Q. I wanna write a song on piano, but I haven't really learned chords and stuff. I know a few chords but they don't sound like they go together to write a song. Could you guys give me some tips on writing songs?
A. I'm been composing for a LONG time so I can tell you where you need to start. I know exactly what your problem is and how to fix it. You need to practice remembering what chords are compatible to one another.
For example a D G (Bflat) chord is compatible with a G (Bflat) D chord.
Did you see how they contain the same notes but are arranged differently?
Look at a d minor scale:
D E F G A (Bflat) (Csharp) D
Any of those keys are acceptable for a d minor song. So if you used chords that are combinations of any of those keys, you can be 90% sure to be fail safe. That's a good place to start.
Now look at an a minor scale:
A B C D E F (Aflat) A
Play the following chords:
(A C E)
((Aflat) C E)
(F (A flat) C)
(E A C)
Those are all in the scale and you just created a tune to an a minor song
Recognizing what doesn't sound right is the beginning of learning what DOES sound right.
Experiment a little and find out what works what doesn't
Hope this helps
what's the difference between major and minor scales?
Q. arent all minor scales a form of major scales? for example a piece says "Study in E minor" why does it say in E minor when it can say G major? is there any difference in G major and E minor, or C major and A minor? they have the same key signature. so why say minor instead of the equivalent major one?
Malcolm: great thanks for the link. i'm a beginner so there are some confusing things that i dont clearly understand but i'm trying.
if you know a good website or video that explains the intervals and chords please let me know. i have problem understanding them.
A. Every major key shares its signature with a minor key - hence your observation that both C major and A minor have a key signature of no sharps and flats. This means that they are 'related'. You could say that A minor is the relative minor of C major (because they share a key signature), and vice versa.
The difference occurs in the way in which a scale behaves. When you go up and down a major scale you pay attention to the key signature - therefore in C major you end up playing all natural notes (or all the white notes on the piano).
Minor scales behave differently. Firstly - you need to know that there are two forms of the minor scale. These are the 'harmonic minor', and the 'melodic minor'.
When playing a harmonic minor scale you have to raise the 7th note of the scale from what it would be in the key signature. In the case of A minor, the 7th note would be G so when it is raised you would actually play a G#.
When playing a melodic minor scale you have to raise the 6th and 7th on the way up the scale, but play them as the key signature on the way down. This means that in A minor you woulf actually play F# and G# on the way up, but they would be natural on the way down.
Pieces written in minor keys also follow these patterns. If you are playing a melody you will find that a piece of music follows the melodic form, but the chords (or harmony) follows the harmonic minor rules.
Hope this is vaguely clear!
What exactly is a chord(instrument, piano) and how do I learn them all?
Q. I don't know if this is right or not but is a chord just a bunch of keys pushed together at the same time? And how do I learn them all, practice is one thing but I looked it up and there is like a hundred of them. Do I have to memorize every one of those along with the names?
A. There are as many chords as there are combinations of notes - so pretty much an infinite number. Fortunately the chords we use every day follow rules.
There are two basic types of chords, major and minor. All major chords have the same intervals (more on that in a minute) as do all minor chords. You only need to learn the intervals to begin with; once you start playing the chords you'll simply remember what each one sounds like, and what notes you need to play.
Intervals are the distance between one note and another. On a piano the distance from one note to the next note-but-one is a tone. The distance from one note to the very next note is a semitone (this is true for all instruments, but it's easy to see on the piano). To form a major chord we take a note (say C) then we go up 2 tones. So take C and miss one note and we have D - one tone. Then from D we miss a note and take the next - E. Therefore the first two notes of a major triad of C are C and E. Next we go up a tone and a semitone. A tone from E is F#, a semitone from F# is G. Therefore the major triad of C has the notes C E and G.
This is the way to find out the notes in ALL major triads.
To find out minor triads we firstly go up a tone and a half, and then 2 tones. So if we're in C we go up a tone and a half (one tone = D + 1/2 = Eb) and then up 2 tones from there (1 tone = F 2 tones = G). Therefore the notes of a C minor triad are C Eb and G.
The thing about triads is it doesn't matter what order we put the notes in. A C major chord only has to have the notes C E and G in it; the order isn't important. So we could have E G C, G C E etc.
As far as learning the chords goes I would suggest working out the notes in each major and minor triad (you could also look it up, but working it out will help you understand WHY it works) and then playing them all, so start with a triad of C, then Db, then D etc.
There are a LOT more chords, but they also follow rules - and there are only a few (about 100 or so) chords which are really used often, and most of them are simply the same but with one note different. I have been playing the piano for 15 years and playing jazz piano for about 7 and I still don't know ALL the chords off the top of my head!
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Title : How do you know what piano chords go together?
Description : Q. I wanna write a song on piano, but I haven't really learned chords and stuff. I know a few chords but they don't sound like they...