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Why won't anyone listen to me? ... It's a fucking scale around A, chromatic progressions. Don't try explaining it with music theory, music theory is older than these progressions.

my advice is screw the track and start again, this time remember ur mistake and make the next track more chord friendly.

hey all,

So im startin to get more of an understanding about music theory(I have a background of 9 years as a drummer and sufficiently able to read sheet music). but bein a drummer, u dont have to worry a whole lot about scales and melodies and that jazz. Can any one give me some advice on what scales will give a darker sound sound and what scales will give a more upbeat jump up sound? thanks kindly

Minor is darker, Major is happier.

Honestly, I don't think about what scale I'm using until well after I have the main melody down.

I read thqt minor being darker and major bein happier isn't always the case. I used to not even take scales into context when creating a song but I feel it would broaden my horizons when it comes to writing melodies and basslines

F Minor is pretty dark and low. Really low in fact
Its a fun one to play around on if you want something darker, but it more comes with whatever synths you choose I'd say

Zkeeto wrote:I read thqt minor being darker and major bein happier isn't always the case. I used to not even take scales into context when creating a song but I feel it would broaden my horizons when it comes to writing melodies and basslines

theres always an exception. Generally, minor is darker and major, happier.

Cool. Thanks guys. What about a scale that will give me a happier, party sound but not so much as to make my melodies and basslines sound like a 70s disco sound haha. Any advice? also, what do you guys tend to do when writing melodies, picking scales etc?

Guys. It's D#/Eb blues. I said it at the beginning. That's the only scale that i can think of with 3 chromatic tones.

Zkeeto wrote:Cool. Thanks guys. What about a scale that will give me a happier, party sound but not so much as to make my melodies and basslines sound like a 70s disco sound haha. Any advice? also, what do you guys tend to do when writing melodies, picking scales etc?

you can still make an upbeat song with "dark" scales. remember the longer the note the more the dread, the shorter and quicker the notes the more sense of urgency and what not...sounds happier then long notes. so play off that too.

Hell yeah! I just wrote a sick bassline in f minor but used a higher octave to give a jump up sound with some semi long notes. Short notes and quarter notes. Thanks guys! I think I broke out of my shell as to writing the same sounding songs and using my same old techniques that I've been getting sick of. Haha

Also, is there any chords tht will work with f minor that I could experiment with in my new tune?

Alistairr wrote:my advice is screw the track and start again, this time remember ur mistake and make the next track more chord friendly.

Leading one from this, how do you all begin composing a bassline or melody? Do you have a scale in mind then start feeling your way around?

I know two keys off the top of my head. C# minor and G# major.

However the stuff I'm attempting is a lot darker, so a lot of my progressions are based around very small intervals. Should I just look up scales that cater to this or what?

I'm not confident enough to just play it by ear, and would rather be sticking to a recognised key/scale, even if it is a bit more exotic and out there.

Coming from 12 years of classical piano training....
whole tone scales are really popular I thiiiink, depends on what you're making but they can be good for darker, more ambiguous stuff. Minor scales obviously, maybe try a pentatonic, or an octatonic if you want. I'm writing a track that changes from like... E minor to e flat major or something right now. I just put the parts together without thinking about it really and worried about what I was doing after.

A lot of people get caught up in scales but I've seen really intense, deep, dark songs with major keys, and minor keys used for happy things. Its all about how you present it... C blues can be really happy and pop-ish, or it can be dark and brooding. And don't even start on modes. Just learn the basics behind the major/minor keys, thats where everything's coming from anyways. Blues scales are good too.

For chords.... You generally form them with a 3rd above the root and a 5th above the root. Know the key that you're in and use its key signature to figure out what chords fit. And if you want to be bold.... Add a 7th or a 9th on the root. Or move one note up or down a tone. There are some huge, strange chords out there. I have a book of guitar theory stuff with like 3000 chords and 200 scales or something. The possibilities are really endless, usually for me its not a matter of "how can I use a minor scale" but "what weird, unconventional thing can I make work next".

This is probably the most useful thing I have downloaded in ages.
If you have Ableton, this could be a godsend.
It is a chord and scale project file.
ENJOY

http://www.ageofthewheel.com/2010/11/ci ... ce-in.html

VirtualMark wrote:I might be wrong but this is how i've got D#(Eb) blues wrote down: Eb - Eb Gb Ab A Bb Db Eb

so it wouldn't work. did you mean the E blues? E - E G A A# B D E

scales aren't my strong point so i'd appreciate it if anyone can confirm/deny this?

the bolded notes are the same notes as the ones listed in the OP title. so... thats the ones that contains the notes. doesn't mean it would necessarily sound good to use it on that bassline

RmoniK wrote:Why won't anyone listen to me? ... It's a fucking scale around A, chromatic progressions. Don't try explaining it with music theory, music theory is older than these progressions.

lol someone did listen to u :

bassinine wrote:

RmoniK wrote:You guys are alll thinking this true too hard. There is something like chromatic progression you know. It happens to be very, very popular in dubstep. Load of tunes just go F F F E F F# F# F or something like that, with F being the root note. No sweat.

yeah... as with any bassline, it's about intervals.

Alistairr wrote:my advice is screw the track and start again, this time remember ur mistake and make the next track more chord friendly.

c'mon.

Killamike49 wrote:Guys. It's D#/Eb blues. I said it at the beginning. That's the only scale that i can think of with 3 chromatic tones.

yeah. me too... but still that doesn't mean its gonna sound good

I'm telling u, A harmonic minor would sound ill on that
I duno why i'm composing ur track tho, i'm bout to just do my own, same way

lets here what you got so far zkeeto

Killamike49 wrote:Guys. It's D#/Eb blues. I said it at the beginning. That's the only scale that i can think of with 3 chromatic tones.

If every musician just went through the diatonic scales looking for notes to play music would suck arse.

If you go the route of writing in Eb and sprinkle in the blues sharp 4th then it will sound like blues, maybe that's not what you want.

It's a fairly common thing to descend chromatically in the bass line while still essentially on the same chord.

Or If you start with a Bb chord then take the root note down to A, you've got a Dm inversion (with the A in the bass), and then down again you're at Ddim. It becomes a more pleasing sequence if you then go down to the G. If you wanted to work with this sequence, I'd be tempted to try and establish Gm as your key.

Zkeeto wrote:Also, is there any chords tht will work with f minor that I could experiment with in my new tune?

just try some chord progressions. you could try I-IV-V-VI , VI-IV-V-II just to name a few and try them inverted or use sustained,augmented, or even diminished chords (the progression i wrote could work in either the relative minor/major scale you are working with) you could try several different modes that give you a different sound like the mixolydian mode which is just like a major scale but uses a lowered seventh tone. you could try dorian, lydian, phrygian, harmonic minor, blues scale, dominant pentatonic, minor/major pentatonic. whichever to give you the sound you want. And generally imo I think major is more happy sounding and minor can be darker/sad of course there is obvious exceptions.

edit: you want to get better at melodies do what sounds good you don't always have to use theory to create a melody but it certainly helps a lot. also try learning the circle of 5ths/4ths progression it's great and has helped me in improvisation.

here are the intervals for each mentioned mode up there^ (h = half step; w = whole step)

Mixolydian: w-w-h-w-w-h-w

Lydian: w-w-w-h-w-w-h

Dorian: w-h-w-w-w-h-w

Phrygian: h-w-w-w-h-w-w

Blues scale(which is great my fav mode): w+1/2-w-h-h-w+1/2-w

Dominant Pentatonic: w+w-h-w-w+1/2-w

Harmonic Minor(just a raised 7th tone in any Minor scale): w-h-w-w-h-w+1/2-h

Major Pentatonic: w-w-w+1/2-w-w+1/2

Minor Pentatonic: w+1/2-w-w-w+1/2-w

pick any key and that will be your root note then begin going up the scale and then improvise

i may not have 12 years of experience^ (only have a good week of studying basic music theory and this is what i know^)but hopefully this is somewhat helpful to any of you.

also here are the chord progressions for Minor/Major scales.

Major:
I - major
II - minor
III - minor
IV - major
V - major
VI - minor
VII - diminished

Minor(which is just starting on the sixth chord of the major progression):
I - minor
II - diminished
III - major
IV - minor
V - minor
VI - major
VII - major

Hypefiend wrote:

Zkeeto wrote:Also, is there any chords tht will work with f minor that I could experiment with in my new tune?

just try some chord progressions. you could try I-IV-V-VI , VI-IV-V-II just to name a few and try them inverted or use sustained,augmented, or even diminished chords (the progression i wrote could work in either the relative minor/major scale you are working with) you could try several different modes that give you a different sound like the mixolydian mode which is just like a major scale but uses a lowered seventh tone. you could try dorian, lydian, phrygian, harmonic minor, blues scale, dominant pentatonic, minor/major pentatonic. whichever to give you the sound you want. And generally imo I think major is more happy sounding and minor can be darker/sad of course there is obvious exceptions.

edit: you want to get better at melodies do what sounds good you don't always have to use theory to create a melody but it certainly helps a lot. also try learning the circle of 5ths/4ths progression it's great and has helped me in improvisation.

here are the intervals for each mentioned mode up there^ (h = half step; w = whole step)

Mixolydian: w-w-h-w-w-h-w

Lydian: w-w-w-h-w-w-h

Dorian: w-h-w-w-w-h-w

Phrygian: h-w-w-w-h-w-w

Blues scale(which is great my fav mode): w+1/2-w-h-h-w+1/2-w

Dominant Pentatonic: w+w-h-w-w+1/2-w

Harmonic Minor(just a raised 7th tone in any Minor scale): w-h-w-w-h-w+1/2-h

Major Pentatonic: w-w-w+1/2-w-w+1/2

Minor Pentatonic: w+1/2-w-w-w+1/2-w

pick any key and that will be your root note then begin going up the scale and then improvise

i may not have 12 years of experience^ (only have a good week of studying basic music theory and this is what i know^)but hopefully this is somewhat helpful to any of you.

also here are the chord progressions for Minor/Major scales.

Major:
I - major
II - minor
III - minor
IV - major
V - major
VI - minor
VII - diminished

Minor(which is just starting on the sixth chord of the major progression):
I - minor
II - diminished
III - major
IV - minor
V - minor
VI - major
VII - major

I read this and got scared