My post was a reply to a post by member DLY who seems to now have been eradicated and not to you @§Ìfcada98 .. because, we'll, it was Foster.

 

Learning music 'theory' is a start but most best way to move along is to develop one's EAR... Musicians that started out playing guitar/bass whatever will understand this, I was a bassist from 1975-1985 you develop your ear so you can play with others otherwise you won't be playing jack shit... You start this by jamming to tunes you like, pick out the lines, soon you pick out chords then progressions then you can pretty much pick out anything as you listen to... In this way you find out how something sounds & can replicate it in your own way as many musics out there do not follow 'theory' they must simply be learned... Yup, takes a bit of time but many musics peeps are doing nowadays very simplistic take away all the overblown FX & you got simple lullabies....

 

This previous post contains basic information that can be considered useful:

http://audiosex.pro/threads/chord-progression-encyclopedia-by-genre.66191/page-2#post-809699

 

Pop: vi - IV - I - VI
Rock: vi - IV - I - VI
Country: vi - IV - I - VI
Praise: vi - IV - I - VI

 

Yes, It's good to know music convention but using many of those formulas you are gonna sound like a beginner in music class... Like I say you have to listen to what sounds good then decompile it for one's own use...

I learned all the theory in every year of high school in band, stage band & choir (no not singing, playing bass, my voice sucks) which was great for learning sight reading but the theory never did much good...

Here's example because text is cheap, in this tune these chords are used but you are never gonna find this progression on any chart-

Dminor9
DMajor11-F(root)
CMajor7add9-A(root)
BbMajor7-D(root)
A6
C6-9
A7+5
CMajor13
CMajor7-9
BbMajor7-13
Aaug+9-Eb(root)

Done in AXS Tracker (There is no panning in AXS only panning in it is delay send)-

https://alonetone.com/TalkOrBell/tracks/axs-jazzmonger


The point is something with a good progression is very often not gonna fit into any mould... If you start jamming to music & training ear it will come about, simply forget about 'composing' for awhile & jam to music you like, your brain will follow>>>

 

One thing though, Foster: if you want chords, the best chords, you have to go back a little.
Because, let me tell you, nobody did R&B chords like the 80s and 90s, believe me. The chord progressions, just tremendous. Tremendous chords. People today don’t even know what a chord is. Back then, they had real talent, real harmony. The best harmony. You listen to those songs and, every time, just beautiful. So smooth, so rich, incredible. Whitney Houston, DeBarge, Al B. Sure. Tremendous artists, with beautiful chords, the best chords. They had it all. Today, it’s all fake, no soul, no depth. But back then? The best harmonies ever. No one today can touch that, not even close. Trust me, nobody has done it like that since, and they won’t. Believe me. We need to make harmony great again.

 

Add Quincy Jones and many others to that (e.g. One Hundred ways ) and a pile of Orchestrators like John Williams as one small example... and that goes back even farther to jazz times. I am not disagreeing only embellishing

 

Oh, I hear you... Mine are a bit farther back than that... AWB, Steely Dan, Three Dog Night, WAR, America, Al Di Meola, Stevie Wonder, etc... You see that is what was in the forefront then & certainly when black music was the best before it went to 'kill whitey'... But to a certain extent it is all still there but in the background not 'promoted' I have tons of recent fusion - jazz-rock but it's not on MTV or elsewhere...

The fabled keyboardist Jan Hammer once said in an interview in the nineties that music overlords absolutely fight music with any solos or expression & want you droning on with simple repetitives... so this 'forced trend' started long ago & much 'music' being made is not even music at all I think they have even changed the definition of music i don't see any reference to 'MUSE' music is supposed to be the upshot or essence of the MUSE... easy to see the similarities... Ill have to look it up again then go to an old dictionary...

So what with like 5,200 genre's it looks like nowadays everybody had to have their own, I'm sure there's a genre for beating on a metal trash can lid with a dildo...

 

AWESOME, just AWESOME. Made my morning. :}

 

This may be a better example, I don't know... I am being forthright here I don't need to be deceptive as I don't know any of you...

A few years ago I was messing with AXS synth section & figured I'd try to see if I can get it to phase-shift the two chords as in Jean Luc-Ponty's 'Don't Let The World Pass You By' which is a favorite tune... To my surprise got somewhat close but not pro of course but pretty good for a 24 year-old freeware tracker ported from DOS-

Synth sector-


Now there are only TWO chords in the whole tune except for the suspended at the end... I had picked those out (using my head, not re-listening to the tune)... it's Ebminor7 to CMajor9, back-forth it's easy the scale may not be what they are playing but the chords are the same...

On QWERTY you just place fingers on the 3-5-7-9 for the EbMinor7 then just slide a semitone on all to E-T-U-O but add the Q at the bottom this makes the CMajor9 that's the whole tune except for the suspended chord at the end...

So decided to use it for my own purpose I created a WIP called 'Crimea River' (Cry Me a River) which is very similar, there's of course worlds better but not bad for an old tracker tune... Never did i access the song file as it's already 'in my head'...

This is what I say about making what you hear your own... This is how it is so far, I need to vary the bassline & loosen it up like Ralphe Armstrong does in the tune so I have to redo that- WIP-




Now searching I find that someone has uploaded the original to YT so you can hear comparison-

Yeah, I could do better using Cubase, Fruity, Reaper, ETC but it's the challenge of using a constricted environment that I find enjoyable... I guess I'll see when i finish it

BTW my soundcloud account I closed 2 years ago but they still haven't deleted anything even though they asked me 'Delete Everything?' I said hell yes then they said 'OK Account to be deleted'... I did this because they were asking for email verification on EVERY upload probably to try to heckle me into premium... Piss on soundcloud...

 

Yes, Exactly, do it by hand it will improve you... Simply put that is the formula, your skills will increase, music gets better without resorting to a lame feature or plugin...

 

But that's God's progression, no less. His best song, a gateway to a religious experience. I have a few of those collected throughout the years:

 

The original track switches from Cm key to Am key, as well their diatonic chords (Ab - Am).

Don't trust as absolute value sw analysis, at times mistakes due to song ambiguity or because the track modulates to other keys.
You don't believe me? Try to make analyse to any sw 'Planet Funk - Paraffin' and see what key it gets, then I'll tell you how many key modulations are for real.
It is hard indeed at first to get the whole picture, but don't give up and dig in.

Years ago transcribing a song (the only my target), melody but mostly chords was hard as hell.
But now I can jot down pretty easily at once all the necessary bunch of notes at least to make a draft, then I go in its details.

My suggestion is: learn ALL major and minor scales (minor natural if you don't want to beef up, but harmonic doesn't hurt).
There are tricks to remember them easily and at least for a while forget about modes (mixolydian, etc.) that add too meat on the grill.

Then focus only on tonic and dominant (I and V grade) of the scale.
I can't tell you a specific way to find it (there was an old thread about it, maybe I'll find it), but suffice to say that if you try by ear you'll find it just with a bit of practice.

See the track above, "Don't Let the World Pass You By" by Jean-Luc Ponty.
Even just playing the first 3, 4 or 5 or better all notes of the scale you'll see they fit (Cm then Am) and if you play repeatedly just the V-I notes (G-C; E-A) they fit too.

I hope I was clear.

 

I understand that it is faster to learn music theory properly, but is there a huge difference musically between genres of music that I cannot distinguish just by listening to them?
I recently had a chance to listen to Art-Pop, but I couldn't tell the difference between it and Indie-Pop....
Is there a definite difference musically?
Is there anyone who knows more about it?

 

I do not use it for this, but I wanted to see what zplane Decoda result would be anyway. It setup 10 sections for someone wanting to practice parts.

Paraffin (Planet Funk - 20:20)
Key: Bb
Time: 2/4
Tempo: 90 bpm

Spoiler

A:
| Gm | | | |
| | | Am | Gm |
B:
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | Bb |
C:
| | Bbm | | |
| | | Eb | |
| Gm | |
B2:
| | | | |
| | |
D:
| Dm | | | C |
| Dm | | | |
| Fm | | | |
| | | | C |
A2:
| Cm | | | |
| | | | |
| Gm | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
C2:
| Gb | | Ab | Ebm Bbm |
| | Gb | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| Bbm | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
D2:
| Dm | | | Em |
| Dm | | | F |
| Fm | | | |
| | | | Cm |
| | | | |
| | | | |
C3:
| Gm | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | Bb |
| Gb | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
A3:
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | Bbm |
| | | | |
| |
| |

 

Even between subgenres: in jazz, hard bop vs. post bop, big difference in harmony. In drum'n'bass: dark core vs. jazz-step. Sometimes, the difference is mostly harmonic: early house and techno. Hard rock is heavy on mixolydian and hexatonic blues scales. Some strands of metal are very complex harmonically, but in a very different way from the complexity of bossa nova (think Beethoven vs. Debussy). Some modes are associated with certain nations even, like the Phrygian is to Spain. Some chord progressions become associated with certain cultures, such as Japanese post-enka pop, like city pop and shibuya-kei. I have a client who is 'harmonically deaf'. I can't imagine how it is for them to perceive music without noticing any of this.

 

Last edited: Mar 28, 2025 at 2:36 PM