Music Theory: Chord Progressions

[Untitle]

So we all compose chord progressions. But my question is: do you pick a scale first (Cm, Em, Amaj) or you start jamming notes on the keyboard and the scale and the tonic comes by itself (sometimes I do that - jam something, define the tonic and the scale, then arrange some musically correct progression, then refine it with inversions, adding 7ths, etc...). Another: How do you pick the chords that you use (do you stick to 7th chords only, do you use mostly the I, the V and the IV chord of the scale...)?


To put it simpler, the question is: What is your approach when composing chord progressions?

[zosomagik]

It all depends for me i guess. My musical background is songwriting, like piano or guitar and vocals so a lot of the time I sit down and just start playing chords. But if i have a melody stuck in my head I'll sit down at my piano and figure it out, then usually find the bass notes to the chords I hear behind it in my head and then build the full chords etc. As for picking scales first I dont usually do that, if need be ill look at the notes im playing and use the scale/key as a basic guideline to possible notes I could use. And I say basic guideline because i've been making a lot of dungeon style stuff lately and that usually uses a lot of tense and sometimes out of key half-steps. I find if i go to pick a key first though, I mostly go to really "stock" chord progresssions like a 1 4 5, 1 6 4 5, or if im going for something with 7th chords a 2 5 1.

[Augment]

I usually pick a root note then make a progression from there, but the last thing I made was picking a note, then play notes a couple octaves under it that changed, but still didnt sound bad against the key. If that makes sense haha. Then I started making chords, just made the chords from what sounded good to me, tried to involve as little music theory as possible in order to not limit myself. I'm sure the progression I made can be explained with some music theory, but for me, completely forgetting about the theory I know for a while and just building chords I liked made me able to make a progression I would never have been able to make if I had used my limited knowledge of music theory

[titchbit]

But my question is: do you pick a scale first (Cm, Em, Amaj) or you start jamming notes on the keyboard and the scale and the tonic comes by itself

start jamming. don't worry too much about what music theory says is right. if something sounds good but it's not technically theoretically right, then who cares just do it anyway. this is dubstep. people aren't expecting exquisite music theory. that said, music theory is usually correct and serves as a fantastic guideline. but no, I wouldn't pick a scale and then sketch it all out like a math problem.