Instrumentation

[Emerald Tablet]

instrumentation?

2000+ anything goes.

whatever you make with the pc ... i always find it a bit lame to pretend the music wasn't put together on a pc.

in other words. You don't need to know if its possible to even play a certain part. Its computer fabricated. In computerscapes everythings possible.

[Jokari]

Yes, but often knowing what's possible to play is key to getting "that" sound. A guitar is not gonna sound like a guitar if you program it like a piano, you've got to have an understanding of what happens when you strum a chord, how and when notes are muted, etc. Not that you can't bend the rules afterward, but knowing them is a huge help: the sound of an instrument is half samples and half in the way you play it.

[yonyz]

Yes, Sascha, I can.

[jancivil]

whatever you make with the pc ... i always find it a bit lame to pretend the music wasn't put together on a pc.

in other words. You don't need to know if its possible to even play a certain part. Its computer fabricated. In computerscapes everythings possible.

Well, if it's supposed to be a bass part, and it SOUNDS obviously computer-fabricated, what then?

you learn to think more like a bass player, and you work harder to convince the audience, by smoke and mirrors maybe, that it was someone who can handle a bass. right? that's pretending, and it may or may not be suspect.

[Sascha Franck]

Yes, Sascha, I can.

Ok, fine, where do you want to proceed? Do you know about all the possible voice leadings in the mentioned progression? Such as in not playing all the chords in root position but in a way that they blend into each other nicely, using the smallest possible voice movement?

Also, do you know about scale-chord relationships already? Like: What chords in a given key, what possible extensions, etc.?

As said, please don't take all these questions as a provocation, I'm just trying to find out where you stand.

[Dean Aka Nekro]

@ the OP just a quick in and out from me, this book is loved by many and worth investing in IMO for orchestral composition:

http://www.timespace.com/product/GTMO-1 ... ition.html

it is worth checking out anyway, as for guitar and bass i would recommend learning the real thing as cheap 'starter' instruments are really actually playable these days compared to my first axe which was even back in the day terrible and would not ever hope to see that level of poor standards today (and have not yet). For a great example a yamaha pacifica 112 model plays well out of the box and can be had for £119. Anyway i am bowing out now as i am no expert on the topic. Good luck with it all

Nekro

[yonyz]

No, Sascha, I don't even know you can blend different chords.
Also, "voice leading" is not a term I'm familiar with.

I decided to learn it all a bit slower.
Instead of reading all the lessong at musictheory.net, I read one "section" every day.

There are 7 "sections", and now it's the third day and I have to admit that I now understand Minor and Major much better, and everything else, too..

I will finish it all, and then I will check to see if I'm more familiar with all these terms.

[yonyz]

I have a problem understanding something about intervals.
In the image below, the last sentence says "Transfer over any accidentals".
What does this mean?

http://i33.tinypic.com/ir6o9e.jpg

Thanks for your help so far.

[Sascha Franck]

I have a problem understanding something about intervals.
In the image below, the last sentence says "Transfer over any accidentals".
What does this mean?

I think it means to do that with any note. Not sure, though, that's quite a weird description.

However, I think you shouldn't spend your time too much with that for a start as these things are rather "dry" and you would probably learn them quicker as you go. Read: While actually making music and put things to good use already.
For a start, IMO it's enough to know the intervals "sort of" or have a chart handy all the time. Also, you could really learn them along with chords.

Ok, I will try to start with something I find to be useful. In case you're interested, I could try to continue (maybe others would be interested as well and maybe yet some others could as well contribute).

IMO, if you're not too much interested in becoming a "blow everybody away" player as well (in which case you should get a teacher), I think it's a lot more important to know about chords and their relationships to keys (or scales, which are very closely related).

Even if it's not necessarily the best way to start, we will use the key of C major for now (not the best way because you might get too focused on C major). It's very handy as it only uses the white keys of a piano/keyboard. You can also see the steps it takes from one scale degree to the next really easily.

You will know it already, but the C major scale goes like: C D E F G A B (C). If you look at your keyboard, you will see that there's different steps required to get to the next note, depending on where you are. From C to D is 2 halftones (aka wholetone) whereas from E to F it's just one halftone.
If you look at the whole scale, the formula is (WT for wholetone, HT for halftone): Root(C)-WT(D)-WT(E)-HT(F)-WT(G)-WT(A)-WT(B)-HT(C). This formula is the same for any major key/scale.
But, no worries, you *really* don't need to remember this for now at all (even if some methods might tell you so). All you need to know is that the different arrangement of half and whole tone steps is making up for the distinct character of a scale (and of course there's more than just major keys/scales). Really, DON'T TRY TO MEMORIZE that for now. We've got a whole lot better (and funnier) things to explore.

You may as well know how basic chords are build inside a key/scale. If not, here goes:
On each note of a given scale, you can build a chord.
The basic procedure to do so is to start with whatever note, then skip one, play one, skip one again and play one again. So, if we start with a C in C major, we'll get C (D skipped) E (F skipped) and G. C E G. That's our C chord in the key of C major.
What we really need to do now is to determine the chord "gender" and probably something else (you'll see in a bit). The individual notes of such a "triad" (yes, that's the official name, so you should remember that) are:
- Root
- Third
- Fifth
Easy to remember because: C is the first note, D would be the second, but we skipped that, so E is the third. We also skipped the fourth note (F), so G is the fifth. These chord degrees are also often labeled with roman numbers, so it's really just 1 3 5.
This goes for any note inside the scale we start our chord buildup on. Let's take the D. For a D chord (still in the key of C major) it'd become our 1. We will then skip the E, have F as the 3 and A as the 5 (because we also skipped the G). The D chord in C major hence would be D F A.

Ok, all that might be very little news to you so far. But the next step (which you may know already, too, but still...) is really interesting and extremely important.
Let's look at the C E G chord. How many halftones does it take to get from C to E? Right, 4.
And how many halftones does it take in our D F A chord to get from the D to the F? Right, just 3!
A fundamental difference - actually *the* most fundamental difference in chord "types". A step of 4 halftones is called a "major third" a step of 3 "minor third". When going up from the root, this is what defines our chord gender! A major third makes up for a major chord, a minor third makes up for a minor chord.
So, in the key of C, the C chord would be major, the D chord would be minor.
We will as well have a brief look at the 5 in each chord. You will notice that both from C to G and D to A it takes seven halftones to get there. This is what we call a perfect fifth. In quite a lot of styles (and/or approaches) the perfect 5th is considered "obvious" or even "obsolete", the reason probably being that it's a really strong overtone of the root on any instrument dealing with overtones (which, basically, all classic instruments are, there's hardly pure sine waves to be found in them, so they all feature a more or less rich overtone content and perfect 5ths are very strong). An important thing to know (and remember): The perfect fifth isn't mentioned in a chord name!

Now, the next step we will do is to analyze all the triads in our C major scale, always using the same "build up" as before. Here they are:
C E G
D F A
E G B
F A C
G B D
A C E
B D F

And as I don't want this to get too boring (it might be already), here's the "analysis" of them:
C E G = C major chord (or triad)
D F A = D minor
E G B = E minor
F A C = F major
G B D = G major
A C E = A minor
B D F = B minor - but hold on! If you analyze the steps it takes from the B to the D, you will have a minor third. Fine. But what about that step from B to F? That's not 7 halftones! That's just 6! And didn't that SF dude just tell you it takes 7 halftones for a perfect 5th which would then be obvious, hence not being mentioned?
Ok, to get this halfway straight, that's just what happens inside our major scales/keys, On the seventh degree of them, we won't find a chord with a perfect 5th. It's lowered by one halftone. The resulting 5th is called "diminished 5th" or "flat 5th", usually indicated with a "b5" (as said, only perfect 5ths don't need to be mentioned in the chord name). So our B D F chord would be a "B minor b5" (usually you'll see "Bmin/b5").
Unfortunately, it's getting a bit worse now, because we find "classical" and "modern" (jazz/rock/pop) theories sort of mixed up all the time. Such a triad (just two minor thirds following each other, in our example B to D and D to F) is often referred to as a "diminished" triad. The chord name could then as well be "B diminished", usually shortened to "B dim".

Ok, questions:
- Is that kind of stuff interesting to you or do you know it inside out already?
- In case you're interested but didn't know it inside out already, are there any questions?
- Would you be interested in proceeding?

The next step would be to actually play these chords in some variations (which might reveal some insights), but if you think it's all not too great, I wouldn't bother proceeding.
Otherwise, feel free to ask any questions about the installement above and I'll happily try to answer (or proceed).

Cheers
Sascha

[jancivil]

Once you understand intervals, conceptually, find examples in songs you are familiar with, that you find memorable, and associate.

some WHERE {over the rainbow}; what interval is that? for instance.

[yonyz]

Thanks for the explanation, Sascha.
I knew the very basic things you mentioned, buy the things you said about were mostly new to me.
Now I will keep reading at musictheory.net, but I would also like you to continue.

Jancivil, I'm nut sure I understand your question.

[jancivil]

Surely you know the song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow? It's a real good example of a tonal melody (a good one, importantly for an exercise, a memorable one). A major scale is used.

You do need to understand that each step in a tune, a melody, is measured as an *interval*.

SOME to WHERE, goes up by an octave (interval). Hear it, remember it, drive it into your brain/ear until it's infallible.

in the 7-note diatonic scale, it's 1 to 8.


O-VER. O goes down a semitone, ver down a major third (interval). Hear it, remember it, drive it into your brain/ear until it's infallible.

in the 7-note diatonic (major) scale, this is 7 to 5.


THE RAIN-BOW: the goes up a tone from ver; rain-bow continues to rise; rain a tone from the.

in the 7-note diatonic (major) scale, this is (from your 5)> 6, then 7.

Hear it, learn it, know it.


bow brings you back to 8 (which is your octave tonic. 8, same as 1, only in the next octave. C2 v. C3).

Hear it, learn it, know it.


this is basic training for your ear. All of this *theoretical* information is useless outside of actual *practice*>use of your ear. I imagine you're confused by much of it by now. Best to begin by hearing how it works.

When you are confident of this, take this information about chords, and find out what chords are implied by the melodic movements I described.

[Sascha Franck]

jancivil, I think that this sort of ear training comes in a lot easier if you already are familiar with certain chords, scales and what not from actually playing them.

In any case, yonyz, I try to continue with a bit more.

In the last "chapter" we built triads on each of the notes in C major. These bascically are the chords we find in a major key. This knowledge will help you when composing and analyzing things.
But let's try to continue where we were.
Following the analysis of the triads existing in C major, our chords look like the following:

C
D min
E min
F
G
A min
B dim (or B min/b5)

These chords are exactly the same in each major key, therfor it's making sense to look at them more generally. To describe the chords on the various degrees of a scale, usually capital roman numbers are used in contemporary harmonical theories. That results in:

I
II min
III min
IV
V
VI min
VII dim (or VII min/b5)

It's really not a bad idea to remember them

Ok. Enough of that stuff for now, it should be more interesting to put them to at least some use. This means playing them.

For a start, let me present you what probably is the most common major chord progression in (western) history:
I IV V I
I should probably add that these chords are also coming with some "functional" names. They are:
I = tonic
IV = subdominant
V = dominant
But you really don't need to pay much attention to that for now (just so that you don't wonder if you stumble across them).

In the key of C major, the chords would be the following:
I = C
IV = F
V = G

Ok, let's just play them after each other. That'd be like:
CEG - FAC - FBD - CEG
This might already sound somewhat familiar (quite traditional and maybe sort of "folk-ish", but we will care about that later on).
For now what you may notice is that there's quite some jumps between the chords, especially between the C and F chord. In fact, everything jumps up 5 halftones. Less than ideal if you care about "voice leading".
Let's have a look at what the chord notes are.
They're
C E G
F A C
Now, the C is a note existing in both chords, so why not just keep it where it is?
The E is pretty close to the F, we would just need a halftone to get there.
The G is pretty close to the A, it takes to halftones to get us there.
So, instead of the above, we could as well play:
C E G
C F A
And yes, C F A is an F major triad as well. It's just a different "inversion", as it's called.
We have 3 inversions for each of our triads. Taking the C chord as an example, they are like:
C E G = root position
E G C = first inversion
G C E = second inversion

With those inversions available, we can play our little I IV V I progression in various ways, some of them being very effective regarding close voice movements (which is very often what one may want).
Such as
C = C E G
F = C F A
G = B D G
C = C E G
You will probably notice that this will sound a lot more "homogenous" already.

Ok, I will finish for now. I really recommend playing that chord progression using all sorts of chord inversions. Once you're sort of done, proceed to another key, such as, say, Bb major or so, to explore the black keys a bit and also to get familiar with these basic chords in more than just one key.

[yonyz]

Ok, let's just play them after each other. That'd be like:
CEG - FAC - FBD - CEG

I don't understand why it's not CEG - FAC - GBD - CEG.

[Sascha Franck]

Ok, let's just play them after each other. That'd be like:
CEG - FAC - FBD - CEG

I don't understand why it's not CEG - FAC - GBD - CEG.

Whoops. Just a typo. You are of course correct, it should've been GBD.