Hi Guys!!

I've been making beats for awhile without any theory and can pretty much make up a chord, but i've been running away from bridges where you introduce new chords or modulate, taking the beat to a new height and then back again to the original chords. I'm lacking on theory I guess, but still learning.

The chords I need help with creating bridge for are Am-Dm-G-Am. Any tips will be appreciated!!

Thanks!!

 

you are in the Key of A minor. You can find scales, substitute suggestions and software that will tell you where every song that has that chord progression already goes. In numeric notation, you are playing the 1-4-7-1 chord pattern in Amin. How to increase and release the "tension" in a song can be done by a lot of musical devices (modulate up a step, hang out on another chord, or just changing the strucure and texture of the arrangement, dynamics etc.) 5 (in this case, Emin) chords are often the release before going back to the root (1)- in a lot of western music. Welcome to writing and arranging music. Endless posibilities guided by your experience, experimenting, judgement and tastes..........and no rules that can't be broken or used. Peace, I forgot to add,xbitz was nice enough to post this link in "education". Everybody starts somewhere. http://tobyrush.com/theorypages/index.html

 

Software is your friend, along with the above mentioned theoretical aspects - but it is important to know that all rules can be broken

Playing it safe you could kick into Em C or F, but Bb sounds interesting to me

 

Thanks guys, will try all your suggestions!! Well appreciated!!

 

@ C-Note,

As your played Chords are 'Am', 'Dm', 'G', 'Am'... and because your 'nickname' is C-Note, well, I suggest you to try the C Major Mode !
This was for the joke *yes* ... but not only ! *no*

The reason is quite simple to understand :

'Am' is the VI Degree of the C Major Chord (and minor relative !)
'Dm' is the II Degree of the C Major Chord
'G' is the V Degree of the C Major Chord

So in case that you want to make your Chord Progressions sound less 'sad', 'melancolic',... from time to time (the Minor Mode always sound a bit more 'melancolic'), simply 'jump' to the C Major Chord (Mode) with other of its own Degrees (the Major Degrees as the 'G' of your example, which sound more 'optimistic' --> Major Mode)... *yes*

 

you could use some inversion too, will will make things sounds a little different or just carry notes over from a previous chord
ex am(a,c,e) use f(f,a,c) or c(c,e,g) or just carry over one note to move further away, ex am to em (e,g,b) where only the e is the only one in common although the g would be part of an am7
the relative minor of c is am,this swap would be called a substitution this can easily be learned if you look at the circle of fifths,which has the relative minors and the fifths for more obvious modulations and is your guide to modulating. best way to get the hang of this is as already mentioned chord progressions or to really understand find yourself the rudiments of music book which explains it from all angles and leads to a better understanding if you don't want to sound like formulaic progressions which sound very familiar as its been used for hundreds of years now. Repeating whats been said but a move of a semitone up or down is a technique thats added to the repeated chorus of a pop song or heavily in techno and house ect styles
good way of practising writing is to learn 4 part harmony, a great time saver for getting the hang of things, you'll learn things like bass lines falling in thirds, keeping inner parts from jumping around too much which work better with the melodies and bass lines, avoiding parallel fifths etc, all rules to be broken but only for the the right effect and very good to learn the basics that work first
took me a few years to understand the big picture and still learning after years but unless you don't want to write western style music definetely the place to start