have you ever wondered why pop music
made in the 80s sound so different from
pop music made today well I'm gonna show
you why I'm also gonna show you some
simple compositional tricks to make your
pop music really take off the eighties
way
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okay the basics the 80s pop music had
lots of seventh and ninth chords and to
really make that elegant 80s pop music
you have to know the basics on how these
chords work so before I show you
examples from famous songs I'm gonna
show you a simple C chord and how you
can expand on that to get that seventh
or ninth feel to the chord I'm gonna
simplify a bit and all those who are
deep into sheet music and theoretical
stuff you have to excuse me but I'm
gonna show it the simple way okay so
here's the C chord the C eg notes and by
just lifting the the rightmost
finger a step at a time you can add to
that C chord by doing something like
this never C + c6 and c7 and the c7 is
to the Seinfeld theme and the
progression from C + 6 7 is used in one
of the most famous pop ballets of the
eighties the greatest love of all by
Whitney Houston and that goes something
like this
I'm going to play the inversion of the
court an inversion means that you place
your fingers in a different position but
it's still the C chord so for instance
if I play the C with that that's the
upper GI I can also play the G low
instead it's the same chord but it
sounds different
that's called an inversion so if I play
something like this I believe the
children are our future give them love
and let
them lead the way show them all the
beauty they possess inside give them a
sense of pride that song utilizes the
the plus sixth and seventh chord
during the initial chord progression so
we have the C plus six seven and if
instead of playing that b-flat note
instead played at the H you get a C
major seventh chord c e G H and by
adding another step and at the D you get
the ninth and it's often simplified in
the way that you don't play all the
notes you just add the last three so you
have the C major nine if you instead of
playing this play that play the B flat
chord you get this C 11 which which is a
nice transition type of chord to get to
another key or to go back from the
circle you started when you first
started the first chord in the track
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like this you go by the C 11 or the B
flat with a c' a bass note so you have
the the C
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so that's a basic start to understand
how the the chords are built up through
the triads of the quartet rides I mean
by the added three steps each time for
the expanded the type of chord and
you're going to need this information
this knowledge when you try to dissect
the alias
hits because they have lots of these
type of courts in them and you can use
those tricks and chord progressions in
your synth pop music or pop music when
you compose your tracks today so that's
the the basics
a trick that was
often used in 80s pop music was the
change of key within a chorus or as a
transition from a verse to a chorus
something you very seldom hear today but
that was very much used in the hits of
the eighties and it's something I use
all the time in my own tracks as I will
demonstrate in a minute and the track
I'm going to show you that use this very
effectively it's a very simple track
it's called the neverending story
the Giorgio Moroder track and the vocals
lima all sung the song a song and if he
if he if we stay in the C chord
territory I'm going to show you what
they use so effectively in the track and
and pretty soon in the in the track as
well because the track goes something
like this turn around look at what you
see
eating in the face the mirror of your
dreams
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James may believe I'm everywhere given
in the lines Britain on the the pages is
the answer to a never ending story and
what they did there was exactly what I
told you
from there me Ravi dreams may believe so
they go from from gene to the e-flat may
believe I'm everywhere written on the
pages is the answer to a never ending
and they go back to the C story
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and that's a very effective way to lift
the whole track because when you go from
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G by the F base you lift the whole track
and that's a very very nice way of doing
a hit song and that chord progression
going from a major chord down through
the base register to another key with
also a major chord makes everything lift
up and you feel a positive vibe you
don't get any other way and I have a
track of my own call of my own called
London miss you at Christmas which uses
approximately the same idea and let me
show you a little snippet of it right
here
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and that's the first trick and a way of
doing things the eighties way that that
you very rarely hear these days another
famous track from the 80s that uses the
same idea albeit in a kind of a
different way by going up instead of
down
to another key is the Spandau Ballet
track called true and I can demonstrate
this by playing also something from the
intro because true is a very very
elegant composition and uses lots of
minor ninths and major ninth chords and
also a lot of sevens and it's one of the
most kind of sophisticated elegant
tracks of the eighties in my view and it
goes something like this you you know
the the basic track I'm sure but to go
something like this the G E minor ninth
C major ninth H minor seven so that's
the intro and it goes further
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hi I know this much is true I I know
this much is true that's a minor ninth
true and it that's the F major ninth to
really end the sequence and get ready
for the diverse which goes back to the G
so true finally how it seems always in
line but never in line for dreams and
there you have it instead of going down
like the year and never ending story
track it did here we go up from the sea
instead so true funny how it seems
always in time but never in line for
dreams
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and back again that's a very very nice
chord progression but now I've come back
and gay why do I find hard to ride the
next line I want the truth to be known
and they end the truck again the chord F
major 9th
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this much is true G E minor 9th C major
9th each -7 a minor 9th an F major 9th
all based upon the the system I showed
you earlier for the C so true is one of
the the tracks that uses the same
principle going from one key to another
within the same verse like the
neverending story so that's the the one
trick I wanted to show you how to change
key within the the same section of the
song if you look up the track poison by
Alice Cooper I think that holds the hold
the record for most key changes within a
chorus just look it up and pay attention
to the changes in course and you'll hear
it changes key all the time in the same
chorus poison by Alice Cooper
okay another major part of 80s pop music
chords is the major 7th chord
along with the minor 7th chord and to
illustrate what I mean I'm going to show
you another hit song of the 80s called
if you leave me now by Chicago song by
Peter Cetera
and that uses lots of other tricks as
well that really demonstrates a way of
thinking that you can really use when
you make your own tracks and to play
something from it and guide you through
what's going on it's cause it starts
with a D major 7th the d f-- the sharp
is like this it's the D chord
you can play it like this is dead so by
if you recall them the intro of this
tutorial well show you their plus 6 & 7
you can show and play the D chord and
just lower the left note one half step
and you get a major 7th chord and if I
play another inversion it sounds
something like this if you leave me now
you'll take away the biggest part of me
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please don't go so you have the D major
7 if you leave me now
you'll take away the biggest part of me
baby please don't go H minor 7 the e 7 a
D but the overall feeling of the verse
is the wonderful melancholic my major
7th chord which you can use for
everything and with the D major 7 you
really get a really melancholic looking
back type of feel to a song so going
further in the track I'm going to show
you some other tricks that's typical for
David Foster and Peter Cetera and
Chicago of the time but David Foster use
this all the time love like ours Allah
that's hard fine and here they use many
tricks at one time because that line
starts with a g9 that's really a D minor
a chord with the gene root base
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so when they play the g9 and they go
through a G minor son live and the seven
as well and they end with a Colleen G
and that's kind of genius sophisticated
songwriting that you adhere to say you
never hear something like that today but
you can really use like you you utilize
this in your own tracks so by going
through in itself it doesn't make much
sense but in the context of the melody
and the the melodic line that they wrote
it makes perfect sense I love like ours
a level that's hard to find
back to h17 how could we let it slip
and and did you see what happened there
and they have to go back to the g9 here
how could we let it slip away and they
do this by going through the age
suspended for with a c-sharp and the F
sharp 7
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when tomorrow comes we'll both regret
the things we said to day things we said
today at the E minor F sharp minor and
the G minor say go back to the major
seven so they use a lot of cool stuff in
this track okay so moving on we have yet
another trick that was utilized a lot in
the 80s and that's the way of changing
chords but not changing the bass that's
somewhat used to today as well but when
using those major sevens and minor
seventh chords without changing the bass
you get a very special Aries feeling
about a lot of sections and there was
one track that comes to mind that was
big in the 80s that utilizes this trick
Rick Astley had this track and never
going to give you up and we're no
strangers to the
you know the rules and so do IA full
commitments what I'm thinking about you
wouldn't get this from any other guy I
just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
gotta make you understand never gonna
give you up never gonna let you down so
in the start of that track you hear
those strangers
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so that's a very effective way of
driving the track along because you get
our special kind of Drive feeling in my
view to to keeping the base but that the
chords changed Bananarama was another
group also produced by stock akin what
man that used a lot of those moves in
their tracks by keeping the base and
changing the chords so that's another
cool trick for you
and I have a track called
those days which has a very rapid chord
progression in the bridge you might say
that the bridge is kind of the cars of
the child because only here at once
but those recorded changes also changes
key at the rapid pace and let's see
listen to the traffic on Sierra that
part of jaikon show
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so as you could hear there were a lot of
poor changes there and it goes something
like this do you remember when I sent
you mail invitation for the Interrail it
was a wild way to live so we went on
down the road taking off not only robes
it was our way to give at this point my
camera just turned itself off but I hope
you enjoyed the tutorial and I hope to
see you again soon don't forget to
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you