Ableton Forum

Idonotlikebroccoli wrote: I like 7th chords, aka jazzy chords!

Try some 9th chords:

minor example: A-C-E-G-B
major example: C-E-G-B-D

Step 1 - Establish what scale you want to start in

Step 2 - Start mashing keys

Wakeon wrote:Hey guys!

How do you find chords, how do you compose them to create right notes ?
I searched a little bit on google but i didn't understand all things

Thanks!

One of the books that helped me out the most is the Pop Piano Book. It kind of helps having a decent background in music notation but the first half of the book is pretty much all theory with the second half is focus on specific genres (Rock ballad, Fast Rock, New Age, R&B Ballad, Fast R&B, Country, Slow Gospel, Fast Gospel). It has CDs or midi files as well if you have trouble reading the music.

Scale books would also be good (especially if you don't know much about notation). The Pop Piano book did a great job on showing you how to derive scales without having to look at a chart and had great exercises that blended Theory and Piano Playing.


Really the main thing you have to know is all of the chords of a particular scale. Once you learn scales, chords can come right after pretty fast (assuming you are a keyboard player).

You also have to know common chord progressions (many don't follow a scale verbatim). Inversions and triads, four and five part chords, slash chords, and more importantly how to simplify four or five part chords. Also the more songs you know how to play builds up your chord vocabulary (and chord progression category). Its kind of like building your vocabulary in a language like English or what not (it won't get done without reading, writing, and speaking. The same is with music). Song knowledge is what shows you ways that many chords can be used. There are pretty sounding chords, happy chords, sad chords, dark chords, funky chords, scary chords, ugly chords. Some of them can sound awful on their own where you might not think have a purpose until you hear someone use it in a song in a cool way. It is a lifelong process I guess but you do get better if you are motivated and practice.


Genre is also important. Many Genre's use basic chords or changes that pretty much follows one or two scales but others use more complex chords. Jazz is probably the most extensive and has alot of theory and will really test your ear.

*bookmark*

as others have already said it's helpful to list the notes in your melody then figure out they key/scale.

here's a musical scale finder tool

http://www.scales-chords.com/scalefinder.php

http://subaqueousmusic.com/library-of-c ... of-fifths/

soomebody posted this in a different thread and it is nice to have for sure

it wont replace you learning about chords but it is fun to use

Check out Duncan Lorien. SOmeon on here posted years back about how good his introduction to music weekend course was. I did it, it's been one of the best things I have done with music (plus the composition / harmonic theory follow up).
Just do that, its way easier than self learning

mrgrim3 wrote:http://subaqueousmusic.com/library-of-c ... of-fifths/

soomebody posted this in a different thread and it is nice to have for sure

it wont replace you learning about chords but it is fun to use

nice one.

When I first started out, I taped a few 3x5 index cards together, put it above the keys on my keyboard controller, and used a marker to map out the minor scale on one side and the major scale on the other.

Then I just connected the dots to play chords, and create melodies. It limits you to a particular scale, but it gets the ball rolling.

How do you mean it limits you to a particular scale? If you look at one end of the keys on the keyboard it's the edge of each white key in equal distance, but

If you look at the top part, the mixture of both the black and the white keys are all approximately the same width apart.

If you line the edge of a card up against back of the black keys, you can fill in spaces for scale.

Then you can move that card around at any 'root' note and forumulate the same type of scale

yur2die4 wrote:How do you mean it limits you to a particular scale? If you look at one end of the keys on the keyboard it's the edge of each white key in equal distance, but

If you look at the top part, the mixture of both the black and the white keys are all approximately the same width apart.

If you line the edge of a card up against back of the black keys, you can fill in spaces for scale.

Then you can move that card around at any 'root' note and forumulate the same type of scale :)

I was referring to minor vs major.

I tried mapping the minor and major scale on the same side of the cards using different color markers, but it became too complicated for just starting out, so I opted to work in either minor or major exclusively.

As I learned more and kept practicing, it became easier. Eventually I didn't need the cards.

http://www.maxforlive.com/images/screen ... pg&id=3052 like!