Midi chords for each scale, to help with progressions

[leighbeynon]

im trying to get hold of all chords within each scale,

ive seen this software but seems quite expensive for what it is,

does anyone know any where i could just download midi files of all chords in each scale ?

this is the site i was looking at
www.cognitone.com

i thought the scale plug would help me in live but some chords just dont sound right to me when the chords and scale plug are used,

[llatham]

im trying to get hold of all chords within each scale,

ive seen this software but seems quite expensive for what it is,

does anyone know any where i could just download midi files of all chords in each scale ?

this is the site i was looking at
www.cognitone.com

i thought the scale plug would help me in live but some chords just dont sound right to me when the chords and scale plug are used,

Why don't you just learn to use your brain?

If the scale is:

C D E F G A B C

You just use every other letter to make chords:

C d E f G a b = C E G

c D e F g A b = D F A

c d E f G a B = E G B

etc. You get:
C-E-G
D-F-A
E-G-B
F-A-C
G-B-D
A-C-E
B-D-F

If you know that the chord built on the first note of a Major scale is always Major, and you know this is a C Major scale, you know the first chord is C major. Chords in a Major key are:

I - Major
ii - minor
iii - minor
IV - Major
V - Major
vi - minor
viio - diminished

If the key is G major, the chord built on it's 3rd note is going to be a minor chord (see, iii above is minor!) - B-D-F# - a B minor chord.

This is how MOST music is put together (there are certainly exceptions).

And most music uses Major and minor chords, and some diminished and augmented, and then 7th and 9th chords, and in jazz and more sophisticated pop styles, 11ths and 13ths, with all kinds of extended and altered chords.

But in almost every case, the chords come from the scale.

Learn major and minor, and how to build chords from them, and that will get you through about 75 percent of most common music. If you're interested in jazz and other styles, you'll need to learn to harmonize jazz minor and things like whole tone scales and diminished scales, but the principle is similar enough.

Learn to do this, and it's something that you'll be able to use the rest of your life.

Steve

[Ogg Vorbis]

Why don't you just learn to use your brain?

Is that available in RTAS?

[trewq]

Have you googled 'chord progression software'?

[Max Headroom]

I tried to do something like you wanted. I was making MIDIs of tons of chords thinking it would be so nice and easy to just copy and paste them in as needed. Turns out it was a pretty big waste of time. It didn't really help at all because there are hundreds, if not thousands of chords to manage. That got out of hand pretty quickly.

So I spent a few weeks reading about music theory. It actually only took a few hours to understand how scales are made, how to put chords together using those scales, and to remember which are the most frequently used chords. It turned out to be MUCH quicker to learn the right way to do it rather than trying to find a shortcut. In this case, the right way IS the shortcut!

llatham gave you a great start, but if you want a more in depth discussion check out "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory" by Michael Miller. It changed my life!

[llatham]

Why don't you just learn to use your brain?

Is that available in RTAS?

Nope, only for LOGIC!!!!

Steve

[leighbeynon]

ok guys i get the point,

i actually thought that chord progressions normally stayed either major or minor,

maybe this is whats slowing me down, i understand 1st 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th etc
of each scale creates the chords,
id do have this book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chords-Easily-R ... 265&sr=8-1

teaches you how to memorise all maj,min chords then moves to aug, dim and 7ths, 9ths etc, i think alot of chords used are inversions also, to get a slightly different tone,

i want to be able to create progressions myself,
so the cicle of 5ths helps you navigate around chords that work well together ?

[leighbeynon]

this is a nice example of chords i would like to be able to play

http://www.junodownload.com/ppps/produc ... 480-02.htm

[Throbert]

A minor scale is a major scale starting 3 half steps down from the major and visa versa. Any Chord has as many versions as it has notes 3rd 4th 5th 6th and on is the number of notes up the scale from the root note of the chord. A diminished has a flat fifth unless it is noted as a diminished 3rd and beyond. An Augmented has the same rules with exception that the note is sharp insted of flat.Think of augmented and diminished as an accidental in key of the scale that the root note is in.

[Sascha Franck]

this is a nice example of chords i would like to be able to play

http://www.junodownload.com/ppps/produc ... 480-02.htm

No single major scale chords would suit this at all.
The tune is in A minor and the chords in the chorus are Amin7, Bmin7, Dmin7 and E7 (altered).
To compose using chords like those, you need some jazz theory knowledge, there's no way around it. So you better start learning your chords right now.

- Sascha

[siriusbliss]

Start learning your baseline major/minor triads, and then start adding 7ths', 6ths, 9ths, etc., and then start flattening the 3rd (for minor), and keep adding 6,7,9,11, etc. After that you can try getting into the sus/aug/dims, and more eccentric 5-note chords.

Remember that there are really only 12-notes in western scales

Also, find scores for these songs and maybe reverse-engineer/deconstruct them.

All the while you will be building up your ear and sense of pitch.

Greg

[wrench45us]

I would suggest looking into one of Rikky Rooksby's songwritings books as a very good place to start

He covers the pop world sufficiently to build a good foundation for then adding the 7ths and understanding jazz progressions and voicings

[trewq]

this is a nice example of chords i would like to be able to play

http://www.junodownload.com/ppps/produc ... 480-02.htm

No single major scale chords would suit this at all.
The tune is in A minor and the chords in the chorus are Amin7, Bmin7, Dmin7 and E7 (altered).
To compose using chords like those, you need some jazz theory knowledge, there's no way around it. So you better start learning your chords right now.

- Sascha

To just use this example to maybe offer more help: Those chords span a few types of A minor scales. It starts out in A Dorian (mode of G Major) with Amin7 and Bmin7. Then we have Dmin7 and E7 both belonging to the A Harmonic minor, or we can use the A Melodic minor cause it has the Bmin7 and E7, and the A Natural minor cause it has the Amin7 and Dmin7.

I know plenty of theory, but I like to see it layed out in a color-coded generated list. All you do is just use the chord menus to check 'generate scales', turn on color coding, and run it. Then selecting a scale from the list will generate all its chords. Check out www.chordware.com

[Sascha Franck]

Then we have Dmin7 and E7 both belonging to the A Harmonic minor,

Almost but not quite. There's a #9 in the E (the G), which isn't there in HM5 (harmonic minor, 5th degree). While harmonic minor probably wouldn't hurt too much, altered is a better choice for that chord.

- Sascha

[trewq]

Then we have Dmin7 and E7 both belonging to the A Harmonic minor,

Almost but not quite. There's a #9 in the E (the G), which isn't there in HM5 (harmonic minor, 5th degree). While harmonic minor probably wouldn't hurt too much, altered is a better choice for that chord.

- Sascha

Ahh... So thats what you meant by E7 (altered). I've usually seen it as E7#9.

In this case we've got my favorite altered scale A melavaru...(long name) which includes: E7(altered) and Amin7.