Electronic Music Composition Pt1

The Logic X update introduced a dedicated Arpeggiator midi device, and the following video provides a brief introduction. This is covered in more detail in the Point Blank Logic 1 module.

An introduction to the EMC course

Drawing on the knowledge of Scales & Chords, Ski demonstrates how to play an Arpeggiated riff over a backing track he has written.

Ski shows you how to slow down Deadmau5's 'Some Chords' track in Ableton using Warping to make it easier to work out the chords. Most of the content of this video can be applied to any DAW, so please watch it even if you are using Logic. We will show you how to slow down the same track in Logic using Flextime in the following video.

For those of you on Logic Pro X, here is a video from Point Blank's Logic 1 Production course showing you how to use FlexTime.

Ski shows you how to use the Arpeggiator device in Ableton to play notes of a held chord in a rhythmic sequence. He uses the classic track by Donna Summer entitled 'I Feel Love' to demonstrate how the technique can be applied to a track.

Ski shows you how to use the Arpeggiator device in Logic to play notes of a held chord in a rhythmic sequence. The classic track by Donna Summer entitled 'I Feel Love' is used to demonstrate how the technique can be applied to a track. Please see the previous Ableton video for a more detailed look at the chords.

Following on from the previous video, Ski shows you how to use Logic's Flextime to slow down the audio, making it easier to hear the chords.

In this video Ski uses the same track by Mark E entitled 'Call Me (Dixon Edit)' to demonstrate a Major Triad. He also touches on the Minor Chord in the sequence.

Ski goes through some tracks in his iTunes library and searches for the Tonic (Tonal Centre) in each one using either a Piano or String sound. These are the tracks: Daft Punk - Revolution 909 Lana Del Ray - Video Games (Joy Orbison Remix) Prommer and Barck feat. Lois Longerling - Lovin' (Andre Lodemann Remix) JVC Force - Strong Island Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl

Check out how the D minor Pentatonic scale works over both a Major I - IV - V Chord Progression, and a Minor i - iv - v Chord Progression. This is the sound of the blues and can give your tracks a real jazzy flavour. It's also a great starting point for soloing and riffing.

Ski uses a track by Mark E entitled 'Call Me (Dixon Edit)' to demonstrate the scale of C Major

Ski uses the classic track 'Knights Of The Jaguar' by DJ Rolando to demonstrate the scale of D Minor

In this video Ski uses the same track 'Knights Of The Jaguar' by DJ Rolando to demonstrate a Minor Triad. He also introduces the concept of Inversions which we will look at in more detail later in the course.

Ski takes a look around the keyboard identifying the names of the white and black notes, as well as their relationship with each other. Please try to learn these notes for yourself by practising as much as possible.

Ski shows you how you can play the same piece of music in lots of different keys. He uses the track 'Insomnia' by Faithless as an example.

Ski looks at the track by Redlight called 'Get Out My Head' to illustrate the terms we have covered on the previous page.. Don't worry too much about the notes he's playing, as we'll be going into more detail as the course progresses. We hope this will give you a feel for the format of the videos and help explain the terms more clearly.