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The Complete Japanese Music Theory Course

The Complete Japanese Music Theory Course

Curriculum

7 Sections
46 Lessons
Lifetime

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Welcome!
1
- 1.0
  Introduction
  10 Minutes
Music Theory Basics
In this Chapter, we will be covering all the music basics from how to create chords and scales to progressions and harmonic functions. By the end, you will have a firm grasp of major and minor scales and chords, along with diminished and augmented, and how to arrange them to make simple songs.
7
Japanese Music Theory Basics
In this section, we will be building off the last Chapter and learning more about extended chords and other special chords. We will also look more into how Japan uses these chords to make music that sounds foreign to a Westerners ear, yet makes perfect sense theory wise. There are no mysteries or magic here! Learn what they do so you can feel confident implementing these chords and techniques into your own music!
10
Common Japanese Chord Progressions
In this Chapter, I will be giving 50, yes FIFTY chord progressions that you can start using right away in your own music. These all have audio clips that have been created by me so you can listen and figure out which ones you like the most!
10
Japanese Song Structure
In this chapter, we'll learn how Japanese people organize their music and how they change things up. Not every song follows the simple verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus formula. You may be surprised at how they add additional sections and switch up the order to keep things fresh for their listeners while still telling a unique story with their music.
6
Bonus Chords & Songwriting Tips
You pretty much have all you need to create Japanese inspired music, but there's always more to learn. I won't be teaching a whole lot here, but these are things I've noticed in a lot of Japanese songs that I think you can utilize. I've also found Youtubers that have lessons on chords and melodies for some of these topics :)
10
Conclusion + Resources
This is the end of the course, but I still got additional resources and goodies for all my students <3
5

1.1 Music Theory Basics

If you’ve ever listened to Western music, there are trends you’ve heard, whether you’re aware of it or not.

Western music is made to be comfortable and catchy. Most chord progressions (aka a series of chords) have been used over and over again that people can usually predict where a song would go when they hear it. This works to the benefit of musicians in a jam session as they can comfortably join in and play along due to the predictability of the chord progression.

The comedy band below is called “Axis of Awesome”, and they compiled many songs that use the same 4 chord progression into one song. The progression used is “I-V-vi-IV”, and it has been nicknamed the “Axis Progression” due to their song.

As mentioned in the introduction, it’s very common and pretty much the standard for Western songs to start on the I chord, which is the chord of the key. If the song is in C major, than the I (1) chord is C major.

Japanese music doesn’t go about song creation the same way, but it would impossible to understand the advanced and complex methods they use if you don’t yet fully grasp basic music theory.

So in this chapter, we’re going to cover everything from scales, chords, and progressions, the true fundamentals of music. And don’t worry! It’s pretty easy to understand if you learn it the right way 🙂

Introduction

1.2 Scale Creation

The Complete Japanese Music Theory Course

Curriculum

1.1 Music Theory Basics

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