I am slightly confused about something here.

Let's say I use a I-IV-V-I progression in C.

CEG, FAC, GBD, CEG.

Is this only for major scales? What about minor scales?

Obviously for minor scales the actual notes will be adjusted to fit the signature of that scale. But the I-IV-V-I progression is still used (and in fact, the majority of trance uses a minor scale).

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When you write a chord progression in the roman numeral format (ie I II III) I dont think you can express minor/ major. its a pretty vague format to use. The chord progression I'm really into at the moment is the one in Smith and pledgers "White". got it on Anjuna volume 4, maybe thats not cool, I know there are some anjuna haters round here, but I LOVE IT!
Overall I think a lot of trance these days isn't actually written, people just sit down at a computer and start inputing notes, I prefer to write on a piano or guitar, coz I think its easier to write real music, as opposed to something which just sounds like music. At the end of the day theres a lot of poor, unoriginal trance out there, with poor unoriginal progressions, but there always has been I think.

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Originally posted by kitphillips I prefer to write on a piano or guitar, coz I think its easier to write real music, as opposed to something which just sounds like music.

I prefer to press record and let the sequencer record my playing.

About the "real music" part, I don't know what you're talking about. Dare to explain?

quote:

At the end of the day theres a lot of poor, unoriginal trance out there, with poor unoriginal progressions, but there always has been I think.

The easier it is to start making music, the more unoriginal work there is. So the amount of unoriginal work among electronic music has grown exponentially from the 80's.

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The easier it is to start making music, the more unoriginal work there is. So the amount of unoriginal work among electronic music has grown exponentially from the 80's.

Yah, that's one way to look at it, but imho that’s no true. Easier and cheaper production should lead to more musicians and ultimately to a broader verity of EDM-genres, songs and sounds.

I blame everything on the fact that most EDM-lables out there are not ready or willing to give the verity a chance, they only sign what sells. And what sells seems to be the same sound that we’ve heard for a long time now, so really, it might be our fault for buying it…

Just some thoughts, cheers!

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quote:

Originally posted by oFFbalaNce Yah, that's one way to look at it, but imho that’s no true. Easier and cheaper production should lead to more musicians and ultimately to a broader verity of EDM-genres, songs and sounds. I blame everything on the fact that most EDM-lables out there are not ready or willing to give the verity a chance, they only sign what sells. And what sells seems to be the same sound that we’ve heard for a long time now, so really, it might be our fault for buying it… Just some thoughts, cheers!

+1 but I can see chrono's point too...

In response to your question Chronosis;

Bob moog once said something about how its really easy to make something that sounds like music these days, but its just as hard as ever to make true music. That's sort of what I mean. I think a lot of stuff goes out these days without any real soul. I suspect it comes from the fact that you can get a damn slick sound really easily, and that can mask the lack of soul until you've listened to a track for a week, by which time the next new thing's come along. The artists themselves can't really tell what's real because their too involved with it.
Of course theres still stacks of people who whack stuff straight into a sequencer and have it released in a month who make great music, as good as anything I could ever create on any instrument, but there ae others who, lacking that safety net of transposing onto different instruments, playing live (real live, not turntables/ableton/cdj sorry), in different time sigs, etc just wind up creating really nice sounding noise. Hope that clarifies, coz my hands cramping!

quote:

Originally posted by oFFbalaNce I blame everything on the fact that most EDM-lables out there are not ready or willing to give the verity a chance, they only sign what sells.

You have a strong point there. Sad that it's the reason for many amateurs to keep making certain sounding tracks.

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Originally posted by kitphillips In response to your question Chronosis;

Thanks for the response. Though I must say, you seem to have quite a limited view of sequencers. You can record your playing live into a sequencer, and in different time signatures if you want. It doesn't have to be mouse work.

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is it me or does todays trance have a different style of chord progression, mainly uplifting trance

Maybe tsthe Artists your lsitening to ,try listen to tiesto or paul oakenfold or bruno magli im sure they sound the same.

most modern trance melodies take of the following pattern:

A, B, A, B, Left, Right, Left, Right, Select, Start

quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips When you write a chord progression in the roman numeral format (ie I II III) I dont think you can express minor/ major. its a pretty vague format to use.

The format doesn't need to express major/minor. You already know that from the key. If you're in a major key, I is a major chord. If you're in a minor key, it's a minor chord. V in either one is major. IV depends on whether it's the harmonic or melodic minor, but again, this is something you already know.

Incidentally, there *is* roman numeral notation for that if one is using chords that aren't normal to the key signature or scale. The 3rd is defined by the case - lowercase is minor, uppercase is major. And the 5th is assumed to be perfect unless given a ° (diminished) or + (augmented). Of course the 7th can be in there too, but that makes things a little more complicated and trance music hardly ever uses it anyway.

The notation is anything but "vague" - it's been used for several hundred years and hasn't caused any problems so far.

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My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

You guys bring up some really good points.
One thing that really discourages me is that, Im an amateur producer (Im so bad that I wouldnt even call myself a producer) and for a while I was making trance remnant of the 99' 00 era. But trance is changing so fast and I want to keep up with the times, you know. It gets frustrating to learn to produce and at the same time learn the new techniques and software/hardware.

Simply put, I get confused as to what I should make my music sound like, modern trance with its fx and all that crap, or learn from the classics?.

the question is do artists make music at least partially to convey emotion or entirely to make money?

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