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Music Theory - Scales

I'm reading a book right now on music theory. Since I've been doing this, I've always played in major scales.

I've just played some chord sequences using some minor scales and it can definitely change the mood of a song.

When it comes to trance style music, do you guys generally play in major scales, or do you also use minor?

I'm just curious.


Thanks,
Adam

Well its hard to make Major not sound "Cascada" esque. You really have to work to make it sound good. White Sand from Sunlounger is a track where they pulled it off nicely. Minor scales usually work the best because they sound very powerful and emotional. The flashover remix of Corsten's Fire is a good example of how to use a Minor scale to make somthing sound more powerful.

I always use Minor and switch to the relative Major if need be.

A Minor = C Major is the relative major.

Peace,
DJS

quote:

Originally posted by DJSentinel A Minor = C Major is the relative major.

I wouldn't have understood that before today. Thanks for taking the time to explain. My next tune will have to be made in a minor scale - just because

Thanks again!

Adam

more minor than anything... but western influence on scales has really made a mess of things.

does your book go into the history of minor vs major scales?

quote:

Originally posted by David Adams I wouldn't have understood that before today. Thanks for taking the time to explain. My next tune will have to be made in a minor scale - just because Thanks again! Adam

Np man. Choon away!

L8r,
DJS

I often use minor. It depends on the mood I want to create in the song. Seems im usually in a minor mood lol. Maybe im depressed or something hehe. j/k Uplifting type trance often uses the major key and can sound very nice with the right arrangement and melody. I would guess the majority of trance songs are prob minor based though of all i've heard. Seems most will vamp on a minor.

Minor can sound sad, but most of the time Minor sounds more powerful than sad. Major usually makes a track sound cheesy imo.

As i dont want to look it up because it can be easily said here, as i am retarded in music theory, wich notes are major and minor?

My bad, but still at 5 years of producing, i still dont know these things

Well in Minor, you lower the third, the sixth, and the seventh a half step. So..

CMAJOR) C-D-E-F-G-A-B

CMINOR) C-D-D#-F-G-G#-A#

This applies to all Major and Minor scales.

quote:

Originally posted by Zombie0729 more minor than anything... but western influence on scales has really made a mess of things. does your book go into the history of minor vs major scales?

It doesn't go into the history, but it goes beyond just simple major and minor scales.

It goes into the following minors:
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Melodic Minor

It also goes into the various modes - they date back to the ancient Greeks:
Ionian (same as a major scale)
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian
Locrian


The book not only focused on giving me sheet music with the different scales, but it also gave me a table of the number of half steps - which is more valuable to me. I could personally care less about reading sheet music - although the book does explain that in detail.

For example, a Major scale has the following intervals. Each number represents the number of half steps to the next note:

2
2
1
2
2
2
1

This allows me the opportunity of not having to memorize scales based on notes e.g. CDEF.....

This way, I can just start with any note (tonic/root note) and figure out the keys for any scale I want.

I'm just not in the mood to have to learn all the different scales by heart. This give me a method to just figure it out on my own - I'm better with numbers anyway

Take care,
Adam

minor chords convey a sad or often mysterious emotion. Major chords are happy, and can be euphoric. The perfect mix imo is setting up a track using minor chords and then dropping to the major for that euphoric hit. For example, start the tune in A minor and then crank out that F major. The contrast between the two is key.

quote:

Originally posted by pho mo For example, start the tune in A minor and then crank out that F major. The contrast between the two is key.

Yep, the classic 6-4 change up that used to death in trance/dance songs. It must the first two chord intervals every newb trance artist learns. Not sure what it is with that change up that makes it so popular. hmm... always seems to sound good in trance music though i admit. or maybe it's just that we've heard it so much in so many popular tracks that our ears associate this kind of music with that changeup. hmm...

i find myself playing in minor almost all the time. it's a more introverted feeling to me and this is closer to the trancey state of mind.

Alltough I have studied music theory for 3 years I can't say I use it consiously because most of the times when I write my melodies I just hear them in my head and I just map it out on the keyboard, the same thing goes for all the sub-melodies around the lead so I don't really bother to use all those theory-stuff, allthough they are probably used unconsiouly.

/Dave

def Minor.

Yeah I always use minor coz then I seem dead mysterious. Bein' happy is for pussys.

And the best thing is, if I write repetitive non-sensical crap I can just say 'its moody'

quote:

Originally posted by Synchronicity Yeah I always use minor coz then I seem dead mysterious. Bein' happy is for pussys. And the best thing is, if I write repetitive non-sensical crap I can just say 'its moody'

Slow repetative sounds moody to most people.

quote:

Originally posted by Synchronicity Yeah I always use minor coz then I seem dead mysterious. Bein' happy is for pussys.

Yeh,agreed. It's not cool to be happy. I think Depressed Mode kinda got me into the minor mood thing back in the 80's/90's. Very cool. But I do have my happy moments. My "oceanside drive" track is a happy euphoric type track. I guess driving down the coast is happy and deserved the 'cheese' spread. It's ok to be happy inside as long as you look depressed on the outside right?

If there is a cool major scale I would have to say in my opinion it's the spanish gypsy scale. Anyone who knows the harmonic minor scale is familiar with this as it is a relative major scale. love it a lot. Even though its major having the natural 3rd, the flatted 2nd interval takes a lot of the cheese out of it imo.

Actually, im gonna start playing more with harmonic minor scales in my trance tracks. I really love that scale alot. Has the middle eastern sound to it because of the natural 7th. But I also don't want to sound too much like middle eastern dance music either,, hmmm......tough choices....

quote:

Originally posted by dj_palm somehow i always start my tracks in C minor. realy strange.

A Minor for me. Easiest scale in the world (Punch the white keys 'til you drop) I usually change it later though.

I've never liked music composed in major. For some reason minor has always sounded better to me.

No.

No chord or scale is a 'must.'

I have said it before on this forum but following chords and scales is missing the point. Anyone can play a scale. Its boring. I dont listen to music to listen to scales. I listen to music to hear how the producer conveys a sensation or a feeling. To try doing anything other than that is to miss the point completely and get hung up on a technicality.

Chords and Scales derrive from decades and millenias of trial-and-error of the most amazing musical geniuses of our species. They are there because they are what sounds good. You do not _have_ to follow this, but why reinvent the wheel? Of course we don't listen to music to listen to scales, but we don't look at cars to look at the wheels either. Yes, the wheels is a part of the veichle, but that is because it's what a car is built of.

In the same manner music is built on scales.

The only reason why scales and chords technically look the way they do, is because that is what sounds good, traditionally of course.

(To continue our symbolism let's say the wheel is round because it's the best way to spin it)

The amazing part, though, is that you can really clay it however you wish. The scales are not there to tell you how to write music, they're there to make it easier for you.

Just because you write scales and whatever doesn't mean you are so wired up in technicallity that in essence you are really constructing a veichle, rather than a piece of art. You can write the most beautiful music anyways, as have hundred of musicians done before you.

Really.

(I don't know where I'm getting at with this really. Bashing Derrivative I guess ;P)

priceless

quote:

Originally posted by Derivative No. No chord or scale is a 'must.' I have said it before on this forum but following chords and scales is missing the point. Anyone can play a scale. Its boring. I dont listen to music to listen to scales. I listen to music to hear how the producer conveys a sensation or a feeling. To try doing anything other than that is to miss the point completely and get hung up on a technicality.

I dont think any of us listens to music for predictable scales.
It's all bout creativity with using scales once you learn them.

Exactly! Although sometimes I do listen to tracks and analyze them to see how the arrangement, some sounds, and scale/key was utilized.

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