Original Message                 Date: 28-May-02  @  02:43 PM   -   I'm Not A Very Good Musician.......

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I'm having trouble with my musical skills. I've read all the related posts about chord theory and I still have some very basic questions I'm afraid.

Here goes:

If I decide to write a track in say Dminor, is this right? This is what I've been doing but can only get to a certain level.

I take the root note of the tetra cord which is D and make that the main notes of the bassline with possibly 1 note out of the 2 bar phrase moving up to the next note in the chord.

Then for my stabs and pads and stuff, I have been using minor 7ths and Dominant 9ths. I make sure that I take the root(bass) notes out of that chord.

The problem is that that's as far as I get. I know references have been made to flat 5 chords but these aren't in my chord books. What are they?

Also, is there like a common key that Techy Housey stuff is written in? I like Dminor but maybe this is too dark cos my shit doesn't sound the same as the records in my collection.

Say I did use Dminor, can I also use DbMinor chords in my arrangements? Will it sound musically correct?

Also which chords (keys) go nicely together? I quite like Bb and Fm but I'm not sure. It doesn't sound like how I want it. Its a bit too jazzy deep house style.

I know I must use my ears but I need a push start.

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Message 11/19                 Date: 30-May-02  @  10:29 AM   -   RE: I'm Not A Very Good Musician.......

bedwyr

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well, if you arpeggio is c e g and your bass line hits a c then the chord is c major. then if your bassline hits an A then the resulting chord is Am7. hit an F in the bass then it's a Fmaj9 (sort of, with no 3rd) what i'm getting at is you don't need to change the 'chord' on top, just the bass note. just another way of looking at things.

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Message 12/19                 Date: 30-May-02  @  10:57 AM   -   RE: I'm Not A Very Good Musician.......

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Oh, I see! Thanks Bedwyr. Your always so bloody helpful.

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Message 13/19                 Date: 05-Jun-02  @  05:03 PM   -   RE: I'm Not A Very Good Musician.......

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Bedwyr, Sitar and Knowa......Thanks. All you suggestions worked well. Bedwyr, that's a good way of looking at it and it worked.

Sitar, thanks for the "adding the 2nd note" tip. It adds a really nice colour to the chords and stuff. Cool.

I'm onto 7th Major, minor chords now. It's cool cos all I do is add a note 1 semitone or whole note below the root.

Mmmm, I'm progressing.

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Message 14/19                 Date: 05-Jun-02  @  07:36 PM   -   RE: I'm Not A Very Good Musician.......

JJ Freqy

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OK then-
There was someone who posted that if you knew your circle of fifths you would have more jazzy tunes etc...

I just learned the cirlce of fifths and to me it seems that all the circle of fifths really does is show you the order of your sharps and flats going up every fifth whole step, right?

I learned that if you're in a certian key, let's say C major, and you want to do a key change you use the fifth key in the C major chord and that's the key that you can change to that will sound ok. The fifth key is G so you can go to G major or its relative minor. You can do this in all your major keys.

To find a keys relative minor you take the first note in the scale and count back three half steps or semitones. So, C majors relative minor is A minor. The relative minor givews you a little more to play with or to use in a track. please correct me if I am incorrect, thanks 

JJfreqy

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Message 15/19                 Date: 05-Jun-02  @  08:02 PM   -   RE: I'm Not A Very Good Musician.......

sitar

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That's right JJfreqy. There are lots of other ways to change keys/chords but the circle of fifths is surefire.

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Message 16/19                 Date: 05-Jun-02  @  08:23 PM   -   RE: I'm Not A Very Good Musician.......

knowa

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it's just a useful thing to know. like I-IV-V's, II-V-I's...it's not like circle of fifths=jazzy.

for instant jazz try paralell 4ths. oh, that's fake jazz btw. Lounge Lizards

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Message 17/19                 Date: 10-Jun-02  @  04:21 AM   -   RE: I'm Not A Very Good Musician.......

honkeyexplosion

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You don't need to rely exclusively on the circle of 5th to determine the proper key change. You don't even need to rely on parallel or relative minor key. All you need to know is how to utilize a pivot chord. All a pivot chord is, is simply a chord common to two particular keys. This eases the transition, allowing the elements of harmony to easily change. Also know chord construction.

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Message 18/19                 Date: 11-Jun-02  @  09:00 PM   -   RE: I'm Not A Very Good Musician.......

sitar

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and diminished chords...chords built up in steps of a minor third between each note. Like the breakdown in Bach's Fugue in D minor. Bach did a breakdown, hehe!

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Message 19/19                 Date: 11-Jun-02  @  09:44 PM   -   RE: I'm Not A Very Good Musician.......

gb

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Must have been a pretty darn nervous one, then...

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