Understanding music theory in modern pop music

To start crafting billboard-ready records in FL Studio, I’m going to introduce you to the concept of pop chord progression theory. This hack uses a solid chord progression as a foundation for you to build on as you progress through the production of the track. Creating melodies that work is a framework of modern music theory in current pop music trends, offering a baseline to create sure-fire formulaic productions. In the Creating melodies that work section, I will discuss this in greater detail.

Introducing pop chord regression theory

Throughout history, simple and hypnotizing chord progressions have popular music. The difference between popular music chord progressions and chords you may hear in other genres of music (such as classical or jazz) is that music that makes the Billboard chart follows a simple chord theory rule. Chord progressions should offer simplicity, and make records memorable, catchy, and enjoyable for the listener. This is one of the keys to creating Billboard-charting productions in FL Studio.

The C-A minor-F-G pattern is a classically used progression that hundreds of hit songs have used in various combinations. To create this chord progression in FL Studio, we will use the Piano Roll to click out these notes using the FL Keys VST:

Figure 2.27: The Piano Roll menu – chord inputs

Another combination of these historical chord progression could look like this:

Figure 2.28: The Piano Roll menu – a second variation of chord inputs

Chords can be rearranged and made in similar but different patterns to create new tones and moods as you experiment with your composing theory. As simplistic as this chord theory is, it works. You can get creative on how you arrange notes following this succinct pattern.

Now, let’s talk about creating melodies that work.

Creating melodies that work

Open the Piano Roll and select the draw tool. Once we have this window open, we will create an eight-bar loop:

Figure 2.29: The Piano Roll draw tool

For my example, we will use the mouse to create this eight-bar loop – when you’ve grasped the concept, you can get fancy and use a MIDI interface.

Now, before we dive into what works and what doesn’t from a creative standpoint, keep in mind that music is subjective. However, there are certain things (including note patterns) that just work, have always worked, and will always work.

One of the greatest songwriters of all time, Harlan Howard, once said, “A hit song is just three chords and the truth.”

In addition, I recommend that you get creative with the loop in Figure 2.30 – play around with it, try different things, but stick to it as a framework.

There are two main ways I approach creating leading melodies that work:

• Starting with base notes as a foundation
• Starting with high octave notes as a foundation

We always want to use middle C (C5 in FL Studio) as the base point for our melodies. Let’s start with using the base note formula. As shown in the following screenshot, click middle C by adding four note patterns:

Figure 2.30: The Piano Roll – note input

Using this approach, we will start with a baseline to build on of the MIDI pattern; this can also be approached through both long notes and short notes as follows:

Figure 2.31: The Piano Roll – staccato note input

Once we have built a base foundation, we want to start experimenting with high octave note patterns. These notes will make the track standout and act as the melodic points combined with your base notes. I like to place these in a sequence of four notes per each grid block, as shown in Figure 2.32:

Figure 2.32: The Piano Roll | a staccato four-note input pattern

FL Studio is a great tool for flexibility as it relates to playing around with ideas in the Piano Roll. You can start with a simple pattern and start moving notes around up and down keys to find the best combination.

The theory behind creating great records is keeping your loops and melodies simple – you don’t want to over-complicate the base of the track so as to confuse a songwriter or artist when they record a reference or song to it. As a matter of music theory, most traditional hit songs follow a formula of the same chord progression or a combination of those chord progressions in nature – the reason being that we as humans respond to certain combinations of notes in a very specific way! For example, major chords tend to produce a feeling or vibe of happiness, whereas minor chord progressions tend to create tension, aggressiveness, and anxiety. You may have noticed that most hip-hop or rap uses minor chords, and most pop or country uses major chords. This is done specifically to fit the niche of that particular genre. The C-major progression has been tried and tested in pop music for decades and is a go-to for most producers when formulating ideas.

The most important piece of advice I can give you as it relates to composing within FL Studio is to keep it simple. Every record needs room to breathe and space for a songwriter or artist to add their creative input. There exists a framework that we covered in the Using the Piano Roll section that describes the three- and four-chord pattern that pop music has used for decades to captive listeners, and we will now dive into this in greater detail.

The reality is that creating hypnotic and memorable melodies and chords will drive your productions forward, while your drum programming and arrangments with hold a rhythm and keep the listener attentive. Even though songs are only a few minutes long, have you ever noticed that you can get lost in one where it felt like time almost didn’t exist? Music is a powerful tool that directly affects the subconscious, which is a higher level of the mind. What I want to share with you is how we can use the Piano Roll to directly grab the attention of your fans and listeners by using certain age-old techniques that I have used and witnessed others use.

In Using the Piano Roll section, I introduced you to the concept of the Piano Roll and its flexibility within FL Studio. Now, we will discuss how to use it as a frame of reference to create and follow a Billboard chart-ready formula.