Yes, it is. Thanks for reading!
But seriously, folks – this is a question I’ve heard a lot and a point of struggle for many composers without a formal or classical music education. In this post, I’ll briefly discuss some of the major topics of music theory and their relevancy to game audio professionals. This is by no stretch of the imagination a 100% comprehensive guide, but will serve as a decent jumping-off point if you feel your lacking music theory skills are getting in the way of your composing.
(Update: For an in-depth case study on music theory from one of the greatest video game music tracks ever, check out this post: 7 Music Theory Lessons from Final Fantasy VII)
Chord Progressions (aka Harmonic Progressions)
If you’re writing music, you’ve probably inherently learned the basics about chord progressions (even if you haven’t necessarily realized that information). Knowing the most common and effective chord progressions can be incredibly useful, because it can help simplify your decisions when deciding how to harmonize a melody or answering the “where do I go from here?” question. Sadly, many people get hung up on learning these fundamentals because the topic inherently contains several other elements of music theory and harmony which may or may not be useful to know. For example, knowing the most common chord progressions would be very useful if you’ve written a great melody and need to figure out what chord progressions the electric guitar should be rocking to accompany that melody.
Learning why those chord progressions work, on the other hand, will only be useful for certain scenarios that may or may not apply to you. If I’m writing a solo piano piece with a great melody, I might discover that the chord progression – while correct – might not sound very fulfilling. Having an understanding of the balance between consonance and dissonance, tension and resolution, and basic voice leading principles can be extremely useful tools for taking a basic-sounding chord progression and turning it into a fulfilling and complimentary accompaniment for the melody.
If I’m writing a melody for flute and have an acoustic guitar strumming along with a basic chord progression, on the other hand, that latter pieces of information aren’t nearly as important and are more likely to overwhelm or overcomplicate the process than help it. When you’re playing “open chords” on the guitar, all that stuff I mentioned before – consonance and dissonance, tension and resolution, and voice leading – are kind of automatically taken care of because of the way the instrument is typically learned and played. In this scenario, I don’t have to understand what’s going on and why it’s working in order to use it.
Keys & Scales
The following can be a little complex to read about without hearing examples or having someone talk you through it, but it’s very useful. Understanding Keys and Scales will provide you with a guide along your compositional adventures by giving you a roadmap to what will likely sound good and what will likely sound not-so-good.
The key in which a piece of music is written refers to the “home” note and the scale which the piece is primarily built upon. For example, a C Major piece of music uses C as the “home” note, and most of the music is built with the pitches contained within the Major scale if you play it starting from C. A scale is a set combination of intervals which can start on any pitch, basically. In a piece written strictly in C Major, all of the chords and melodies will be built using the combinations available from the 7 pitches of the C Major scale.
To reiterate, knowing what key you’re writing in and what scale you’re basing your piece of music on will inform you of the available pitches you’re allowed to use when creating chords or melodies. While this may sound very restricting, this acts as a foundational system to build upon rather than a strict rule. As such, people who understand the system can and will tastefully bend/break the rules. Do you have to memorize every scale out there? No, you don’t. You don’t necessarily need to know the mixolydian scale or the pentatonic scale, but these may be useful as you get more sophisticated with your melody writing. Most people get by just fine with the good ol’ major and minor scales.
Intervals
If you’re writing music, you need a basic knowledge of intervals. This is one of those pieces of knowledge – like the alphabet, for example – that you won’t necessarily actively use or think about, but is present in everything you’re doing. As such, knowing the musical vocabulary or intervals is essential. The definition of an interval is the relationship between two musical pitches, or the distance between two notes. Some examples of intervals which you’re sure to be familiar with are:
- Octave – The baseline to the ‘Duck Tales’ theme song plays octaves over and over.
- Perfect Fifth – The first two notes of the melody in the ‘Star Wars’ theme are a perfect fifth.
- Perfect Fourth – The first two notes of the main melody in the original Legend of Zelda over-world theme are a perfect fourth.
Will you sit around thinking about how to use a perfect fifth in your next piece of music? No, you probably won’t (although John Williams did do that while writing the melodies for the main themes from Star Wars and Indiana Jones). However, it’s useful to know the most common intervals and the intervals that you personally like the most so that you can identify them in your writing. It’s a musical of vocabulary that’s critical to know if you’re trying to learn the fundamentals of writing great melodies.
In my opinion, a knowledge of intervals serves best as a diagnostic tool. You can properly analyze melodies written by others to learn the building blocks behind a specific melodic effect, and you can diagnose aspects of your own music to make sure you’re not being boring by staying within your comfort zone. For example, if you’re writing a soundtrack for an RPG you may find that you never use intervals larger than a perfect fourth. That sort of habit is easy to fall into and can result in a bunch of melodies that don’t sound very distinct from one another, but if you don’t have the basic vocabulary to critically look at your own work you may be left asking yourself “Why don’t any of these melodies really stand out from the rest?”.
Questions about Music Theory? Fire Away!
I want to hear your music theory questions! If there’s an area that you feel particularly weak in, or if you’re finding yourself up against the same limitations with you writing – tell me about it in the comments on this post! I’ll do my best to help, even if you’re not exactly sure what it is you’re missing. While this post is by no means a conclusive music theory guide, I hope I’ve illustrated some of the common elements of music theory which I believe to be incredibly useful for vide game music composers.
I’m a little surprised that this is even a question. It’s like asking if studying form, color, or texture is important for a visual artist.
I know what you mean! However, digital audio is so accessible now that you can get by with little-to-no music theory knowledge if you have the digital chops and a decent ear. Your visual art example is a great example: A visual artist can go reasonably far in their trade by observing others, piecing together specific skills within their craft, imitating, etc. I can learn color and texture by experimentation, for example. I can be a visual artist for years without ever learning about form, though (not that I’d recommend that…). Studying form helps me understand the components of what I’m already doing and what I could be doing better, and music theory is similar in that respect.
A more musical example would be guitar players. You can learn hundreds of songs, perform beautifully, and even be the centerpiece of a band without knowing the music theory behind what you’re doing. Just like a visual artist who is just using their eyes, a musician who purely composes “by ear” can easily encounter limitations that they don’t understand. I’ve met some very talented performers and song-writers who don’t know a lick about music theory, and that usually results in a plateau in their learning and writing because they can’t look at their music critically to understand what they need to improve upon.
I think you describe it well: these days, the gap between hearing complicated music in your head, and actualizing it into a recording, is much shorter than it used to be: everybody has an orchestra on their desktop these days, so there’s not so much a sense of craft and disciplined training.
Ach, who am I kidding: I’m just frustrated that I’ve spent so much time learning my modes and 16th-century counterpoint, while people with good ears can land gigs on raw talent. 🙂
Hahaha – I feel your pain. So much of that stuff was taught outside of any kind of useful context.
I like how you described it: “everybody has an orchestra on their desktop these days”. Truth. Having said that, I think anyone who learns the pieces of theory relevant to their style will ultimately have the leg-up – either in short-term success or longevity.
Well said Dan, as a guitarist myself I agree that it seems somewhat like a badge of honor amongst other guitarists nowadays to be able to play complex things and have know idea how any of it works on a theoretical level. While I understand the somewhat romantic notion behind this, it’s in my opinion shortsighted at best.
Thanks for the comment, and I know what you mean – I’m also a guitarist, and until I learned some basic music theory I found every attempt at “jamming” with other musicians to be incredibly revealing.
As a preamble, the singer songwriter or a band really isn’t a good yard stick for measuring the musical accomplishments of a lay-musician or recording artist. This is for several reasons but one music consider how much ‘help’ professional artists have in the studio. Beyond this, I think artists are like a pizza joint. They really turn out the same dish over and over again. To be a chef who can make up unique and delicious food when presented with any ingredients, this is a totally different beast. Videogame music composers who are successful are expected to write in many genres, even styles they not have encountered before. You have to be adaptable.
Music theory is an interesting beast. To quote a sensei I had many years ago, there are those who do not train and can fight, there are those who train who can fight, and those who train and cannot fight.
That being said, I do find that there is are really two proliferating opinions in regards to music theory, both of which are not entirely correct. One is yours: People create music without the knowledge of music theory so I don’t see how it is valuable. The other is people who think that learning theory will magically make them creative.
I have a few comments: First of all, having a talent and a good ear is a necessary starting point. And, you can make it so far with both of these.
Basic music theory is part of becoming literate as a musician. It allows you to think about music, analyze it, and understand what is happening. Beyond that, studying harmony is a lot like learning grammar or learning a recipe. You’re understanding what has been doing and why that works. But, this is only one slice of the pie. There are other things which require rigorous study.
Counterpoint: I wish I had a dollar for every person who cannot do such a simple exercise. Counterpoint is really where theory intersects with composition chops. The ability to harmonize multiple voices at once is extremely important for creating full, rich, and interesting harmonies. Particularly, this is important with any ensemble that is comprised of monophonic instruments. A lot of string writing I hear by self taught composers sounds fake because the strings are treated like a pianist playing ‘pad chords’ on a piano. There is no understanding of how the idiom actually functions in the context of a real ensemble. What you are doing can sound right ‘to you’ but not work beyond that.
Analysis: I hear a lot of composers get blind sided in another area: Large scale forms or background structures. They manage a decent melody and a captivating ostinato but the music doesn’t go anywhere. The mark of a skilled composer -whether trained or self taught- is the ability to create a compelling musical narrative that demands attention over time. Whether this is in the foreground or the background, the overall structure of the music will determine how long the music can be listened to until it exhausts itself.
I don’t disagree that it is possible to be an autodidact and succeed in music at a high level. But, it is precious when everyone thinks they are the exception, particularly when most are wrong.
Hahaha, so apparently I am playing devils advocate with myself and the guy commenting wrote the article.
Reread my previous post as a rebuttal against all those who say that people don’t need music theory to succeed because **name artist here** did it. I can’t say how many times I’ve heard all these arguments re: music theory. Seriously guys, write an article about counterpoint & large scale form in music or maybe pester me about doing it =-p
I recall Nobuo Uematsu lauding the fact he’d never had formal music lessons as a great benefit to his composing style. He said it made his work better and more personal. I’ve always wondered how to think about his words in relation to music theory. Especially as someone about to enter College and study the subject. What are your thoughts on this?
I guess, as a follow up, it makes me think…”How did he pull it off?”
I also didn’t see the above comment…sorry, but I’ve always been curious.
I’m not 100% sure, but I’m going to guess imitation was a huge part of it. Imitating the sounds that he heard, and getting them into his fingers/ears at the piano. You can sometimes connect an artist to using the same harmonic choices over and over again, giving them their signature sound. Some examples that come to mind off the top of my head are Eric Whitacre (choral composer), Sara Bareilles, Yoko Shimomura, etc. They all sounds like themselves when they compose because they’ve gravitated towards certain chord functions and harmonies that they must really enjoy hearing and using. Uematsu-san is likely the same way, though he may not be 100% aware of the technical names for things he does.
I know almost nothing of musical theory (just the name of the notes and their location on a tab), but I can do music without it. Vangelis doesn’t know musical theory either, yet he has done incredible jobs such as the Blade Runner Soundtrack. Noubo Uematsu is another example of that.