Sup, say I play a bassline in c major an arpegiation bass chord prog in my left hand. I have found that e sounds good when play the c major chord prog in my left hand so I play e in my right why is this? Why does e g and c sound good when play a c major in the left hand yet f and b sound rather bad? Do certain chords sound better together in terms of pop/rnb? And can I come back to the I chord at anytime or can only certain chords come back to the I chord. Basically I want to no which chords sound good together and how to return to the I without sounding bad?
- playing a C major arpeggio in the bass means that you can use any note above
- some notes are more in tune with the C than others, being closer to the C on the harmonic series
- the note G is the 3rd harmonic
- the note E is the 5th harmonic
- the note Bb is the 7th harmonic
- the note D is the 9th harmonic
- the note F# is the 11th harmonic
- the note C# is the 17th harmonic
- the note Eb is the 19th harmonic
- the note B is the 15th harmonic
- the note F is the 21st harmonic
- the note G# is the 25th harmonic
- the note A is the 27th harmonic
- we consider the consonance sequence for C to be (according to Paul Hindemith)
Most Consonant C-G-F-E-Ab-Eb-A-D-Bb-Db-B-F# Most Dissonant
- For the C major scale this would equate to
Most Consonant C-G-F-E-A-D-B Most Dissonant
To your question more specifically:
I think that you need to learn to be more specific and, therefore accurate in your use of language to communicate musical ideas. To whit:
Chord means a collection of tones played simultaneously or one after the other. The triad is the basic chord form.
Tone is for a specific pitch
Note is for a rhythmic duration
Tone/Note are generally combined in such a way that they have become synonomous for the combined value of pitch and duration
Melody for a sequence of tones/notes
You ask about using a note against a left hand C major arpeggio:
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/brownzChordProg-01.mp3[/mp3]
This shows the left hand arpeggiating a C major chord C-G-C'-E'.
The right hand progresses through the overarching melodic line E-G-C-D-F-A-B-C
As can be heard, the A and B sound more dissonant than the F or D (at least to my ear)
As for using chords - what move to what - see this;
Chord progressions in the major some tips and tricks
Melodically, there is no right or wrong note to play against a chord, only those are more dissonant or more consonant.
Okay, based on my very limited theory knowledge E-G-C is an inversion of the C major Chord C-E-G. F&B might not sound good because the major chord in the normal progression is F-A-C. G-B may sound better because its part of the G chord. I just think has to do with progressions and inversions. This is just a thought, as I'm sure BC or pump, etc, may offer a better explanation. my 2 cents.
You describe polychordal concepts
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/brownzChordProg-02.mp3[/mp3]
In this example the C major arpeggio continues as before in the left hand.
In the right hand we now hear triads played based on the scale degree found in the first melody:
Progression | Em-G-C-Dm-F-Am-Bdim-C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
---|
Polychord perceived | Em
C
| - | G
C
| - | C
| - | Dm
C
| - | F
C
| - | Am
C
| - | Bdim
C
| - | C
|
---|
Extended chord | C[sup]maj7[/sup]-C[sup]maj9[/sup]-C-C[sup][sup]6[/sup]/[sub]9[/sub]add11[/sup]-C[sup]6[/sup]-C[sup]maj9add11[/sup]-C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
---|
The notes F and B are part of the dominant 7th chord built above G - G-B-D-F, they are also considered to be active tones (high dissonance) requiring resolution by semitone movement: F moves down to E and B moves up to C