KVR Audio

tarsonis · Post by **tarsonis** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:17 pm

Hey,

watched a video by a pretty famous house producer called avicii. The last weeks I started to learn more theory again. Worked a lot of with that half step/whole step procedure for the last months and want to go further. So this video was right at the moment, because he concered on melody/chord writing.

Well he had a progression going on. Quite difficult and unplayable for me on the keyboard. I captured the progression in the piano roll. Hope you guys can help me and open the MIDI files, cause the progression is to hard to write it down.

First its that:
http://www9.zippyshare.com/v/22772447/file.html
(I thought it was written in Amaj but there appears an Eb...so no clue)

Than he is talking about playin around with melodys and quite spontaneous he puts the hole progression 1 semitone up o_O
http://www20.zippyshare.com/v/36383661/file.html

He wrote kind of melodys with the chords and all in 1/8 length. Never saw that. Its like he uses more than one "chord to scale " progression. Its way more complicated what I learned through the common chord tutorials.

How are the progressions called and do they use more than one scale? Is there any rule behind of this particular example?!

I was wondering if he worked in a spacific scale or is it drawing notes by hearing?!

Would love to learn about that more.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:08 pm

It's in E major. Take the Eb as D#. There are three chords, IV, V and I [A, B and E]. The B is seen in first inversion and the A [after the E] following that is seen in second inversion, ie., D# and E are at the bottom of those chords. 'Inversion' means another note than the root of the chord is at the bottom.

Using those 'inversions' minimizes the movement of parts; and these are all 'close voicings', ie., not spread. As far as the choices, this is about as simple as chord progressions get.

'In E major' means 'scale of E major' here. There is a C# and a G# over tha last chord that aren't chord tones, but there is nothing at all unusual about then; they are part of the scale.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:23 pm

as far as "by pros", this is really quite naive work.

The Chubu · Post by **The Chubu** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 2:59 am

Awww, you're going to break avicii's heart

jec1521 · Post by **jec1521** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:39 pm

Just curious, what video are you referring to? I'd be very interested in seeing it. You're not referring to his Future Music Magazine video, are you?

I am at school now so I cant look at your midi files, but I too have been interested in learning how Avicii comes up with his melodies and chords. It seems like he uses a TON of 7th notes and chords.

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:52 pm

There's a technical term for spontaneously transposing the whole shebang one or two semitones up - it's called the truck driver's gear change

http://www.gearchange.org/FAQ.html

tarsonis · Post by **tarsonis** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:41 pm

jancivil wrote:It's in E major. Take the Eb as D#. There are three chords, IV, V and I [A, B and E]. The B is seen in first inversion and the A [after the E] following that is seen in second inversion, ie., D# and E are at the bottom of those chords. 'Inversion' means another note than the root of the chord is at the bottom.

Using those 'inversions' minimizes the movement of parts; and these are all 'close voicings', ie., not spread. As far as the choices, this is about as simple as chord progressions get.

'In E major' means 'scale of E major' here. There is a C# and a G# over tha last chord that aren't chord tones, but there is nothing at all unusual about then; they are part of the scale.

Hey thanks for answering. Was quite busy... I read a lot of good usefull threads by you jancivil. Helped me a lot!
Well I read about inversion, but didn't find anything how to identify them. I was totally confused an took the bottom note as the root. I learned a lot about scales, but I couldn't choose the right, because of this inversions. Is there any good topic about the logic behind inversions and the basics?

So the progression itsself is quite typical (I,IV,V)?!

The first chord on the first hit is an Amaj?! But what is the chord right after it (Db, E, B)?!

Hope I get there to say this type of progression is simple.

I know that type of work is not "PRO" in the eyes of a versatile piano player. Its just because that guy is commercial known on charts, tv...

His working is quite like a child getting his first keyboard. It didn't make any sense to me, earwise, as he transposed the hole progression. So like I thought it was more rubbish than a genius move with that transposing.

@jec1521 yeah its the FM video.

The Chubu · Post by **The Chubu** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:03 pm

Sendy wrote:There's a technical term for spontaneously transposing the whole shebang one or two semitones up - it's called the truck driver's gear change

http://www.gearchange.org/FAQ.html

, great post.

BTW, since i dont know enough to participate in this stuff (unless i find an "Enable FL Studio helper" button somewhere in this forum

) , i have only 1 question, tarsonis, why do you write all your questions with an exclamation mark? That ways looks like you are over impressed with everything you ask lol

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 12:01 pm

tarsonis wrote:
Hey thanks for answering. Was quite busy... I read a lot of good usefull threads by you jancivil. Helped me a lot!
Well I read about inversion, but didn't find anything how to identify them. I was totally confused an took the bottom note as the root. I learned a lot about scales, but I couldn't choose the right, because of this inversions. Is there any good topic about the logic behind inversions and the basics?

So the progression itsself is quite typical (I,IV,V)?!

The first chord on the first hit is an Amaj?! But what is the chord right after it (Db, E, B)?!

Not all notes have to be included in a chord. If you have C# E B in this simple style, it's going to be an A major, with B replacing A momentarily. IE: you wouldn't call that B a part of the chord. It isn't necessary to do so. It isn't a mystery, you have seen the A chord preceding it, it is still that chord.

these *triads* are spelled by *thirds*, note that well. That means every other letter name; if the chord is an A chord [which typically is going to be a triad], As, Cs, and Es work. Any A to any D is going to be a type of fourth. Beyond this, you have a 'sharp key' ["E", 4 sharps, F C G and D are sharps] so usually that note is known as a C sharp anyway.

'Why an inversion?'... well here there is simply less movement. In more subtle musics there is the area of 'voice-leading' and principles of 'part-writing', kind of weaving through the harmonies, that is going to exceed what you understand yet. In the most general sense, it's to smooth out jumps in the parts of the chord from one to the next.

Random Chord Progression by "Pro's"