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THE THEORY

Built on Music Foundations

The taxonomies listed below constitute the building blocks of composition and the environment where SHE writes.

THE VOCABULARY

The Alphabet SHE Composes From

11
Modes
Scales that share one set of notes but start in different places, each with its own character.
17
Harmonic Functions
The roles a chord can play in a key, from resting point to forward pull.
Progressions
Ordered sequences of chords that give a passage its shape and motion.
Rhythmic Patterns
Repeating figures of timing and accent that set the groove.
Chord Colors
Tones added beyond the basic triad (sevenths, sus, and add-tones) that shade a chord's feel.

MODES

A Scale with Personality

The seven classical modes are one scale started from seven different notes. Each rotation moves the half steps to a new place, and the whole mood shifts with them. Pick one and hear it. Every scale here is rendered by SHE, in G, so it lines up with the chords further down.

G
A
B
C
D
E
F
G

G Ionian

major

The major scale itself: bright, settled, the baseline every other mode is measured against.

How a mode becomes actual pitches

A mode is stored as a set of intervals: the distances, in half steps, from the home note to each of the others. SHE keeps eleven of them, from the seven everyday modes to the altered scales jazz and film music reach for.

Because the mode is applied at the moment of writing rather than baked in ahead of time, one idea can be played back in any of them. The highlighted key marks each mode's signature: the single degree that sets it apart from its neighbors.

FUNCTION, NOT NOTES

One Skeleton, Any Mode

SHE never stores a progression as notes. It stores the roles each chord plays: tonic (home), subdominant (away), dominant (the pull back), tonic again. Hand it a mode and it works out the actual chords. Watch the four functions hold still while the mode changes underneath them.

The skeleton (stored once)

T – P – D – T

T

Tonic

G
I
P

Subdominant

C
IV
D

Dominant

D
V
T

Tonic

G
I

Only the mode changed. The functions stayed exactly where they were: SHE stores the intent once and works out the chords for whatever mode you ask for. That is why the same idea sounds right in any key.

Why this is the proof it is not generated

SHE does not keep progressions as musical notes. It records the function of each chord. When a mode is supplied, the system works out the exact chords to play.

One entry plays correctly in G major, D dorian, and A minor without any duplication. A model that has been trained on recordings stores the notes it observed. SHE stores the logic and can present the calculations for every chord.

THE LIBRARY

Every Progression, Hand-Authored

These examples were not taken from a song sample library. Each was written to illustrate a particular harmonic concept, covering the chord movements and substitutions typical of the genre. The following are two examples performed by SHE. Major and minor versions of each are provided so you can compare the same progression in both modes.

The four-chord song

Pop's workhorse turn: the same four chords behind a thousand hits.

G
I
D
V
Em
vi
C
IV

The authentic frame

The oldest complete sentence in tonal music: home, away, tension, home.

G
I
C
IV
D
V
G
I

And more from the taxonomy

ii – V – I
The jazz cadence
The pull toward home that built an idiom.
i – ♭VII – ♭VI – V
The Andalusian descent
A minor staircase down to a bright dominant.
I – vi – IV – V
The fifties changes
Doo-wop, and everything that borrowed from it.
i – iv – ♭VII – i
The modal loop
Aeolian motion that never needs a leading tone.

PATTERNS

Rhythm, Organized by Role

The rhythmic library is sorted by the part each pattern plays, and built from simple, rule-based structures:

Bass
Root motion, walking lines, and syncopated figures.
Chords
Comping shapes, stabs, and sustained voicings.
Drums
Grooves built from even, rule-based distributions.
Melody
Contours and hooks that trace the harmony.
Pad
Long tones that hold the harmonic frame.

A few you can hear

Bass

Four on the Floor

A bass note on every beat: in electronic music, the driving pulse the rest of the track rides on.

Drums

Basic Backbeat

Snare on the two and the four: the backbone of rock, pop, and soul.

Melody

Basic Melody

A simple contour that traces the harmony and stays in key.

Pad

Sustained Pad

Long, held tones that fill the harmonic frame under everything else.

LEARN MORE

Foundations You Can Hear

CAPABILITIESABOUT