Hi everyone. I need help on composing. I watched videos and read books about music theory. But when it comes to composing i have some problems. Lets say I have a motive/lead progression and i want to find the according chords. How do i do that?
Also I know what a circle of fiths is but i dont know for what it is good for. MAybe i am too dumb for it. Any help in english german or turkish is appreciated. Thnx in advance.

 

I suggest you watch the Dance Music Production Fundamentals videos. You're not too dumb, things take time to seep in and being a producer is a difficult task in the amount of things required of you.

The circle of fifths is useful for many things. It can tell you the sharps or flats in each scale and what they are, it clearly illustrates the major/ relative minor relationship, can help you with chord progressions and much more. When modulating, or in other words changing key in a song, it can also tell you which keys are the best to move to.

 

you shouldnt follow ruless to find the right chord, find a pleasant to hear chord to put under, that's creativity,

 

You would generally find chords that would harmonize with the main notes in your lead. Do you know about harmony?

 

Tell me what you know about harmony Catalyst.

 

simple example if you have a melody with E,G,B you can use chords for the G major scale and the only altered if F#, but then it comes to taste, u can try a B7 or a Em7

obviously the thing get transposed so if u have F,G#,C then u go with G#Major and so on..

 

Well it's a vast subject that I don't think could be covered in a post and if it could it would be a book. I highly recommend you watch the videos I suggested because it will take you through all of the stuff you need to know and you'll see it in front of your face with every detail explained. There's also some videos in AudioSex Academy (Part II) to check out. Trust me Rick Snoman's videos are good for a lot of genres so don't be hesitant to give it a shot. If only he would make an Industrial dance (if it HAD to be dance-oriented), a man can dream can't he? And if you like it please consider purchasing something from his catalog of useful videos.

 

Youtube has all you need:

For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syJf4Ysmeuc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hou7mJUZOIc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7md7I9475po

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZaFz24t-iU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77l8iB2R5qg

...and hundreds more.

 

Don't worry too much about theory, if it sounds right then use it. People get bogged down trying to learn and follow the rules but there is simply too many to digest, let your creativity be your guiding light and just practice, practice, practice. Learn the boring theory stuff when you really have to, but just a little bit at a time.

 

dokx1
Helpful post, let me do the same: you don't have to use the media tag for YouTube, just paste the link and you're set.

 

I am one of those people who have never had to understand any of the theory because music comes naturally to me. But I do try to understand how music works so I can explain things to someone thus I have my own little theories. If you have got a melody and you are looking to write chord progression for it, I believe you should first find the key of the melody (or the tonic?) instead of jumping directly to scales and harmonies.

This helped me learn how to identify the key:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zm9-YtDGqA

 

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons

 

Hey guys. I thank you all for your links and tips. I will check them out.

I have some tracks on Soundcloud. Maybe you wanna check them. I dont make house or techno music.
But i also dont knnow what genre to fit the tracks i made.

As i said i dont have much musictheory intus. I hope you like them anyway.


http://soundcloud.com/alpha0ne


Cheers.

 

Oh man it takes time to understand the circle of fifths but gawd once you understand how it works, the advantages it gives to your composition ability...

You can use it creatively to achieve so many things it's actually really exciting to learn. It's boring to people who don't understand how they can apply it *yes*

 

... sugar + agony
How did I do that so I can do it again?
...agony

 

On a sec. thought:
Maybe you don't need at all a chord to define music idea. One beautiful theme and melody under * counterpoint ( Wiki: In music, counterpoint is the relationship between voices that are harmonically interdependent (polyphony), but independent in rhythm and contour. ) or better to say, theme and second theme under it, for example- love pair. Their relation. After, you can add between these two lines also again one more melody line or as much as you wish which smootly, nicely sits there and you will get chords eventually.
How you will get idea of chords:

so on
Hope this was helpful.

 

Hi Alpha.

A few days ago I posted some 'theory' in another topic, maybe it´s useful for you.
If you read it and also knowing the notes of your lead melody, you can make an 'inverse writing path' and determine the key of your song. In that way you can try some chords that should fit better with your lead line. If you´re a newbie I suggest you to start first with the bassline that supports your lead. Then, when you´ve found something that works well, you can use your bass notes as the first notes (tonal) of your chords (no inversions at first). For example, if your lead plays g > b > d > a > f# notes and you know you´re in GMaj Key, then you could try g > e > a on your bass line and then build your chords from there: Chord 1 (g+b+d+fa#) > Chord 2 (e+g+b) > Chord 3 (a+c#+e+b).

Here´s the 'theory' so you know what I´m talking about. As I said, it´s a simple -and not so hard- basic approach for starters in music. And as the guys said before, internet is your friend for learning purposes.

'Theory':

Scales are 'determined' by intervals, tones and semitones intervals that define your scale by setting the notes who are involved. People tend to learn (or try) music theory just memorizing stuff or watching tutorials about how to make fancy/complex chords without knowing simple principles behind, and that´s why sometimes you put together a few fancy chords and they just crash or don´t relate 'well'.

So, here are the notes (all): ... DO - DO# - RE - RE# - MI - FA - FA# - SOL - SOL# - LA - LA# - SI – DO ...

..and for example, the intervals for a Major scale are: T - T - ST - T - T - T - ST

*Examples:
So if you start in DO (key) with that 'scheme' you end with this notes conforming the DO Maj Scale: DO-RE-MI-FA-SOL-LA-SI-DO

If you start in MI (key), your notes for the MI Maj Scale are: MI-FA#-SOL#-LA-SI-DO#-RE#

Back to the DO example, if you build your (simple) chords with the resultant notes you will find that:
Do Chord = do + mi + sol = Major Chord
Re Chord = re + fa + la = Minor Chord
Mi Chord = mi + sol + si = Minor Chord

*(and keep building)

..so a chord progression of a song could be: G > Em > Dm (or Sol M > Mi m > Re m, as you prefer), but you can perfectly say that you´re still playing on CMaj Key.

I hope this helps. Of course this is the starting point and you can change the Key in the middle of a song or mix chords from different scales, be free, but it´s nice to know a little about.

..and for last, if you want to add a 7º or a 9º (or whatever) to a chord, you just have to follow the scheme, for example a C (or Do Maj) chord with a 7º and a 9º will be constructed as: do (1º) + mi (3ºMaj) + sol (5º) + si (7ºMaj) + re (9º).

***This was for somebody who asked why the chord names found in a song doesn´t always match with the Key of the song, but you can use some data from here.

Bye.

 

Figure out the root and scale of your melody, then use the chords that are in that key. Simple as that (if you know simple theory).

 

rick snoman stuff is good for anything apart from music theory and synthesis. too many mistakes, especially in that harmony one

 

Alpha One, Find a nice simple song you like, get the chord progression and learn it, either in a guitar or in a keyboard. As you familiarize yourself with that progression and many others after that, you will intuitively learn how to change it around and make musical sense. That's probably the most important and practical way you can learn the craft. You can get bored to tears with music theory and harmony but unless you have learned this basic idea you won't get anywhere. That's where the circle of fiths come into play.
Good luck, m8!