My tips for stealing some inspiration

Ok, i know alot of people struggle with music theory and chord progressions etc but what if i told you that you can steal something and bass your WHOLE track around this grand theft.

Ok so when it coms to chord progressions its pretty much been done before, somewhere by someone. You could sit there trying to spend weeks thinking you have a totally new totally unique chord progression but chances are its been done before. Thats life.

Now in pop music the same chord progressions have been rinsed repeatedly and thats ok. Because with 1 chord progression you can build a whole track.

All you need to do, is get the midi from a song you like and whack it in ableton. Delete all the bullcrap you get in todays midi files and just keep the chord progression. From this one chord prgression you can get your bassline, your harmonic line (Strings/pads etc) and work out your melody. Its that simple and it surely beats sitting around for hours thinking your a keyboard jockey trying to whip something out.

The only thing you really need to do is work out what key its in, what scale etc its using and your flying. If your a complete moron like me this will take a while but it can be done using the circle of 5ths etc. Or even just banging random notes over the chord progression and seeing which sound nice and which dont, writing them down and cross checking.

Trust me guys once you realise the power of what 1 chord progression could do for you in terms of a fundemental basis of your track it can eally open alot of doors for you.

Ill let a musical theory genius like Jamie back me up on this…

all you need is chords to make a track. good chords, make it better



i remind my brother of this all the time when we start making a track. He didnt believe me for a while, when I would tell him to start a track by just writing some chords. then on our last dubstep track it just clicked for him. if u can write a 4 bar chord progression… your golden for pretty much every genre of dance music. once you get a nice 4 bar… then all you need 2 know are the techniques to extract a song from that progression.



i def agree, people steal progressions all the time from songs. mostly because its easier to do… however a trained producer/musician will be able to hear the chords and KNOW what song it is. i’m at that point now, where If I hear some chords, I can easily relate it to another song. if your stuck for inspiration… sure steal a progression. but if you wanna go above & beyond with a track. make it your own.


Interesting read guys

Tip #1: Play a chord. Move one note to an adjacent note, keeping the other two the same.

Tip #2: Play the chord from Tip #1. Move two notes, keeping one the same.

Tip #3: Don’t always think of chords being built in thirds (This is where you can set yourself apart from most others…)



J

I don’t know if you know.about.he chordbot app. Easy to make chordprogression with it. Really intuitive and easy to use. :slight_smile:

[quote]

Tip #3: Don’t always think of chords being built in thirds (This is where you can set yourself apart from most others…)



J[/quote]



triads get boring. we are always trying to get cool 2 handed chord action goin on.

I guess it depends on the person or what you’re trying to accomplish, but even though I might get frustrated sometimes with writers block I enjoy the writing process the most.

Yes, it may have been done before, but to me it gives me a sense of accomplishment and I pride myself on my musicianship first as it’s what I love to do.

Personally, the thing I hate most is mixing, and mastering. I just like to write. It’s what I enjoy the most.

[quote]jbachjr78 (28/07/2011)[hr]



Personally, the thing I hate most is mixing, and mastering. I just like to write. It’s what I enjoy the most.[/quote]



i agree completely. mixing is soooo boring! writing is the fun part.

The thing is jbachjr the writing will start after you have gotten your chord progression because its pretty much impossible to get a unique chord progression, somewhere someone will have done it before. But one chord progression can make a whole track for you. Simple as.

No offense, but that makes no sense Jan.

Writing a chord progression is writing.

And not everything has been done.

There are countless ways to change up progressions.
I feel that your statement is very lazy and defeatist.
If people bought into your statement then why would anyone want to continue to write music?

I guess all the new composers/bands/producers should just give up because it’s all been done???  That’s crazy talk my man.

No its just common knowledge mate, think about how long music has been around and how many people practice it, im sure Jamie will back me up on this but I think instead of spending hoirs upon hours trying to come up with some complex intricate chord progression you might aswell get one that is tried and tested, sounds great and gives you a great basis to WRITE your track with.



Seriously I rly dont wanna burst anyones bubble but id go as far as saying that no matter how complex and unique your chord progression is, the fact is that most probably someone somewhere has done it before. FACT!

even if you have the same Chord Progression . the way you write your track is never the same. unless you copy other people riffs , lead lines , or bass lines

.

Thank you Aline.

That is what I’m trying to say.

Also Jan, don’t say FACT for things you cannot possibly prove. It’s just silly.
I also know that Jamie would not agree with you as there is an endless amount of chords because for example you can also combine your chords to make new chords like maybe flat the 3rd,5th, and 7th of a C major 7th chord and create a C Dominant Diminish 7th chord for example.

You would know this if you actually studied any theory…FACT!

But, not to get off track, aren’t you here to write original music???
What are your musical goals exactly?

Myself, I would never be able to sleep knowing that I didn’t make any effort to write the track myself. Yes, certain things are shared, but the arrangement, elements, and other ingredients that make up a song hold countless possibilities for originality.

Just seems like pretendng to write music to me. Why not just DJ then if that’s the case then?

mate you really worry me…

where did i ever say anything about stealing peoples riffs or melodies or whatever??? A chord progression does not equal a fully fledged track.

what it does give you is something tried and tested that will give you a BASIS to form your track around, i really dont understand why this is such a hard concept to grasp for you???

[quote]jjdejong0 (05/08/2011)[hr]mate you really worry me…

where did i ever say anything about stealing peoples riffs or melodies or whatever??? A chord progression does not equal a fully fledged track.

what it does give you is something tried and tested that will give you a BASIS to form your track around, i really dont understand why this is such a hard concept to grasp for you???[/quote]

Haha, I worry alot of people. :slight_smile:

Glad to hear you are not stealing peoples riffs (even though that is the title of this thread).

Down the rabbit hole we go :w00t::hehe::P:D

No no no mate you took what i said and completely turned it. The whole point of this thread was for people to find tried and tested CHORD PROGRESSIONS which they could then use to write a track with…

It’s fine.

Moving on now. :slight_smile:

This is why techno is the supreme above all other forms of dance music IMO.



There’s no need for chords, only sounds. Sounds create harmonics and ultimately weirder chords. With dubstep you’re limited. The whole genre is limited in the fact that it can never go beyond the scope of it’s own devised formula, whereas techno is interchangeable with almost everything.



The future is techno, pretty much.

[quote]saulable (06/08/2011)[hr]This is why techno is the supreme above all other forms of dance music IMO.



There’s no need for chords, only sounds. Sounds create harmonics and ultimately weirder chords. With dubstep you’re limited. The whole genre is limited in the fact that it can never go beyond the scope of it’s own devised formula, whereas techno is interchangeable with almost everything.



The future is techno, pretty much.[/quote]



Nicely put! It’s a journey of experimentation. Always evolving.

Lolz