mjr said:
Her name might as well be "Lenore"
because I'll love her forevermore,
but I will hold her nevermore
two lenore uses? coincidence?
i don't know what the other theory thread was about, but i'll try to offer something that i use. Hopefully you can already construct simple chords like D F# A being Dmajor, using a major 3rd and a perfect fifth so i don't have to explain too much.
I've always thought why things make us pleased. Something like, laughter, tickling, or just enjoying a movie. It's that we don't really know what's coming next, but we have a little idea of how we want it to go. So if we make chord changes that use this same idea, hopefully we can make our audience enjoy listening more.
The first way you can do that is by simple substitutions from borrowing from the minor key. So say we are in C major and we borrow chords from Cminor for a bit and return to our major key. Using harmonic minor let's look at these two sets of chords.
C major : I ii iii IV V vi vii*
C Minor : i ii* III iv V VI vii*
(* is the easy way of making it diminished)
The most common you've heard in pop music is the use of being in a major key but using the iv, or minor four chord. So in C major, the 4th chord would be F, and minor 4th being F minor. Listen to it. Play a C major chord, F minor, and then go back to C major. Another thing to listen to is C major, F major, to F minor. Just remember that it's an out of the norm thing, so don't over use it, because it makes it more special when it's not every 4 chord being altered. You can also see that borrowing from the minor makes our 2 becomes D diminished, and 6 becomes Ab major. Test out using those chords and sing whatever comes to mind. You'll find that it makes for some interesting melodic ideas.
The 2 being diminished can be a neat texture, but sometimes it's a little strange. Let's be in a minor key this time, and instead of playing the diminished, let's flat our second degree. So in A minor, we have a ii* of B diminished (B D F). If we flat the B and use Bb D F, we find a major chord built on the flat 2. This chord typically goes to dominant V chord (E being our dominant here). This chord is called the neapolitan chord. It's typically known as the neapolitan 6, where the 6 means it's in first inversion (won't go into why now) So this chord progression would be played: Bb major with D in the bass, E major, and then A minor. It's just our jazz progression of 2 5 1, with a little bit of a change up. This is typically in a minor key, but i've used it in major keys and it works well.
When I'm creating a riff, I don't really sit down and write out, minor 4 here, N6 there, but I've heard them enough that using an altered chord might just pop up. Sometimes when I hear a melodic idea coming from one chord to a new chord, I'll find the note I'm hearing, and then find a substituted chord that uses that note. The hard part is producing these things, because non diatonic harmony is not heard as much, and hearing more parts can't just be improvisation. Just think about what notes can be played chord to chord, and let your ears do the work.
that's probably enough theory for one post.
