Music Theory by Genre: A Producer's Cheat Sheet
Here you'll find eight short reference sheets, from house to electronic pop, that sum up each genre's theory habits: tempo, scales, chords, rhythm, and one tip for each.
Every genre has its habits, and knowing them saves you a lot of time: you know where to start, and you also know which rule you're breaking when you want to surprise people. These sheets aren't laws. The tempos are ballpark figures, genres blend into each other all the time, and every scene has its own variations. Treat them as a starting point, then check them with the analysis method on the tracks you love. All the examples are original.
House: a kick on every beat
House usually runs between 118 and 128 BPM, often around 120 to 125. It likes minor keys and the Dorian mode, which is brighter than the natural minor, but more euphoric house happily switches to major. The chords are often minor sevenths or minor ninths, played as short, syncopated stabs, or as sustained pads in deep house.
The rhythm rests on four-on-the-floor: a kick on every beat, a clap on beats 2 and 4, and an open hi-hat on every offbeat, between the kicks.
Techno: few chords, lots of movement
Techno is often played between 125 and 140 BPM, and some styles go faster. It tends to stay in minor or in Phrygian, whose second note, a half step above the tonic, gives it a dark color. There are few chords: often just one, sometimes none, only a bass riff or a drone. The kick hits every beat, as in house, with a sound that's often drier or more rumbling.
Trap: a fast tempo that feels slow
Trap is often written between 130 and 150 BPM, but the snare or clap on the third beat of each bar makes it feel half as fast: that's half-time. You mostly hear minor keys and the harmonic minor, with loops of two to four chords, or just a melody on piano, bells or strings. The 808 plays the bass, and it has to be tuned to the key.
The hi-hats are the genre's signature: steady eighth or sixteenth notes, broken up by faster rolls in sixteenth notes, thirty-second notes or triplets.
Drill: slides and a lopsided rhythm
Drill often sits around 140 BPM, and it's also felt in half-time. It loves the darkest colors: the natural minor, the harmonic minor with its augmented second and its “Eastern” color, and Phrygian. Chords are rare; you're more likely to hear melodies on strings, piano or vocals, and an 808 that slides from one note to the next.
The rhythm is often thought of in triplets, and the snares land on the third beat and at offset spots around it, which gives that lopsided feeling. The next example is written on a triplet grid.
Now listen to the same 808 line, first note by note, then with the glide that slides it from one pitch to the next.
Lo-fi: jazz chords and a lazy rhythm
Lo-fi hip-hop is often played between 70 and 90 BPM. It borrows its seventh and ninth chords from jazz, along with its ii, V, I moves, and its melodies are often pentatonic. Major is just as common as minor, often softened by these extended chords. Listen to a typical progression in this style, in F major.
The drums come from boom bap: a fairly simple kick and snare, with swing, and notes deliberately a little behind the grid. The sound is often filtered, slightly detuned, with hiss, like an old recording.
Drum and bass: very fast, and half as fast
Drum and bass usually runs between 170 and 180 BPM, very often around 174. Its drums come from breakbeats: a kick on the first beat and on the eighth note after the third beat, a snare on 2 and 4. This basic pattern gets filled out with ghost notes and chopped breaks.
On the harmony side, liquid drum and bass loves major sevenths and ninths, often in major or in a bright minor, while the harder styles stay in minor with very few chords and put everything into the sound of the bass.
Afro: percussion first
Under the word afro, we're grouping afrobeats and related styles, often between 100 and 115 BPM. The keys are often major, with pentatonic melodies, over loops of two to four chords that go around without reaching for tension. The groove rests on the percussion: kick, rim, shaker and percussion answer each other, often around a figure of 3, 3 and 2 sixteenth notes.
Electronic pop: the song comes first
Electronic pop has very varied tempos, often between 100 and 128 BPM. It prefers major and the best-known progressions, like I, V, vi, IV and its rotations, sometimes colored with sus or add9 chords. Depending on the track, the rhythm rests on a backbeat, with the snare on 2 and 4, or on a kick on every beat, often saved for the choruses.
All eight sheets at a glance
The next table sums up these reference points. Keep it close by when you start a project in a genre you don't know well.
| Genre | Usual tempo | Common scales | Chords | Rhythm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| House | 118 to 128 BPM | minor, Dorian, sometimes major | minor sevenths and ninths, stabs | kick on every beat, open hi-hat on the offbeats |
| Techno | 125 to 140 BPM, sometimes faster | minor, Phrygian | one chord, a riff or a drone | kick on every beat |
| Trap | 130 to 150 BPM | minor, harmonic minor | loops of 2 to 4 chords | half-time, hi-hat rolls |
| Drill | around 140 BPM | minor, harmonic minor, Phrygian | few chords, melodies | half-time, triplets, offset snares |
| Lo-fi | 70 to 90 BPM | major or minor, pentatonics | sevenths, ninths, ii V I | swing, late notes |
| Drum and bass | 170 to 180 BPM | minor; major in liquid | maj7 and 9 in liquid | kick on 1 and after 3, snare on 2 and 4 |
| Afro | 100 to 115 BPM | major, pentatonics | loops of 2 to 4 chords | 3, 3, 2 figure; percussion |
| Electronic pop | 100 to 128 BPM | major | I V vi IV and its rotations | backbeat or kick on every beat |
To hear these rhythm differences, the drum machine below has several presets. Start with house, then switch to trap and drum and bass, listening for what changes.
In house, the kick hits every beat (that is the “four-on-the-floor”), the clap marks beats 2 and 4, and the open hat answers between the beats: that back-and-forth is what makes the groove bounce.
Choose what a click adds: a normal hit, an accent (louder), a ghost note (very soft) or a roll (two hits in the same step, for hi-hat bursts). Clicking the same cell again clears it. On a computer, Shift + click adds an accent right away, and Alt + click a ghost note. Click a sound name to hear it on its own.
Swing delays the second sixteenth note of each eighth note. At 0%, the rhythm is straight. At 55%, it lands two thirds of the way through the eighth note, as in a triplet: that is the “shuffle”. Around 30%, you get a slight sway that feels more human.
Let's put it into practice: the same chord progression can switch genres completely if you change its tempo, the shape of its chords and its rhythm.
Take the Am, F, C, G progression in A minor and dress it up three ways: as house, as trap and as lo-fi. For each version, choose a tempo, a chord shape and a drum rhythm, using the sheets to help. In your DAW: copy the same chords onto three tracks and change only what the sheets point to.
Sometimes a musician will send you sheet music instead of a MIDI file: the next lesson teaches you to read it in a few minutes.