Experimental Chords
Lesson 9 from: Songwriting in Logic Pro X for Electronic Music ProductionTomas George
Experimental Chords
Lesson 9 from: Songwriting in Logic Pro X for Electronic Music ProductionTomas George
Lessons
Writing Drums and Bass Part Introduction
01:11 2Making Drums Beats with Ultrabeat
14:27 3Beats with Ultrabeat and Drummer
08:48 4Writing Bass Parts - Part 1
15:03 5Writing Bass Parts - Part 2
04:53 6Writing Drums and Bass Parts Assignment
00:44 7Writing Chords Introduction
00:56 8Writing Chords
19:38Experimental Chords
09:44 10Writing Chords Assignment
00:56 11Writing Melodies Introduction
00:58 12Writing Melodies - Part 1
19:28 13Writing Melodies - Part 2
05:12 14Writing Melodies - Part 3
10:38 15Arpeggiator
08:02 16Writing Melodies Assignment
00:59 17Arrangement Introduction
00:45 18Arrangement
18:14 19Arrangement Continued
16:16 20Adding Effects and Instruments
18:28 21Arranging into a New Song - Part 1
14:57 22Arranging into a New Song - Part 2
17:31 23Arranging into a New Song - Part 3
08:24 24Arrangement Assignment
00:38 25Mixing Introduction
01:02 26Cleaning up and Basic Mixing
15:52 27EQ
11:46 28Tuning Drums
05:58 29Compression
10:56 30Sidechain Compression
10:30 31Reverb and Delay Sends
07:58 32Automation
06:59 33Mixing Assignment
00:58 34Recording Audio Equipment
10:55 35Recording Audio
04:01 36Vocal Melodies Introduction
01:04 37Vocals Intro
00:26 38Verse A Section
06:56 39Chorus and Harmonies
05:12 40Verse B and Pre-Chorus
05:20 41Verse 2, Chorus and Middle 8
17:37 42Song Title
00:50 43Vocal Melodies Assignment
01:00 44Lyrics Introduction
01:02 45Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 1
15:25 46Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 2
14:37 47Lyrics Assignment
00:54 48Adaptive Songwriting with Peter Darling
12:13 49Thanks and Bye
00:09Lesson Info
Experimental Chords
OK. So now we've got our drumbeat, we've got our bassline, we've got our chords. What we're gonna do now is actually add in a new section of chords that doesn't actually fit in key. We're gonna make something a bit more exciting. If you remember previously, I said all that really needs to happen is the first note of the chord and the last note of the chord and need to work together to create a loop because in a lot of dance music, it's all about loops about creating loops, creating rhythms, building up melodies, of course, for different styles of electronic music, it can be different, but generally speaking, this is the case. So what we should do, first of all is find our string part here, the bamboo air strings and copy this over by holding down alt and now let's color this differently. Hit Alton C and let's choose different color just so I know the parts are different. That's why I color these different. So I know, for example, looking at this base part, the red part is gonna be diff...
erent to the orange part and that's gonna be different to the green part this is all about experimentation. Remember, let's leave the first chord and the last chord and let's change the second and the third. So we've got a different key. Now, we've done a semi to movement. So semi Toone up, semi toone down. This may sound terrible. It may sound amazing. Let's have a listen. Really adds suspense and tension because we have this semi to movement. It really wants to be released. So we have the tension building and building and building and then it releases. So all I really did there is just add a semi toone up and a semi toone down and there's semitone down from the first one and there's semitone up. It's really about experimentation. These semi toner movements will add a lot of tension and build a lot of dance music, especially when you're creating breakdowns and build ups. It's all about adding that tension and then it's released. So we've got this tension now. Let's remember these notes. Let's have a look at this cello part next of all. So what I'm gonna do here is just have one note going all the way through this G it doesn't really matter if it clashes to be fake because we're trying to add tension. Let's hear this. OK. So we have this note here, which is a E which does a bit of a G. This one would be so it's really gone into a E minor here. So we've swapped because we have an E minor A G from the cello and A B from this note here. And then we have this note here which is ad then we have a, an F sharp but doesn't really work with the cello notes. So we're gonna move it up to an A. So for the third one, the cello is gonna be an A and now let's have a look at the fourth one is A G and new flats. We're going to go back to a G. So it's really about analyzing your notes and working out what is going on. If you don't understand some of this music theory, I do recommend taking my complete music theory course where I do break down how theory really works. Now, let's have a listen to this with the tension. OK. Great. And then we're gonna add the piano. So remember the first one and the last one is the same also, I'm just gonna color these just so I know it's different and the second one and the third are very different. So I'm actually just gonna copy and paste the 2nd and 3rd notes into this piano part here. Then I'm going to use the mute to and mute it so I can just see what's going on right now. So that really does clash. So what we really need to do here is actually work out what is going on. We did work it out with the strings. Remember the strings playing the G and the A. So the first chord is kind of the E minor. The second chord, it's kind of ad major. We know this because of the F sharp and the root note is ad the second one, we know this because of this E and this B so what I'm gonna do now is actually play in a E minor and then ad major. So we're completely going out of key. These do not fit in C minor, but it doesn't matter, it doesn't have to fit. That's the great thing about writing chords as long as the first chord and the last chord loop together, you can put whatever you want in the middle. So remember E minor and D major. So let's go back to here. So E minor, D major. So we have that D there and then they are here and Im has a B and AJ add these notes here. And the second one was a, the major. So we have the F sharp and the A, let's hear this back now. This should sound quite interesting. We can put this down in octave as well. This G put that back up an octave. Let's hear this back again. Great. So we have some really interesting chords. Now, we have two sections, we have the kind of normal chores and then we have the weird chords basically. So if you wanna create another section with some other notes, we can add this as well. So I'm actually gonna copy this over and now let's add some base notes. Remember the first and the fourth were the same makes it nice and easy. And then the second was E minor. So let's move this to an E and then to a bee. The bee is the F of A E Moor and this is E which is the tonic of the E minor. Let's color this differently. And now let's remember D major. So let's move this to an a and move this to ad. So we have the A which is the fifth of D major, 12345 and the D which is the tonic, which is the root color these slightly differently just so I know its different. Let's hit this with the drums and bass also. And we could loop this again and again and again because remember the first and the last chord actually work together and then we can put in the other chords if we wish to allow some release and with those other chords, you can add in the original drums. So it builds up. There's a lot more we can do. But this is basically how we can create some more unusual chores and get it to work. So let's hear our track so far starting from here and hopefully it's starting to build and sound more like a song. So that's just one example of making some more interesting chord. I recommend doing something similar going through an experiment, move notes around, just make sure the first chord of the loop and the last chord of the loop is the same. So it can just continue round and round and the rest of it experiment, try new things. Don't worry about keys, don't worry about key signatures. Don't worry about notes. Just experiment and see what happens. A lot of this will take a lot of trial and error, but that's what it's really about. When songwriter you're not gonna make amazing music straight away, we will take a lot of arrangement, a lot of practice. So thank you again for watching this lecture and I'll see you in the next one.
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