As part of my college degree, I've gotta write a trip hop tune, and produce it. I'm going for a Zero 7 - Simple Things album vibe and I've got a couple of chord vamps which I wanna use together but I'm having a nightmare connecting them together satisfyingly.
The two vamps I have are:
||Fmaj7 / / / |Abmaj7 / Gm7 / ||
That's probably the best connection I've managed to come up with, it's just linking a major and minor tonality in a smooth way, even though Fmaj and Dm are relative to eachother.
This is my first time actually writing a song so that's why I'm having some trouble, I know about II/V/I's and I/VI/II/V's etc but connecting them together in a song is rather alien to me.
So perhaps those of you who are more experienced at songwriting than me could offer a hand, I'd be most thankful. And by the way, I don't actually have a melody yet, it's going to be an instrumental piece, but I will probably create some kind of hook and some solo's on the guitar and possibly on a Fender Rhodes if I can find a decent piano player :p
Cheers.
Re: Connecting ideas 19:58 on Saturday, January 12, 2008
i do alot of aranging and composing. however it's mostly for clasical styles.
i do play alot of jazz piano aswell though on the side. i know how to read chord markings, i thank i can use what i know to help you find some ways to conect your ideas but i havn't learned some of the things you use in decribing chord progression.
i don't know what II/V/I's and I/VI/II/V's are but that might not be relivant.
i also don't know what the diferent symbols mean(||,/ / /,|,/)
do those describe the number of counts or mesures each cord is used or what.
Re: Connecting ideas 06:53 on Sunday, January 13, 2008
Well these slashes ( / / / / ) are rhythm slashes so for instance, ||Fmaj7 / / / || means Fmaj7, 2, 3, 4 etc. The vertical lines are just the bar lines. I appreciate it may a little confusing. You say you do classical arranging and jazz piano on the side so I can't imagine how you don't know what a II/V/I means. The roman numerals represent chord numbers which should be familiar in a classic context, and in jazz a II/V/I is the most common chord progression there is. It is used in almost in every jazz standard there is. If you're a jazz painist I can guarantee you'd have played that progression hundreds of times. The I/VI/II/V progression is a common turnaround too, for linking a B section back into an A section for instance.
But it turns out I rather like the major and minor II/V/I idea to connect the vamps I have and I'm actually in the process of recording it now.