Hey guys. So I'm a pretty new to producing and I would like to know the best way to learn theory for beginners.

How new are you to producing? Do you have a grasp of basic chord structure and scales? If not I'd start there, but if you've already got the hang of that I could go more in depth with theory shit.

Youtube has a ton of resources available to get you started, but it can be hard to know which direction to go. I think one of the best launching points if you've never studied theory before is Varien's Theory 101 Tutorials. I'd spend an hour and a half or two just watching each video on theory in order, jotting down little questions you have after each one. Then go back video by video, rewatching and messing around in your DAW with the concepts he brings up. Try to see if you can answer the questions yourself! If you can't, you'd be really surprised what google has for explanations. By the time you're up to basic song structure, everything will really start connecting and making sense.

Good luck!

Hey man, great topic
I'd always suggest this pdf for people trying to learn theory. https://gumroad.com/l/tldrmusic
It's free to download and the writer is very easy to understand.
Also it has the rare benefit of starting at the very beginning.

It hasn't been mentioned before, but I love http://musictheory.net the site is awesome, albeit a bit dry, there are also exercises for ear training and sight reading, and there are also mobile apps that are great.

Want to learn music theory you say?

You live here now: http://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab

complete http://www.musictheory.net/ and you'll have enough theory to get you started

Finally got home so I can potentially give some intro that can help. Google/wikipedia/youtube is going to be your friend if youre really starting out with basics or if something here doesnt make sense.
Let's use C major in the example.


Before we can even start, what's C?
C is a note which is a certain tone. There are 13 notes between C of one octave and C of a different octave (C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Fb, G, G#/Ab, A, A#/Bb)
# = sharp
b = flat

Mess around with the piano role in your DAW of choice. Frequency of sound is what gives each of these notes the perception of a different pitch.

What is major?
Good question. Often times major is referred to as "the happy sounding scale" vs minor "the sad sounding scale".

Major (Ionian mode) is comprised of certain intervals between each notes of the scale (whole-steps/half-steps). Using the C major scale, our major scale is C D E F G A B C. Play it on the piano/in your DAW and you'll recognize it. The pattern here is C -whole step- D -whole step-E-halfstep-F-wholestep-G-wholestop-A-wholestep-B-halfstep-C. Imagine wholes step meaning we had to take 2 "steps" on the piano to get to the next note (to get from C to D we had to pass over C#, but for E to F, we didnt have to pass any other notes).

You can apply this pattern when starting the scale of any note which means you've now learned all the major scales.

This is great so we can finally start writing chords (in an Ionian mode). Now for a song to be in key, we can only use the notes in the scale (unless we're using borrowed chords but let's not get into that now).

For major, if we're working with triads (a group of 3 notes) for a major mode, we can apply the following:
major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished
Sounds like this https://clyp.it/2fraj2u2.

For C major, this ends up being Cmaj(I),dmin(ii),emin(iii), Fmaj (IV), Gmaj(V), amin(vi), bdim(vii^o)

Now we're in business. Start rearranging these and you're writing music. Common progressions are I IV V vi,  or I V vi IV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%E2%80%93V%E2%80%93vi%E2%80%93IV_progression

Hopefully I didn't jump into too much too quickly. To be honest, this is something that'll take some time to learn, longer to completely understand, and years to apply to your own music.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me.