Ok guys, I like to make my own furniture music. The problem is when I look at it I can't really explain what I did, just that it sounds good to me.
I composed this piano piece back in 2003 called Delicatesse (you can hear it here http://myspace.com/tiagovideira)
but now when I try to analyse it I get lost.
The chords are:
Fmaj7 - Cmaj7 (8x)
Ebmaj7 - Gmaj7 (4x)
Gmaj7 - Cmaj7 (4x)
Abmaj7 - Ebmaj7 (4x)
Emaj7 - Bmaj7 (8x)
Well I just don't know what am I doing here... I-V (8x) bVII - II (4x) II-V (4x) bIII - bVII (4x).... heck I don't even know what is the tonality of the piece. Is is F, or is it always modulating?
Probably I can't even apply classical analisys here... how can I be an analytic fella here and try to explain my own piece?
I'd really appreciate some help. After this, maybe I can use the same method for other pieces of mine that I can't explain in a brainy way.
Can you help me with my own chord progression?
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- KVRist
- 350 posts since 11 May, 2008
Play fair and square!
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- KVRAF
- 16797 posts since 8 Mar, 2005 from Utrecht, Holland
Not bad, inspired on Eric Satie for sure!Musicologo wrote:The chords are:
Fmaj7 - Cmaj7 (8x)
Ebmaj7 - Gmaj7 (4x)
Gmaj7 - Cmaj7 (4x)
Abmaj7 - Ebmaj7 (4x)
Emaj7 - Bmaj7 (8x)
Well I just don't know what am I doing here... I-V (8x) bVII - II (4x) II-V (4x) bIII - bVII (4x).... heck I don't even know what is the tonality of the piece. Is is F, or is it always modulating?
On the F - C part I'd say that C is more central than F. The F draws you into the C; F has some tension, resolved and put to ease when it returns to C. So it's IV - I, not I - V.
Also Eb - G makes more sense when C is the anchor instead of F.
I hope that helped. Sometimes it just doesn't help at all to do an analysis
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- KVRAF
- 26033 posts since 20 Oct, 2007 from gonesville
It's good to understand that that first sound is IV to I. 'Plagal', subdominant to tonic.
the third one is likely to be I - IV on G.
but, this doesn't function the way a roman numeral analysis exists, really, to do. So, don't worry about it except to understand that, V to I isn't happening here. Furniture just kind of is, right, you don't make it have a goal.
You're going for contrast by shifting in major thirds here. Ab>C, C>E, Eb>G. And you like the sort of pretty repose of IV7 - I7, major 7ths. It's a pretty good structure you have, the odd numbered lines go:
IV - I
I - IV
IV - I
*symmetry*
and the even numbered ones are asymmetrical but related (Eb)
the third one is likely to be I - IV on G.
but, this doesn't function the way a roman numeral analysis exists, really, to do. So, don't worry about it except to understand that, V to I isn't happening here. Furniture just kind of is, right, you don't make it have a goal.
You're going for contrast by shifting in major thirds here. Ab>C, C>E, Eb>G. And you like the sort of pretty repose of IV7 - I7, major 7ths. It's a pretty good structure you have, the odd numbered lines go:
IV - I
I - IV
IV - I
*symmetry*
and the even numbered ones are asymmetrical but related (Eb)
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- KVRer
- 16 posts since 5 Sep, 2006
Musicologo wrote:Ok guys, I like to make my own furniture music. The problem is when I look at it I can't really explain what I did, just that it sounds good to me.
I composed this piano piece back in 2003 called Delicatesse (you can hear it here http://myspace.com/tiagovideira)
but now when I try to analyse it I get lost.
The chords are:
Fmaj7 - Cmaj7 (8x)
Ebmaj7 - Gmaj7 (4x)
Gmaj7 - Cmaj7 (4x)
Abmaj7 - Ebmaj7 (4x)
Emaj7 - Bmaj7 (8x)
Well I just don't know what am I doing here... I-V (8x) bVII - II (4x) II-V (4x) bIII - bVII (4x).... heck I don't even know what is the tonality of the piece. Is is F, or is it always modulating?
Probably I can't even apply classical analisys here... how can I be an analytic fella here and try to explain my own piece?
I'd really appreciate some help. After this, maybe I can use the same method for other pieces of mine that I can't explain in a brainy way.
hey guys,
I use chase charts to determine in what key a progression is in. just like there are scales for notes..i.e. C D E F G A B >> C major
There are chord scales and they are called chase charts. All you have to do is find the chord scale that matches most closely the chord progression.
If you look at the chase chart for Cmaj and Fmaj just like previous responses it looks like you are playing in C.
Links:
info on chase charts >>http://howmusicreallyworks.com/Pages_Chapter_6/6_8.html
you can find the chord scales here >>>http://www.blackbeltguitar.com/
just search for "Harmonic Scale Chords for All Major Keys"
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- KVRAF
- 6372 posts since 8 Jun, 2009
What you have there is an example of chromatic planing - a favourite technique of the impressionist composers, such as Debussy, Ravel and Satie.Musicologo wrote: Fmaj7 - Cmaj7 (8x)
Ebmaj7 - Gmaj7 (4x)
Gmaj7 - Cmaj7 (4x)
Abmaj7 - Ebmaj7 (4x)
Emaj7 - Bmaj7 (8x)
"Planing freezes chords and moves them in parallel as if they were a single melodic line." - Techniques of the Contemporary Composer, David Cope. "Although it would be possible to analyse every harmonic function, the vertical sonorities are better understood as by-products of the planed melodic line."
I know you have a melodic line superimposed over the chord structure, but it seems to follow the same pattern of chromatic intervals, so could be regarded as a sequence of arpeggiated chords (or a mode that 'planes' with each chord). I think there is something to be said for treating it as a series of plagal cadences separated by pairs of chords. The piece suggested to me a shift from major to minor tonality - the notes on the even-numbered lines can be picked from the C minor mode while those on the odd-numbered lines come from C major mode. For that reason, I'd say the natural tonal home for this piece is C. However that shift is obscured by the consistent use of major chords, lending it a dreamy quality.