Chords & Harmony

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AK
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Chords & Harmony

Post by AK »

I wanna share chords, not two notes together, 'proper chords'. What are your favourite ( most have a fav chord ) Lets talk about what chords work together. As I type this, I'm a bit high but I think it could be a good subject for us to talk about.
livecollective
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Re: Chords & Harmony

Post by livecollective »

some my favs:

m7
m13
sus2 and sus4
9sus4
7flat9
m7flat5
6/9

nothing to out there...

as for what works together... can be talked about theoretically or what you think sounds good together, either way the possibilities are almost endless i feel like i wouldnt even know where to begin talking about harmonic relationships. we could start real basic or dive into more complex jazz harmony/theory.
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omnipresence
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Re: Chords & Harmony

Post by omnipresence »

Sure, some chords have a nicer sound to them than others (subjectively) but the impact of a chord can change dramatically when put into context. As in, it's what chords come before and after that will affect the way you perceive it. Though this is not so relevant to most techno/house type productions which tend to hammer out a single harmonic image.

I have been coming back to a couple of chords in particular as a 'favourite' when sitting at a piano. Will put them here if I remember when I get home.
JonasEdenbrandt
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Re: Chords & Harmony

Post by JonasEdenbrandt »

An intresting aspect of chords and chordprogressions is the rhythmic part of it. Even when playing progressions in isolation the way the chords are placed rhythmicly really make a big impact on the sequence. Try for example playing "Move Your Body" (which i think is just a minor chord on the first, fourth and fifth steps of a scale) in a different rhythmic pattern and not just the groove but the individual chords roles in the progression changes.

This ofc has to do with rhytmic weight or value, of beats (like the simple fact that the one in a bar is the heaviest). I for one find it hard sometimes when i come up with a progression to make it sit to a beat in a good way without it sounding wierd which i think has a lot to do with rhythmic weight. It tends to sound either to conventional or just wrong.

Any one else have any thoughts on this?


PS. For the ones who don't know "Move Your Body"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2t0C50b9ik
steevio
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Re: Chords & Harmony

Post by steevio »

i dont really use regular chords as such and only rarely use progressions. somehow thats all a bit un-techno to me, but its not a rule i have by any means.

i tend to use oscillator tone clusters and rhythmically modulate the transposition of the various notes by octaves in the cluster to create transient chords and inversions , while rhythmically modulating the levels of the oscillators to create timbre variation.
i also like to omit the tonic and 5th using the bass and kick to provide these and tend to use the clusters like high harmonics of the bass, or sometimes invert the tonic, or use as a high drone.. etc...
basically i try to avoid regular chords and progressions
simonb
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Re: Chords & Harmony

Post by simonb »

Gonna keep an eye on this thread, I'm getting a bit guilty of always reaching for the big low minor chords...
AK
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Re: Chords & Harmony

Post by AK »

Interesting stuff. Steevio, I like your thinking, it could be that I'm simply not made of the 'stuff' for Techno, House yeah - but I suffer from a desire to play everything in, which can result in obvious chords and a progression type feel. Not all the time but it can happen. I'm not talking cheesy, as I know how to avoid that but there's still something 'un-techno' about the sound when you play stuff in. At least to me.

And yet, a lot of my fav artists of all time have played stuff in. Juan Atkins for example. There's diatonic ( and non-diatonic )chords and harmony in all of his music yet it gets labelled as Techno still. Maybe I have been listening to too much of that 'click n drop' bollox that people seem to find appealing but I rarely hear any sort of 'music' in music these days without it either being cheesy or just a simple 'dub' chord used repeatedly for the entire track.

For me, it's not so much being musical, it's being musical without making it obvious. I'm not sure if that makes sense but I have no problem finding 'cool' or 'different' chords, the problem is using them in a way which doesn't end up like I have a progression or structure. I don't want to sound song-like but I find it almost impossible to avoid.

In terms of chords themselves, I tend to avoid triads purely because I find them too recognisable. But obviously that all depends on context. I think a chord of any interval make up is only as good as the music its in and is a bit pointless talking about a specific bunch of notes as a single entity. Non diatonic chords in diatonic scales I find appealing or chords that people don't tend to use too much. I love adding tension, so will often use chord tones which feature a tritone or omit other notes of a chord to leave the 'meat'. People who make dance type stuff often steer clear of major type chords in the belief that they sound too happy or whatever but there are cool ways of voicing them so that they don't sound like that at all. Like say a CMaj7th chord, playing it as it is with just C/E/G/B can sound obvious but when played like say, B/C/G, you get rid of the major 3rd and add a lot of tension because of the semitone between the B/C, I tend to do a lot of this but all that amounts to nothing when the very basis of the music ends up like a song structure. :?
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Re: Chords & Harmony

Post by oblioblioblio »

I always found it really hard to do chords without them sounding obvious. Especially in dance music. I know that dilemma.

I had the nicest chord progressions I've done in my life the last few days, just with 2 oscillators. By sequencing them independently and having octave up and down modulations on each oscillator everything really started to come alive.

I wasn't using anything crazy, just quite simple note relationships that sounded right. But by making the sequencing really dynamic and having each oscillator controllled on it's own, that really made a difference. Also octave modulation really was significant, especially if it was in time with everything else, y'know like when the envelope opens for the first little amount that the note sounds it's down an octave, and if you have that happening on every new note from the sequence.
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