Composing Mellow, Chill, even Jazzy Music

[Duncster94]

I've been playing piano for about 17 years at this point, and although I have technical skill, I can't seem to compose anything more than basic major-minor chord progressions.

The sound I've been going for lately is similar to that of Oh Wonder. They have very mellow, relaxed music with a bit of a jazzy feel to it. I'll post a few of their songs.

How do they get this sound? What kind of chords do they use? Perhaps it's more to do with the instruments themselves? Any help would be appreciated.

My favourite:


Something more jazzy:


Something more upbeat:

[Deep Purple]

You probably need to stop thinking in terms of just chords and start playing and trying to get that vibe. Most of it is about the playing and getting the feel right rather than mechanically reproducing recommended chords.

[Septimon]

check this to see the chords

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=%22oh+wonder%22+dazzle+chords


http://play.riffstation.com/?v=A1EJOnYvA5Q[*]

[Septimon]

thanks for posting by the way, I like the stuff a lot, although I wouldn't refer to it as "jazzy" at all. The chord structure is not "jazzy" as well in a traditional sense (VI II V I etc.).

to get that "loungy" feel a rhodes / pianet/ wurlitzer with a bit of tremolo amped with a Fender Twin Reverb always helps. If you want a vintage piano sound, try to emphasize the mids by filtering the lows end highs, there is also a free plugin called "Vinyl" by izotope wich allows you to add some vintage flavours. Works very good on piano sound. I prefer "the giant" by NI. The piano in the second video probably is an acoustic one though without any filters.

The instrument in the beginning of the last video is a mellotron.

[ImNotDedYet]

thanks for posting by the way, I like the stuff a lot, although I wouldn't refer to it as "jazzy" at all. The chord structure is not "jazzy" as well in a traditional sense (VI II V I etc.).

Agreed. I didn't hear anything in those chords that I'd refer to as jazzy. If you want jazzy chords look to extend your typical triads to 7th, 9ths, 11ths, or 13ths. Throw in some flat 5s. Throw a ii-V-I chord progression at the end of a musical phrase.

My quick skim of those tunes sounded pretty standard chord-wise.

[anomandaris1]

Grab any piano/ el. piano with good sound, add reverb and a little delay; play basic pop, ballad, rnb type accompaniment. You need to learn some cliche patterns and experiment with them - check some piano sheet music, midis of popular songs (RNB, Trip-hop, Pop) or stuff like ezkeys.
Also the specific sound you are after, comes from the production of the instruments and the vocals.
For jazzy stuff: experiment with extended chords, suspended chords, quartal harmony.
Maj and min 7th chords are overused to create a "mellow" and "warm" sound. Play some basic comping patterns softly , add background strings, ambient noise, reverb for atmosphere, high end "sparkle" (like bells, tambourine or pitched percussion).
This type of sound was pretty big in the 90s, but people were mostly sampling old records=

[ApexAudioTech]

^ What anomandaris said.

Lots of focus on the warmth of the tone, and the far-reaching chord tones/suspensions/tensions that keep the key signature and vibe slightly more ambiguous than strictly staying in key.

[thecontrolcentre]

If I want a jazzy feel to something I stick to playing the black notes ... actually, this is something PUSH with it's different scale & key transpositions can be very interesting for. Perhaps not so much for great players, but for the likes of me it's useful.