I would argue that sampling has changed our modern conception of harmony and here’s why. In all likelihood, your introduction to the piano keyboard revolved around the key of C and you were probably playing chords that looked like this. At some point, you probably made a remarkable discovery, which is that these distances are not identical.
They look the same, but they aren’t. This is a major third which requires you to take four little tiny half steps to get to the top. This is a minor third.
Boop, boop, boop, just three. This is true all up and down the keyboard and in all keys, although it’s most easily visualized in C. This is called diatonic motion.
So what does this have to do with sampling? Well, let’s sample this chord. When you sample a chord, you’re pitch shifting a recording and all of those relationships stay locked in place.
It’s chromatic, not diatonic. Diatonic, chromatic. It’s not better, it’s not worse, but it is different.
Either way, I don’t think you can separate music theory from music production, So if you or anyone belongs in the kitchen class, that’s where you go to learn about it.
