Chord progressions and other terms that I barely understand.

Dillywilly

Dillywilly

New member
heyup y'allll.

so. In terms of theory and composing, I'm basically illiterate. I don't say that proudly, I been wanting to learn that shit since I was like 6 years old or something stupid. I promise I'm not one of those "LOL WHY WOULD I NEED TO LEARN MUSIC THEORY TO MAKE MUSIC" dudes.

but I don't want to get too bogged down on this stuff. I seem to just get into a bit of a panic over how little I know, and not make any music, and I don't want that.

for the time being, I'm thinking I wanna learn as many chords and scales as I can, and hammer them into my head as much as possible, such that they become second nature and shit. Possibly based on the AWESOME sticky up in this section. this really, really feels like my weak point right now. I could just sample shit to get around it, but that feels like the ***** way out.

I guess what I'm wanting to ask, is.....to what extent can I "get away" with not quite grasping the relationships between chords, and stuff like playing in certain keys, etc. Will I, for the time being, be able to intuit just sort of playing a few chords or notes within scales until I find stuff that sounds good? Or am I doing myself a big disservice by not going into that stuff for the time being? I just don't want to overwhelm myself and get myself stuck in one place.

this might be poorly worded, I'm sorry. I -think- I expressed what I was trying to get at, though. thanks.
 
to be fair, you'd probably get away with it, assuming of course your into music big time. Without you knowing you'll be partly trained already. The scales/chord progression in our culture is drilled into us, when something sounds wrong it sounds, well, wrong. LOL.

Having said that, these are not difficult to learn, and you don't need to know it off by heart unless ur like some improvising live jazzz player lol.
 
I don't think its mandatory, but even heavy sample cats have some knowledge of basic music theory and chords. Like crabbman said, you know when something sounds wrong. There are a lot who musicians that learn to play by ear, if you want to go that route. I saw an ol vid of Dre back in the day with snoop and he was playing around on the piano (i'm sure he's much better today). If u want I can give you a copy of my cheat sheet with all the basic chords/scales and the circle of 5ths/4ths on it. Anyway, its up to you.
 
Dillywilly said:
heyup y'allll.

so. In terms of theory and composing, I'm basically illiterate. I don't say that proudly, I been wanting to learn that shit since I was like 6 years old or something stupid. I promise I'm not one of those "LOL WHY WOULD I NEED TO LEARN MUSIC THEORY TO MAKE MUSIC" dudes.

but I don't want to get too bogged down on this stuff. I seem to just get into a bit of a panic over how little I know, and not make any music, and I don't want that.

for the time being, I'm thinking I wanna learn as many chords and scales as I can, and hammer them into my head as much as possible, such that they become second nature and shit. Possibly based on the AWESOME sticky up in this section. this really, really feels like my weak point right now. I could just sample shit to get around it, but that feels like the ***** way out.

I guess what I'm wanting to ask, is.....to what extent can I "get away" with not quite grasping the relationships between chords, and stuff like playing in certain keys, etc. Will I, for the time being, be able to intuit just sort of playing a few chords or notes within scales until I find stuff that sounds good? Or am I doing myself a big disservice by not going into that stuff for the time being? I just don't want to overwhelm myself and get myself stuck in one place.

this might be poorly worded, I'm sorry. I -think- I expressed what I was trying to get at, though. thanks.
Click to expand...

if you are sample based don't sweat it, short term you can wing it, long term if you are going to be composing using a keyboard or other midi controller check tutes in my sig and look for other posts around this section where I have contributed - others keep saying it so I guess I can too, you need to know and understand what I write about...... (feeling old and unloved in soggy, wet, miserable Sydney Australia tonight ;) )
 
What I would recommend is putting together some resources for you to use.

You dont have to MEMORIZE every scale and chord


thats something I will do, I actually write out a scale, write out chords for the scale, sketch out some ideas for progressions and arpeggios, and I do all that BEFORE I sit down at my DAW

from there its just writing it into the comp
 
bandcoach said:
if you are sample based don't sweat it, short term you can wing it, long term if you are going to be composing using a keyboard or other midi controller check tutes in my sig and look for other posts around this section where I have contributed - others keep saying it so I guess I can too, you need to know and understand what I write about...... (feeling old and unloved in soggy, wet, miserable Sydney Australia tonight ;) )
Click to expand...
I co-sign everything BC says, and just about everyone on the site. One out of ten times he might say something slighty off, but no ones perfect. I can't break down theory like bandcoach, but I can pass this on. Any questions ask the coach.

piano-chords-scales.jpg
 
^^^ Ya, I basically took 4 diff images from the net and made them into one pic. Scales on the left, chords on the right, progressions in the middle. I put it on my second monitor when I'm practicing in case I forget something.
 
@Crabbman Ayeeee, I would say I'm a person who spends an unhealthy amount of time listening to music, haha. Yeah I know what you mean about already having a sense for things, a little bit. I mean, it's the only thing that's allowed me to make what little I've made so far, isn't it!

I guess I don't -need- to know them off by heart, practically speaking, but I do want to know these things off by heart, eventually! It's just I'm starting to see how easy it is to overwhelm yourself with these things!

And hey, I certainly wouldn't complain about being a sick improvising jazz performer or summink, haha. That would be BALLER.

@mwandishi Yeah, I know what you mean, I don't doubt I could probably get by without knowing this stuff! Honestly, I've been doing this whole thing for...about 2 years now, max? I'm still getting started. I don't really know how heavily I'm going to use samples, but I certainly know I don't want to JUST use samples, so it's all useful to know!

THAT PICTURE IS AWESOME. Thanks man! I think I'm going to give practicing this stuff a shot right away, so I'll let you know how it all goes!

@bandcoach well, I don't know if I'd say I want to be sample -based-! I certainly like using samples, I will say that. that is very encouraging, though. I guess the heart of what I was trying to get at was how much emphasis I need to place on music theory and that kind of stuff, while I'm still getting to grips with all of the software and equipment at my disposal (which is intimidating in itself!) Also I'm way ahead of you on checking your stuff, it's brilliant! Both the tutorials and the posts here and there. I was checking the tutorial on phasing and drums yesterday, super interesting/clarifying. What you do is much, much, much appreciated, man!

@Climax Aye, that is good advice, I've found! I've got a meagre little set of resources. A few little pics here and there, some word documents with stuff I found useful. The idea of sitting down and writing it all out before I get to the DAW itself is something I think I need to try, might be super helpful. I guess I don't NEED to memorise this stuff, but I feel like it would drum it all in a lot more, and make it sorta second nature?

Thanks a ton for the responses so far guys, super helpful. Think I've had confirmed what I suspected was the case, and now the main thing is just putting the hours in and getting the bits I need to get down, down. I suspect it won't be long before I have some more specific questions, haha.

EDIT: okay, so uh, quick question, haha. I've been practicing those scales. it's going slowly but surely. I can play them at a decent speed without having to look at the picture TOO much! I think the hours just need to go into that, really. I've been practicing some blues scales, too, tho. they just sorta sound rad to me so I figured it can't hurt. there's not anything like, technically more complex that I'm gonna run into down the line, is there? they SEEM to be just as easy to play as any of the major/minor scales? I'm prolly being paranoid, but figured it couldn't hurt to bring up...
 
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Yeah I think its good to sit down with a pen and paper, its the only way I can learn, so I always do that. PLus once I do that and have all the basics written out I can focus on expanding on them and coming up with new progressions and different melody ideas
 
ayeee I've found it helps with a lot of things. I've got a big whiteboard so I might make use of that.

practiced scales and that for a while last night. fun as hell. I got a sample I'm itching to make use of, so I think imma try actually sitting down and writing stuff out at some point this eve, will let ya know how that pans out, ha. cheeers!
 
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