Uses for chords.

[No name]

I'm not getting into counterpoint and things like that, finally beginning to write my music. I have an issue with chords though, in every book or example of chords i've seen, it shows chords as three stacked whole notes. What other ways could you position different notes in a chord? I know there is playing all 3 at once, and broken chords. I guess what i'm saying is that are there different ways to position each indvidual notes in a chord that would sound more interesting than just 3 stacked notes?

I'd like to be more versatile than arpeggios and stacked chords.

[nuffink]

I'm not getting into counterpoint and things like that, finally beginning to write my music. I have an issue with chords though, in every book or example of chords i've seen, it shows chords as three stacked whole notes. What other ways could you position different notes in a chord? I know there is playing all 3 at once, and broken chords. I guess what i'm saying is that are there different ways to position each indvidual notes in a chord that would sound more interesting than just 3 stacked notes?

I'd like to be more versatile than arpeggios and stacked chords.

Are you talking about how they're positioned on the keyboard or how they're positioned in time?

[tee boy]

If you are talking triad chords (three notes, 1-3-5), then there are two things you can do immediately - play the chord in inversion, and play it open / closed.

To play in inversion, simply move the bottom note to the top!

C-E-G = C Major in root position

E-G-C = C Major in first inversion

G-C-E = C Major in second inversion

The root position being the strongest sounding, the second inversion the weakest.


To play in open / closed position, simply move the third up an octave. This gives the chord a different sound, and works better when the chord is being used in the bass:

C-E-G = C Major in closed position
C-G-E = C Major in open position

And ofcourse, you can invert the chord when in open position too.


And this is just with the basic triad. You can also continue to stack thirds onto the triad to extend the chord with 7th's, 9th's, 11th's etc.

TB

[No name]

I'm not getting into counterpoint and things like that, finally beginning to write my music. I have an issue with chords though, in every book or example of chords i've seen, it shows chords as three stacked whole notes. What other ways could you position different notes in a chord? I know there is playing all 3 at once, and broken chords. I guess what i'm saying is that are there different ways to position each indvidual notes in a chord that would sound more interesting than just 3 stacked notes?

I'd like to be more versatile than arpeggios and stacked chords.

Are you talking about how they're positioned on the keyboard or how they're positioned in time?

In time.

[No name]

If you are talking triad chords (three notes, 1-3-5), then there are two things you can do immediately - play the chord in inversion, and play it open / closed.

To play in inversion, simply move the bottom note to the top!

C-E-G = C Major in root position

E-G-C = C Major in first inversion

G-C-E = C Major in second inversion

The root position being the strongest sounding, the second inversion the weakest.


To play in open / closed position, simply move the third up an octave. This gives the chord a different sound, and works better when the chord is being used in the bass:

C-E-G = C Major in closed position
C-G-E = C Major in open position

And ofcourse, you can invert the chord when in open position too.


And this is just with the basic triad. You can also continue to stack thirds onto the triad to extend the chord with 7th's, 9th's, 11th's etc.

TB

I will read more on this when I get home from work, but inversions are realy something I haven't gotten in to deep with yet, and I really need to.

[Topiness]

If you want to have a C major chord in your song,

you can do ANYTHING that has the notes C,E,G in.

however, even if you basically want to play a C chord, restricting yourself to just the notes in a C chord will make your music boring.

so you can do something like:
play C-G-C in the bass (together in time as a chord),

and then play a little melody E-F-Bb-G in a higher octave.

it's basically C major, but hinting at Csus4 and C7.

[tee boy]

If you want to have a C major chord in your song,

you can do ANYTHING that has the notes C,E,G in.

however, even if you basically want to play a C chord, restricting yourself to just the notes in a C chord will make your music boring.

so you can do something like:
play C-G-C in the bass (together in time as a chord),

and then play a little melody E-F-Bb-G in a higher octave.

it's basically C major, but hinting at Csus4 and C7.

Indeed, implied harmony is a powerful thing!

Take Bach's violin sonatas... half the time you get the sense of the full harmony even though its just a single line. Scales, arpeggios and little motifs can all work to imply a sense of harmony to varying degrees.

TB

[nuffink]

In time.

Counterpoint. Good luck.

[Topiness]

Indeed, implied harmony is a powerful thing!

Take Bach's violin sonatas... half the time you get the sense of the full harmony even though its just a single line. Scales, arpeggios and little motifs can all work to imply a sense of harmony to varying degrees.

Yes - As well as thinking of a chord as something that you put in your music, you can think of the lines of your music as creating the chord.

get to know the shapes of different chords, and the scales they are from, until the boundaries between melodies, riffs, arpeggios and chords blur.

[tee boy]

Lol, yeah, agreed! Deciding which notes are going to go where is not easy!

A theme can be set out in almost endless variation. So I guess this is where musical experience comes into play. Knowledge of music is absolutely essential imo, or how else are you to know what you're doing?

If I were you, LISTEN to the type of music you wish to make, try to find scores (if its that type of music) and work out just what is going on in there.

But to get you off the ground, very basic homophonic music is essentially a melody, a bassline and harmony. Try to write in four parts and get a 'sketch' from which you can consider form and arrangement on a greater scale.

Probably best not to consider polyphony too much just at the moment...

TB

[No name]

In time.

Counterpoint. Good luck.

I need all I can get.

[No name]

Indeed, implied harmony is a powerful thing!

Take Bach's violin sonatas... half the time you get the sense of the full harmony even though its just a single line. Scales, arpeggios and little motifs can all work to imply a sense of harmony to varying degrees.

Yes - As well as thinking of a chord as something that you put in your music, you can think of the lines of your music as creating the chord.

get to know the shapes of different chords, and the scales they are from, until the boundaries between melodies, riffs, arpeggios and chords blur.

I think this may be the big problem with me still. I know on paper what each chord is, but I haven't becomefully familiarized with the sound of each and what would go go with what and where. So yea, between that and the confusion on what exactly a chord is, it will take some time. I just have an issue with chords because in every book they always leave the chord as just a triad, on a staff it's always 3 whole notes stacked. That doesn't offer enough info on how to implement them to the fullest.
Well i'm tired so I need to sleep! I'll read and contemplate all that is said so far. Thanks for replying guys, I appreciate the help.

[Topiness]

I think this may be the big problem with me still. I know on paper what each chord is, but I haven't becomefully familiarized with the sound of each

I recommend listening to some simple pop music (something like the Beautiful South? can anyone recommend anything else that uses uses mainly simple triads?), playing along slowly on your keyboard, and through the process of working out which notes 'fit' with each chord in the music, working out the chord progressions. It's slow going at first, but once you've done it 20-30 times you'll have the sounds in your head to go with the chord names and the shapes on the keyboard.

and what would go go with what and where.

Anything can go with anything, anywhere. It's just that different combinations will have different effects.

I just have an issue with chords because in every book they always leave the chord as just a triad, on a staff it's always 3 whole notes stacked. That doesn't offer enough info on how to implement them to the fullest.

Well, I never saw any introductory theory book that gave much advice about how to write music. In fact, I think the whole field of music theory is much better at describing music than giving useful methods for its creation, depending perhaps on the style you work in.

What style(s) do you work in?

So, as well as going through the books, you also have to listen to music you like and try to describe it using the tools that music theory gives you. That will give you the ability to remember how to create different effects.

[JumpingJackFlash]

I'm not getting into counterpoint and things like that, finally beginning to write my music. I have an issue with chords though, in every book or example of chords i've seen, it shows chords as three stacked whole notes. What other ways could you position different notes in a chord? I know there is playing all 3 at once, and broken chords. I guess what i'm saying is that are there different ways to position each indvidual notes in a chord that would sound more interesting than just 3 stacked notes?

I'd like to be more versatile than arpeggios and stacked chords.

You can position the notes of the triad in any register:


All these chords are C major in root position.
Note also, you can double any of the the notes you like and the chord will still be the same. You can even omit certain notes (like the 5th), and the implied chord will still be the same.

In a lot of music of course, a melody is not simply accompanied by block chords like this. - You have to vary the rhythm of the accompanying parts. (Some notes can be longer, some can be shorter.)

For example:


These are just some ways to decorate a V-I in C major.
You might want to look into Non-harmony notes and see how they can spice up your parts.