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Music Thread

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can someone explain the circle of fifths to me like im a retard thanks

The circle of fifths starts on C and goes up in a sequence of five notes, adding a sharp to the key signature each time you go up.
C (0 sharps) -> G (1#, being F#) ->D (2 #s, being F# and C#) -> A (3 #s, being F#, C#, G#) etc.
You'll notice the sharps added start on F# and keep going up in fifths as well.

The opposite is true for flats, going down from C by five notes will add 1 flat each time.
C [0] -> F (1 b Bb) -> Bb (2 bs Bb and Eb) -> Eb (3 flats, Bb, Eb and Ab)

Draw the circle

This is accurate except it's moving up or down a perfect 5th interval, not "five notes".

Instead here's googles first result. It includes minor keys in the diagram.

Sure, but five notes is as simple as you can get when explaining to someone who doesn't know much about the concept , in my opinion.

I know some music theory, I just never "got" the circle of fifths and what its purpose was until now so thanks friend

Fair enough

A pleasure to help, friendo. I didn't understand it until someone competent explained it some years ago in high school.

Is Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen and other "guitar heroes" good musicians? or this people dedicated to classical instruments all their lives are better (classic composers like Chopin, Beethoven or some anonymous music teachers)? I refer to the complexity on their compositions and stuff like that.

how do you practice rhythm i mean some exercises you know

If you're talking musical complexity in compositions, the standard classical composers have a leg over the recent guitar heroes. But, they're more alike than you think, even though the writers for the "guitar hero" songs have less complex chord structures than, say, Rite of spring, they make up for it in more condensed dynamics, soloing, and raw emotional build. Many of these famous guitarists take from music theory and use it in their modern charts, especially Metallica who started a ton of their songs using classical counterpoint, and even though it never truly gets to the complexity of classical compositions of a higher scale, they're comparable and do their job to appeal to the mainstream audience.

Get any kind of book, or even online sheets of just rhythm, starting with 4/4, make sure it has an accompanying mp3 or soundtrack, and try to sightread rhythms.
You'll eventually see patterns that you already know and start doing them without a problem, then just translate it to your instrument or voice using any sheet music you want, as long as it's around the level of your rhythm practice.

Getting started:
A measure of 4/4 is made up of 4 quarter notes:
1 2 3 4
Eighth notes are subdivisions of quarter notes, meaning they get half a beat, you can think of it as:
1 and 2 and 3 and 4
They sound like quarter notes at exactly double the speed of the tempo.

The smallest subdivision you really need to worry about when getting started and getting intermediate are the sixteenth notes, which are half of eighth notes, say:
1 e and uh 2 e and uh 3 e and uh 4 e and uh

You might notice the eighth note is still "and" when saying this, hope it helps and wasn't too complicated.

I want to get more into fingerpicking, but without that bullshit percussive acoustic stuff, or classical because I only have a steel string. Can you recommend artists that play nice, somewhat complex fingerpicking songs?

The top song that comes right off my head is Classical Gas. A super common, great tune if you haven't heard it before.

iron and wine - our endless numbered days has some nice fingerpicking songs.

also dont think twice its alright is a great intermediate song.

I practice with easy songs singing and playing along with a metronome, not a difficult task. But when i try with some classical pieces I tend to lose the beat eventually, even if its a 4/4.

A couple of artists who use fingerpicking a lot are Simon & Garfunkel and Led Zeppelin.

Bron-Yr-Aur if you dont mind a different tuning

I recommend to look through the sheet music first and find common rhythms in it, for example a sixteenth note -> Eighth note -> sixteenth note.
Isolate a few of these common rhythms and practice them before trying the entire sheet, when they come up you should be able to just autopilot through them.

Thanks for the answer, I don't know a shit about music but yeah, I noticed this difference

I'm buying my uncles yamaha digital keyboard with the goal of teaching myself piano, jazz piano in particular. Any tips or reading material people could recommend?

A class piano book of any kind to start. Learn classical scales and chords with correct fingering over a couple of months if you're fast, then learn jazz chords with chord roots in the left hand.

From there you can learn how to walk while comping, chords while playing melody in one hand, and bass walking while playing chords in one hand. They re translate together with a trong foundation. I'll get back to you about the book, I'm going to look through a couple that I have and see which one is more entry friendly.

Exploring Jazz Piano by Timothy Davis is a pretty comprehensive one and fairly cheap, and then a more intro friendly one is Jazz Piano Method by Phil Davis.

not the one that asked but god bless

whats the best way to fit dominant 7s into my chord progressions

Stefan Grossman (there are tons of video lessons from his company Guitar Workshop), John Fahey, Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, Mississippi John Hurt, Tommy Emmanuel.
First song I learned was in Open D "Poor Boy Long Ways from Home" various YouTube videos on that.
Practice alternating quarter note bass on the thumb and using your fingers to play eighths in all combinations

anywhere. dominant chords resolve very easily

To lead to 1, 4, 6, lead to a dominant seventh chord a fifth below (G7 to C7) or go to a tritone 7 above the 7 chord then to 1 (G7 to Db7 to Cmaj9)

In addition, add a b9 to any dominant 7 chord to bring out that color.
Ab
F
D
B

G

why does fretless bass sound so fuckin good?

Because it sounds closer to an upright bass than a fretted electric bass, and upright basses are God's gift to the world.

that's a respectable answer, thanks friendo

Yo I use this to DJ how retardedly wrong is this? I find it works pretty well

Has anyone created a standard Jazz composition? Have you arranged it for a different ensemble than a Combo before?

Well my dude, the fact is there are really no wrong answers to music. Theory is just a tool to get to what sounds really good, tested and true, but if there are some things that sound good but may not be theoretically, totally, correct, that's cool too. How does your audience enjoy it?

But to answer your question, it gets pretty weird looking towards the lower half. I'll see if I can advise something to connect it all.

whats the best way to make a 7/8 rythm work? and how do compressors work?

True, I feel that, I typically test all the songs before hand to make sure they mix well, I also hate not doing anything while DJing so I'm constantly trying to switch shit up and be original, not the guy who presses play and sips a beer behind a DJ stand


as far as audience I don't DJ anymore really because I work in sales now but when I did I mostly did house parties and everyone liked it as long as I had enough trap music for the people who hate electronic

Quick idea to play around with:
Gm Bm D7 Db7 ->
Am Fm(Maybe a Dm7b5 instead) G7b9 CminMaj7->
Emin Gmin Amin7b5 D7->
Gmin6 D F->
F#min Bmin C#7b9->
D#7b9 F7 G7 Ab7 -> Top

Just an outline, I've got no idea how it sounds and I tried connecting everything, bending a lot of the rules, so play around with the chords, I tried to keep it similar to what you have.

Split it up into two groups
4 eighth note pulses plus 3 eighth note pulses:
1 2 3 4 1 2 3/Repeat
Arrange your music around that rhythm grouping and it'll work. The same goes for any compound metre.

thanks brah I'll try it out

DJs in general don't do much nowadays. Good on you for breaking the cycle.

The people who listen to trap and edm don't really care about resolves and leading, they feel more towards the power of the chordal structure itself, so lots of power chords (1 and 5) or crunchy 7b9 chords work well in pleasing them.

thoughts on sampling? anyone have experience in it?

As r compressors, they work by setting a threshold in volume where if a recording channel reaches that volume, it will be decreased to match or go lower than the threshold. It's used to make sure some audio tracks or chanmels dont overpower the rest of the set, especially the lead voice or instrument when mixed.

Sampling is sampling. Take part of an instrument track or song, lower or raise the semitone to match your track, and tastefully plug it in.
It's ideal if you don't have experience on an instrument or don't have the tools to create the sound you want yourself, but it's not as organic or flexible as creating the sound you want from what you have.

For some reason this made me think of someone trying to sample different saxophone sounds together and getting pissed then getting a real one and going HAM on it


no idea why lol

That's pretty much intro sampling and what makes up a lot of percussion VSTs for mixing programs.

Father Charles goes down and ends battle - order of sharps #

Battle ends and down goes Charles father - order of flats b

Thank you

Believe it or not if your a guy and play guitar wanking helps your strumming hand

what does the attack in a compressor mean? thanks for the answers by the way

That's lies

How do you produce a song? From start to finish or what? How do you start getting ideas down?

I play guitar, how can i learn jazz bluesy stuff?

Attack is how accented or hard an instrument or track hits.

i understand the concept, but not how it works in a compressor. could you explain?

Blues scale and blues licks. Intro to jazz improv.
Figure out a melody, then make a bridge, then go back to the melody. Try to fit chords under it if you dont know much theory and then play around with the king of style you want.

in a compressor, attack is how long it takes the compressor to take full effect after the sound level passes the threshold

What is the point of the circle of fifths though?
Also, any tips for someone who wants to start learning harmony?
I've always wanted to be able to compose my own songs.

An easy way to remember a lot of concepts, starting with key signatures and major/minor scales.
Harmony is all chord based, so I'd suggest lesrning some basic chord music theory and how it flows, you can harmonize the base melody with almost any chord tone and have it sound great.

Sam, is this you practicing to be a music teacher?

Name's Charle's, m8. Multiple people do in fact, study and have experience in music.

Shit alright, nm then, chuck

Shit, wrong post

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I have a strong desire to learn to play an instrument but I'm having trouble finding the right one. I've played bass and guitar and they just weren't right for me. There was a brass instrument I played in school that I didn't like at the time but thinking back I'd definitely go back to learning it, but I can't remember the name. I've also been thinking about piano or euphonium lately.

Any advice for someone with limited musical experience searching for their soul-instrument? Should I just keep trying ones that interest me?

Cool, thanks user.

Why are there only 4 diminished chords?

The easy to learn instruments are alto saxophone, trumpet, euph or baritone. Other instruments are easy in their own way, but these are entry level for the most part, they do however require a longer time to get rich, nice tones as a drawback.

The brass instruments are: trumpet, trombone, euphonium/baritone, tuba, and their different voicings.

I recommend listening to some professionals, then some amateurs on different instruments, maybe go to a university concert for symphonic music, and another for jazz. You should be able to find an instrument that resonates you at a high level, then pick up an essential elements book, a private teacher if you can afford it (try college students who go aroundthe $20/hr range), and get to practicing long tones and book exerpts.

Because diminisbed chords line up with each other.
D F Ab B D F Ab B D
Start on any of those notes and you'll get its diminished chord.

A C D# F# A C D# etc
E G Bb Db E G Bb Db
Are other examples

thank you, this is very helpful

It's what I do

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How would you suggest someone with a respectable musical background get into piano? If you need more info or clarification I can do that.

Very easily. Learn key names, grab a method or scale book, learn the correct fincerings for the scales and work your way up from easy to medium difficulty charts. Then choose classical or Jazz and grab another method book and ruin it down.

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how can i start learning jazz on guitar?

I should have been more specific. I am having trouble translating practice to results in a way that I haven't seen in any other instrument. Is piano just that much harder? I feel like my hands don't work. I can bang out most anything you put in front of me but if I actually try to play anything it all goes to shit.

Start with the 12 bar blues in standard Jazz chords and minor, learn the blues scales, and check out some blues licks and solos.

Sounds like you have dexterity problems.
Look up some daily finger exercises and videos to make sure your fingers are arced correctly. Might want to see about some basic lessons to get a strong fundamental grasp, you might be able to unserstand and more or less play it, but in full it may be falling apart because of a weak foundation. On piano, its a relatively easy fix with some practice.

On the other hand, it might also be lack of listening. Do you listen to pianists? When people don't listen to their instrument, they kind of have no basis to go off of, but when you start, you subconciously begin to do the mannerisms of the musicians you listen to, and your sound morphs to fit their sound more.

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word that sounds really helpful, i've only been using the pentatonicscale since i started playing and only just started fooling around with jazz. any suggestions on how to be more creative than 12 bar blues with jazz chords though? i wanna be able to creat really nice, mellow melodies

Major and minor blues scales are the easiest way, and dominant bebop scales on 7 chords are great entryways.