Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: The Mellotron Group

Simple chord theory isn't difficult, and for popular music at least you don't need to know much, you could probably harmonize most popular music with 2 or 3 chords, 4 if you want to sound sophisticated! There are loads of tutorials available on the net.

My limited knowledge came from "The Pocket book of piano chords for dummies" which covers nearly every chord you could think of and "Music Composition for Dummies."

Once you get used to the various chord shapes on the keyboard you can improvise without thinking about what chords you are actually playing. I'm a bit like Fritz I often don't know what chord I am playing but probably for different reasons! However it does help to know what key you are in but even that is not essential.

There are rules but they are made to be broken. J S Bach did absolutely astonishing things with harmony which should sound dreadful, and admittedly do when I play them, but in the hands of a good player they sound wonderful.

Mark

On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 3:42 AM, R l <bluesrock77@hotmail.com> wrote:

Chord construction...it sounds good for a non-musician like me...could you please ellaborate?
tks

To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
From: tomdcour@amnh.org
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:04:29 +0000
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: The Dying Day.

My daughters piano teacher recently gave me a "refresher" course on chord construction- very interesting really, think I wrote like 15 songs right after!!

From: Tony Moffett <atm655@verizon.net>
Reply-To: "newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com" <newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Thursday, April 25, 2013 9:56 AM
To: "newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com" <newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: The Dying Day.

Bernie I think it's holding down more than one key at a time.
Some arbitrary names were assigned to them by folks in the "way back times".
It's my guess, I could be wrong.

Tony

On Apr 25, 2013, at 6:43 AM, "tron400" <tron400@yahoo.com> wrote:

What are these "chords" you speak of?

Bernie

--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, fdoddy@... wrote:
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> I never know the chords I play
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> fritz
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark <markpringnz@...>
> To: newmellotrongroup <newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Wed, Apr 24, 2013 3:21 pm
> Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] The Dying Day.
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> Thanks. This is a bit embarrassing, I am not certain of the chords as it was a live improvisation. I think it started in e minor and it's mainly a mixture of descending 5ths and 4ths, it wanders around in F for a bit then ends in C. The sound is a mixture of the Mark II violins from Redtron and the tremolo strings preset from the Synth 1 VST. I recorded it using Reaper and added some extra reverb in Audacity.
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> Mark
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> On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 12:09 AM, R l <bluesrock77@...> wrote:
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> Very sweet. The opening chord and sound reminds me of In the wake of Poseidon...what are they?
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> To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
> From: marabus@...
> Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 05:57:01 -0400
> Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] The Dying Day.
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> Nice mellow piece
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> Pete
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> On 4/24/13 4:56 AM, Mark wrote:
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> For Anzac Day
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> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuloWbKMapo
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> Mark
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