By Spyro on Dec 19, 2007 | Reply

Thanks brother, that’s a bright idea!

By Spyro on Dec 19, 2007 | Reply

I mean, brilliant….:P sorry

By Stephanie on Dec 19, 2007 | Reply

That’s an interesting approach, but it seems a little blind to me. I’m partial to the “draw a squiggly line and make it work” technique…you can either fit the melody to the chords or make up chords that fit the melody. This was an interesting idea, though.

What program is that?

By mat on Jan 16, 2008 | Reply

ever heard about harmonic rules and counterpoint??? maybe the time you took to explain this crap could have been used to actually talk about the cycle of fifths… sorry… but … tired of half musicians seeking for facility while staying ignorant at all costs….

By Justin on Jan 17, 2008 | Reply

“mat” has obviously never taken a music theory class.

Where he may have learned that the ultimate definition of music is simply “organized sound over time”, occasionally without the “organized”.

Counterpoint and the cycle of fifths are not the dominant rules of composing. There is a system you are taught in a music theory class that has been popular in the past several hundred years… but is not used by the majority of composers

This is because most composers are “popular” musicians - rock stars, folk singers, rappers (although I concede it’s difficult to call rap music, more like poetry with a little bit of rhythm). There are even people who compose music purely for their own enjoyment.

Being somebody who uses fruityloops to do the majority of my composing, and being experienced writing on a piano roll instead of staves, I can see where this small tutorial would be helpful to a newer user of fruityloops who doesn’t know much about music theory. Starting your education with a piano roll is completely different from starting with a G clef. It creates a much more mathematical view of harmony and melody. The tutorial definitely addresses it from that kind of background.

To sum up my point, there’s more in the world than harmonic rules and counterpoint, and just because you have a “trained” ear doesn’t mean that’s all you can judge your music by.

And let me guess, after all this lecturing on my part, “mat” is a professional musician… or worse, a music theory teacher!

By mat on Jan 17, 2008 | Reply

yeah thanx justin for the update… I’m only saying that instead of showing an easy pseudo-system that does not even show consideration for voices movements and correct harmonical structures… the guy should AT LEAST talk about cycle of fifths and harmonical structures… Of course dodecaphonism has nothing to do here…
you know justin… it’s not because other systems exists that we should forget about the ones in place for several centuries… the ones that, historically, lead to the others… Don’t spit on Bach… i know you don’t… or do i?

no mat is not a professional musician nor a music theory teacher….

mat is… hum let’s see… mat is a modern-minimalist music composer whom,after years of studying music theory, counterpoint ear-training, orchestration etc., can recognize the benefit of hard work and deep introspecting into music theory to transcend the old and rusty cycle of fifths towards new “procédés”… but first, you have to be aware of its existence… let the light come… it’s so rewarding…

sorry to everybody who thought my previous post was hard… it was indeed… you may erase all of this and return to your occupations…. if Justin wishes to go forward with the debate, he can do it on one of my personal e-mails : jaidessentiments@hotmail.com

thanx… sorry again

By paulie walnuts on Jan 17, 2008 | Reply

Funny how in this tutorial: http://www.tunetorials.com/fl-studio-music-theory-cheating-advanced/

Ace anticipates the very debate going on here - LOL.

“…buh buh buh i’m a minimalist composer! :waaahhh:”

By AcePincter on Jan 21, 2008 | Reply

Mat,
Relax a bit, ok? I keep my videos down to 10 minutes for good reason. The cycle of fifths, the triads, the dominants, tension/release, etc. will all be dealt with individually. If I covered all the necessary background in addition to this technique, I’d have an hour long video with too much talking and my viewers would lose interest. I’ll split them up so that well-trained viewers can skip to the methods they want to learn, rather than having to sit through 20 minutes of refresher course to get to the good bits. The technique I demonstrate stands on its own. Make your own tutorials if you don’t like mine. WMENCODER is free.

By AcePincter on Jan 21, 2008 | Reply

Stephanie - The program is FL Studio 7.
I agree with you, fit the chords to the melody or vice versa. That’s how songs are written. Demonstrated is a chord progression only, without much of a melody to speak of. I demonstrate a simple way to enhance a chord progression with either syncopated harmonic chords or some type of flourish.
While I wouldn’t recommend “drawing a squiggly line” as a primary method of composition, I think there are a lot of people who would like to use a technique like this to add some flair to a piece or complement their own melody with something to this effect.
And that’s all that I wanted. This is just one technique out of several thousand possibilities. It’s primarily for effect, not for real structural work.

By Nik on Mar 31, 2008 | Reply

Ace..Can you share the template to this tutorial? Thanks!

By Calico_Stone on Apr 24, 2008 | Reply

What up ace? I made a hot piano track using the scale and chords you used. Now i’m stuck. I really didn’t get how you drawing your scales. I just bit
you’re template but i don’t want my songs to sound the same. I need more. I won’t lose interest