[djsarumawashi]

WICKED!!!
Thank you for Sharing.
Greetings from Cabo Verde Islands.
Cheers

[snidedj]

Awesome, thanks for this. I get bogged down in the theory a lot and it slows down my process, this has been useful to remind me to play around with sound more

[fraicheness]

Going through all the videos! This one‘s super useful

[peterelfman]

The impact this video just had on me in incalculable. Chord planing is not talked about in my music theory travels as a baby producer, and I wonder if that has to do with the fact that most entities that champion Music Theory are really pushing a very specific outlook towards music, which a lot of modern music genres and creation methods eschews. I will definitely be playing with chord planing in my future productions. Thank you SO MUCH for putting this video out.

[MikeH_PR]

What's amazing about this channel is the breadth of insight it provides.

[travisbasso]

I am loving these videos and your overall approach to teaching! And I really love "let's try not to gatekeep this topic too much" -- wow! What great framing that really points to how music theory can be exclusionary, but also being very western oriented it denies other approaches and paradigms around what music can be.

[HBYIW]

Oscar, I really like your teaching. You are always calm and explain very well. I learned so much from your channel. Other channels are too much hyper in their presentation. Hopefully your channel grows big 👍

[martinparidon]

Yes this was very helpful, thank you very much!

[pingking]

thank you man! you helping young producers to not stick their head so much into theory and do what they like to do!!! <3