UK Garage Chords How to Sammy Virji

[@pizzabagel]

i hope you never stop making these videos they are seriously super helpful

[@michaberkowicz8239]

Its safe to hit like button before even watching

[@maXXer00]

LIKE BEFORE WATCH SQUAD 💥

[@defectiveresistor]

It’s guaranteed it’s gonna be worth liking.

[@llasch28]

FACTS this man is legendary

[@San7hos]

Exactly what I did

[@Astro_Brown]

Do this every time, I know this legend is going to make a banger informative video every time without a doubt🤣

[@iJoxy]

This channel contains the best tutorials on new UK garage, bar none, and it’s not even close

[@JuicerJ-b9t]

Your ability to understand and replicate chords is unbelievable - another amazing video 👏

[@cutsdeep]

Legend. I've avoided so much chord theory. You've made it make so much sense mate. Thank you

[@Samplers]

This was aimed perfectly at my level and insanely helpful. Thank you

[@MoonbaseDiscoRecords]

Moonlight's chords are simply hypnotising. ❤ Awesome tut as usual!

[@candyproductionssouledout9682]

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!!!!!!!!!!! These chord progressions are exactly my kind of music. I'm relatively old at 47 and I've learned a lot about how to get that mood. UKG is not necessarily my world, but rather RAW Kerri Chandler, Louie Vega or Scott Wozniak style drums. But your explanations are absolutely amazing! Thank you so much for that! P.s.: If you are looking for ideas, the old NYC masters are very good resources (1992-1998): E.g.: Kerri Chandler / Track 1 or You're in my system, Louie Vega / Many Cutting rec. (e.g. Praxis feat. Kathy Brown - Original Extended Mix) and Nervous rec. releases (e.g. Kim English - Nitelife NYC Underground Network Mix), Music Station/Music USA: Mentalinstrumental, Smackmusic/ Shelter Records Newer productions (ok, relatively new lol): Local Talk Records, Detroit Swindle, Paris Underground, Art of Tones/Llorca, Fukiflex, Tony Lionni, Benedict (don't know the name; have it only on white label), Deep Down Slam rec.-brame klansee Greetings from Switzerland!

[@soulfoodrecordings]

Bro every time you post the music scene improves!!!!! I learnt so much in the last few weeks ...thank you!!!

[@edubblesspirit]

I’m addicted to your videos my guy. Shits too helpful and informing

[@toyon8622]

Barely 7 mins in and I already learned so much. Thanks for sharing 🙏🏽

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Wow I have learnt so much and love those fruity jazz chords! I recreated them in Cubasis 3 and will keep practicing those techniques 👍

[@megarachne3000]

Seriously thank you, this has been a life changing video.

[@calzzz5610]

I love how you’ve explained everything so articulately. For someone with very little musical theory knowledge, it’s safe to say I’ve learnt a thing or two. God bless you!

[@Bthelick]

Great to hear thanks Cal. Be sure to check out those videos I mention at the start and a lot more of this should make sense 🙏👊. Let me know of any specific questions if you're still struggling.

[@CPowerslave]

This content is seriously explaining so much musical black magic ! Top Notch! 🎉❤

[@itskittens]

loving the uk garage videos.. thank you

[@bandatratata]

Man, thank you for your work, its fantastic

[@tga-hz7jf]

est tutorials on youtube. not just saying this to be polite, you are genuinely the best tutorial youtuber i have ever watched! thank you for uploading these!!

[@San7hos]

I was thinking what this all means and made a full circle once again. My take is that the whole music theory is rather a set of recommendations than rules. You can stack any notes to firm a chord, the progression is what matters and how well the harmonics sum up. I believe this is kind of what Jacob Collier says. Mathematically speaking, if you would sum up the sine waves in each stack and compare the succeeding, you would likely find there is correlation. Perhaps interesting division or interval. Now one needs to modulo all that with human ear imperfection and human expectation / culture. Ultimately, this gets me again in the mode of exploration. Thanks B for the food for thought.

[@getbackgetback670]

Bruh I just left a comment on another one of your videos completely unrelated and then scrolled down to see u have a video re production of my current favorite dj, sammy virji. Amazing thank you so much for your service ! I already know about chords but would love to see a video about his drums and adlibs

[@Bthelick]

Thanks for the comments , you're welcome 🙏. I have done garage videos on every element , drums, vocals, bass. Check em out 👊

[@_jblk]

Madness. Could never get a 1-5-6 and now I know where I was screwing up! Thanks for these videos, so helpful.

[@UKBassTutorials]

Really learnt a lot from this, always appreciate your vids!

[@george.r2164]

Saw your video on call and response in chord progressions the other day, really insightful. Very excited to watch this one mate 👍

[@johnnyverzace2362]

Let's go B! Love this garage series.

[@Algo2.0]

Here he goes again! Wonderful!

[@CookSC.]

I find it fascinating that Sammy used a mixture of different Keys & Scales in a progression; I'm assuming that they must have a deep understanding of music theory to be confident enough to attempt this. Great stuff as always!

[@Bthelick]

Well deadmau5 has done similar and claims he doesn't know anything! Knowledge is one way of doing this (and probably the only way for me to explain it back to other people 🤣) but a good ear for interesting harmony can be all you need if you're willing to experiment.

[@CookSC.]

@@Bthelick That’s very interesting and reassuring to know! Maybe it’s time to get a bit more experimental and go a little off-piste 🤔

[@foreverunknown369]

Yo imwas thinking about this exact topic like last couple a days and here you are, its like you read my mind 🥶🤯

[@bgoodydj]

Best tutorials in the game

[@sedlite4gaming]

great vid man

[@S0Tony]

Thank You! Learning soo much from these videos!

[@gabrielrossiter3078]

Amazing video once again. Your talent and ability to hear sounds and replicate chords is what I aspire to be. On the side I’ve been digging deep through some old skool “house classics” and I came across a rather intriguing one. “King of my castle, Roy Malone edit” haha. I know it’s a commercial one but that lead synth they use is very interesting and something I don’t see a lot of these days. Maybe you’d be up for the challenge to try recreate it. I’d love to see your approach to sound design like that. Thanks for the amazing content all the time 🙏

[@Bthelick]

Ooooo classic. Yeah it's a weird one, I always thought it was a guitar because I hear 'wah' and spring reverb but I'm not sure these days.

[@gabrielrossiter3078]

Making a squelchy guitar sound like that is a talent

[@soundminedd]

What a teacher❤❤❤

[@StoneCut]

Excellent, like all your videos. Thank you!

[@wlymerc5898]

Stumbled across your content yesterday and I must say I have never come across a better tutorial channel. I’m currently trying to get into making UKG as I DJ a fair bit of it. It has been so hard to find videos that actually explain why and how they are doing the things that they are doing. Couldn’t be more stoked about running into your channel 🙌🏽, have already learnt so much. Keep up the great work! Oh and also, are the chords from moonlight and the Peggy gau remix also just sine waves?

[@Bthelick]

Hey, thanks and welcome! Yeah just sine waves as I showed. Don't forget the chorus though!

[@wlymerc5898]

@@Bthelick Thank you so much! Keep up the great content! 🙌🏽

[@ap9773]

Amazing! Very useful. Thank you.

[@artash9514]

Thank you brilliant tutorial as ever

[@Chamilawarna]

I'm here in the midnight music school 🤩

[@HowLegit]

When shifting notes out of scale (i.e. flat 5th, sharp 3rd, etc.) - do I need to worry about changing my bass notes as well? How do you not end up with a clashing sound while going out of scale? Thank you so much for the videos, your teaching is clear and easy to digest :)

[@Bthelick]

I presume you mean for the parts where the bass is not playing root notes? Yes any "incidental notes" (notes temporarily out of scale) should be adjusted on other instruments too to avoid clashing. there's no rules though, still go with your ears! But yes I've observed virgi doing it. If his bass has note 3 in a fill/flourish/turnound and the chord is not diatonic (in scale) he adjusts the note to that in the chord. There are always exceptions if course like if you are deliberately planning a polychord (where two chords overlap to create a different one) but if you're not experienced yet keep it simple. (Well I wouldn't call this beginner level or simple any more but hopefully you understand what I mean! )

[@patrick23224]

Gonna preface and say - love your videos and your approach/philosophy to music it has definitely rubbed off on me and given me more ... courage? in producing. so thank you. One question I had was (maybe it was asked) how does Sammy come up with this ? Does he just sit at a piano and just bang 50 chords in 30 seconds and finds something that works? Or is there a particular method or musical theory that lines up with why this works. I ask because I wouldn't have been able to come up with this with 50 years of trying lol and i very much want to. cheers.

[@Bthelick]

Thanks Patrick, that's great to hear keep it up 👊 I can't speak for Sammy, I've not heard him discuss too much of the theory side in interviews. But this just comes with general chord exploration. Once you've mastered the basic diatonic stuff , these types of chords evolve from pushing outside of that. It's jazz basically. As I explained in the previous garage chord video if you start looking for interesting voice leading lines then these types of chords will automatically form.

[@patrick23224]

@@Bthelick Ah so at the end of the day just comes down to a lot of experimentation. I use a lot of Scaler2 and feel maybe it limits me to experimenting in that way so maybe I should just try making my own chords. I appreciate the response sir! have a great rest of your day.

[@Bthelick]

@@patrick23224 yeah it depends what you are trying to achieve. Scaler 2 is great, but its not for learning scales or chords, its for speed, which is a good thing. ideally It lets you react emotionally to what you are hearing without knowing what's going on underneath and getting lost 'in the weeds' of details which might not matter (like nerdy chord alterations!) In this video I'm nerding out because the details interest me as a musician, NOT a producer. Are these chords necessary to make a garage banger that will move a crowd? no really. There is a balance. Every artist wishes to master their craft , that might include getting better at an instrument or improving their knowledge of writing elements like chords. The hard part is keeping the bigger picture at hand, learning these things should be done to help is communicate our art better, not to satiate the ego of becoming more technically proficient for its own sake. In other words, its great to know this stuff if what you are getting form scaler 2 doesn't line up with your vision, or if you need to add extra parts to what scaler has given you. but if scaler 2 is giving you what you need then move on quick and get that track finished don't let videos like this distract you!!!!

[@patrick23224]

@@Bthelick the wisdom! haha I will definitely be saving this comment to look back at every now and then. Thats what I like about your channel is that at the end of the day its for the people listening and how you get there is really dependent on you (there is no exact wrong or right way). In the end I think I will go the way of trying to understand the chords as relying on Scaler2 gives me musical/writers block sometimes and part of me knows that to improve I should learn the nitty gritty of music rather than being lazy and always chasing perfection. How you were able to reconstruct these chords left me in awe and I wish to one day do the same with my own unique sound

[@JoetMusic84]

Wow, love this 🙏

[@keiichitw]

Great video, really intresting chord progressions and a really good way of teaching :). Maybe thats a dumb question, but how can i even learn these things? I know how to make chords, and use a scale, but now getting out of that scale and try some things, till it works and sound good? Or is there a way, to learn a pattern/knowledge which non tonic chords work together? I guess i just need to rely on my ears, like deadmau5 lol

[@Bthelick]

Yes that's exactly it, this is why I didn't try to get too technical, we could get into jazz theory but we need to remember music is emotional. Go with your ears and feelings. Start with standard progressions and make alterations where it feels lacking to you. As I said here most of these adjustments are to create stronger resolutions by improving the voice leading, so start there, have a look for a single note here or there that could be sharpened or flattened to make it flow to the next better, or ideally flow from the previous, to the new and next better. You don't have to know the chord names (trust me chord name conventions are nonsense! ) or what is going on harmonically, just play with the principle and feel it out 👊

[@julesbarents1197]

Nice video

[@moccemusic]

Best house tutorials on the internet😎 wonder how to create those glitchy synth chords like Max Chapman's "Make a Move". Maybe you have time to cover that in a tutorial sometime😊

[@Bthelick]

The original mix?

[@moccemusic]

@@Bthelick yes, would be great. 🙏🏼

[@Bthelick]

@@moccemusic the original mix doesn't have any chords. There's a sine wave lead, and an organ stab, is it those you're hearing as one?

[@moccemusic]

⁠@@Bthelickyes exactly!😊

[@Bthelick]

Ok I'll see if I can get round to it. But in the mean you can play around with a sine wave and reverb playing notes 1 5 and 6, and then an organ stab on the 1 chord chopped up and filtered (you can get this effect by just sweeping an EQ band up and down)

[@maXXer00]

Just in time 🥰🥰🥰

[@lafluerpeter9]

Nice, could you possibly lean into the 2 step side of UKG, sample based remixes like PJ Bridger and moody ragga influenced stuff like ZeroFG etc

[@iyoseioshv549]

i’d love some content on that pls

[@DJ_DIMSIM]

Thank you ❤

[@RafaelSilva-do5gy]

Wow, amazing video bravo! Is there any specific tuning you would suggest for the kick drum, specially due to the use of non-diatonic chords in some of the progressions?

[@Bthelick]

See my video on tuning kicks. I would never usually pick a pitched drum for this genre.

[@RafaelSilva-do5gy]

@@Bthelick Thx for the tip and the great content. This last "garage" series is mind blowing ;)

[@megarachne3000]

I would like to know how to make that exact synth, Great video!

[@Bthelick]

Thanks. Which synth? You mean sound?

[@megarachne3000]

@@Bthelick the airy pitch bent (sine wave?) synth you use at the start of this video around 7:25 Sounds like something you’ve made from scratch. edit: i realize you touch on it briefly in the video, will check out your synth video

[@Bthelick]

@@megarachne3000 yeah I show everything in the video. It's just a sine wave. Either with another sine wave as an octave or as an FM source depending on which part of the video you are referencing

[@wokesss]

at 3:24 I instantly heard BOTA by Interplanetary Criminal

[@diegocortez6677]

Yes , thanks 😮‍💨🔥

[@420mustard]

you rule!

[@YVR_Manuel]

I like your version of find my way better

[@onairrecordings]

Any chance of doing a trance series?

[@Bthelick]

Definitely! 👊

[@onairrecordings]

@@Bthelick brilliant!

[@lexasd4517]

a video that goes over how to find high quality instrument vsts would be nice.

[@Bthelick]

I'm not sure there's a method to it! After all recognizing good sound is an ear training issue so it always comes back to that. My advice is go to Bedroom Producers Blog they have all the free instruments / effects listed there, and be sure to sign to the mailing list they post about new ones every week. What comes with Ableton suite is also great. Beyond that I have pianoteq for the best realistic pianos, and an old native instruments complete bundle I got cheap ages ago covers some gaps. Vital covers literally all synth needs except full FM so I have the free dexed for that or FM8. I'll be doing a plug in tour of everything soon that's been requested a few times. But "how to find" is just typing the right words into Google! (Or probably more Kagi as Google is getting worse and worse)

[@DanielQuinn-c6p]

Great tutorials! Would be great to get the bass sound from the Peggy gou remix here please? 🙏🏼

[@Bthelick]

Is it not linked in the bass video?

[@DanielQuinn-c6p]

@@Bthelickno I don’t think so, don’t think you did the Peggy gou remix in the bass video

[@DanielQuinn-c6p]

@@Bthelickin the folder for the 8 garage sounds from vital there’s only 5 files in there

[@Bthelick]

I just checked the session ,I didn't use it in the bass video so it wasn't uploaded , thanks for spotting that. I've called it SquarePeg and put it here: drive.google.com/file/d/1zha66QBbuDrMt2THhYdRYxU04mTt5Im5/view?usp=drive_link

[@DanielQuinn-c6p]

@@Bthelick that’s amazing thanks! Such a great sound will be using that today for sure! 🙏🏼👌🏼

[@krishnarastogi2783]

in find my way, the notes in the progression that are played on the 3rd and 4th beats of each bar are played a little bit before the beat. adds a little swingy character to it

[@Bthelick]

Are they thanks. Well spotted

[@waterundertheboard]

what version of ableton is that? i havent seen that blue theme in years.

[@Bthelick]

I made this theme ages ago in a live 8 editor app and I've kept it ever since. This is live 11 in the vids , I have bought 12 but haven't had time to test yet.

[@waterundertheboard]

@@Bthelick ah, it looks like a dark variant of one of the old ableton default themes, neat.

[@rumblef1sh]

I think we need specific fruits, if you'd be so kind. I'd like to know if a chord is more an orange than a strawberry, etc. A dash of lemon, a hint of cherry.

[@Bthelick]

🤣 tbh if we did that we'd just be back into the same territory as traditional chord naming schemes!

[@rumblef1sh]

@@Bthelick Yes, but with more fruit! 😁

[@onewayrory4777]

What synth are you using on find my way?

[@Bthelick]

That's not a synth. It's a rompler. (Plays back samples) It's Spitfire Labs. The library is vintage keys. (All free)

[@mko444]

My goat

[@llasch28]

CHORD QUESTION: so I've watched, I believe all of your chord videos (some more than once) and I have a question about remixing a song thats not A minor...is it as simple as transposing the vocal stem as many semitones up or down TO A minor, noodling around until something sounds good with the white keys and then just transpose them both back??

[@Bthelick]

First thing to check, Is the vocal still in a minor key? Just not A? And what DAW are you in please?

[@llasch28]

I’m in ableton

[@llasch28]

And sorry yes assuming the vocal is also minor

[@llasch28]

I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the root being used in a progression…for instance if I see something is in F minor I automatically assume Fminor has to be the first chord played for that classification to be made

[@Bthelick]

@@llasch28 ok well let's presume the vocal is in F minor, you can write in A but use the Midi Pitch plug-in on that track and set it to -4 so that will play back in F in real-time

[@don_huzan]

Let’s gooooooo 🎉

[@puvendranpillay8802]

How do you integrate rhythm with the chords?

[@Bthelick]

Well here in these particular examples just are used as "pads" , long sustained notes that only change once per bar or half bar. because the sound timbre is soft, it doesn't lend itself well to very rhythmic parts, because there isn't a discernable start to the sound, and it is easily masked by other sounds. So its role is mostly harmonic not rhythmic. If you are asking in general though, for example maybe you want to apply this chord theory to a piano house track where the chord part can be rhythmic, then your rhythm will be determined by many factors. Too many to cover in this text, but it's going to all depend on when you want the chords to change, Which itself could depend on what you are accompanying like the vocal or the lead part, or bass. A lot of course depends on which comes first in the writing process. The rhythms chosen within that format can change per genre so I may need a more specific question to help further. I do have a video on writing chords to vocals if you want to see some of my thought process. Check that out and let me know if it helps. 👊

[@FishyDnB]

10:40 thats a dominant 7 cause of the minor 7th and major 3rd

[@Bthelick]

Yes it's a dom7/#9 . But I'm not going to get into dom 7th vs major 7ths yet, I've been simplifying terms as far as I can and that particular naming convention is both confusing and unnecessary!

[@emilianotorres444]

can you do his new song summertime blues?

[@Bthelick]

Yes , it's another multi tonal one, a minor scale but all major chords 1 6 4. I'll have to come back round to it, I'm going to move on from garage for a bit, lots of other requests have piled up but it's another gorgeous progression I definitely want to talk about it at some point.

[@craigburton4447]

I wish spitfire would sort their app out, I ended up ditching it as I had to keep reinstalling it over and over, it wasnt worth all the ball ache

[@Bthelick]

Yeah mine isn't too bad it seems about once a year I have to repair the library like it forgot where it was. Strange.

[@bigbass6869]

At 5:00 the chords don't land on the A minor scale so wouldn't this technically mean they are "out of key" ?

[@Bthelick]

These chords are all within A minor (at the time stamp you've placed there) But for those that don't 'land' (like what happens at 6:00, I prefer the term "out of scale". 'Key" to me insinuates they have moved to a different Root key (not A) whereas scale means they are no longer within the Minor. "Out of key" is a common phrase often used for that description yes , but when teaching beginners I try to distinguish between key and scale otherwise things can get confusing further down the line.

[@bigbass6869]

@@Bthelick so if i make a garage track using a vocal in F minor and i make chords in F minor for that vocal, and 1 of the notes in chord progression is out of scale, this doesn't mean the tune would sound harmonically incorrect? Because when i create chords in a certain scale, i always make sure all notes stay in the scale but i didnt know you could do chords where 1 or 2 notes dont go on the scale ?

[@Bthelick]

@bigbass6869 er, depends. First if all remember "incorrect" doesn't really exist in the vocabulary of music emotions! It's just different, (non diatonic music still exists and is successful after all, like jazz!) it's art! But mechanically the reason it works or doesn't it's all down to context. It will depend what the melody is doing, what notes are where and do they 'matter' . The function/purpose of the non-diatonic chord movement is crucial too. Is it just a passing note?, does it resolve? Etc etc. These are some of the reasons it can work. When you think about it , It's not like vocals sing perfect digital pitch anyway, they slur and bend between notes all the time, major 3rds naturally land flat etc etc. so these rules don't really exist in reality. As you can hear here in this video, all these non-scale chords sound great, so it can definitively 'work' but they won't always. The basic minor/ major diatonic theory we have grown up with is just a beginning suggestion for 'Safe' practices. Things that will work 99% of the time. They aren't "rules" per se. They are good to know so you have the basic working theory, but they are fun to break when you want to exercise your full range of expression. Like in language, we can make up new words that aren't 'in the rules' and still be able to communicate, or in some cases be able to communicate even more effectively! Like if I say "poggers" to a person of a certain age range that frequents Twitch chat, that is more effective to them than me saying "fantastic"

[@bigbass6869]

@@Bthelick ahhh yes ok i understand haha thank you for that 🙏🏻 all about just using your ears then basically?

[@Bthelick]

Yep. Ears and feelings!

[@martygallen]

Best about

[@San7hos]

I hope this works, playlist for all B's ukg tips and tricks: kzbin.info/www/bejne/omG9npyIZ9WenpI

[@Bthelick]

Thanks 🙏

[@maniac_tofu]

17:20

[@Bthelick]

What of it?

[@San7hos]

It seems like when the chords are this complex, you'd rather start with chords and then add bass rather than the opposite. Perhaps that's a beginner view though.

[@Bthelick]

that's correct, I wouldn't call it a beginner's view. Some tracks are definitely chord led, or written chord first. I think that's definitely the case for most of these.

[@San7hos]

Also, when I again meet someone claiming ukg is simple music genre, I'll reply with this recording.

[@pandamexpress4949]

A MINORRRRRRRRRRRRR

[@slikyviky]

5:00 i couldt hear shi

[@Bthelick]

Sorry, how do you mean?