help me analyse my own music please.

[martian]

just wondering if someone could analyse these 2 midis for me:

(original link removed. updated one)

the one entitled 'major midi' uses lots of parallel chord voicing, so its 3 major chords for the main section, 2 of which are 2nd inversions. then the piece goes through some different majors and some with slight variations for the 'change' section, and back to the main section again. so i want to know whether the key could be Gm, or chromatic and what happens at the change section?

the other file, 'jazz midi', is closer to what i write atm, with 9ths and 6ths chords etc, but again similar questions about chromatism.

thanks for any help.

regards,

[Toxikator]

Okay, for "Major MIDI" You seem to be starting in the key of GMaj

It goes I-bIII (chromatic mediant) - IV, with a weird bII passing tone which I don't know WHAT to do with... That repeats for a while, but then the IV becomes IV7, I guess this is just a jazz 7th (which are often dominant 7ths in nondominant positions) and I wouldn't bother with it further than to call it an altered extended subdominant (it doesn't prepare a modulation or offer any secondary dominant function.

Then, the piece goes I-N (Neapolitan; here, in the less-common root position), with a rather odd motion to an unresolved Gsus4 chord which then modulates abruptly to the key of F; here, the same I-bIII (chromatic mediant) progression is used, followed by a a II chord (suggesting the original key briefly, acting as an altered supertonic chord). Back to the I-bIII in G after another abrupt modulation, another N chord, then back to the original progression.

If I may, it sounds pretty much like you wrote a melody in the minor key and played major chords over top of it.

[Toxikator]

The jazz piece goes like so (in C, near as I can tell)

iim7 - IIIM7#5 - vim9 - iiim7 (1inv) - VI7b9 - iim7 - IIIM7#5 - vim9 - vm9 - iim7 - IIIM7#5 - vim9 - I9 - VI7b9 - iim7

What that means function-wise I don't have clue one, but I do know that it sounds cool and you need to pull that sucker back to CM7 or it sounds so open-ended it makes me insane.

[martian]

thanks so much for all that info on 'major midi'. GM seems obvious now, i didnt look at what the chords were outside of I-VI. i also had no idea the major movement by 3rds was called a chromatic mediant relationship.

in the midi, the chords are one instrument and bass notes a bassline, but there was some pitch bend in the bass which may not have come across quite right when i tried to fuse them into one midi (with no pitch bend), particularly for the modulation section.

heres a clip of the track to see if that part makes any more sense. http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=285227

id be interested in what chords you would use to modulate most naturally from GM to FM too.

If I may, it sounds pretty much like you wrote a melody in the minor key and played major chords over top of it.

its a v old track but i remember it was written from the bass first, then the 3 chords added, then the trumpet line. so yes you are right.

thanks for the help.

[Toxikator]

NP. That's actually a common trick for certain blues songs, too. You tune to an open chord on guitar, and then slide around, so while you rest heavily on the I, IV, and V, you start to play all sorts of major chords like II, bIII and III, bVI, bVII, etc.

[soulata]

id be interested in what chords you would use to modulate most naturally from GM to FM too.

You mean G minor to F minor or major to majorF minor or major to major?

Obvious choice'd be C7 altered (C7b9b13, that's C E G Bb Db Gb Ab, you can easily leave out Gb)

k

[Toxikator]

That's the OBVIOUS choice?

Why not just play the REGULAR C7? the rest of those notes are completely unnecessary, especially in the context of the work. CEGBb will do the transition to FACF just fine.

[soulata]

ok.

[Sascha Franck]

That's the OBVIOUS choice?

Depending on the style, yes, it is. In almost any sort of jazzy styles you will almost never find a plain dom7th chord (unless we're talking Dixieland... which I hope we aren't).

I'll give analysis of the jazzy progression a go later on - sounds rather typical with a few substitutions and chord extensions.

[Toxikator]

Even still, Sascha, you might try a 9 or 7#9... I just find the 7b9b13 a strange immediate selection.

[Sascha Franck]

Btw, Toxikator, that jazz progression is clearly in Amin, not in Cmaj. But I agree it should probably end on a tonic chord (in this case Amin) - otherwise it just sounds "un-resolved".
I'll analyze it more carefully later on.

[Sascha Franck]

Even still, Sascha, you might try a 9 or 7#9... I just find the 7b9b13 a strange immediate selection.

Sure. Thing is, I'm not sure whether Fmin or F is meant as the target (FM is a pretty much unusal way to write things). In case it's Fmin, you'd often use C7/b9, quite the usual dominant chord when approaching minor chords (harmonic minor dominant, bla bla...).

[Toxikator]

Is it? I figured given that it started on the D (would have been ii) and never seemed to "fit" when it hit those vi chords....

[Sascha Franck]

Is it? I figured given that it started on the D (would have been ii) and never seemed to "fit" when it hit those vi chords....

Well, to my ears, it basically sounds like a IV-V-I progression in Amin (Dmin, E7, Amin), with following chords (Gmin, A7) leading back to D in a "sub IV-V" way.

So, the entire progression is like:
Dmin7 - E7 (b13) - Amin (9 - btw, there's a minor second in the upper voices, strange, as we just discussed that in the 6th chord thread... sounds quite fine in this case).
This is just a plain IVm-V-I in Amin.
Then there's:
Gmin6 (haha, again, just as in the other thread) - A7 (b9)
which is a simple IVm-V back to D (plain secondary IV-V movement).
Then the entire thing repeats, just that the A7 is left out after the Gmin. Perfectly valid as well, as it has been established before, the Gmin alone is quite fine to lead us back to Dmin.
On the next cycle, it's again the same, just that this time, instead of a Gmin6, a C7/9 is used, but it contains just exactly the same "functional notes" (Bb and E) as the Gmin, so it's a fine replacement for the IV chord in our secondary IV-V movement back to Dmin.

[Toxikator]

:schooom:

right over my head. I thought I did a pretty good job, too.