Members DorphonDalfir Posted July 12, 2007 Members Share Posted July 12, 2007 I'm producing a lot of electronic (Psytrance) music with very little musical theory. I no the absolute basics, but not a lot else. I was wondering if there's any surefire formula of knowing which notes harmonise best with each other. If I had a melody that went FECA, which notes (other than the same ones) would sound best for the bass or another, harmonising lead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dsimon665 Posted July 12, 2007 Members Share Posted July 12, 2007 Its a good question. There is no surefire formula though. The particular notes FECA make up a Fmaj7 chord so they all work over that. What you can do is look at your melody notes as being a particular part of a chord and work backwards from there to create the chord. For example, say you want the F to be a #11. Then the chord you would play would be B major for that note. Then look at the other notes and see if you want to keep the same chord or change it. Say you play all these notes over a A# major chord. Then FECA beomes the 5th (F), #11 (E), 9th ©, and 7th (A) of A# major. You don't have to worry about if the cords make sense - just as long as it sounds like what you want it to sound like. Experiment with simple chords - like major and minor triads. Maybe a chord will sound good for part of it, but not quite right for another part. Then, change around the part that doesn't sound good. For 2 note lead type harmonizing, you can do lots of things. Like major & minor thirds. Play notes that are 1 1/2 or 2 steps above or below the melody. Say we play above the melody in thirds: play AGEC on top of FECA. Or play DbCAF below FECA. The type of thirds you choose might depend on what key you're going for, or you can use all the same quality (like just using all minor thirds for example). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dubb Posted July 12, 2007 Members Share Posted July 12, 2007 I was wondering if there's any surefire formula of knowing which notes harmonise best with each other.3rds and 5ths. The "formula" for finding the 3rd/5th above/below a given note is called "music theory." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Knottyhed Posted July 13, 2007 Members Share Posted July 13, 2007 I was wondering if there's any surefire formula of knowing which notes harmonise best with each other. I thought that was what scales and chords were?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheMirrorMan Posted July 14, 2007 Members Share Posted July 14, 2007 Harmonization is made up of 2nds, 3rds, 5ths, etc. So, if you harmonize in 5ths, FECA becomes CBGE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheMirrorMan Posted July 14, 2007 Members Share Posted July 14, 2007 I thought that was what scales and chords were?! Chords form the basis of a song, and scales are a series of notes played over chords which make them sound good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Knottyhed Posted July 16, 2007 Members Share Posted July 16, 2007 Chords form the basis of a song, and scales are a series of notes played over chords which make them sound good. Chords *are* scales and scales *are* chords... that's why scales work over chords, if you're in the right key, every note you play will harmonize with the chord underneath because the chord is derived from the scale. The 'bigger' the chord the more notes of the scale it contains - a 13th chord is theoretically just every note in the major scale played simultaneously (obviously in reality you have to elimate some notes on the guitar because there's only 6 strings). I'm not trying to be arse - I'm just trying to point out that chords/scales *are* the sure-fire way of knowing what notes harmonize with each other. That's the whole point of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bigboy_78 Posted July 16, 2007 Members Share Posted July 16, 2007 Chords form the basis of a song, and scales are a series of notes played over chords which make them sound good. I'd say you've got that arse about. Scales, organised into melodies, form the basis of most songs. Chords are to back up the scale. Hamorny is secondary to melody. Knottyhead is right in that chords/scales are different versions of the same thing. Scales are the notes arranged in a linear form, chords are the scale played in groups. To the OP, to keep it basic for you, why not play the same meoldy line backwards as hamony, it would work with simple melodies and might give some very interesting harmonies. I'm sure you don't care if the harmony creates #11 only that it sounds cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lame Posted July 17, 2007 Members Share Posted July 17, 2007 i would arrange the notes you choose in a chord formfind the remaining notes using the close to distant relationship chart available in the lydian cromatic concept Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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