Chord progressions

[therapist]

What is it with people on here and awful hackneyed chord progressions. I hear so many tracks with brilliant beats and sound design but the producer uses the most tacky and rinsed melodies/chords they can. Are they so overused that they sound musically 'correct' to people's ears now? I couldn't count how many wobble tracks I've heard on here that just follow the same boring triad patterns.

There's also a lot of people on the production forum saying they wish they knew more about music theory. I guess this must be linked, but you don't need any kind of theory to sit at a keyboard and press some notes that sound nice. Or maybe even have different instruments in your track playing different notes at the same time, that could make your music more interesting.

I don't know why I posted this exactly, I think I'd just like to give more feedback when I hear songs with great atmospheres/percussion etc. but the mt.eden chords just throw me off completely.

[slothrop]

Why not give constructive criticism on the chord progressions?

[-[2]DAY_-]

[...] you don't need any kind of theory to sit at a keyboard and press some notes that sound nice. Or maybe even have different instruments in your track playing different notes at the same time [...]

I beg to differ.

[therapist]

[...] you don't need any kind of theory to sit at a keyboard and press some notes that sound nice. Or maybe even have different instruments in your track playing different notes at the same time [...]

I beg to differ.

What, why? If you press 4 random keys and they sound good, does it matter whether you know that they're an augmented-bla-bla-bla chord or not? You just use your ears to hear if it's good or not.

[slothrop]

Yeah, but a lot of the reason that hackneyed chord progressions sound so hackneyed is that they're the ones that sound good that are easiest to stumble across when poking around without any knowledge.

A 'chord progressions - tips, tricks and ideas' type thread might be quite useful, to contain little ideas about how to pimp your chord progression or find something less obvious that sounds good - bits of knowledge that combine well with experimenting at a keyboard, in other words - without having to learn loads of music theory.

[ajfa]

Yeah, but a lot of the reason that hackneyed chord progressions sound so hackneyed is that they're the ones that sound good that are easiest to stumble across when poking around without any knowledge.

A 'chord progressions - tips, tricks and ideas' type thread might be quite useful, to contain little ideas about how to pimp your chord progression or find something less obvious that sounds good - bits of knowledge that combine well with experimenting at a keyboard, in other words - without having to learn loads of music theory.

TBH to even communicate ideas on how to 'pimp your chord progression' requires a moderate understanding of music theory... This is the part of music where you can't really take shortcuts. You can read how to detune some sawtooths and LFO to cutoff, but to have any idea how to say, use a suspended chord or an accidental to allow a smooth chord progression or key change that would sound like arse otherwise needs some definite grounding in theory.

[-[2]DAY_-]

TBH to even communicate ideas on how to 'pimp your chord progression' requires a moderate understanding of music theory... This is the part of music where you can't really take shortcuts. You can read how to detune some sawtooths and LFO to cutoff, but to have any idea how to say, use a suspended chord or an accidental to allow a smooth chord progression or key change that would sound like arse otherwise needs some definite grounding in theory.

Yup. Gotta speak the language.

[slothrop]

TBH to even communicate ideas on how to 'pimp your chord progression' requires a moderate understanding of music theory... This is the part of music where you can't really take shortcuts. You can read how to detune some sawtooths and LFO to cutoff, but to have any idea how to say, use a suspended chord or an accidental to allow a smooth chord progression or key change that would sound like arse otherwise needs some definite grounding in theory.

Yup. Gotta speak the language.

Yeah, speak the language but not neccessarily know all the ins and outs. I've found that I can get better results by taking a basic chord progression and using a sort of directed experimentation by substituting more interesting chords, inverting chords, that sort of stuff. So it's more theory than just hitting notes completely at random, but without necessarily having to know exactly what you could do and why at any given time...

[-[2]DAY_-]

Does a minor ii V i sound good because of its similarity to a iv - V, or vice versa?

Find the diatonic tritones in your chosen scale and use them to find tense upper extensions that beg for resolve. For example, in natural minor, try playing a iv(69) chord

blah, blah, blah you can do it without knowing how to talk about it, but no one can help you unless you do.

[therapist]

Does a minor ii V i sound good because of its similarity to a iv - V, or vice versa?

Find the diatonic tritones in your chosen scale and use them to find tense upper extensions that beg for resolve. For example, in natural minor, try playing a iv(69) chord

blah, blah, blah you can do it without knowing how to talk about it, but no one can help you unless you do.

That's exactly what I said in the first place.

What I'm saying is it's weird when people clearly put a lot of time into production/soundscaping etc. and then just plod around the pentatonic scales. I don't know what point you're making with all the chord lingo there.

[-[2]DAY_-]

I mean i've just found it impossible to talk about what inversions, extensions, voicings are interesting with anybody who hasnt studied a bit. Its a primary source of frustration for me.

[jaydot]

I'm not the greatest when it comes to constructing melodies so I'll be a casual bystander to this thread.

[rekstep]

me thinks u only need limit musical theory knowledge to made some banging melodies , alot of producers are doing thing that sound great and are muscially correct but just dont know the names ,it also comes wit doing it lots and gaining a "muscial" ear
tho me , myself and i , learnt some basic - moderate muscial theory , seems to be enough for me atm , but i intend to learn lots more in my coming years in producing electrionic music

[narcissus]

What is it with people on here and awful hackneyed chord progressions. I hear so many tracks with brilliant beats and sound design but the producer uses the most tacky and rinsed melodies/chords they can. Are they so overused that they sound musically 'correct' to people's ears now? I couldn't count how many wobble tracks I've heard on here that just follow the same boring triad patterns.

There's also a lot of people on the production forum saying they wish they knew more about music theory. I guess this must be linked, but you don't need any kind of theory to sit at a keyboard and press some notes that sound nice. Or maybe even have different instruments in your track playing different notes at the same time, that could make your music more interesting.

I don't know why I posted this exactly, I think I'd just like to give more feedback when I hear songs with great atmospheres/percussion etc. but the mt.eden chords just throw me off completely.

dude yeah, i kinda agree, just you hear the same old chord progressions in tunes again and again.. gets way old.. i always try to use a somewhat spicier harmonic sense in my tunes

[back2onett]

In you're stuck on finding some interesting chords try searching for some midi songs and pick some chords out of that

[CBK81]

http://www.cochleor.com/improvisator.html

Problem solved

[budsteq]

music theorys the shit

[ogunslinger]

ehhhh.............. who needs chords when you have dirty lawnmowing excision wobbles?



jk

[green plan]

http://www.cochleor.com/improvisator.html

Problem solved

Wow that looks crazy. All about this:

http://www.8notes.com/resources/notefin ... chords.asp

Me loves the phrygian.

[Basstronomer]

Wow that looks crazy. All about this:

http://www.8notes.com/resources/notefin ... chords.asp

Me loves the phrygian.

Bookmarked, thanks