Music Theory On The Deluge

I’m answering some basic music theory questions solely using the Synthstrom Deluge to illustrate.
Even though I’m calling this ‚basic‘ there’s a lot of things I’m discussing here. So if this is all new to you don’t beat yourself up if you can’t grasp it all right away. These things take times and I always find it helpful to look at things from different perspective. So I’m just hoping the deluge one I’m offering here might help.
If you’re already familiar with some of this look at the time stamps below to find a question that might be of interest to you:
0:00 intro
0:26 what’s an interval
4:13 what’s a chord
6:34 what do the roman numerals mean? (chord progressions)
10:19 which note/notes do I have to move to get to a good next chord (chord inversions
15:05 in scale mode can I use any combination of notes and it’ll sound good
17:22 why is an octave 12 semitones and half an octave 7?
18:34 outro
Many thanky to @BenjaminGutheil for the great questions!

[@en16ma_music]

Thank you so much for this and the other Deluge videos! As someone that does not come from a music theory background I appreciate the breakdown and love that you use the Deluge to show how everything relates rather than using a staff!

[@easytiger1452]

Thanks! It's always nice to hear that the content is appreciated. I think most everybody will agree that the way we write music and the entire terminology of music theory isn't ideal. But I guess we'll just have to deal with it. It's the language we use to talk about music and languages are just hard to change. You don't hear a lot of esperanto conversations out in the streets these days...

[@mrrafsk]

the log explanation made so much sense to me (fyi we also see in log) - thank you!.. would love to make the same video but with the 5th chromatic layout of the deluge

[@easytiger1452]

thanks for mentioning that we also see in log, I didn't know that.

[@Kevvywevvy]

I found this very helpful, and suddenly, things make more sense. Thanks 😊

[@easytiger1452]

Thanks! Very glad this was helpful to you!

[@TheRhyne91]

Thank you so much for this video. The Push also has a isomorphic keyboard and I need to learn this quick for the deluge and push

[@GuidoGautsch]

You can get the sequencer to work like this in push as well - just hit the layout button a couple of times

[@TheRhyne91]

@@GuidoGautsch ty

[@TristanBaldi]

Great video, very well executed. I have a fair understanding of basic music theory but the way you presented it brought some new perspectives. Something I ike about music theory: you can know it for a long time and then something that was right there under your eyes you had never thought about a certain way just clicks. Very cool idea and thanks for sharing

[@easytiger1452]

Thanks! Very glad I could offer some new perspectives!

[@8thmyth]

When the open source start getting stronger you should definitely cover the community made firmware. There is already a nice one letting you utilize the keyboard in kit mode. Great video btw, needed this

[@easytiger1452]

Yes, I saw that. Looks pretty cool. I'm awfully poor at finger drumming so I'll skip this one. But I'm very excited to see what the future (or more accurately: the coders) will bring.

[@chewabledrapery]

This is such an excellent tutorial, thank you so much!

[@johngudgeon7454]

and much awesomeness was on display. subscribed

[@GuidoGautsch]

I've watched and read a fair bit about music theory but I don't think it ever clicked as much as it did with this video - awesome job!

[@GuidoGautsch]

Quick question - where do things like m7 or M6 fit in?

[@easytiger1452]

good question. these are chords with four notes in them, which I didn't get to in this video. The basic principle is fairly simple though. You just take your base triad (minor in this case because of the m) and than add a seventh (m7) or a sixth (m6) in relation to the root note. 7 means a minor seventh. For a major seventh you see things like maj7, j7 or Δ7. The m6 chord is a bit of a special case. So consider this on big bracket. The 6 here is a major sixth and there is no sixth chord with a minor sixth. The reason for this is that we get to these four note chords by stacking thirds as well. So we usually would get to a seventh chord. the 6 in a m6 chord is sort of a substitution for that seventh (which will then not be in the chord). The 'natural' way of sixths occurring in chords is by keep stacking thirds (1 3 5 7 9 11 13). The 13 is an octave plus a sixth. There we get major and minor versions which we label 13 and b13. Thanks for the question! Seventh chords would be a good topic for a follow up video to this one!

[@GuidoGautsch]

@@easytiger1452 härzleche Dank! And yes, it would be really appreciated! 7th chords are some of my favourites and I find they really spice up a chord progression, so if you wanted to make a follow-up video about them, I'd be super grateful, but that said, your explanation here is very clear and I think I get it.

[@JackAcid]

Long-term Deluge Lifer here: this machine constantly blows my mind. How on earth did those guys in New Zealand come up with it??

[@wiegraf9009]

Thanks for the nice tutorial on the Deluge!

[@cruedriver]

Many thanks for this brilliant and easy to understand breakdown of chords and intervals within the context of the Deluge. So helpful!

[@FrozenLonesome]

Very clear explanation I appreciate you using the Deluge to illustrate basic music theory.

[@Cloud_Brn]

Instant subscriber after this video! Great job explaining, wonderful lil cues added to the screen in post, and beautifully simple examples of chord shapes and progressions. I don't even own a Deluge yet, but this was still emensely helpful, thanks man!

[@harpingon]

Nice video man. Had a deluge for a while and been playing other instruments for over 40 years, can read sheet music etc. but ... the big thing is I never learned any music theory and that's holding me back from making things with the deluge so really, this is the perfect video.

[@Geekraver]

I knew everything in this video but it was still great. Very succint, clear, and to the point.

[@DavidDeLuge]

What a great video. Thank you 😀

[@jpakaerc]

Really great useful video thank you so much

[@bryanbooneart]

This was really helpful!

[@JohanVandekerckhove]

Isn't the Deluge an amazing machine? I showed it to a friend who is a music teacher and she was amazed, but she immediately understood how it works.

[@easytiger1452]

that's one thing I love about the deluge. It goes pretty deep but at the same time you can get started with it right away without knowing anything about it. Great tool for teaching too!

[@joeymc5272]

Its awesome you literally can set up a couple clips and have a full track in a matter of 5 minutes or less pressing a bunch of pads on grid.

[@stevengeorgesmyth-bonfield6092]

I'd love to see a video on how other scales change the way chords are made on the deluge and perhaps some stuff about 7th and 9th chords and such.

[@easytiger1452]

Thanks a lot for the great suggestions! I'll actually have a video about all thing seventh chords on KZbin soon. I am currently editing it. 9th chords is also a great topic, i'll keep that on my to do list. With the scales the deluge offers you get the same set of chords for all scales. The only difference is the order they are in. So not a whole lot to cover there. It might be different with the community firmware. I am not sure though, haven't had the time to check it out unfortunately.

[@aalbanaal]

Excellent video!!

[@easytiger1452]

Thanks!

[@stevengeorgesmyth-bonfield6092]

Really great useful video thanks.

[@easytiger1452]

Thanks! Glad you found this useful!

[@jjurksztowicz]

Really great explanations. Hope this becomes a series. For example what makes a chord progression moving between minor and major scales sound good?

[@easytiger1452]

Thanks for the great questions! I'm planning on at least making a part two to this. Just haven't gotten around to it.

[@user-uc4gm9zm1d]

thank YOU!!

[@easytiger1452]

My pleasure!

[@ywenp]

3:15 That's one of the puzzling incoherences in music theory: why the "minor second" (semitone interval) is called "minor" when actually it is the same in both major and minor scale. It should be called "diminished second" (just like the 4th and the 5th).

[@joeymc5272]

Do you have a video tutorial or could do a tutorial on how to hook up hardware fx to deluge in a dawless setup? Do you need a mixer or interface for this or can you route it in a way where you have it send return and just use headphones without the extra gear?

[@easytiger1452]

There's no simple send/return solution that I could think of. A mixer would definitely be helpful. But even there it would be difficult to send individual things to a send bus. You could go mono and try doing something with the two stereo channels but that seems very impractical to me. With the limited amount of I/O I think it's just not designed for anything other than sending the entire sum through an effect box.

[@joeymc5272]

@@easytiger1452 i figured it out. Just run into line in. If you want to run fx say as a send and return you have to route going to your faw but with an instrument your fine. Also if you have something like zoia you can do this as well

[@wiegraf9009]

@@joeymc5272Yes I've done this plenty with the Korg NTS-1. Good times!