How's this for a theme? - TranceAddict Forums

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-- How's this for a theme?

Posted by RivalMan on Aug-05-2006 17:39:

How's this for a theme?

Hi there...

Had an hour to kill today and was in my composer-mood

Thinking of using this:

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.p...40E51AD5321FB2E

for a theme in a song... Please comment. You think it'll work? To cheezy?

It kind of reminds me of something, but I can't recall what it is (except for the obvious comparison to Airwave, but that's just the sound and the fact that it's all power-chords. Melody and chord progression is completely different).

Played it for a friend and his comment was that it was far too complex for a trance-track and it reminded him of a scene with opening credits in a bad movie about the Vietnam-war ;-) (He actually said that).

Well, you think he's right?

Regards

Posted by djsphere on Aug-05-2006 17:55:

does nothin' for me...no hook...random notes tiggering

sorry

Posted by Low Profile on Aug-05-2006 20:54:

I think you're trying to hard to break up the motion of the melody, it sounds like it's *trying too hard*, the general melody is good, but sounds a bit cluttered. I can't really explain it better...

Posted by RivalMan on Aug-05-2006 23:00:

Appreciate the responses. I think I understand your point about the melody "trying to hard".
The thing is, I'd been reading this music theory book the last couple of days on how to construct counterpoints, more complex melodies and chord progressions. (I was fed up with realizing that all my melodies always ended up too simple, consisting of the same I, IV, V-chords as well as melodies made out of the pentatonic scale).
Anyway, one of the key take-aways from the book was to avoid the "moving in parallel"-thing in regards to vertical as well as horizontal movements. I.e. to avoid having the bassline change at the same time as the melody as well as to avoid having them changing in the same direction.

Well, I think I managed to compose something complex ;-) but probably a little bit too much though. I'll scrap it and have another go tomorrow, keeping in mind that the hook needs to be the outmost important thing and not hidden away under a complex progression.

Thanx guys... Appreciate the honesty.

Posted by David Adams on Aug-06-2006 17:22:

I liked the piece, but as was indicated by your friend, it might not go well in a trance track because it seems to go past 8 measures.

This piece would be good for a WWII game title screen.

That book you mention, is that the Idiot's Guide to Music Theory? I have that book too and it does mention the parallel thing.

Posted by ASFSE on Aug-06-2006 18:25:

quote:
Originally posted by David Adams
That book you mention, is that the Idiot's Guide to Music Theory? I have that book too and it does mention the parallel thing.

the parallel thing is common teaching in all music theory books. and in regards to the melody posted, it doesn't sound complex at all, but it doesn't sound like somthing you'd hear in dance music. imo it does sound a bit cheezy that's just one opinion out of many tho...keep workin' @ it.

Posted by RivalMan on Aug-06-2006 18:42:

quote:
Originally posted by David Adams
I liked the piece, but as was indicated by your friend, it might not go well in a trance track because it seems to go past 8 measures.

This piece would be good for a WWII game title screen.

That book you mention, is that the Idiot's Guide to Music Theory? I have that book too and it does mention the parallel thing.

As of matter of fact it is that very book Suppose that makes me an idiot

Anyway, I just finished reading the book from a to z. It was rather good I think. I've been composing and producing music for years, but really felt more and more recently that I missed a lot of fundamental knowledge about scales, chords etc. I think I've learned a lot of usefull stuff from reading that book.

Now all I need to do is practice, practice and practice...

Regards

Posted by djillicit on Aug-06-2006 19:08:

Yeah, I definitely couldn't see this as a trance track... much closer to a movie scoring at that.

Posted by Adriz on Aug-06-2006 23:15:

Sounds pretty nice, but as mentioned by some of the others here, it sounds pretty movie-soundtrack-ish.

Posted by lazybassplayer on Aug-07-2006 16:45:

There seemed to be a little too much motion in the bass for my tastes...

Also, if you really wanted to avoid some parallelisms but have a little less motion in the bass and lead is to add some more voices to beef up your chords. This way you can have full chordal changes with less going on in the bass and lead voices, which might work in a trance situation..