antics wrote:1. If I'm cranking out my gangsta tunes and I want to write a chord structure, Do I keep the same chord and just switch notes? Or am I meant to be switching chords as well? Because I don't understand that if i'm writing in a minor scale, do I not need to be using a minor chord? :S
If you're writing a chord progression, then what you're writing is a selection of different chords. So yes, you would have to change the entire chord. By switching notes in those chords, you will be changing chords though?
If you're writing in a natural minor scale this doesn't necessarily mean you have to use only minor chords, it only means you have to use the scale to give an overall minor impression. Natural minor scales are EXACTLY the same as their relative majors. The easiest way for me to explain how to use a minor scale with minor feeling, without having to result to using just the minor chords, is as follows (it may not be 100% correct, but it should get you started and you can learn to correct me as you progress)
- Base your melodies around the intervals used in minor chords.
- Generally you'll want to use a declining note pattern to make something seem more 'sad'.
- When you know what scale you're using, start with the note of the Aeolian mode (modes are quite advanced so look into these only after you've learnt all of your major scales off by heart). This is another name for the natural minor scale. For example in C Major the scale is as follows - C, D, E, F, G,
A, B. If you started in the Aeolian mode, which is the sixth note of the major scale then the natural minor scale or aeolian mode would be as follows
A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
Notice that the scale you're using is exactly the same, it's just you're basing your writing around the 6th note of the scale, giving it a minor feeling.
antics wrote:2. If I then having made my chord structure (which you may assume rocks) and I then want to make a single note bass riff to follow, would I use the top note of each chord to build my bass?
It would generally be based around the bottom notes, but you would probably want to make some alterations for extra flavour.
antics wrote:3. I'm under the assumption that stuff which plays together must play the same notes at the same time, as I got slated recently for having my bass out of tune with my pads. How does this work? Does it always have to be the same note? How would I do the equivalent of a solo on top without playing different notes?
No, not everything HAS to follow the same notes as each other at all, although there is a name for music which is written like this.
These are the ways music for more than one instrument can be written against one another -
Heterophonic - Where the instruments are all playing the same melody but in a different way. For example One instrument might be playing the melody at half the tempo of another or playing a different rhythm.
Homophonic - Where all the instruments are playing against each other in harmony. This is pretty standard for most pop music, where a vocalist might be playing the higher note of a chord, another instrument playing the middle notes and a bass playing the bottom notes of a chord.
Polyphonic - Where all instruments are playing the same melody at the same time.
Monophony -Where one instrument is playing one note at a time.
All of these playing styles can be further broken down into which harmonic intervals you're playing like in unison where you play exactly the same note, in octave where one instrument is playing the same note exactly one octave higher or lower or at a perfect fifth, where one instrument is 7 semitones above another.
