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Any tips on making melody using minor keys?
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| Final Call |
| Im having a hard and difficult time trying to make a melody that has both major and minor keys in it.The thing is.....most of my melodys are all in white keys and i really wanna get on with using the black keys as well.Any tips? or anything like that,that could help me ? |
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| Biatchzxz |
honestly, Just try to stay in one key and experiment..
I am using C# minor and it has one black key, It can make a difference. All White keys is A. Get urself KeyNote or something like that it will show you all the notes to each key. I am learning myself so i just giving you my newb piano skills |
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| alanzo |
| quote: | Originally posted by Final Call
Im having a hard and difficult time trying to make a melody that has both major and minor keys in it.The thing is.....most of my melodys are all in white keys and i really wanna get on with using the black keys as well.Any tips? or anything like that,that could help me ? |
combining the major and minor scale on your own is going to lead to bad sounding results.. i don't recommend it...
your melodies are all "white keys" becuase you don't know scales.. what I do is compose a melody in A Minor (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A) becuase it's easy to work with... and then when i'm done with the melody.. I transpose it to another key that suits the feel of the melody better (if A doesn't).. |
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| Final Call |
| Hmm....i think i understand this:rolleyes: *scratches head* |
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| State of Matter |
| Aparently D Minor is the saddest and most emotional of all the scales, psychologically. Ironically, it's also the scale that produces the most pumping bass through the subwoofer. Other scales often have soft bass notes that get lost in the mix during the progression but almost all D minor basslines are punchy. That's why a lot of my tracks tend to be in D minor. |
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| h.vox |
| quote: | Originally posted by Final Call
Im having a hard and difficult time trying to make a melody that has both major and minor keys in it.The thing is.....most of my melodys are all in white keys and i really wanna get on with using the black keys as well.Any tips? or anything like that,that could help me ? |
hm. the black keys are not minor keys.
for start, most classical scales use 7 keys. for instance, c major scale has keys c,d,e,f,g,a,b. a minor scale has keys a,b,c,d,e,f,g. neat, hah? :)
c minor scale has keys c,d,d#,f,g,g#,a# (if you transpose it 3 steps down, you get a minor scale, which uses the same keys as c major scale). so, basically, if you want to find out a scale which is good for trance, you should experiment, but the good starting point could be to start from c major scale, and experiment with some of the keys, and just listen to what sounds good. if you use cubase, you can use its midi plugin to automatically reorder your notes to any scale it offers (it has about 15 scales i think). try with this one: c,c#,d#,f,g,g#,a#. later, when you write a fancy melody with it, you can transpose it any number of steps you wish - it can start from g, c#, d#, a, whatever.
a few examples of the scales:
Major scale C D E F G A B C
Doric Mode C D D# F G A A# C
Phrygian Mode C C# D# F G G# A# C
Lydian Mode C D E F# G A B C
Mysolidian Mode C D E F G A A# C
Eolian Mode C D D# F G G# A# C
Locrian Mode C C# D# F F# G# A# C
Natural Minor Scale C D D# F G G# A# C
Harmonic Minor Scale C D D# F G G# B C
Locrian 6 "Bequadro" (no altered) C C# D# F F# A A# C
Lidian Diminished C D D# F# G A A# C
Spanish Scale C C# E F G G# A# C
SuperLocrian bb7 C C# D# E F# G# A C
Doric 2b C C# D# F G A A# C C
Superlocrian C C# D# E F# G# A# C
Diminished H/W Tone C C# D# E F# G A A# C
Major Pentatonic C D E G A C
Blues Altered Scale C D D# E F F# G A A# C
and so on (got tired of pasting :))
as you can see, some of this scales have 7 steps (standard scales), and some of them got only 5 or 6, and some even 8. altered blues scale contains 9 steps. there is even a scale which contains ALL 12 steps of a keyboard, but, for that one, you really have to know what you are doing and i definitely reccomend not to use it. which one suits you, you decide. use your ear. |
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| kewlness |
Try this chord progression
Am: A/C/E ====> F: F/A/C ====> G: G/B/D ====> Em: E/G/B ====> Dm: D/F/A ====> E: E/G#/B ====> F:F/A/C ====> G: G/B/D
It basically has a mix of melodic A minor and harmonic A minor notes
The first 4 chords are in melodic A minor which has these notes
A B C D E F G A
The last 4 chords are in harmonic A minor which have these notes
A B C D E F G# A
As h.vox said, you really need to know what you are doing to venture into the more complex stuff. Usually for 99% of the time, you do not want to switch keys in trance or most EDM tracks anyways (with the exception of some like Cygnus X - The Orange theme). I think what you mean is that you want to not only use minor chords, but have major chords as well.
It is generally a good rule to have around half your chords as minor and half as major chords. It is not good to stick with one chord because in a minor key lets say, it is the minor chords that set the minor/sad tone but the major chords that add interest and development to the progression.
Hope that makes sense to you. And don't hesitate if to pm me if you need any more help with music theory (I've done 12 years of classical violin, 5 years of jazz trombone, 3 years of rock guitar and a whole bunch of music theory to accompany it so I know what I'm talking about ;)) |
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| DjSimonB |
| quote: | Originally posted by Biatchzxz
honestly, Just try to stay in one key and experiment..
I am using C# minor and it has one black key, It can make a difference. All White keys is A. Get urself KeyNote or something like that it will show you all the notes to each key. I am learning myself so i just giving you my newb piano skills |
C# minor has 4 black keys in it. I'd know, the last tune I finished (Breeze) was in C# minor :p
Every minor key has the same order of notes, they're just different notes, if that makes sense. From the root note of the key you're composing in, the natural minor scale (the scale used in most trance) goes in this order:
Tone - Semitone - Tone - Tone - Semitone - Tone - Tone - Tone
For example, D minor scale (one I use a lot, I like the sound of it):
Starts on D then goes up one tone to E, one semitone to F, one tone to G, one tone to A, one tone to Bb, one tone to C, and one tone to get back to D.
Once you get to know this order, and if you play keyboard, get used to moving your fingers to black keys, you can play in any minor key.
If you're still confused... just ask. |
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| h.vox |
| quote: | [i][b]Usually for 99% of the time, you do not want to switch keys in trance or most EDM tracks anyways (with the exception of some like Cygnus X - The Orange theme). I think what you mean is that you want to not only use minor chords, but have major chords as well.
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actually, this might be a really good trick. for example, you lay down a cool melody, 1 bar long, in some scale you just came up with, starting from C. it is a good trick sometimes to play that melody 2 times (2 bars) from C, and then just transpose the whole track (melody, strings, bassline, other synth sounds, as a matter of fact, anything but drums) (piece of cake in cubase, doing it all the time :)) 3 semitones up to E, or 3 semitones down to A.
| quote: |
Hope that makes sense to you. And don't hesitate if to pm me if you need any more help with music theory (I've done 12 years of classical violin, 5 years of jazz trombone, 3 years of rock guitar and a whole bunch of music theory to accompany it so I know what I'm talking about ;)) |
and now you are into trance? sheesh. :)
then let's hear some tracks, it would be nice to see how you use that theory of yours :) |
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