Ableton Forum

Hi All


id been making most of my tracks in c minor chords up until now, mainly because it was the only one i really know. my friend was telling me i should be playing seventh chords for house music, he said f#, a, c# was a good chord to play, what a good chord progressions for this?

im tryna teach myself music theory at the minute but im finding it hard

Search net for music theory, music harmony etc...

Hey I have been doing the same thing there is actually a site where I learned most of my Ableton knowledge from when starting out. Here you go this should help on the music theory part and they have great tutorials for many other needs.

http://abletonlife.com/basic-chord-and- ... leton-live

If you know your scales, basic chords should not be a problem, they have fairly simple formulas that require nothing more than being able to count, just hold down the first note of the scale, count up 3 semitones (adjacent black and white keys) and hold down that note, then go up 4 more semitones and hold down that note, this is the minor chord (for major, reverse the formula, from start note, up 4, and then up 3). for a minor seventh chord, tag a note 4 semitones higher than the highest note in your triad onto it. (3 semitones for a maj 7th)

handy tool for diddling around with chord progressions.

http://www.drumbot.com/projects/key_chords/

From a keyboard perspective think of it like this (warning: basic chord theory comin' at ya') -

1. First, we'll think of this from the white key perspective. All white keys are in the C Major Scale (or A Minor, which is the relative minor key, you can research this further)

2. Starting on the C key, the C major scale is C D E F G A B C (notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 of the scale) Again these are all the white keys. You can think of this as WWHWWWH, where W stands for a whole step (2 keys apart, including black) and H stands for a half step (1 key apart, including black keys)

3. A major chord is made up of the 1, 3, and 5 notes of the scale. For example, C major would be the C, E, and G notes of the C major scale. Play these on the white keys to make the chord.

4. A dominant 7th chord (which is often just called a "7th" chord, or denoted as C7) contains the 1, 3, 5, AND flatted-7th notes. The flatted 7th is the only added note compared to the standard major chord in step 3 above. So, the notes for a C7 would be C, E, G, and Bb/A# (this would be a black key). This is a chord that has a bit of an edge to it, like in standard blues songs.

5. A Major 7th chord (denoted as Cmaj7) contains the 1, 3, 5, and 7. So, again, all white keys, the C, E, G, and B. This is a happier, jazzier chord. Apparent in practically all jazz standards; it's also the chord at the end of the verse of "Under the Bridge".

4. Minor Chords - Staying in the C Major scale, it is made up of the 1, b3, and 5 notes. So, the only difference between major and minor chords is the 3rd note. In C, this would be C, Eb, and G.

5. Minor 7th Chord - See the pattern here? This is 1, b3, 5, and b7. So, it's basically the same as the Dominant 7th, but with the flatted 3rd. C, Eb, G, Bb


Hope you can see the trend here. Add the 6th on top of either the basic minor or major chords to make m6 or plain 6 chords. Remove the 3rd altogether from either the standard minor or major chords and add the 2nd OR the 4th to create suspended chords (Sus2 or Sus4) Side story - When someone refers to a "suspended" chord, it traditionally means Sus4. Second side story - because there is no 3rd in these chords, they are neither major or minor.


Should be enough to get you started. Let me know if you have questions and I'll try and answer my best.
Pat

Maybe y'all can help me out? Voicing the A minor chord - BEAUTIFUL!!!!