Hello revolutionary music makers, I’m Kate Harmony, this is Ray Harmony, and welcome
to Hack Music Theory, where we help you make great music that stands out. If it’s your
first time here, please help yourself to our free book “12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn
Scales & Chords”, which you can download from our website: HackMusicTheory.com. Also,
if you download our free book in the next few days, you’ll get the multitrack MIDI
file from this lesson in our newsletter next Friday. And that file includes the riff, chords,
bass and drums. Oh, by the way, sorry we missed you last week, we were moving (as you may
have noticed from our new background). We’re all settled in now though, so we’re back
to our weekly upload schedule, every Friday. On that note, it’s time to open your DAW
to hack music theory. But first… tea! Hahaha I forgot my tea in the kitchen.
The opening riff in “Could You Be Loved” by Bob Marley & The Wailers creates a truly
legendary intro! Despite being written 40 years ago, “Could You Be Loved” is more
relevant than ever, because its intro hooks us in the first five seconds. And with a quarter
of all songs on Spotify getting skipped in their first five seconds, it’s absolutely
essential to have a great intro, and that’s exactly what we can learn from this legendary
song. What makes this intro so remarkable? Four things: First, it’s simple. Second,
it’s singable. Third, it’s interesting. And fourth, it teases. Now let’s explore
these in more detail. The riff is simple, because it consists of only three notes: the
1, 2 and ♭3. And that makes this riff extremely easy to sing, which makes it extremely catchy.
But, while the melodic side of the riff is simple, the rhythmic side is really interesting,
which prevents it from getting annoying. And that is vital, because catchy music that gets
annoying after a few listens will be nothing more than a trend. For music to become legendary,
it needs to be simultaneously catchy and interesting, and “Could You Be Loved” is the perfect
example of that! And lastly, this intro hooks us by confidently teasing, without giving
everything away, like so many artists do these days in a desperate attempt to avoid that
five second skip.
Alright, now you’re gonna learn how to use the music theory from “Could You Be Loved”
to make your own legendary intro. And remember, just like all our lessons, you can use this
theory hack to make music in whatever genre you want. And to show this, in our playthrough
at the end, we’ll switch from Reggae to EDM without changing the riff, chords, bass
or drums. Okay, so for the example in this lesson, we’ll be using our version that
we made earlier. So, start by setting up two bars of 4/4, with your grid set to 1/16 notes,
and your tempo set to 103 BPM. “Could You Be Loved” is in the key of B minor, so we’ll
use it too.
STEP 1. PITCH
This is the element that you wanna keep simple, so choose only a handful of notes for your
riff. We centred ours around the 1, ♭3, 2, and ♭7, then we threw in the 5 and ♭6
at the end for variation. And be sure you also change something in your second bar,
just for a little variation. Lastly, you wanna play the root note a few times in each bar,
in order to establish it as your home and anchor your riff into the key.
And just a quick heads up before we get to Step 2. If you need help writing riffs, melodies,
chord progressions, bass lines, counterpoint harmonies, and more, then check out our Songwriting
& Producing PDF. It also comes with MIDI file examples, and you can download all that right
now over at HackMusicTheory.com
STEP 2. RHYTHM
This is the element that you wanna make more interesting, to prevent your catchy riff from
getting annoying. And the way we do that is by using syncopation, which is when you accent
an off-beat. Now, in order to create that syncopation, you’ll want a few 1/8 note
and 1/16 note rests in your riff, which also gives it space to breathe. Lastly, here’s
a little bonus hack for you. Start your song with four bars of your riff on its own, which
will hook and tease your listeners. Then, drop your bass and drums in bar five. And
finally, bring your vocals in a couple bars after that.
Alright, now let’s have a listen to our Bob-inspired intro. And remember, we’ll
be switching genres, so keep listening to the end. But just before the playthrough,
if there’s an artist you’d like us to hack, please let us know. Thanks for watching
(or listening, if you’re on the podcast), and we’ll see you next week!