Playing a breakdown like in Kanye's "Late"

S

smjVersion1

New member
Okay, this is something I've heard in a lot of songs, but I'm going to use Late by Kanye West as an example because it's one off the top of my mind that I know has it.

I'm not sure what it is, but I'm talking about the end of a song where they just play the keys in this funky breakdown sort of thing, I can't explain it so download the file. I'm trying to play something like that, but I'm not sure what exactly is being played. Is that little sound just playing downwards through the scale or what?

Any help will be appreciated, I'd love to know how to play these kinds of breakdowns.
 
yeah man. he's just going through the notes of the scale that fit, and then improvising on them...just figure out all the notes that sound good for your chord and then just reaarrange them
 
does kanye play them keys? a peer told me he gets legend to do the dirty work for him.. kanye is specially drums and samples
 
Kanye's specialty is production.

That's all live work on the outro.

Whatever the underlying chord structure of that song is, the keyboardist is running a pattern down those corresponding chords with the scales of his choice.

Sounds like some Pentatonic runs mixed in
 
I will take a listen at this mp3 you attached and see if can add my comments as to what you may be hearing!

Well first of all - I'm sure you know that it is a Fender Rhodes keyboard that is known for the percusive/strike sound . Warm sounding bellzy too.

As far as the melody. It's run blues like riff. Try slowing down the song time stretch etc... until you came find the notes and play first very very slow. I am not a keyboard player. I play guitar and I hear those type of runs alot .

hopefully this added some value to your questions - i'm sure someone else that realy understand the major / minor / penatonic sclaes may be able to comments more the scale that this is based on.

I can play, using my ears... i just don't know the theory behind it.. sorry!
 
yeah kanye doesnt play too much...lol...
he usually gets jon brion for the live stuff, he is amazing. go to youtube and search for the making of late registration. there is some amazing instudio footage there...
as far as theory goes, dont worry about be defining the scales, just find the notes that make up the chord and play consonant pitches around it...i'm a theory/composition major, but I also know that, especially in hip hop, people dont really know the technical terms for what they're playing...as long as it sounds good....thats the bottom line!
 
cicero19 said:
yeah kanye doesnt play too much...lol...
he usually gets jon brion for the live stuff, he is amazing. go to youtube and search for the making of late registration. there is some amazing instudio footage there...
as far as theory goes, dont worry about be defining the scales, just find the notes that make up the chord and play consonant pitches around it...i'm a theory/composition major, but I also know that, especially in hip hop, people dont really know the technical terms for what they're playing...as long as it sounds good....thats the bottom line!
Click to expand...

So how's the best way to go about learning scales chords and the major theory of music, and correct me if im wrong this is highly needed to make extraordinary music
 
Sad truthful answer, I can play the same thing, but not sure it can be learned, I always knew keys enough to come up with little riffs like that. I can read music, but can't play keyboard off a sheet, I just know what sound it's going to make before i hit the note.

It's kind of like making a drum pattern on a drum machine, but instead of having 16 completely different sounds and being aware of which key to hit, you have 48-88 similar sounds.

I'm pretty sure Legend can do the same because of the riffs he comes up with(I know he reads music too, but)unlike most music reading composers, he does alot of thing that are off-note and unexpected(gives it a touch of grit). He most likely grew up playing keyboard in a church. You gotta improvise when playing behind that lady who adds her own words to the song.
 
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