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There is an article or blog entry that calls root-3rd-7th the NES jazz chord because of how frequently it appeared there. Andy Summers liked that shape on guitar in The Police, also...
There's nothing stopping anyone from raising topics on voicings and such.
There is an article or blog entry that calls root-3rd-7th the NES jazz chord because of how frequently it appeared there. Andy Summers liked that shape on guitar in The Police, also...
There's nothing stopping anyone from raising topics on voicings and such.
Ah yes, I think I remember hearing about the "NES Jazz chord" come up in a chipmusic lecture on limitations, which I saw online somewhere.
This inspired me to write another klystrack tutorial (although most of the info is good for any software) about arpeggios 
Why is your name n00bstar if you have 20 years experience? 
Haha. It's my gaming ID. Been using that for years online and it kinda grew on me I used to go under the name Random a long time ago, but seeing as there is another Random making chip music now... I might as well leave it to him. But yeah.. I'm 35, been making music since I was 10, and playing guitar since I was 15 (yknow.. around the time you realize a guitar can get you laid, exactly five years before you realize it never does).
how about just riffing on your first two chords like it's star wars.
(ps: d minor, first inversion. F4-D5-A5, so that the root is a 5th below your C chord)
edit2: though we all think in sharps, it helps to think of your middle chord as Bb major.
Last edited by ilkae (Mar 30, 2013 12:17 am)
What's all this music theory crap? Ya just gotta write what FEELS good. That's how it's done, yo.
I haven't seen a lot of scales with three semitones in a row (except in blues). From G and up this scale must have the notes G A# B C D E F (with the thirds and fifths of each chord), I can't really decide what I'd call that.... It sounds cool though!
From G and up this scale must have the notes G A# B C D E F (with the thirds and fifths of each chord), I can't really decide what I'd call that....
It's called The Blues. You may have heard of it.
What's all this music theory crap? Ya just gotta write what FEELS good. That's how it's done, yo.
Fortunately nobody ever said "What's all this gravity crap? Stuff falls DOWN. That's how it's done, yo." or this species would be as retarded as you are.
It's not because something was written by ear and feels good that it can't be analyzed to understand more about what makes it tick.
Chill out n00bstar, there is some truth to UncleBibby's words...
This is coming from someone who absolutely loves analyzing music, it's fun and can teach you a lot about how music is structured--but comparing music theory to the laws of gravity is a bit of a stretch. You'll find that music theory doesn't really analyze Eastern music well at all; a lot of it deals with very subtle modal stuff that the West mostly ditched with TET. And it's barely catching up with poly-rhythms, something Africans have known about for centuries and centuries. Not to mention the 20th century composers such as Debussy, Scriabin, Ravel, etc., strict theory tells us that stuff really shouldn't work... but it works, exceptionally so. And there's no real way to build compositions like theirs from scratch using theory.
I've said it before elsewhere, but I think of music theory as mostly a reverse-engineering of successful techniques in revered compositions. But every single trailblazing composer has been called a lunatic and a heretic by his era's music theory. So writing stuff that makes you feel good could in fact create something that couldn't be arrived at with theory. Just something to mull over. My personal credo is write first, ask questions later (optional). On the other hand that doesn't mean theory's worthless, and you can learn a lot via analysis... Don't mind me, just playing the part of both devils here
More on topic, I didn't see it posted but it's extremely common in blues-rock to substitute a bVII chord as a surrogate V; plagal cadences are used a lot too. And I can't believe no-one's mentioned tritone substitutions yet. Those can be really fun! Blues is especially tricky though, most experienced bluesmen will sing and play notes between the twelve-tone western set (Robert Johnson is a master of this), making the search for an all-inclusive scale sorta pointless.
Though, jumping off from that, I find that melodies can absolutely bend harmony to their will. They're delicate and can be imprisoned by a premeditated turnaround (it's why I'm wary of writing progressions first), but you can lead from any chord to any other and it will work--with the right melody. To say nothing of using a walking bass-line or slash chords to connect harmonies tighter (which is still a kind of melody). Melody is king, pretty much.
Fun topic. I agree with the others who said this, there needs to be more discussions on topics of this flavor.
Of course there's truth to what he says, I never said it wasn't the case, and the things you seem to want to impart to me is the same thing I just said before Theory isn't the be all end all of music. But it is still an impressive body of work, all based on analyzing why certain things sound good when done a certain way. It isn't, at least for me, where you compose. But it's a good tool to analyze what you just did and understand what's happening.
But to dismiss it entirely and say "just play it by ear" isn't very smart. I spent years playing it by ear only and I made a lot of great songs in that time. Going back over those songs now, most of these songs that really "work" can almost all be broken down with theory. And those few moments of genius I had in those years.. a number of them are breaking "the rules". I'm always for breaking the rules (many arguments about this were had in my old band...the bassist was a strict follower of theory) when it's appropriate. By appropriate, I mean when breaking some expected pattern sounds better than playing it "how it should be".
One thing that really bothers me about the "just feeeeeel it man" argument is that you're not always trying to fucking be the most original guy in the world on every single damn track you compose yknow? The whole argument supposes we're all like super hardcore creative geniuses and that every single song we make is this unique divine creation defying all the rules like some sort of rebel antihero. Not every note or chord has to be the Charles Bronson of music. What if the thing I need for the next part of my song, the one thing that I hear in my head and what to lay down to paper/computer is actually a very well known turnaround? Sure I could just "Feeeeel it maaaaaan" and eventually stumble on it, or I could just yknow.. learn some theory and be able to get exactly what I want because I know the theory behind it. It doesn't need to be super in-depth stuff... it can be something as simple as knowing what a leading tone and why it works the way it works so that you're able to find it any time you want without having to test out all twelve notes in the chromatic scale.
I tend to compose mostly by ear/feel.. but sometimes I hear something in my head that's just not coming out of my fingers. In these moments, I find that knowing a bit of theory and looking at what's going on in my track helps me get where I wanted to go.
What's all this music theory crap? Ya just gotta write what FEELS good. That's how it's done, yo.
that may work for some, but not for me.
i've tried to write music by ear and by feel alone, and it always comes out repetitive and unstructured. maybe i'm just weird.
There needs to be contour when all your songs play together. If all your songs climax in the same way, with the same intensity, at the same point, it's the same as drolling monotony.
Theory and phrase analysis helps. So does observing your audience.
Gm pentatonic, Bb Maj pentatonic, G blues, G phrygian scale too.
you can also treat the whole thing like a G7(#9) chord (the "hendrix" chord) and put diminished tonalities all over it depending on the rhythm. As long as you land on a chord tone your phrase will sound "finished." G half whole diminished will work.
you can also treat the whole thing as though its implying a Galt chord which is any combination of #9,b9,#5,b5 on a dom7 chord and in that case you can get away with the 7th mode of Ab melodic minor or G locrian(b4).
Or you could switch scales on each chord and use a variety.
Last edited by animalstyle (Mar 31, 2013 3:13 pm)
IMO listen to animalstyle on this one so you don't end up sounding like a bar band