Ableton Forum

Hi!
Is there any good tutorial on how to use scales with push?
I know that all notes work with each other when staying in one scale but I would like to know things like when having a bassline and playing sounds above do i have to play the same notes as the bass or can i vary, what does base key mean etc.

thanks

You'll want to learn basic music theory. https://www.hooktheory.com/music-theory-for-songwriting

tl;dr version (but seriously, learn basic music theory, it will take very little time and have a huge payoff):

• A "key" or "scale" consists of a "root note" and a "mode".
• A "mode" describes the relationships between notes, relative to the root key.
• For example, the "3rd" note in the scale of C Major is E, but in C minor the "3rd" note in the scale is D#.
• The root note determines the "home" to which the song wants to return, or "resolve".
• The mode determines the mood of the song. The major mode sounds upbeat, happy, strong; the minor mode sounds sad or bittersweet; the Dorian mode sounds like somber monks; the Phrygian mode sounds exotic; and so on.
• For electronic dance music, 99% of the tracks are in a minor mode, so just stick with that for now.
• The majority of electronic dance music tracks are in A minor (it consists of only the white keys on a piano, so a beginner finds it easy to play).
• Since you have the Push, you can just dial in any scale, and not have to worry about white and black keys.
• Since you can just dial in any scale, I recommend using F minor, F# minor, or G minor. I recommend these root notes because the lowest root note you'll play on the bassline (F1, F#1, or G1) hits at about 50-60 Hz, which is where most subs will give you a solid punch in the club. If you analyze Skrillex and other bass-heavy music, you'll see a lot of tracks written with F# or similar root notes for this reason.
• You can play different notes on each instrument. However, you want to make sure that you have the same scale selected on your Push. If you use C major for the bassline, use C major on the synths and so on.

A basic track has a bass, a harmony (chords), and a melody (single notes). The bass will be... a bass sound. The harmony will be pads or bells or something similar. The melody will be a lead synth that really cuts through and dominates the track.

I also recommend:

• Play single notes on the bass.
• Play triads for the harmony. A chord is multiple notes played at once. A triad is a type of chord in which three notes are played at once. You can play triads on your Push using a "triangle" shape. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJSMZePgITA
• Try writing the main melody (single notes) or harmony (chords), then have the bass play the same root note as either the melody or chords. If the harmony is I V VI IV in the key of C major, make the bass play C G A F. Learn about pedal tones and use the bass to play them. Learn about suspended chords and chord inversions, and use the bass to play the lowest note in these chords.

Inb4 all of these rules can be broken and/or are not 100% accurate. You'll discover all of that in due time, but right now all the weird edge cases and technical untruths will only confuse you. Learn the basic rules now, so you will know when to break them later.

thank you very much for your answer. this helps a lot

cheers
jens

contortrix wrote: [*]For example, the "3rd" note in the scale of C Major is E, but in C minor the "3rd" note in the scale is D#.

(In B4 stringtapper has a theory explosion at that D#)

The 3rd note in the scale of C minor is a flattened third, so it's actually an E flat.
Of course you'll see that It's the same physical note on a keyboard (the one between d and e), but the names tend to be important. not immediately but the more you learn it becomes more important. It relates to the representation of key signatures.

the cycle of 5ths is a very crucial topic, it seems complex and weird at first but is very helpful in understanding the tonal relationships are between key signatures.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths

Or, if you are me, a cheatsheet for key changes and modulations.

This is one of those things where we could lead a beginner down a rabbit hole of crippling uncertainty (D# is Eb... usually). I did goof, though: technically the 3rd note in C minor is Eb, not D#. I'm so used to using sharps-only notation (even when it means a scale may contain both D and D#), I used the wrong notation in that example.

+1 on the circle of fifths. Once you learn about individual keys / scales, each with a root note and a mode, you'll learn about "enharmonically equivalent" scales / key signatures. You will notice that, for example, C major contains the same keys on a piano as A minor. (Apologies for the fact that the word "keys" can be used to refer to the root note + mode, as well as the physical keys on a piano.) In the key of C major, the A on the piano is the "sixth", which sounds sort of sad relative to the root note of C. However, in the key of A minor, A sounds like "resolution" or "returning home" or "completion", because A is the root note in A minor. As you might deduce at this point, this means that you can go from playing in C major to playing in A minor, and it will sound natural. This is a little bit more advanced than learning the very basic "this is a root note, a mode, and these are chords" essentials, but it's something you will want to learn early on.

The circle of fifths is essential learning for DJs, even if they never create original music, because it allows them to determine if a song in key X will sound OK when mixed with a song in key Y. If one song is in C major, and another is in A minor, you should be able to mix them without a key clash (now whether they match in terms of the tempo, beat, and so on is another matter).

i love this site :
http://mugglinworks.com/chordmaps/

you might want to check out Michael New's YouTube channel. He shows and explains on piano, you can then apply it on Push:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Rhaptapsody/videos