INTRO

Okay, so I showed you some beginner drum grooves for the K.O.II last time. Building on that, let’s dive into some basic chord progressions. If you’re just getting started, this should really help you out.

Harmony is a big deal when you’re making beats on the K.O.II, and there are a couple of ways to go about it. We’ll start with playing the chord progression straight up.

Quick recap: a chord is just a bunch of notes played together, could be two, three or a whole bunch more.

Music’s all about playing with freedom and coming up with new sounds, but there are also some rules and tons of common chords out there to work with.

SCALE

The chords are based on the scale of the Music .

Basically, the K.O.II device has 10 scales you can choose in the settings. The default one is the 12-tone chromatic scale.

There are two ways to pick a different scale: you can either go through the system settings or just punch in a code, like 311 for the Major Scale.

First Step: How to Enter the Scale Mode:

• Press MAIN to enter the MAIN mode.
• Choose a pad (that contains the instrument) you want to play across the scale.
• Press KEYS to enter keys mode.
• You can change the Octave holding KEYS and pressing – or +

Modifying the Scale:

The Teenage Engineering website provides instructions on how to adjust the scale.

You can find these steps on their website.

• Enter into system settings (SHIFT + ERASE)
• Use – and + to navigate to the PAD settings and press ENTER
• Use – and + to navigate to SCA and press ENTER
• Use – and + to change the scale.
• We will use the MAJOR scale.
• Press MAIN to exit system settings.

Faster way to change the Scale:

• Enter into system settings
• Tap the Code and Enter

Transposing the Keys:

To change the key of the song you do a similar process:   

• Enter into system settings (SHIFT + ERASE)
• Use – and + to navigate to the PAD settings and press ENTER
• Use – and + to navigate to KEY and press ENTER
• Use – and + to change the key.
• We will use the C.
• Press MAIN to exit system settings.

Also we can change the key using the Code as we did for the Scale Types.

Applying to the K.O.II

Just so you know, the Major Scale is made up of 7 notes, and each note gets a number. So if you’re in C Major, C is 1, D is 2, E is 3, and so on.

Okay, so the KO II layout makes our harmonic numbering way easier to grasp. Basically, those black pads? They’re numbered 0 through 9. Now, in the Major Mode, Pad 1 is your scale’s root, so you get the usual 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 (or do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do). If you keep going to pads 8 and 9, you loop back to the start of the scale, just an octave up. And going the other way, like down to Enter, 0, and ., takes you back down the scale: -7-6-5 (ti-la-sol).

Chords

So when you write a song, the chords you use come from the scale you’re working with. Basically, each note in that scale can be used as the foundation for a chord that fits the overall harmony of your song.

Now, this video is pointed at beginners, so we’re not going to get super deep into the music theory side of things. But just so you know, there are different kinds of chords out there—Major, Minor, Diminished, and so on. We’re not going deep on those types, but it’s good to remember that if you have a major scale, you’ll find a specific set of chord types that go with each note of that scale.

Don’t worry about that now! We will learn how to build the shape of each one of these chords. But if you pay attention you will hear the difference between them.

Chord Shapes

Here’s how to play that three-note chord thing: pick a note, skip the next one, and then hit the one after that.

Chord Voicing

Basically, you can mix up the order of notes in a chord, which is called voicing. For example, chord 6 is missing a note – it’s got the 6 and the 8 (or1), but not the 10, which should be the 3. So, any 3, 1, and 6 can be played in different ways to get different voicing.

Practice with the Free PDF

It’s a good idea to spend some time practicing all the different chords and their inversions. I’ve got a free PDF with all the chord shapes and voicing you’ll need, you can grab it from the link below to help you practice.

Chord Progressions

Once you’ve got your chords down, it’s helpful to run through some typical chord progressions.

I’ve listed four popular ones here, but remember, knowing all the different chord positions means you can tackle any progression you come across.

Last Considerations

If you notice, we stick to five of the seven chords in a major scale. Those five are super common, but definitely play around with the other two as well. Also, try adding or taking away notes from any of the chords – you might come up with some cool sounds.

Use the chords progressions in a beat!

Take that drum groove from the last video and the chord progression from this one – it’ll give you a really strong base to build your beat on.