Chip scene has the highest count of theory nerds in any kind of electronic music, really.

Chapeau!

Also, one-hour compo.

Ah yeah it's quite possible, I use FT2's liveplay as much as a real keyboard. (pro-tip: get a decent computer keyboard so you don't get blocked key signals)  Maybe he's thinking of ones where you use a joypad.

hmm...

why not have a song done up on a gameboy and play guitar over it? this has been a lot of fun for me just playing around. still gotta get over the stagefright thing

yeah but you can't improv with trackers like you can with actual instruments like piano & guitar = come up with melodies and riffs quickly

@ Sandneil, awesome mini tutorial.
I have learnt so much in just 3mins

Sandneil this is one hell of a great comment !!! Thanks !

inb4...overabuse the 0-4-7-C !!!

jTHis was a very good and specific beginners guide. I applaud you sandneil.

ok heres the happy notes

C D E F G A B C

heres the sad noes

C D D# F G G# A# C

if you want to make a chords you just pick a note, the one two above, th one two above

C D E F G A B C
  ^   ^   ^
D F A - a chord

C D D# F G G# A# C
    ^    ^    ^    
D# G A# - a chord

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
          ^   ^   ^
A C E - a chord

if youw ant to make a really professinoal chord you can extend the process once more

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
      ^   ^   ^   ^
F A C E - a cool chord

also you can swap the notes. like if you have FACE You can also have ACEF and ECFA and so on to make cooler chords

you can also use different notes

then when youre doing your melody what you can do is use the notes that make the chord OR notes that makea a better version of the chord

say you already have F A C (F chord) and you want to put a note over it
you could put F, A, C, over it if you wanted

or you could put a note that makes it into an even cooler chord

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C 
      ^   ^   ^   *
yeah, E is a good note on the F chord

but! E sounds really weird over and F chord, so maybe you should play F, A or C afterwards, to relax the ear muscle after the tension of the weird chord

why does E sound really weird over the F chord? it is to do with the gaps between the notes:

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
^ ^             adjacent notes sounds weird
^   ^           a gap of one sounds really good
^     ^         a gap of two sounds ok but not great
^       ^       a gap of three sounds excellent, but boring
^         ^     a gap of four can sound excellent or boring
^           ^   a gap of five sounds weird
^             ^ a gap of six? huh this is the same note. it sounds the same

this is true not just from C but from any of the notes, it is about the gaps not the actual notes. it even applies to the sad notes...

also you can see that some gaps are related to each other

C D E F G A B C
^   ^         ^
 one    four
E is either one or four away from C depending on your worldview

which is called Inversion (because you turn the gap upside down!)

so whats the point of all this gaps stuff
well, when youre making your melody you know some extra stuff

if you have a C chord, a good note for your melody over the C chord would be E (happy) or D# (sad)
however!!! no one likes a melody that is always sounding good, it gets boring (imagine a film that is happy the whole way through)

what the real master composers do is use a bad or weird sounding note, and then switch to a good sounding note (imagine a drama film with a happy ending)

so you could have your chord A C E
and over it you could play C (good) and then play D (wow, weird) and then play E (nice!)

if you just played C and E your listener would be bored

ok next up
Melodic Tricks

REPETITION

repetition is important as hell. lets check out a popular song:

ten green bottles sitting on a wall
ten green bottles sitting on a wall
if one green bottle should have a little fall
there'll be nine green bottles, sitting on a wall
...

see how this song repeats? but it doesn't just repeat over and over again, it varies a bit, does a different bit, and then goes back to the start. if you do this with your melodies and chords you will have great success

the end
thanks for reading my guide to musical theory

it helps..but that depends on the person. you can quite happily learn to make music with trackers without having to ever use or learn any instrument. trackers can teach people a lot. I don't agree with not making trackers your only musical outlet. I agree that it's probably good to get into more advanced sequencers but trackers like renoise, modplug etc. are incredibly powerful and flexible enough for most things.

keep on trackin'

/adam

Watching others do it helps a lot too. Watch how people structure melodies, et cetera.

Best advice I can give you, keep placing notes Down until you get something that sounds good.

no problems at all ^__^ I have been living in St Louis since August, was unaware that there were other folks interested in chips here besides me, shitbird, Dream Fox, and Solid State Disaster!!!

Keep doin it yo, you are blessed to have some rad chippers in your city

Use the minor/major pentatonic scales. Cheat scales for musical success.