Some thoughts on
collabs
There are four ways to write a song.
1.
Put some totally unrelated sounds on some tracks
and see what happens.
2.
Write a single line melody and then write a
chord progression to fit
3.
Write a riff and then write a chord progression
and melody, generally the melody and the riff are near the same but not always
4.
Write a Chord progression and then write a
melody or riff
2, 3, 4 assume some things for “MOST”
songs that are well received, that both musicians and non-musicians will hear
and understand
1. the chord progression stays in
key. For example, in the key of C…all white notes on the piano
C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G,A NUMBERED 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, 11, 12, 13
The chords in the key of C that
work are C major D minor E minor F major G major A minor and B diminished…of
course you can add 7th, 9th, 13th and a ton of
other stuff that no one but a classically trained player would likely
understand. For on the fly collabs on ohm my suggestion is KISS…keep it simple
In the key of C melody notes are
in general taken from the C scale…all those white notes on the piano. And of
course you can use the black notes, the sharps and flats but they are only
passing tones and should be very short in duration in relationship to the
natural( white notes) There is something call the relative minor and for the
key of C the relative minor is A.
What this means is that notes from
the A natural minor scale will fit over the key of C and most often used is the
5 note A minor Pentatonic scale. Penta means 5. The reason this is true is
because the A natural minor scale has all white notes.
Most songs that people like only
have three or four chords in them.
There a million other things that
can be done but this is basic stuff.
Bass players should try to play
the root note of the chord at the chord changes…that helps other people recognize
the chord.
Drummers should roll up to the
chord changes…that helps people know something is about to change.
The first track in any song should
be a click track or a reference drum line or both so people have less trouble
playing in time and that also sets the stage for the rhythm pattern .Drum
accents and chord changes done at the same time produce a stronger rhythm idea.
Make the chord change on the first
beat of the measure. Do not make more than 2 chord changes per measure if you
want people to be able to follow what you are doing with ease.
I wrote this as a way to make
collabs more fun for everyone, easier to understand, and more likely to result
in better music that actually gets finished. Don’t assume anything. Ask
questions and answer questions ask even if you don’t know the answer. It is
very cool to say I don’t know!!!
Allt är klart som korvspad - lycka till med samarbetena nu
