The RPG Maker Resource Kit

RMRK General => Creativity => Topic started by: Kokowam on April 30, 2008, 11:56:34 PM

Title: [Music] Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on April 30, 2008, 11:56:34 PM
What are good ways to make chord progressions? If I ever get the time, maybe I'll get some scale and pick out notes and stuffs but for now, what are some quick and easy ways?

I know that the chord the key is in plus the major chords of the sub-dominant and dominant notes and a minor chord of the sub-mediant make a good progression. Stuffs like that, I need ;-;

My music-lingo may be off (probably is ;-; ) but it was the shortest way to say stuff in a non-confusing way, I think...
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Tsunokiette on May 01, 2008, 12:04:29 AM
Well, a generic way is to modulate between chords.

I'm modulating in fifths for a piano song, it's simple but effective.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on May 01, 2008, 12:08:10 AM
Modulate? ;-;
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Tsunokiette on May 01, 2008, 12:16:35 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation_%28music%29
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on May 01, 2008, 12:19:08 AM
Wikipedia is hard to understand. Can you dumb it down? ;-;

EDIT: I love you Halo. Is this a good example of Common Tone Modulation?
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Pathbinder on May 01, 2008, 01:21:00 AM
Wikipedia is hard to understand. Can you dumb it down? ;-;

Does this help?

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation_(music)
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on May 01, 2008, 01:32:18 AM
Well, considering I created and put up an example of modulation, it's not really needed. But thanks anyways for the faulty link :P
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Pathbinder on May 01, 2008, 05:57:37 AM
Eh, I don't know why the close parenthesis didn't become part of the link. ;9
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Nightwolf on May 01, 2008, 10:12:07 AM
chord progression is like you are lalala then you go wewewe but suddenly its a BAM BAM BAM.

Easy ways are not invented. You need to know how to change it and when. How in the since, not like lalalalalaweweweweBAMABAMBAMABAMABAMABA.

in some better ways and when is like...not in the very start/very end or something.~
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Moss. on May 03, 2008, 08:38:46 PM
http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,16991.0.html


Check out lessons 7 and 8.
Maybe 6 if you want a refresher about chords.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on May 03, 2008, 08:54:38 PM
Oh, thanks <3 I'll look into it soon.

EDIT: Okay, I get the whole diatonic stuffs and that's the more used one. But the away from diatonic progressions is hard... XDD
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: djkdjl on May 05, 2008, 11:30:07 PM
all the best chord progressions were already made.  So look them up and keep using them to make the GREATEST MELODY EVA!

my fav,,other than the unchained is the F,,G,,Em,,Am progression.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on May 07, 2008, 12:49:41 AM
all the best chord progressions were already made.  So look them up and keep using them to make the GREATEST MELODY EVA!

my fav,,other than the unchained is the F,,G,,Em,,Am progression.
You can't say "all the best chord progressions were already made." There are an infinite amount of progressions, a lot of them being unusable and dissonant (which is not what I'm looking for >_> )

If you find out all the chord progressions to ever exist and still say it, sure. I just don't want any opinions in here. My method of a root chord, diatonic chords of its 4th and 5th, and a minor chord of the 6th are the "progressions...already made." That's great and all but it's too generic. I want something different.

All pop rock is pretty catchy. But, the problem is, they all pretty much sound the same. Maybe a bit different vocals, different key, but they're all power chords, which makes them limited. That's why I'm looking for different chord progressions.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: haloOfTheSun on May 07, 2008, 03:10:52 AM
a lot of them being unusable

Untrue. And you should learn to embrace dissonance; it's a beautiful thing.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on May 07, 2008, 11:08:42 AM
I'm not good enough to work with dissonance. Plus, with some radical chord progressions like C, Cmaj7, then into D or something like that would be just like bleh for me, and a lot of people, to work with.

"A lot," too is a very general word to start with, so :P
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Nightwolf on May 07, 2008, 01:07:29 PM
all the best chord progressions were already made.  So look them up and keep using them to make the GREATEST MELODY EVA!

my fav,,other than the unchained is the F,,G,,Em,,Am progression.

...
...
No. Chord Progressions are not limited, like 5-10 or so. You can say that many good progressions have been made and he should see them (if thats what you meant) but you can't say that all of them have been made. ALso, using made up chord progressions ruins the point of self composing music.

..

Quote
There are an infinite amount of progressions, a lot of them being unusable and dissonant

I don't see how ;-; No chord progression in unusable unless you don't know how to use it ;-;

or watever

/zypher

Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on May 07, 2008, 07:30:41 PM
Idk, some are really really really dissonant and it's wrong to say it's "unusable" since there probably is one way but still. I guess you can say "a lot" are really hard to use.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Moss. on May 10, 2008, 04:38:44 PM
I agree with Moo. There are a few progressions that are really, really difficult to use because they sound too dissonant.



Unless you're writing 12 tone or something...
...then it's acceptable.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: haloOfTheSun on May 10, 2008, 09:27:09 PM
Philip Glass can use them :V
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Moss. on May 10, 2008, 10:05:43 PM
lol minimalism

His Einstein on the Beach is just triads played over and over again. He's not really the person I'd bring into an argument about dissonance.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: haloOfTheSun on May 10, 2008, 11:11:27 PM
He does a lot of 12 tone stuff. Well, not a lot, but more than he should.

...I don't like Philip Glass ;9
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Tsunokiette on May 10, 2008, 11:14:14 PM
It's okay Halo, one day we'll write something to make you like 12 tones... and Philip Glass.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: haloOfTheSun on May 10, 2008, 11:19:25 PM
I don't necessarily have anything against 12 tone pieces, just Glass. Most of his works are 4 or 8 measures repeated over and over and then another 4 measures repeated over and over. Then you go back to the first part and do it again. Some of his movie scores are ok and are actually closer to traditional movie music, but a bit more dissonant.

And lol at his minimalist stuff. If I had known there was money to be made in playing the same few chords over and over then I wouldn't have bothered trying so hard to write complex music :lol:
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Moss. on May 11, 2008, 12:14:59 AM
If you want 12 tone that is more bearable, check out Anton Webern, or Alban Berg.
Schoenberg is the father of 12 tone, and those are his two 'students.' But Schoenberg's music is really hard to listen to. Some of Berg and Webern's stuff is actually kinda neat. Some of it.

Like Berg's Violin Concerto, or Webern's Concerto for 9 Instruments.

Those are some pretty sweet pieces.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: haloOfTheSun on May 11, 2008, 05:29:06 AM
I will find them!
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on May 11, 2008, 12:03:05 PM
I don't really get how 12 tone sounds good :P Or is it more of a musical marvel ?_?
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Moss. on May 11, 2008, 05:07:22 PM
I think most of it sounds like crap, but since I've taken an entire semester in music school about modern music, I can't help but know how to appreciate it.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on May 11, 2008, 07:34:38 PM
Teach me how to appreciate. XD I'm curious.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Moss. on May 12, 2008, 12:12:32 AM
I'd have to teach you about set theory, and retrograde inversions, and hexachordal combinatoriality, and then go into serialism with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Milton Babbit, and

bah


No.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Nightwolf on May 12, 2008, 09:13:34 AM
Teach you to appreciate...


Well, listen to some crappy song and then say "Oh, this is good"

Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Moss. on May 12, 2008, 04:11:16 PM
Most people think 12 tone is just a bunch of random notes.

It's not. It's actually the most organized and NOT random music, well, ever.

If you haven't been taught set theory, you wouldn't know that.

And hence, you wouldn't appreciate 12 tone.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Kokowam on May 12, 2008, 07:50:58 PM
I remember something, like, 12 tone played backwards works out well, too.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Tsunokiette on May 12, 2008, 09:41:41 PM
Think flight of the Bumblebee
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Moss. on May 13, 2008, 01:06:22 AM
Most 12 tone pieces use only 1 row. That is, a 12 tone row. These are sometimes chosen at random, and sometime's they are not.
They're called 12 tone rows because they use all 12 pitches. In a certain order.

You must use these notes in that order throughout the entire piece. Sort of.

You can also go backwards, from the end to the beginning, which is called a retrograded row.
And you can transpose.
You can use chords, if the notes in the chords are the next however many pitches that are in your row.
You can also invert the row. Say the first not is C and the 2nd is G. The inverted row would start on C and go to A instead. The same interval, opposite direction. Repeat for 2nd and 3rd, then 3rd and 4th, and so on.
Inverted rows can also be retrograded, making retrograde inversion rows.

So there's 4 kinds of rows that are derived from the original, the original, the reversed (retrograde), the inverted, and the retrograded inverted.
And all 4 of these can be transposed, so that's 4 x 12 = 48 rows you can use, just from the one you chose in the first place.

You can play more than one row at once, obviously, and you can switch hands or instruments, depending on what you're writing for.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Malson on May 13, 2008, 01:12:25 AM
yeah I have a lot of trouble writing in 12 tone but i'd like to be able to. as for chord progressions I'm a fan of taking well-known ones and altering them or making them sound interesting. I'm starting to stray from that though, and picking up piano again is making that a lot easier for me, haha.
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Malson on May 13, 2008, 01:25:41 AM
all the best chord progressions were already made.  So look them up and keep using them to make the GREATEST MELODY EVA!

my fav,,other than the unchained is the F,,G,,Em,,Am progression.

I played this on guitar and lol'd
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Malson on May 13, 2008, 03:10:17 AM
triple post for example of what I mean by altering common progressions~
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Moss. on May 13, 2008, 05:33:42 AM
vi -> *7/vi -> IV -> iv

or in minor mode:
i -> vii* -> VI -> vi



I still think that's a pretty common progression, but, whatever.

Yeah, just look at the tab I made about that stuff, that I linked to in this thread ... and use it, lol.


edit: WAIT. I see what you're saying. Sorry, I'm tired.
Yeah, commonly that progression would just be, like, vi -> V -> IV -> IV, but you spiced it up etc...etc... time for bed...
Title: Re: Chord Progressions
Post by: Malson on May 13, 2008, 07:29:50 PM
yeah i'm not good at writing too far from what sounds "catchy." I mean, I could if I really wanted to, but it makes me feel uncomfortable.