I dunno what to call it. Music theory dudes, what would it be if I made a chord in my synth, say a minor triad using its oscillators, then I play that as a chord on my keyboard? Is there a name for such action? I know it's still a chord, but....

I'm not sure if I'm describing it right, I'm high.

 

If I understand you correctly, the action is called "playing a chord in another instrument"

jokes aside, I don't think I understood what you meant.

 

"A mess", is the answer!
So say C3 has a Cm chord on it.
But you hold down C, Eb, and G, you have then layered a mess of 3 minor chords. Only because of the Gb that would be in the Ebm chord!
Whereas if you were to merge your C3 playing Cm...with a D3 playing Dm, something quite different!
I think I must have misunderstood the question!

But do you actually mean "playing a key as a chord"? That would make sense, but then seems like a strange question to ask.
You'd be playing a chord on one key, is all that is.
Because I thought you meant then playing a chord with 3 notes that each have a chord on them...

Not if you did what I thought you meant.

"Chord of chords" ?
Chord on a key.

No need to blame the drugs you take! That's weak!

 

Last edited: Nov 30, 2021

If it contains different notes to the ones you generated then it is most likely an extended chord or polychordal.
If it sounds good keep it, if it doesn't well that's obvious.
If say your minor triad on the synth was Cm (C,Eb,G) and on the keyboard you played a B diminished triad(B,D,F), you have a polychord and an extension
This would be a Cm(maj11) a Cm(maj7) with upper extensions and is also a polychord (consists of two or more chords).

 

Hence why I gave the Dminor over Cminor example.

 

Building on the above comments...
Common jargon used... Explore Triad Pairs - Countless articles on the web and videos on youtube.

If you set up several pre-built triads on your synth, and then played 2 notes (each note playing a triad) you would be playing a triad pair.

Figuring out which combinations of triad pairs will sound good depends on the context (your music), and your trial and error exploration, and maybe optionally some theory to understand what's going on. (theory discussion already starting to happen in above comments) e.g., are your pairs still diatonically in same key or not.

You will get better results if you build both major triads and minor triads and give yourself more options to combine as triad pairs.

If you try playing 3 notes at a time (hence 3 triads), then someone on the forum will probably sarcastically accuse you of re-inventing Jazz or polytonality.

 

Sorry I just fully read your post - well the more the merrier - reinforcement is always good.
The amount of possibilities are too long to list. It should give the OP plenty to experiment with though.

Not me I'd want to hear it but that is both funny and ironic.

 

Okay, 30 minutes I ago I was wondering about this place.
Now I'm back to liking it again!
People that know stuff! Yay!

 

Yup, that's what I meant. Thanks, guys. I'm just noodling around with some pad patches and forgot I had made a chord out of one patch, then tried to play a chord, and it sounded... weird. Not bad, but weird. So I started experimenting, thinking I made something new (i told yall, I'm high) but then I thought I'm sure I'm not doing anything cutting edge, but what exactly am I doing.? And since I'm unable to articulate what I'm doing, I can't figure out if there's an actual name to what I'm doing, lol.

 

Discovering music theory on your own is an amazing feeling! Good stuff.
And music theory had been there, seen it, done it, already.
I wasn't having a go at you when I said "People that know stuff!", okay?
Just happy for this place.

 

A few extra comments. It's the idea that matters, more than which instruments are involved but even so, guitarists have found countless ways of using these ideas, and pianists even more so.
Exploring without those instrumental skills is supported very nicely by many midi tools.
Really too many examples to mention, but consider items like those below...
one small simple example - one larger sophisticated example - both excellent.

Chordz https://www.codefn42.com/chordz/
Tiny, free, and very flexible. Enables you to map chords to single notes.

Scaler https://www.pluginboutique.com/meta_products/6414-Plugin-Boutique-Scaler-2
Does same as above plus a million extra tricks

 

Yeah, now I realize I had been doing this for a long while, using Abletons Chord effect... then playing in chords, lol.

 

I honestly wanna hear what you mean, words are not enough here!

 

Countless recordings of multi-tracked guitars in not only different inversions but added note combinations and subtractions. I am not sure what the most amount of tracked guitars is in recording history? I know Led Zeppelin had it at one point with mixtures of 12-String, mandolins, 6-string etc... Hard Days night the opening chord was another...
Guitarists are notorious for multi-layering.

 

@oolongteanr1 I love unfermented chinese tea too!
Just play a CM in one hand and a DM in the other.
It's that sort of thing.

Didn't LZ once record 1 string per track, or something?
Or is that a myth?

 

Last edited: Nov 30, 2021

The thing about myths is that often the people alive do nothing to dispel it, journalists make a sensation of it until the actual story may not be as exciting as the myth. Your guess is as good as mine. It was a fairly known practice with LZ that they tried as many different things as they could like the Beatles, so anything may have happened?

 

You're thinking of Def Leppard

 

I know what op means.
Just think of a sampler with a sound that's an instrument playing a chord. Now, play more that one key on your keyboard, you have several times the same chord played at different base notes.

Let think about an example that could actually work.

You have a C major chord sampled,
Play C key, and F key together, you have an extended chord. If you do this with one octave distance better.
C3 F4.
How do you call this? This is his question.

 

It's all about intervals.

Say you have two oscillators. You tune the second oscillator to be +7 semitones. You have created a perfect fifth interval. Now play a basic 3-note major chord, C E G.

Because each note is playing a fifth interval, this is now a C major ninth chord. C E G B D.

But technically you are playing G twice, so there's an audible emphasis on the G note.

Here's what that sounds like (A: C E G with second oscillator tuned to perfect fifth. B: A straight Cmaj9. C: Simulating A with three fifths as MIDI). Though to the untrained ear, it's probably not noticeable.

As for the original use case of playing a minor chord with 3 oscillators, I'd be curious what you'd be playing. Playing "chords of chords" typically don't sound good unless they're explicitly fifth or forth intervals.

 

Last edited: Nov 30, 2021

Polychord