Using Color Music, we can actually see the pattern of consonant and dissonant intervals. And without a doubt, the connection between complementary colors and tritones is awesome. But we can see even more. For example, check out the gradation bar below. It highlights exactly what’s going on:

As the colors approach the red tonic (1), they have higher levels of red … while the colors that approach the green tritone (b5) have higher levels of green. Get it? The complementary colors illustrate opposite tritons. And, at the same time, the colors in between actually highlight the whole spectrum of intervals.

This pattern is even easier to see in a circular format. Again, the keys (or notes) that are closer to the tonic have higher levels of that color, while the more dissonant ones have increasingly higher levels of the dissonant tritone. Just like before, the connection between color and music is like magic!

To use an analogy, the tonic is like the life source … full of strong, consonant blood. But as you move in the direction of the dissonant tritone, it’s gradually bled dry. (Whoa.) Of course, this “red blood” analogy is convenient for describing the key of C, which happens to be red. But this same idea works for all 12 keys.

Another analogy is that the consonant tonic and its dissonant tritone are like the polar opposites of a single magnet. The more consonant keys are drawn to the tonic, while the more dissonant keys are repelled … gravitating toward the tritone. Which mean’s the keys/notes exactly in between—the major-sixth (A) and minor-third (Eb)—are neutralized, with equal allegiance to both extremes.

And … I could go on about the parallels with Star Wars, the force, and Luke Skywalker’s struggle to reconcile his affinity for Jedi principles and the temptation of turning to the dark side, in favor of some powerful paternal affection … but I won’t.

Anyway, you can see why I was geeking out with Ben, right? When we really looked at these patterns, it was amazing. And now, we can write better songs that sound good—much faster. So you really shouldn’t judge me, my friends. Because, if you’ve been following along, then you know it’s cool, too. (Happy songwriting!)

With Color Music, our spectrum of consonant and dissonant intervals starts to click. In the key of C, for example, we get a much better view of what this pattern is all about.

Of course, these colors may seem random at first. But as you look closer, some really cool stuff pops out. And I mean cool. The first is pretty obvious. Notice anything special about the red tonic (C) and its green tritone (Gb)?

Yep, the are complementary colors. Which happens to be a perfect analogy. In the world of color, complementary colors are complete opposites. And in the world of music, the tonic (1) and its tritone (b5) are complete opposites. So it only makes sense that these patterns overlap. (In fact, it’s even spooky cool.)

But then it gets even better. Because Color Music shows us so much more….

In music, consonant and dissonant intervals are super-important. Because they tell us which notes sound good together … and which notes sound bad. Using plain, old scale degrees, we can kind of see what these intervals look like—check it out. We just rearrange the 12 basic intervals into a sort of spectrum:

The tonic (1) is at one end because it’s the most consonant scale degree in any key. At the other end of the spectrum is the tritone (b5) … because it is, by far, the most dissonant scale degree. And in between are all the other scale degrees, which range from consonant on the left … to dissonant on the right.

Cool, huh? If we want a song to sound good, we just play lots of notes and chords that are consonant. In other words, we need to stick with the scale degrees near the tonic (1) at the left of the spectrum. And if we want our music to sound more edgy and dissonant, then we pick and choose from the intervals on the right.

But, of course, all of that is easier said than done. Because each of these little symbols can be confusing. So it’s still difficult to see what I’m talking about. No matter how hard you look, these scale degree symbols don’t really illustrate why some intervals are consonant … while other intervals are dissonant. And that’s a bummer.

Ahhh … but Color Music saves the day again. By looking at these scale degrees using colors and shapes, we get a much better view of what this spectrum is trying to show us….

But the colors alone can’t do the job. Which is why we need the note shapes, too. In Color Music, the squares and circles play an equally important role. Like an unsung hero, this shape code totally supports the color code.

It’s simple, really. For example, imagine we got rid of the alternating shapes and used only 12 colors. While the colors look nice, they don’t really show us any useful patterns.

Without the alternating note shapes, it’s almost impossible to tell each note apart. And that means we can’t see any connections between the notes either. All we get is 12 colors that look an awful lot alike.

But when we use squares and circles, everything suddenly pops. In a flash, we immediately can see which note is which. There is no need for guesswork. We just have a clear view of 12 separate notes.

In fact, these shapes even speed up our thinking. By highlighting musical intervals, the squares and circles help us see how the notes relate. And they show us much more than the basic whole-steps and half-steps.

For example, if a certain tonic note happens to be a square, then we already know the scale degrees of the other note shapes. Those squares must be notes M2 … M3 … #4/b5 … b6 … and b7. Easy!

Likewise, the circle notes must be b2 … b3 … 4 … 5 … 6 … and 7. (And this works the same way with all square tonic notes.)

Of course, the reverse is also true when the tonic note is a circle. The circles must include the 1 … M2 … M3 … #4/b5 … b6 … and b7.

And the squares include b2 … b3 … 4 … 5 … 6 … and 7.

Just as we’d expect, the note shapes help us quickly see every interval and pattern. So no matter what we play, Color Music does the trick. Tirelessly working to help our eyes and minds run at full speed.

So far, we’ve been building our songs using simple layers. Starting with a melody and a few chords, we’ve played some pretty awesome tunes. And by repeating certain parts, we’ve expanded our music into larger and more interesting compositions. But before you start repeating any old random notes, remember this: the melody is still the most important part of a song.

If you think about it, the melody is the actual focus in music. Like a musical “story,” it is usually long and flowing—with high and low points of interest, always moving toward a complete ending. The melody is the part of a song that “sings.” It’s the real backbone of a composition, and gives music its overall shape and feeling.

So it’s no surprise that we should follow the melody’s lead when building a song. And if we look a little closer, you’ll see that melodies follow a definite pattern. Each one is divided into smaller, simpler parts—called “sections”—that help give a song structure. You might even think of these sections as building blocks that form regular, repeating units. By putting them together (and repeating a few of them here and there), we create something totally new.

For example, if you listen to any song on the radio, you’ll notice that some of these sections are played again and again. It’s not an exact science, by any means. But musicians tend to build melodies using certain general “formulas.” With only a few standard sections, we can come up with a good melody—and song—in no time. Here … let me show you.

Without a doubt, repetition is important. It’s a natural way to take a short musical idea and turn it into something bigger and bolder. Which is why musicians use repeat symbols a lot. In fact, beyond the simple repeat sign, you’ll also sometimes see other markers that have their own special meanings. The three most popular include a few Italian words and abbreviations (… because Italian happens to be the accepted international language of music. Bella!):

• the ‘dal segno’ (D.S.) sign
• the ‘da capo’ (D.C.) sign, and
• the ‘Coda’ sign

Each one is similar, but slightly different. So let’s check them out, one at a time.

At first, this might seem like a lot of jumping around—and it is. But just like the road signs we see everyday, these repetition symbols help us move with ease through any song we like.

To get an even better feel for repetiion—and how we can use it to build larger songs—try the following exercise. Even if you get hung up, just slow down and play the notes again. You wouldn’t try driving through a city without knowing the riad signs, would you? Well, it’s the same with repetition symbols. A little practice definitely goes a long way.

!!!WARNING!!! Okay, okay, I know. As an artist, you’re probably anxious to cut to the chase. You might be thinking, “let’s put our skills to use, and start making some music already.” And to be honest, I’m right there with you. But have patience, my child. These next couple of lessons focus a bit more on the left brain … talking about structure, form, style, and so on.

But hey, it’s all good stuff to know. So just remember this: we’re looking at the science of sound, so you can then focus on the art of music. Get through these next few posts, and you’ll be well on your way to musical bliss.

Once we have the basic idea for a song—like a simple melody and chord progression—it has to be stretched and expanded into a song. And the easiest way to do this is using “repetition.” In fact, when we played through the blues progression before, we kind of saw how this works. By jumping back to the very beginning, we turned a short, 12-measure pattern into a rockin’ good song.

As it turns out, musicians use repetition like this all the time. It just sounds good. The music builds as you cycle through the notes. Only, instead of using big, clunky arrows to guide us through—like in the example above—musicians rely on more subtle symbols called “repeat signs.” Just like the common road signs you see in the street everyday, these little symbols help us navigate a piece of music like a roadmap.

It’s simple, really. Repeat signs give us direction on how to move through a song. They tell us when to repeat certain sections … and where to jump to other parts within the music. They also help us save space and reduce clutter. By recycling the notes in various measures, repeat symbols spare us the hassle of writing a bunch of notes over and over again. For example, check out the following pattern:

Using just two small repeat signs, we can play through this melody as many times as we want. We don’t have to rewite the exact same notes … because the repeat symbols already tell us everything we need to know. Simply play all four measures—then go back to the beginning and start again.

If we feel like it, we could continue bouncing back through this melody forever. But after a while, that would get a little boring … and maybe start sounding like a broken record. So instead of throwing us into an endless feedback loop, these repeat signs just mean to play through this pattern only once again—like this:

When you first see the start repeat marker in a song, ignore it. It doesn’t come into play until you see the end repeat marker. At that point, return to the start repeat sign, and play though the music between the markers again. After you’ve repeated those notes, keep moving through the song. There really isn’t much to it … just repeat a few notes, and then get back on the road. By using a couple of repeat sings, we’ve expanded our song a bit—while saving a bunch of space.

Sometimes, you might also see a song that doesn’t have any start repeat sign (like in the image above). But no worries … things work out just the same. When you arrive at the end repeat marker, simply return to the very beginning of the piece and play again.

In a nutshell, repeat signs are a nice, clean way to expand our music into larger and more interesting songs—as we can see in the exercise below. With only a few measures, these notes may sound like a cute little snippet of music. But with the repeat sign at the end, we add length to this song … and give it more power and muscle. Like watering a small plant, we use repetition to give life to our music. And help it grow into something a whole lot stronger.

Circle progressions are useful because they show us the general flow of chords in a song. From one chord to the next, we can see where things are going. And while each pattern may be unique, one rule always holds true—every song has a definite sense of movement and direction.

In other words, good music always moves forward with purpose. Sometimes, it marches at a brisk pace. And at other times, it might move at a leisurely stroll. But it never just wanders around aimlessly. From start to finish, music really knows where it’s headed. And that’s because each song begins and ends in the very same place—the tonic (I).

And why not? It is, after all, number one … literally. In any key, the tonic (I) is the star of the show, the big cheese, the boss. Which we can easily see with Color Music. As the chords follow the outline of a melody—moving away from, and then back toward, the tonic—a song goes through cycles of tension and release. And this creates a yin-yang motion that propels the music forward.

Together, the melody and progression follow the same path. In fact, they work hand-in-hand, like partners on a common journey. Moving in harmony, they stick together … always sharing the same destination—the tonic chord (I). It just sounds right.

The only question now is, “what’s next?” I mean, once we know these basic patterns, how do we turn them into bigger and better songs. Playing a few notes over a couple of measures is nice. But how do we go from a few measures to entire songs?

Well, the answer, my friends, is what we’ll look at next….

In our last song, “Pachelbel’s Canon,” we added even more chords to a progression to create some very cool sounds. By rearranging the major scale pattern, we ended up with something beautiful. And it’s a simple trick, really. All we did was take a few major and minor chords, switch them around a bit, and voilà! Like magic, we made something totally new out of an old, familiar pattern.

Of course, this isn’t magic at all … and nothing about it is random. Like everything else in music, there’s a simple logic to things. And with Color Music, we can see exactly what we’re doing. As it turns out, the colored notes reveal the natural flow between chords. Seriously … it’s sweet.

For example, can yousee how each measure of “Pachelbel’s Canon” passes between two, closely-related chords? Well, this kind of movement is really common in songs. In fact, if we go a little further, we can even rearrange all the chords … so that each one follows the color wheel sequence from the circle of fifths. Like a pleasant stroll through the color spectrum, this progression is pure bliss.

In the key of C, for example, notice how the root notes of each chord are rearranged in a circle-of-fifths pattern. because it has such a smooth flow, this kind of “circle progression” shows up in music all the time.

By cycling through these chords again and again, we can create some very cool progressions. And, of course, musicians have many other options to choose from. But a general “formula” for chord movement tends to look like this:

Jumping around between these different chords, we can move in a variety of ways. But this general “roadmap” shows us how songs typically lead toward the tonic chord (I)—from left to right. Eventually, we always return to the tonic (I) … our home sweet home.

To get a feel for the movement of chords in each key, try playing through the following progressions. Starting at each separate tonic (I), we can easily bounce from one chord to the next … gradually making our way back to the same tonic chord (I). As you play, try hitting each chord with both your left and right hands. After a little practice, you’ll be well on your way to building bigger and better songs.

When we say the primary chords (I, IV, V) are popular, we ain’t kidding. They show up all the time in music. And while a lot of simple folk and pop songs use these triads, the most common example of a primary chord progression is what musicians call the “12-bar blues.” Without a doubt, you’ve heard of this, right? It’s played by repeating the same three chords over 12 measures. In a nutshell, it looks like this:

People call this “the blues” because it goes really well with the “blues scale.” And by adding a seventh chord here and there, we can create a tense, “bluesy” sound that feels like warm gravy poured directly onto the brain. In the key of C, for example, a blues progression and melody sound something like this:

Just like usual, we start at the tonic (I) chord. Then we make a short visit to our friend, the subdominant (IV) chord. After a couple of measures, we return to the tonic (I) … before passing through the dominant (V), again to the subdominant (IV), and finally home to the tonic (I) chord. Like a pleasant walk through the neighborhood, we eventually end up at home where we began.

The blues progression is so popular because it just sounds good. And it can be repeated as many times as you want. Once you make it through the first 12 measures, feel free to keep going … looping back through the same cycle over and over again.

By mixing it up a little—occasionally playing a seventh chord or tweaking the melody a bit—this progression makes for hours of fun. Using only those basic primary chords, we can play some very cool music. But of course, we have many more options, too. All we have to do is add a few chords to a song….