why does my song sound so happy?

046oh

046oh

New member
i tried for going for a similar sound like this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84DAHRGSadc

i wanted it to sound neither major or minor, and to get that hollow kind of sound.

based on what i learned from bandcoach in this thread (https://www.futureproducers.com/for...-design/scales-ambient-minimal-tracks-473787/), i tried the following things:
- use only 1, 2, 4, 5 (notes in both major and minor)
- only use 5th for pads
but it still sounds happy

here's the track
https://soundcloud.com/oriko-harada/day43

why?
is the beat too fast?
(but tracks like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN_9nB37O_U
have fast beats but still sound neutral.)

should the melody be longer?
is it the frequencies used?
is it the sounds / samples?
 
so you have misunderstood what was written in that thread

it is not the absence of the 3rd that makes the track lacking in tonality or making it modal but the use of typical chord progressions and vacillating between the two pillars of diatonic action: Rel major/rel minor

your track starts as I-II-V-IV - they all sound major to me even with your strong efforts to avoid making them sound that way because of the expectation of the progression from each of those chords to the next in diatonic harmony. Your melody even though it is missing the 3rd is still using the main notes that define major

further, each chord has its own 3rd so removing the 3rd from each of those chords leaves you with 1-2-5 (can't have 4 because it is the 3rd of ii)

you would be better served to use limited note sets for each chord, like so

I ~ 1-2-4-5-6-7
ii ~ 2-3-5-6-7-1
IV ~ 4-5-7-1-2-3
V ~ 5-6-1-2-3-4

i.e. still use the scale but limit the use of the 3rd of the current chord

next idea is to explore some more oblique chord progressions that deny tonality and modality, like

I-bVI-iv-ii-V and perhaps over a drone bass (the tonic all the way through)
 
thanks for the clarification and the additional explanation :)
i'm experimenting with your advice right now.

one question: how do you come up with "oblique" progressions?
i mean, i'm guessing that picking random notes isn't going to work.
i've heard of some rules where you can substitute the major IV with a minor iv.
does it work in a similar way?
 
take the tonic major and mash it up with the tonic minor and you start to get there - this is how you get iv and bIII and bVI and bVII for starters in an otherwise major progression (think C major and then use Fm/Eb/Ab/Bb along with all of the usual options in the major: Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bmb5)
 
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