progressing harmonically by building in 5ths?

[imakebeats]

look at that video, van buuren says he progresses the melody "by adding fiths" the effect he achieves is very nice, and i hear this same harmonic transition effect used in a lot of trance songs, particularly tiesto and such.

i dont quite understand whats going on though.... i tried making a supersaw patch and making a similar melody, then fading in another supersaw osc tuned to a 5th up, and the effect i get is nothing like what i hear there.

what exactly is going on in this sequence?


thanks...

[Acid Mitch]

He's changing notes by a 5th, not adding sounds.

[Nystul]

It is not a perfect fifth every time. He is playing up part of the D minor scale in fifths. So he gets the interval E-Bb, which is a diminished fifth. With your stacked oscillators you wouldn't get that interval. Third and fourth time through I believe he is just doubling the first and second parts an octave higher.

[diijay]

Good question, and good answers.

Nystul, However can you explain a little more in detail?

"Third and fourth time through I believe he is just doubling the first and second parts an octave higher." ??

I she building chords with the notes interval of a dimished fifth? ou playing melody notes with that interval?

Are the chords made of 2 notes only?...original melody and dim 5th above?

Thanks.

Do u know More songs that use that theory?

[Nystul]

Hopefully I am hearing this right. Basically he has a four measure progression featuring the following intervals: D-A, E-Bb, F-C, G-D. All of these are perfect fifths except the E-Bb, which is diminished. To me it implies the harmony: Dm, E dim, F, Gm, but because of the open fifths, the "chords" are ambiguous. Open fifths are very common in rhythm guitar for rock music (power chords), because the full chords sound too muddy with the heavy saturation. Also because rock guitarists only know how to play 5 notes so they have to make them count (kidding!).

The way he presents this harmony initially is kind of cool. First you have just a bass riff. Then when he adds the fifths on top, they pick up and continue the scale upwards as the bass returns to D. Then when both of these lines start over, he adds a note on the D an octave above repeating the last note from the previous line and then continuing up. And then he adds the fifths on top of that. So there is a constant upward motion following the scale.