oh well,

you only have to learn major scale (and all modes) and minor melodic (and some of the modes, modi?), and diminished, and augmented, and whole-tone...

My recent fav scales:

Messiaen's Mode of Limited Transposition #2 (otherwise known as the diminished scale)

(example)

D, Eb, F, F#, G#, A, B, C,

take two diminished 7 chords that don't have any notes in common and you have all the notes of the scale...


Also:

Lydian b7, Nikris, Saba and Kurd

Bloody 'ell, that's brave. Used like that (half-whole as opposed to whole-half) it's a whole load of dissonance.

Iv never really looked at Messiaen's techniques. I must admit, I find stuff like this hard to work with. I get the theoretical side of it, but the practical often eludes me.

I mean, the serial row thing is another really interesting idea with a squillion applications... but my experiment with the method rarely sound like anything but that - experiements!

TB

My favorites are C Major/A Minor (because they're easy!), E-flat Minor, and F Major.

Sonic yoof plays ver zep?

Err, major keys 90% of time for me. Easier for the geetar. Plus as Hetrotuds (sp?) said in another thread, it aint the key, it's the associations, tempo, cultural references and loads of other shite that goes with music that sets the mood, more than just the key of it. 'Atmosphere' by Joy Division, one of the most major key songs you'll ever hear. You're never going to be avin a larf at a party to it.

For those looking for free guitar lessons on-line check out:

http://www.riffinteractive.com/archiveLessons.htm

It's a great learning site.
New lessons every few days.

that messiaen mode of limited transposition#2/Dim scale... It can give ya some interesting stuff if you just wrok with it a bit and noodle around...

if we were in D Dim for example (D, Eb, F, F#, G#, A, B, C)

you have a bunch of interesting chords to work with to give ya these odd/kinda simetrical progressions

D major, D Minor, Ab Major and Ab Minor, F Major and F Minor, B Major and B minor

make a progression with a bunch of those chords and then use the notes of the scale to solo over it... at least, that was my way of introducing myself to the mode (or any mode for that matter). You'll be making bad Alan Silvestri scores in no time...

nowadays, I live in the harmonic language of messiaen's Modes of Limited Trans and those quasi middle eatern modes like Lydian b7, Phrygian #6, Kurd, Saba (example - C, D, Eb, Fb[or E natural], G, Ab, Bb,), Purvi, Nikris, etc...

There's a lot more in life than Major or Minor,

but those two (and variations of them) often tend to be the tried, tested and true you could say

Supperb mate, thats for the advice!

Alan Silverstri isnt my No1 composer, but hey, Id be happy to pick up a little of his sound and see how it ticks.

Btw, did you down load his free scores? On his site? So cool of him to do that.

TB

Tee Boy:

A lot of metal employs the diminished scale (Or Mode of limited transposition #2 as deggy pointed out).

Just play 2 triads a minor third apart, a tritone apart, and a major sixth apart. The fun part is that (get this) they can be either major OR minor.

pretty nifty, huh?

The symmetrical modes seem weird at first, but they are actually much more intuitive after you get over the initial hurdles.

My favorite is the one made with two augmented triads a half step apart (e.g. c, c#, e, f, g#, a, {c}).

Sorry, this is fun, but I have to work.

God damn employers!!

I'd be curious to hear some of that. can you think of any examples (i know jack about metal but i've been curious about that genre now and then.)

i know they're not actually metal but a bunch of us saw the band "Tool" play at this festival that my friend's band played at. those guys were amazing entertainers. they had all these songs in cool meters and things... My buddy lent me a cd for a few days (with this human body innards on the cover). the first track (i think he said it was called "Grudge") was this cool thing in 5 that was divided into groups of 2.5 beats while the vocals did this cool syncopated thing. also that Lateralus track is great. those 2 tracks were on my ipod and i showed it to the guys in my funk band and the drummer freaked out... lol

Danny Carey (Tool's drummer) is only the best (modern) drummer on the planet

Chuck E. Jesus - don't know if you've been through all these http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?s= &threadid=1160513

i was looking for online lessons for blues, there are a bunch on there. I'm sure there will be some jazz ones as well.

I seem to lean towards minor scales/chords........maybe cause I'm a depressed/adhd/anxiety freak?

just a thought...........

yes, some tunes i hear in my head dont sound right if i transpose them. Keys sound quite different to each other.

The keys I can sing in are not always the ones I compose in. I use my singing keys because of the restriction of my voice, but instrumentally I compose in a key that is triggered by the inspiration.