Friday, July 2, 2010

Q&A: Goreng & chord progression

Q: Chords lagu ni (not in any particular order): B5, C5, D5, G5, A5 (x5 tu maknanya power chord). So, cammana nak goreng? Scale ape nak pakai?

A: So, tu soklan yg youtube buddy aku tanye (aku rephrase). Well, the thing is, aku bukan pakar buat goreng sendiri pon. In fact, kalo tengok video aku, sume designed to copy the original as close as possible. Lagu Intan, Ku Kesepian tu jek yg ade aku goreng sendiri punya, tu pon sket gile. I’m very shy about letting people hear my own solo. Not confident enough yet.

But I’ll tell you what I know. Ok, this is gonna be really long by the way.

 

Key Apa Chord Progression Tu

First of all, based on the chords, ape key lagu ni?

So, before answering the question, kena tau key-key dalam music. Maybe I’ve covered this before, but table kat bawah ni note2 (bukan chords) dalam every key.

 

Key

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

C Major

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

             

G Major

G

A

B

C

D

E

F#

D Major

D

E

F#

G

A

B

C#

A Major

A

B

C#

D

E

F#

G#

E Major

E

F#

G#

A

B

C#

D#

B Major

B

C#

D#

E

F#

G#

A#

F# Major

F#

G#

A#

B

C#

D#

E#

C# Major

C#

D#

E#

F#

G#

A#

B#

             

F Major

F

G

A

Bb

C

D

E

Bb Major

Bb

C

D

Eb

F

G

A

Eb Major

Eb

F

G

Ab

Bb

C

D

Ab Major

Ab

Bb

C

Db

Eb

F

G

Db Major

Db

Eb

F

Gb

Ab

Bb

C

Gb Major

Gb

Ab

Bb

Cb

Db

Eb

F

Cb Major

Cb

Db

Eb

Fb

Gb

Ab

Bb

So, tu sume available keys. OK, don’t worry about memorizing it yet. Just use it as a handy reference. Lame-lama hafal la kot. Mase aku kat class theory last semester, I was the fastest to fill up the circle of 5th (less than a minute), and I can identify key signatures so fast. But kalo kasi aku key signature, lambat sket la aku nak spell out all the notes off the top of my head. :P

So, dalam table kat atas, C Major takde sharp (#) or flat (b) (takde accidental). G Major ade satu sharp, D Major ade dua and so on. F Major ade satu flat, Bb Major ade dua and so on.

B Major ngan Cb Major are enharmonic, maknanya bunyi dia sama, walaupon nama lain. F# and Gb Majors are enharmonic. So are C# and Db Majors.

 

So, balik kat soklan kat atas.

Chords: B5, C5, D5, G5, A5

Ape key lagu ni? Does it look like C Major? If so, you might have a good reason for that, since sume ROOT chords tu ade dalam C Major (root of B5 is B, etc.). In fact, sume roots tu ade dalam G Major gak.

So, between C Major and G Major.

Ingat tak dulu aku ade share table basic triads? Ni kalo tak ingat. Dalam article tu, under Triads. And aku ade post a link to a table, yg cam ni:

Key

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

C Major

C

Dm

Em

F

G

Am

Bdim

G Major

G

Am

Bm

C

D

Em

F#dim

D Major

D

Em

F#m

G

A

Bm

C#dim

A Major

A

Bm

C#m

D

E

F#m

G#dim

E Major

E

F#m

G#m

A

B

C#m

D#dim

B Major

B

C#m

D#m

E

F#

G#m

A#dim

F# Major

F#

G#m

A#m

B

C#

D#m

E#dim

C# Major

C#

D#m

E#m

F#

G#

A#m

B#dim

F Major

F

Gm

Am

Bb

C

Dm

Edim

Bb Major

Bb

Cm

Dm

Eb

F

Gm

Adim

Eb Major

Eb

Fm

Gm

Ab

Bb

Cm

Ddim

Ab Major

Ab

Bbm

Cm

Db

Eb

Fm

Gdim

Db Major

Db

Ebm

Fm

Gb

Ab

Bbm

Cdim

Gb Major

Gb

Abm

Bbm

Cb

Db

Ebm

Fdim

Cb Major

Cb

Dbm

Ebm

Fb

Gb

Abm

Bbdim

(make sure korang paham beza table ni ngan table first kat atas. table ni table chords, table kat atas notes)

Well, this table doesn’t really apply in this case. Kenape? Sebabnya power chords ni bukan triads. In fact, some people are really strict that they don’t consider power chords to be chords, sebab pendapat dorang kena ade 3 note or lebih baru boleh kira sebagai chords. But for the sake of the discussion, let’s just count power chords as chords.

So, ape power chord tu sebenarnya? Try main power chord G (G5 chord) kat first position. Try pakai ketiga-tiga tali paling atas (4th to 6th string). Bape banyak unique notes korang main? Tiga? No. Actually, dua jek.

Note yg korang main dalam G5 adalah G, D & G. Kalo tak tau note kat fretboard, gi tengok tool ni.

(Tip: Lepas select G and 5, kalo tak nampak pattern cam aku tunjuk ni, click Inversions, and cari pattern camni).

chordbook

So, kalo repeat the steps for all chord yg dalam soklan ni, ape dapat?

C5 = C, G

D5 = D, A

G5 = G, D

A5 = A, E

B5 = B, F#

So, sume chords kat atas masuk dalam key C and G Major (refer to table pertama kat atas), kecuali chord B5, yg masuk dalam key G Major jek. Katakan la mamat ni kasi aku the first 4 chords jek. Then dia boleh pilih nak goreng either in G major or C Major only.

But since ade B5 ni, dia boleh:

1) goreng in G Major exclusively,

OR,

2) boleh gak buat kasi lagu ni modulate between the two keys. It’s just that bile rhythm tengah main chord B5, he should avoid playing F note, instead, main note F# or something else in the scale.

Of course la nak goreng kena planning sket. Jangan main rembat jek random note dalam scale selaju yg mungkin. Pada aku solo yg best bukan solo yg paling laju dalam dunia, but solo yg sedap didengar.

So, cammana nak buat solo yg sedap? Well, part tu aku tak pakar lagi. So, experiment with it. The scale is a good place to start, and go from there.

But one common advice is to emphasize the notes of the chord, especially the root. Maknanya, bile rhythm tengah main C5, emphase note C. Nak emphasize note G pon ok. But bukan semestinya kena main dua note tu jek bile rhythm tgh main chord tu. Again, do experiment. Nak main C Major arpeggio time chord tgh main C5 pon ok. And it doesn’t matter what octave you’re playing in (as long as your guitar is tuned properly, and intonation is adjusted correctly).

 

Lagi Pasal Power Chords

So, macam yg korang nampak kat atas, power chord ni ade dua note jek: first (root) and 5th. Tu pasal lah ade 5 dalam nama dia (technically it’s the Perfect 5th above the root).

Disebabkan power chord ade dua note jek, the chord is neither major nor minor.

C Major contohnya ade 3 note. Root, major 3rd, perfect 5th.

C Major = C, E, G

C minor pon ade 3 note. Root, minor 3rd, perfect 5th.

C minor = C, Eb, G

So, power chord ni ambiguous sound dia, bukan major, bukan minor. It’s also hollow sounding, sebab 3rd dia missing. Note 3rd la yg determine whether the chord tu bunyi dia major atau minor.

But pada aku, kalo main ngan heavy distortion, bagus pakai power chord ni sebab tak banyak note. So bile strum power chord, bunyi dia tight, tak muddy. Try playing an open C Major chord, compare ngan C5 chord, pakai lots of distortion for both chords. You’ll see what I’m talking about.

Kalo kawan aku ni kasi aku senarai chord dia C Major, D Major, G Major, A minor and B Major, tak yah tengok sume chord dah boleh tau key dia G Major, not C Major (at least not exclusively C Major). Tengok first two chords from the list dah tau. Sebab D Major ade F#, bukan F macam calam D minor. Kalo tak tau boleh gi tengok basic triads table tu (second table).

Katakan la lagu yg dia tulis ni, it turned out that vocal dia nyanyi strictly in G Major scale, gitar pon main in G Major scale (maknanya, dia tak main/nyanyi note F, but F# instead). In that case, the song is exclusively in G Major key, NOT a modulation between G and C Major keys. So, walaupon chords dia sume main in power chord, it’s safe to assume bile dia main C5, it’s acting like a C Major. Bile dia main A5, it’s acting like an A minor. Because those are the chords in G Major key. Our brain is so used to the system that walaupon tak main the 3rd of each chord, we can ‘hear’ it. It is suggested, or implied, but not actually played.

(I’ll discuss key modulation next time. We’ll see a good example of it in Belaian Jiwa).

 

Tonal Center (not Centre, I prefer American spelling :P)

Kawan aku ni ade tanye gak, that dia assume the key to be the first chord. Well, that’s the rule of thumb especially kalo nak cari lagu. But it’s not always the case. In fact, kalo tanye cikgu theory aku, dia prefer that to be the last chord of the song.

Katakan chords yg diberi tu disusun camni:

B5 – C5 – D5 – C5- B5 – G5 – A5- B5

That does not make the key B Major. See, B Major ade C#, D#, F#, G# and A#. Bukan B minor gak, since B minor ade F# and C# (B minor is the relative minor of D Major key).  In both cases, B Major or B minor, F# takde hal, since macam kite tengok tadi, chord B5 ade  note F#. But note-note sharp lain tak masuk, in fact, contradict the roots of a few chords.

KEY satu lagu tu tak bergantung pada chord yg first dimainkan. Key bergantung pada note-note yg dimaikan throughout the song (or at least a section of the song).

So, dalam progression kat atas, most (in fact all) of the notes fall nicely under G Major. That’s the key!

But, progression ni, dia macam emphasize B. Chord B5 tu macam home base. Most importantly, chord ni la where the song resolves. Rasa complete bile dengar chord ni. It feels like the destination. If that’s the case, then B is the tonal center of the song (or the section of the song), even if the key is technically G Major.

And when that happens, tu la yg dipanggil “mode”. (It took me many years to grasp the concept honestly). In this case, it’s B Phrygian. Pada aku, tau key dia lagi penting dari tau mode dia, sebab mode comes from the major scale gak.

So basically, kalo lagu tu pakai modal chord progression (other than Ionian or Aeolian modes), chances are the first or the last chord does not tell you the key (how many sharps or flats) of the song, but it may only suggest the tonal center.

 

 

Anyway, kalo tak familiar ngan theory music, don’t expect to be able to read the whole thing sekali lalu and faham terus. You might have to read certain parts a few times, and think. It’s ok, some of the things yg aku tulis took me years to fully understand, and I’m still learning.

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