Ask Jaffa about music theory...

[jaffa]

Chords, scales, cadances, rhythms, instruments, producing, songwriting, composing, genres.

Go.

[samjjones]

Assuming I have no prior knowledge of musical scales, etc...but I know how to "hum" and am reasonably creative, how long would it take for me to be able to "write" a song?

[jaffa]

Hmm, if you have something like a dictaphone, not very long at all, you can just hum your melody into the dictaphone, write some words to fit the melody, learn it. And you have yourself a very simple song. This would be very basic like a nursery rhyme.

If you wanted to use chords (make the song a bajillion times better) and had access to a guitar or piano, you could learn 3 chords quite quickly (under an hour), put them in a nice order (whatever sounds best to you). Hum a melody over the top of said chords, your melody will almost certainly sound ok as you'll naturally be humming notes from the chords. Remember this or record it, write some lyrics to the melody, and there you have a slightly more complex song.

[Nicholasp27]

are beans really the musical fruit?

[Georgia Avenue]

Jaffa:

Do distorted guitars really create minor key overtones to the major chords they are playing? Or something? Anyway, please talk about distortion.

--GA

[jaffa]

[ QUOTE ]
Jaffa:

Do distorted guitars really create minor key overtones to the major chords they are playing? Or something? Anyway, please talk about distortion.

--GA

[/ QUOTE ]

Distortion can sometimes create harmonics which 'set off' notes such as the minor third, giving subtle minor overtones, but more so, what it does is give a muddier sound by increasing the input volume, making the major 3rd harder to hear and emphasising the root and the 5th, this gives it a sound that is neither major or minor.

[jaffa]

[ QUOTE ]
are beans really the musical fruit?



[/ QUOTE ]

Beans are not fruit.

For musical fruit though, hollow out a pineapple or pumpkin and hit rhythmically.

[trumpjosh]

Are an octatonic scale and a diminished scale the same thing? If not, what's the difference?

Should a "Tristan" chord resolve? If so, how?

[jaffa]

[ QUOTE ]
Are an octatonic scale and a diminished scale the same thing? If not, what's the difference?

Should a "Tristan" chord resolve? If so, how?

[/ QUOTE ]

A diminished scale is a type of ocatonic scale. The diminished being the most common. It goes Tone, Semi Tone, Tone, Semi Tone, Tone, Semi Tone, Tone, Semi Tone. There are other forms of ocatonic scale (eight tones in the scale)

The tristan chord does not resolve, i don't think it should, whenever it is used in music it is used to prolong feelings of tragedy/longing etc, this only works because it doesn't resolve.

[Ghazban]

12-ton serialism.... wtf? Seriously.