>> [MUSIC] Today we're going to talk about writing
a melody in a minor key.
Minor brings a whole sonic landscape with it.
It just brings a whole mood,
but we can actually bring out the best in
that minor key if we think
about which notes in the key are stable,
or the most stable and which ones are unstable.
Lets work in A natural minor.
[MUSIC] Just like in a major key, that first triad,
[MUSIC] even though it's a minor,
those are the most stable notes in the key,
the one [MUSIC] that's home,
three [MUSIC] and five [MUSIC].
Those are the stable notes.
Just knowing that, if you write a song and you're like,
oh, I want to write a song,
when will I get over you?
When will I get over you?
Of course, your first instinct because you're in
a darkened room alone, cry.
Is that you think Minor [MUSIC] Great.
Do you want it to feel really sad and really dark.
[MUSIC] If you write your melody again,
if you're listening to this triad and
your ear is picking out the notes in this triad,
you're actually going to write that
to the most stable notes in the key.
[MUSIC]
Even slowing it down,
it still feels pretty stable.
[MUSIC]
Those are the most stable notes in the key.
What about the two? [MUSIC] The four,
[MUSIC] the six [MUSIC] , and the seven?
[MUSIC] Those are the notes
that are going to make this feel even,
I mean how hard do you want it to feel?
How hard is it to get over you?
How hard do we want that to feel?
We're going seeing that melody on stable notes.
It's not going to feel as hard,
is if it did, if we're going to
sing that on unstable notes.
It'll be really fun for you to just sit
down in the key of maybe A minor
and push each one of those notes
up against your melody and
try them out until you feel like,
oh now it feels really hard to get over you.
Instead of [MUSIC]
could that feel sadder [MUSIC] Lets use the two
[MUSIC] that feels really hard, doesn't it?
[MUSIC] , because I've used that two.
Now let's use the four.
[MUSIC]
You feel the ache in that.
The most unstable note in the minor key is the flat six.
Let's see what happens to the song when we sing "How
will I get over you" on that sixth degree of the scale.
[MUSIC]
Let's go back to the stable notes
one more time just to compare it.
[MUSIC] Or [MUSIC]
You feel the ache?
Try that out just be really aware of, you know,
do I want to sing this on the stable notes or do
I really want to go for it and sing the two, the four,
the seven, or the flat six,
which is the most unstable
to really bring out the heartache.
Even if you were to use this as an uptempo song,
you would still feel that ache [MUSIC].
You feel that stable?
[MUSIC] Those are just
using all of the notes in that very stable minor triad.
Now, I'll use the rhythm and I'll sing that six.
[MUSIC] You can feel
the mystery anytime we add a rhythm and
we take a minor key and we make it faster,
you get something different.
You go from dark and depressing
and moody to maybe if it's Shakira,
you even get sexy or you get fun for sure.
Writing in a minor key is a really great choice,
of course, for your moody or ballads,
but to add tempo to that,
you could create a great dance tune,
also they're really great for writing Latin songs.
Try it out always and have fun
changing the tempo and the feel.