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Chord progressions
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| ravan |
One of my main problems is to come up with chord progressions that work well for trance.
Can some of the pro's share a few tips? I tried some of the 'usual' I-IV-V stuff but doesnt seem to work well for me. |
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| Mossy |
I read somewhere that trance chords are usually minors. I'm not entirely sure why as Im only learning the theory myself at the moment.
[edit] on a semi related note, another good way to get a tune sounding pretty cool is this tip which I picked up yesterday - either from here or a diff forum, im not sure which.
basically, choose a tune you really like - i chose Motorcyle's ATRC - then think about what notes are in that tune. Try and recreate it in your head/sequencer and see what comes out. Unless your pretty darn good your not going to get it first time, but the resulting tune may be pretty reasonable. I managed to get the first two notes spot on from the main melody which I am well chuffed with, considering I have only been learning musical thoery for abotu two weeks!
Once you have the new melody, filling out the chords is easy as pie! |
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| TranceInMySoul |
| quote: | Originally posted by ravan
Can some of the pro's share a few tips? I tried some of the 'usual' I-IV-V stuff but doesnt seem to work well for me. |
Try moving up or down a third and changing major to minor when you do it. This is a very common chord change. Example (moves C-major to A-minor):
C-E-G
A-C-E
Also try moving up or down a tone or semi-tone. Example:
Eb-G-Bb
C#-F-G# |
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| Digital Aura |
| quote: | | Also try moving up or down a tone or semi-tone. |
Move WHAT?:conf: |
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| hey cheggy |
| quote: | Originally posted by Digital Aura
Move WHAT?:conf: |
black key/White key/black key (i hope, I don't know how to play piano) |
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| DJ Nuclear |
I usually just play some random progressions on the keyboard while recording the midi notes, then listen to them over again, and decide what's best.
Really, I think it's all about messing around and listening to the stuff you're writing closely. A really easy way to write them is to try and use as many notes as possible from the original scale in the successive chords you write (a la naked angel :P) |
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| Etherium |
I really love the principle of contrary motion. I'll give an example of what this is:
Say you play G4# F4# A4# D4#. At the same time (simultaneously) on the octave above it play F5# A5# F F6#.
This is called contrary motion because as you'll notice the top melody moves up, the bottom moves down, the top melody down, the bottom one up. I think this is a type of counterpoint. It sounds so dramatic (many movie scores use this strategy). Sounds better if you begin by playing the first melody to establish a harmonic context, then the second pass play both at the same time. The bigger the leaps, like the simultaneous D4# F6#, the more dramatic.
To give you idea of what your doing, your just adding intervals. So, the D4# and F6#, even though F6# is a couple of octaves away from the D#, is playing a minor third. Same goes for the other notes. Hope this helps. |
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| DJ Nuclear |
| quote: | Originally posted by Etherium
I really love the principle of contrary motion. I'll give an example of what this is:
Say you play G4# F4# A4# D4#. At the same time (simultaneously) on the octave above it play F5# A5# F F6#.
This is called contrary motion because as you'll notice the top melody moves up, the bottom moves down, the top melody down, the bottom on up. I think this is a type of counterpoint. It sounds so dramatic (many movie scores use this strategy). Sounds better if you begin by playing the first melody to establish a harmonic context, then the second pass play both at the same time. The bigger the leaps, like the simultaneous D4# F6#, the more dramatic.
To give you idea of what your doing, your just adding intervals. So, the D4# and F6#, even though F6# is a couple of octaves away from the D#, is playing a minor third. Same goes for the other notes. Hope this helps. |
That is indeed a kind of counterpoint. ;)
I made a little example to show anyone who doesn't understand what he's talking about what he means. The piano in this file starts with a low melody, then a higher one begins countering the lower one with opposite directions. Then a string progression begins, and after the kicks begin, etc. Bassline is just based on the scale.
mp3 - http://www.audiobeats.com/~cboor/counterpractice.mp3
flp - http://www.audiobeats.com/~cboor/counterpractice.flp
Sorry some of the stuff sounds so crappy. I tried to make it with all FL stuff except for the superwave, which you'll need to download if you don't have it.
Note the fact that there is a chord progression, but that it all happens in the same scale. |
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| ravan |
Nuclear - thats pretty awesome!
I realize you can go the hardcore trail-and-error route and just experiment the hell out of it, but I think you can do better if you have some toolbox / theoretical knowledge of what you're doing before you start doing random chords. So I'm loving these suggestions here so far!
Everyone has his/her own ways of course :) |
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| DJ Nuclear |
You can use the original scale as a guide for the progression, though. IE, if you play a c minor triad, play a D minor or D# minor one next, and then mess around with the notes to get something in agreement of the progression. I usually just play around with them until I get a sound I want.
If you look at most chord progressions in songs, you'll see that they usually base themselves around a single scale (as I mentioned before, naked angel is a good example; though a whole bunch of chords are played in it, all of the notes in the chords are from a single scale, B minor) |
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| DJ_Ikronix |
Let me speak from experience:
Even a basic knowledge of music theory will help you write music better. Trial and error worked alright for me, but after one (one!) quarter of music theory in college, I was able to recognize WHY melodies and chords work.
And multiple quarters later, you learn many more interesting things. :D
As was mentioned earlier, most recent 'big' trance songs are in a minor key. It adds a bit of tension, while still allowing things to be upbeat. :)
And a ton of Psy/Goa is on the harmonic minor, diddling around the upper notes in the scale, around that augmented 2nd interval... :cool: |
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| Etherium |
Here is something I whipped up using contrary motion. Notice in the third pass the cellos begin playing the counterpoint.
[[ LINK REMOVED ]]
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