{ "schemaVersion": "v1", "slug": "how-notes-take-shape-inversions-and-harmony", "title": "How Notes Take Shape: Inversions and Harmony", "kind": "solo", "listenUrl": "https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lovemusicmore/episodes/How-Notes-Take-Shape-Inversions-and-Harmony-e28u5ub", "publishedAt": "2026-10-14", "source": { "provider": "whisper", "model": "faster-whisper:base", "normalizedSchema": "v1", "transcribedAt": "2026-06-09T09:17:32.009Z" }, "paragraphs": [ { "startSec": 1.49, "endSec": 24.98, "text": "What's good, everybody, this is Scoobert Doobert, and welcome back to Love Music More.Today, I want to talk about combining notes in two beautiful harmony and a thing calledinversions." }, { "startSec": 24.98, "endSec": 45.1, "text": "So what this is, you know, you can have a single note, you can have multiple notes, butthe order of those notes is actually super, super important.I broke out my little tiny baby 24-key MIDI keyboard to demonstrate at least a littlebit of this.And I hope that you checked out that last podcast with Dom, because that's part of the" }, { "startSec": 45.1, "endSec": 71.82, "text": "reason why I'm doing this pod is, you know, talking to these great individuals and feedingoff that inspiration, you know, because you talk to somebody that loves music at thatlevel, at that depth, and then it takes, you know, takes that next week for me to evendigest all of it, and I'm writing more, I'm thinking more about music, I'm all hypedabout it, and I hope it's doing the same thing for you." }, { "startSec": 71.82, "endSec": 118.29, "text": "So let me maybe spark another little bit in this little solo pod of mine.So every note on its own is kind of like thinking about a point in space, so think aboutjust a dot.That's a C, the go to example note.So a C is a C is a C. They're all the same note, but they're different.They're divided by an octave.So you can think of this like the color, you know, blue or whatever." }, { "startSec": 118.29, "endSec": 147.49, "text": "It's the color blue, but it can be expressed in a variety of different ways, but it stillis unified as blue, but there's something even more kind of magnificent about that relationshipis that it gives us a foundation on which to build everything.And it's a foundation that I think even like an alien might observe in the same waythat you have like a triangle, the simplest shape is a triangle." }, { "startSec": 147.49, "endSec": 169.3, "text": "So when my friends have tried to hit me with conspiracy theories, maybe after smokinga little bit too much marijuana, and they are trying to say, hey man, why, why are therepyramids?I say, what's the simplest shape that you can build a pyramid mind blown, right?" }, { "startSec": 169.3, "endSec": 179.14, "text": "But there's a reason why CGI or video games, these things use a series of triangles tobuild models." }, { "startSec": 179.86, "endSec": 210.58, "text": "So if you have interlocking triangles, you can create the illusion of three dimensionality,of wrapping things around, and it's also the simplest shape.So it saves in processing power if a triangle is your fundamental basic shape.And what I'm trying to say is that I bet you aliens know about triangles, if they do exist,and I bet you aliens know about octaves." }, { "startSec": 210.58, "endSec": 239.73, "text": "So when I'm dealing with harmony, it all starts with that, the octave.You can play a series of these three octaves in unison.It doesn't really feel like a chord, but it certainly feels supported, or you can kindof spread those out.But that's giving you that sense of home." }, { "startSec": 239.73, "endSec": 263.01, "text": "And then as you fill it out, I like to think of it like you have that point in space,then you build a line using the perfect fifth.So this is like a hollow chord or a power chord.And if you add the octave, say on top and bottom, maybe add an octave of that perfectfifth." }, { "startSec": 263.01, "endSec": 287.72, "text": "And that is a nice triumphant chord that is devoid of anything but two notes just repeated.And so now what I'm doing is I'm introducing that little sense of geometry.I like to use geometry when I'm thinking about music and chord progression and stufflike that because it is like the perfect metaphor for me at least." }, { "startSec": 287.72, "endSec": 313.76, "text": "Geometry in colors is when I'm adding complexity, it's like building on a foundation.You have that ground floor of, say, the octave in the perfect fifth, and then you're goingto start adding some spice to it, like a third, maybe a seventh.Maybe you start kind of messing around and putting some things in places up and down." }, { "startSec": 313.76, "endSec": 349.08, "text": "But really fundamentally inside of that, you got that's your backbone, that's your foundation,that's that line.And on top of it, I already just talked about the third, but thinking of a triangle, rootthird fifth, that's the basic chord right there, that's the major chord.That is the major chord.But I like to think of that as my triangle, right?So it's a triad, there's the other term for it, three notes." }, { "startSec": 349.08, "endSec": 371.64, "text": "But the beauty of this is I can start shuffling these notes around and that's where that'sthe point of this pot here is like trying to talk about how it's not as blocky, sometimesmusic theory or music appreciation classes make it out to be.You can move this stuff around.And so like say, say I've got these three notes, I'm going to use that principle of theoctave to throw them somewhere else." }, { "startSec": 371.64, "endSec": 393.24, "text": "So I'm going to take that third instead of playing it there, I'm going to play it downan octave.I'm going to leave the other two notes the same, so it'll sound like this.Do you hear how different that sounds from this?Same notes.You're just using that octave flexibly." }, { "startSec": 393.24, "endSec": 423.28, "text": "And say for example, I want to move this, the root note that C up an octave, just likewe were talking about at that very beginning of this five guys, the single point.So I'm going to move that up and move the third down and then we'll leave the fifth whereit is and it sounds like this versus versus same notes, just using that principle of theoctave.And you can get crazy with that." }, { "startSec": 423.28, "endSec": 446, "text": "Like picture an entire orchestra and you have the tiniest little sound coming outof the highest register of violin and then the lowest possible sound coming out of atuba.Now you have that huge, huge expanse between those two notes.I can't do this.I'm a little keyboard, but you know down there and you know what I'm saying?" }, { "startSec": 446, "endSec": 469.28, "text": "So that kind of space allows you to create emotion and color without really having to createa lot of complexity.And so you can combine the timbre, the essential sonic qualities of a musical instrument.So the thing that separates a violin from a tuba, the different overtones and articulationsand the way that it sounds." }, { "startSec": 469.28, "endSec": 494.94, "text": "You can use that and combine it with the separation, that octave effect of creating theseopen chords.So quite open or it can be pretty closed, separating, opening or closing.And one of the beautiful things that great composers and greater arrangers, everybody, video" }, { "startSec": 494.94, "endSec": 526.14, "text": "games scoring, to you know working on Max Martin, Broadway show, to the Beatles, andto like, trap music, I'm serious.You play with open and closed to create this dramatic effect where you're able to keepthings very simple, but the location of the notes from each other changes to createthis illusion, this feeling of like resolution and forward momentum without actually havingto do that much in terms of the notes." }, { "startSec": 526.14, "endSec": 549.22, "text": "And the fun things, like on top of all of this is, is that this remains your foundationeven in very advanced harmony.Like you can get, you can get really nudily with this stuff.And sometimes I do, but in, you know, in most of my music, I keep it pretty like groundedon this stuff, but really what you're doing for a lot of complex harmony is you're juststacking chords on top of each other." }, { "startSec": 549.22, "endSec": 584.05, "text": "You have your C major, and say I want to like, play some more notes on top of it.Sounds nice, right?So that is a C major, with that major seven added, four notes, and that's like a square.And then you can add a little spicy note, be a six if it wasn't for the seven, or youknow, we're talking like a 13, it's nice, right?" }, { "startSec": 584.05, "endSec": 605.8, "text": "But all of these fancy names are really just playing a bunch of notes on top of each other.So if I take a C major, I'm going to throw that down, I'm going to throw a D major on topof it.If you're a fancy, that sounds, I'm going to do a whole, that sounds like jazz, right?That's really just two chords, simple chords stacked on top of each other." }, { "startSec": 605.8, "endSec": 624.8, "text": "But what you're doing, and that's why I like the, you know, thinking about geometry andcolors, is that as you draw one floor on top of another floor, now all of a sudden youhave complex architecture.Or as you draw, and you pull like another angle into the chord, so like, for example," }, { "startSec": 624.8, "endSec": 647.28, "text": "like something like this, that this, that note right there, instead of that, that justgives you like a breath of this new color, this new spice.And so I kind of reach in between those two thoughts is the groove, the ordering of sound" }, { "startSec": 647.28, "endSec": 669.44, "text": "and rhythm creates like the bones, and then the harmony ends up filling in the gapsin those bones and drawing those lines and making those floors and those shapes, and theystart to interact with each other.And then you start to sparkle spice on top, these colors to create a feeling oflike air in the room, so to speak." }, { "startSec": 669.44, "endSec": 691.88, "text": "Oh, this sounds kind of weird, but like, if you talk to a lot of musicians, they'll talklike this, and I'll try and get into it with some, some instrumentalist and see if they,if they agree, but like I talked to jazz drummers, they think a lot in shapes where like the,you know, snare drum, the floor tom and the ride are all kind of interacting in a certain sort" }, { "startSec": 691.88, "endSec": 714, "text": "of way, and that keeps them focused because they're playing around in this shape, thisfeeling of like a machine that they're a part of, that you're able to dance within andarticulate and stress other little bits.You can apply that same kind of thinking to harmony, the ways that chords flow fromone to the next." }, { "startSec": 714, "endSec": 738.74, "text": "So like, here's a blocky way to go from C to F and ain't nothing wrong with that, thatcan be really beautiful, but say that I take the root note and I'm going to flip it upand octave, and I still see, same thing, it's just got a little bit of a different vibe,but same notes.It's a little bit of an octave, and I'll listen to how that ends up going to that same blocky" }, { "startSec": 738.74, "endSec": 759.3, "text": "F. It kind of leads in really nicely, kind of nice because you have the stasis of thisnote.Here are this note to stay in the same, it's not jumpin' octaves, like it was there before." }, { "startSec": 759.3, "endSec": 775.3, "text": "That ends up like kind of feeling to me as a musician, like they cared, they were thinking,they weren't just playing letters, they weren't just playing chords even, they were playing" }, { "startSec": 775.3, "endSec": 802.81, "text": "the interaction of the two, and that's when it starts to elevate from theory to like beauty.It ends up breathing that life into it, and I'm not saying that you have to then getcomplex and be like, but like, why not, it gives you a little spice, that's when it starts" }, { "startSec": 802.81, "endSec": 824.09, "text": "to kind of elevate, where now it doesn't even just feel like chords, it feels like a danceof notes, not to make it make that little thing that I made up super, super inflated, butlike what I'm trying to say is that the spices, the articulations, the voice leading whereyou're saying, I'm going to move this note up an octave, I'm going to spread this chord" }, { "startSec": 824.09, "endSec": 851.79, "text": "out along the violin and the tuba, and then make them come together.Those kind of intentional decisions create the emotion of the piece, and it signals tome as the listener, like you're doing the work and you're making the choices, becauseeven if they're not choices that I would have made, like the act of, I can hear your hand" }, { "startSec": 851.87, "endSec": 862.9753521126761, "text": "in the work, I can hear your instinct in the work, it's not just blocked out, and if it isblocked out, like make it intentional, you know what I'm saying?" }, { "startSec": 862.9753521126761, "endSec": 889.52, "text": "Like this, whatever I'mall over the place here, but like that kind of thing, like where you're just doing that,like there better be a reason, it's not just because all I didn't learn the other chords, I didn't learn how to do it otherwise, you know, like at least give me like a little something,just give me a little something to let me know that you're thinking about each of those notes," }, { "startSec": 889.52, "endSec": 913.36, "text": "and where they should be going, you're a composer after all, right? And the listeners,they get that without having to get it, you know, it's one of those, it's like I don't haveto perfectly understand three-point perspective to look into a painting and say, wow, that lookslike there's a real depth to it, or I don't have to completely understand color theory to look at" }, { "startSec": 914.56, "endSec": 923.28, "text": "I don't know, another like a painting or a mural or whatever and be like, yeah, that's beautiful,or I don't have to understand architecture to look at a building and think it looks cool." }, { "startSec": 925.36, "endSec": 947.2, "text": "But you end up like feeling the technique, even though you don't completely understand the technique,because the technique is like responding to the medium, rather than the medium necessarilyresponding to the technique, if that makes sense. Like that isn't a C major chord because I say it'sa C major chord, like we kind of already have this and now we've got to work backwards." }, { "startSec": 947.2, "endSec": 961.52, "text": "And the reason why we have this, I covered another podcast is a harmonic,kind of like series where there are a bunch of different notes, baked into other notes,and I don't want to hash that all out, but check out the older podcast if you want to listen to that," }, { "startSec": 962.32, "endSec": 977.9277837837838, "text": "but basically my central theory or thesis or whatever is that a lot of the stuff that we dois kind of already out there in nature, we're harnessing it, we're giving it names,music theory is kind of like grammar in language. You kind of come up with how to speak the languageand they work backwards, what are the rules?" }, { "startSec": 977.9277837837838, "endSec": 992.0412349977096, "text": "And that's why some of the rules aren't so perfect, because we didn't start with the rules. Same thing with music. And the rules are there so that you canunderstand how to make a sentence. And if you want to speak gobbledygook, you do that and that canbe really cool." }, { "startSec": 992.0412349977096, "endSec": 1002.08, "text": "You can push it, you can invent a new language, but it's nice to be able to understand how to speak that language so you can communicate when you need to the ways that you want to." }, { "startSec": 1003.44, "endSec": 1017.6025130890052, "text": "And it's sometimes nice as a listener to understand a little bit more the language that they'respeaking. But anyway, there's all these different things that I can do, at some point I'll dig evenharder under this, but basically like the main thing that I want to show is how you can movethose things around." }, { "startSec": 1017.6025130890052, "endSec": 1029.8924168399915, "text": "And then when you throw it on to a stringed instrument, you end up creating these interesting doubling effects, so like guitar chords and stuff like that. They're not laid outlike a linear piano style." }, { "startSec": 1029.8924168399915, "endSec": 1051.52, "text": "They're laid out all sorts of weird ways because the the strings aretuned in fourths and fifths and all sorts of stuff on different instruments or different tuning styles. But that goal is to still impart that C chord, but that's part of what makes a guitarsound like a guitar is that it plays a C chord in a different order than a piano usually." }, { "startSec": 1051.52, "endSec": 1069.0094240837698, "text": "But that's a cool thing for guitarists, if you are a guitarist to think about is the value ofplaying other instruments is in part understanding how chords are laid out on your instrument ormelodies are laid out on your instrument versus others and then being able to bar from the otherthings." }, { "startSec": 1069.0094240837698, "endSec": 1089.9955340994086, "text": "So like one of the best things is a guitarist to do when you're playing solos is to learn some saxophone solos so you can understand like how those notes are typically executed on a saxophone,the articulation, the way that they're bent into slid, the slide slided into all that kind of stuffso that you can you can copy that yourself." }, { "startSec": 1089.9955340994086, "endSec": 1113.6, "text": "Same thing with like understanding piano on guitar is that I can think as a pianist would on the fretboard and that can unlock some new stuff.Instead of only being locked into guitar mind you can also open a piano mind onto the guitarand you can do some really cool things particularly as a recording engineer slash guitarist" }, { "startSec": 1113.6, "endSec": 1126.08, "text": "you know like studio session guy like that kind of vibe. You want to find the place that you fit inand one of the beauty of keyboards and I talked about this with Luke from Great Good Fine Ok" }, { "startSec": 1127.04, "endSec": 1147.3576407506703, "text": "about how keyboards you can fit this into kind of anywhere you want but you can do that on guitartoo you just got to think that way of like where in the arrangement frequency spectrum wise ordoubling wise or in you know like say everybody's playing this like oh on guitar I could justinstead of playing those notes that everybody else is covering." }, { "startSec": 1147.3576407506703, "endSec": 1154.96, "text": "Maybe I hit them with the up on top so now the whole vibe changes because now you're hearing this chord" }, { "startSec": 1156.32, "endSec": 1180.48, "text": "spread out between guitar and everybody else and that's a beautiful thing so if you can think likethat on guitar instead of just being like oh it's a C chord I'm hit the C chord it's like oh nolike what if I just played a D and a a different power chord on top of the other power chordand now it creates this beautiful complex verdant you know vibe like that's really nice" }, { "startSec": 1181.28, "endSec": 1204, "text": "that kind of thing that that kind of thinking ends up opening up arrangement and it did for me atleast on my primary instrument guitar because it's like I learned a little bit of piano now I canthink like that now I can think about those gaps and the beauty of recording especially withall the technology and stuff that we have is you can put those notes into all sorts of different" }, { "startSec": 1204, "endSec": 1224.8, "text": "physical locations in terms of like psycho acoustics like the where you perceive them to beyou can put them in those different places and that can add to that effect that I was talking aboutof the tuba versus the violin you can also play with behind your head on top of your head in front of yourface close to you far away and if you want maximum effect and I think I might actually do this" }, { "startSec": 1224.8, "endSec": 1251.04, "text": "a little bit too much in my music but like I'm doing it for me not necessarily for anybody else sowhatever I'll bury some really interesting notes far in the background so like maybe the wholearrangement is just playing like a super simple chord progression or whatever you know they're justdoing that thing and but it way off in the background I might be kind of like playing like like" }, { "startSec": 1251.04, "endSec": 1256.56, "text": "I'm trying to think it's like a little little line or something that's playing that's at" }, { "startSec": 1257.52, "endSec": 1280.08, "text": "making the chords a little bit more colorful but it's like far off in the background so it doesn't endup like clouding the chords necessarily or making it feel like it's overly complex but it addsthis extra layer of spice so that maybe hopefully you'll come back to it later and it'll light yourlight up your brain or you'll hear something on the 11th listen you go I never heard that little" }, { "startSec": 1280.08, "endSec": 1284.8, "text": "part that's way off in the distance or that little guitar line that's adding all of this color" }, { "startSec": 1285.76, "endSec": 1302.4, "text": "you know that's those are part of the reason why I make music and so that's why I do thembecause it makes me happy and hopefully it'll make you happy too and and maybe you'll hearthem more now that I'm talking about this and that's part of the reason why I like listening tomusic and headphones because you can sometimes tell if the arrangers are adding those little easter eggs" }, { "startSec": 1302.4, "endSec": 1323.6, "text": "or those things for them that you know people don't realize how much I have to listen to my ownsongs when I'm when I'm making these things and so it's like I better like it and so in order forme to like it I will add in some little things that make me happy every single time I listen to itbecause yeah it's like probably I don't know thousands I should probably count that would be" }, { "startSec": 1323.6, "endSec": 1327.6, "text": "kind of fun maybe I'll do that for my next record count how many times I don't think I'll do that" }, { "startSec": 1328.32, "endSec": 1348.88, "text": "count how many times I listen to the song all and all before it is locked in it's a ridiculousamount of times so you better like the music that you're making other than otherwise you'renot going to listen to it enough for it to turn out good so anyway I obviously I really likethis subject it's really difficult for me to completely explain this would be like a cool thing" }, { "startSec": 1349.76, "endSec": 1372.16, "text": "to maybe show off with an entire band someday because then you could have more kind of interactionbetween the different instruments so yeah if I'm ever like cool enough to do one of those livepodcasts things that this that would be that would be one of the topics anyway chords are really" }, { "startSec": 1372.16, "endSec": 1397.44, "text": "awesome I hope you like chords I really like chords I hope that this was entertaining I know thatit was kind of long and winding roady but I was trying to do my best to explain this somewhatdifficult concept I guess to recap bouncing things from octaves bouncing things from locationbouncing things from register and timbre can all create the illusion of more complexity or more" }, { "startSec": 1397.44, "endSec": 1422.64, "text": "emotion even in just a triad or a power chord by putting them into interesting places you canachieve interesting results then on top of that if you want to add spice complexity extradimensionality and extra colors to these chords sometimes it can do that in really creativeways that don't end up pushing the pop music into jazz music or orchestral music but it instead" }, { "startSec": 1422.64, "endSec": 1436.8, "text": "allows you to explore that stuff but in like a palatable reasonably distanced I guess like non fourground kind of way and like also turning them on and off so like my song memory LAN" }, { "startSec": 1438.24, "endSec": 1463.76, "text": "I want to see the colors like I used to because it was the line is talking about wanting to seecolors like I used to like the you know there's like memes and stuff about the world through a child'seyes and it's always oversaturated and stuff like that but in on those lyrics I add a whole bunchof harmony interesting colorful notes if anybody wants to transcribe that go for it it's got a lot" }, { "startSec": 1463.76, "endSec": 1487.04, "text": "of stuff going on but it's segmented to do just that one line because I'm trying to hammer home thatcolors idea and so maybe subconsciously people feel like colors and their eyes open a little bit widerbecause there are more and more expressive and beautiful notes on top of a simple harmonyand then they're gone you know tricks of the trade anyway if you enjoyed this please I invite" }, { "startSec": 1487.04, "endSec": 1508.56, "text": "you to subscribe and rate this five stars we'll be having guests on hopefully every other weekthat's kind of our goal somewhere somewhere in there though and then I'll be doing these solopodcasts sometimes with a 24 key MIDI keyboard and sometimes without explaining some of these musicalconcepts talking about how they flow into my music and some of the things that I've heard and also" }, { "startSec": 1508.56, "endSec": 1519.52, "text": "responding these guests so please check that out and check out my music at scoobertdoobert.pizza ifyou're interested scoobertdoobert.pizza is the place to find it and I'll talk to you guys next week" } ], "correctionsApplied": [ { "id": "scoober-dupert", "count": 1, "note": "Host intro name ASR typo" }, { "id": "scubaardubord-url", "count": 2, "note": "Outro URL ASR typo" } ] }