Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
harmony, chords and the drummer's dilemma
Hi folks. I was going to post this in private to @LinearLineman our resident jazz pianist, but decided that maybe others may benefit from the discussion.
I am a drummer from birth. Primarily jazz and pop, primarily as a collaborator. If there wasn't a gig lined up or a steady engagement, then the drums could gather dust for all I care. I've never been a major practicer unless I needed to. I love listening to good drummers but have never been obsessed with the drums. Percussion and marimba that was another matter. However, I digress.
I'm very much into composition, or maybe more properly stated - songwriting. Composition may be giving myself a bit too much credit at times. I'm very much into synths and sounds but tend to use presets, again impatience. I'm trying to change that and am starting to gain success. So much fun.
With my songwriting the more I learn, the more I know I don't know. That's one thing I love about music - it's a huge mountain and I'll never get to the top of it. It's such a constant journey.
The thing I'm finding is that as a drummer (first) my knowledge of harmony is hurting my songcraft and that needs to improve. Most of us drummers started out with a drum pad and a snare drum learning the rudiments. My time is good. My ability to write "lines" is pretty good. My harmonic content is rudimentary and holds me back.
I don't need a crash course in theory per se but I do need a further knowledge of chord changes, and harmony and stuff that will stick. What would you recommend? I know, I know - practice! But, I'm willing to put in that practice if I can see some light.
Would you recommend learning tunes on the keyboard? Is there an online course or app that might help? Is there an app that can take my melodic content, analyze it and make suggestions on harmonic changes? Sort of like having Mike hanging over my should going - man, you need to do this or that! This is boring! You're falling back on all your old tricks!
tldr - drummer wants to be a composer. Help! :-)
Comments
Commenting here to bump this up the forum. And because i'm curious too.
I was always a jammer/dabbler/etc. So I too struggle with all of this.
Take a look at MDecks
Mapping Tonal Harmony and Tessitura are both deep in how keys and chords relate to each other. Mapping Tonal Harmony has a progression map and a composition section similar to iRealPro.
Pensato is cool too, especially in helping transitions between keys.
ChordBot has some auto compositional abilities in several styles, and can export midi. MTH exports midi as well.
MDecks looks pretty incredible. One thing I'm not getting from the intro video ... can you input your own melody and use it to work out your own progression? I don't wish to study (necessarily) in a vacuum but would like to learn 'on the fly' so to speak. Thanks so much for the suggestions!
Hook Theory is worth a read, it's available both as an app and in Apple Books. If you're into songwriting I highly recommend it:
https://www.hooktheory.com/
Also, Tonaly (the app formerly known as Ultimate Circle Of Fifths) is really good for coming up with interesting chord progressions:
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/tonaly-write-practice-music/id1242467844
Thanks @richardyot That Hookpad looks like what I'm after, I think. I'm averse to subscriptions so may go for the full version.
But first I'm going to try out ChordBot.
Thanks all for the great suggestions so far. Hope this has helped others out too.
@kinkujin I think it works similar to iReal Pro where its just a backing track (chord progression) I see no place for a melody line.
Check out Firo4 - it’s laid out in a way that makes finding compatible chords simple and gives you the chords or chord notes in a very playable way.
I’m finding it really helpful in consolidating a lot of the fairly basic harmonic theory i’ve been attempting to get to grips with. Making a tune in this app seems to help make stuff stick more than usual, as I’m simultaneously seeing and hearing what’s happening harmonically.
Also it’s free at the moment.
It sounds like your beyond Edly's Music Theory for Practical People, which is where a music-illiterate adult might start.
I think there's a lot of great teaching at all levels happening on YouTube
Thanks, yes I’m a touch beyond illiterate.
Thanks.
This thread has been fantastic.
Got it, thanks!
I picked up klimper the other day on sale, I really quite like how simple it is...
I would very highly recommend Mark Levine’s books, published by Sher music. They’re as good as it gets for jazz harmony. But they expect that you are literate.
A bunch of great app recommendations here. Excited to check these out
There's lots of awesome YouTube channels for music. Mangold Project is great. Julien Bradley's channel, Keith the jazz piano man's channel, Michael Newman's channel. Im not home otherwise I'd link those.
Thanks for the thoughts @Krupa on Klimper - never heard of that one.
Re: the jazz harmony ideas, yes indeed this is great. However, I think it may be over my head at this moment. Hopefully, this will not be the case in a while. Thanks @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr and @raindro !
Yeah Jazz harmony is pretty advanced. I'd get a good grip on the basics first. Couple of book recommendations that work for some:
https://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1435456726 (all three are supposed to be pretty decent)
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-3E-Idiots-Guides/dp/1465451676/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=idiots+guide+harmony&qid=1583173203&s=books&sr=1-1
Not read either (I learned music harmony the old fashioned way), but I've heard good things about them.
Also - spare a thought for the poor keyboardist with a great grasp of harmony who wants to understand drumming/groove. There's almost nothing in the way of resources, or theory...
On the iOS apps side the following might be interesting:
Alas, none of these are AUv3. (Well, TuneMaker can host AUv3.)
I have sundog Song Studio on my Mac. Fairly easy and you can drag and drop the midi files (chord progression) right into your DAW. There's Chord progression, melody line, bass line and drums. And it's not so expensive (55 Euro)
But you can record these live performances into an AUv3 like atom, beathawk, photon, or Rozeta cells.
Thanks for this suggestion. Anyone using Tune Maker yet?
Another suggestion. Hook Theory. Two apps for IOS which are really interactive books. They do a pretty good job of explaining harmony and melody from a pop music perspective.
I’ve ended up looking at tonal harmony Pro and Tessitura after googling around what scales the stuff I’m writing is in and discovering that it’s in a bebop scale (added sharp note in the middle) and I can’t find any chord charts for them - are these two apps good for that? Is any one better than the other? - Tessitura doesn’t seem to have been updated in a good while…
I’d like to get some insight and use them to develop the material, but are they really only for jazz, as while I’m using that scale, my music really doesn’t sound (or want to) sound like jazz, no offence, I love it from time to time but I’m not after making it
THE POWER OF SLASH CHORDS... Bb/C, D/C, Gmaj7/C
Think the most powerful idea for harmonies that sound great but don't sound like standard jazz is the concept of basic chords spiced up with extra root notes. You search for a combination that you like and make a loop of a 4 or 8 bar phrase.
Bb/C Eb Bb/C Ab
Bb/C C F C Bb/C Gm Gm/Eb
The ones you like will inspire you.
I start with C roots and look for 3-4 chords that seem to make interesting sounds. Anything you discover can be used in the same relationship over any of the 12 roots.
This is like a folk music way to discover cool jazz inflected harmonic ideas. Joni Mitchell did this in her middle perdiod using alternate tunings to find new sounds that inspired her. She never knew the theory but she recognized sounds that were full of extra sonic impact. She ended up needing to hire jazz musicians to play the music because they had the ears to realize her unusual chord ideas... unusual to rock musicians but pretty easy to comprehend for the jazz monks that put in the years to train their ears to recognize C max 7 #9 #11 (which can be simulated with a B/C easily for the less educated).
Pick a root
Try major and minor chords over it to see if there are sounds that seem useful.
Once you find one repeat with a root that seems to follow in a way the is good to your ear and find a good chord over that one After 4 chords you probably have something worth writing a verse over.
Repeat to make a chorus that compliments the verses harmonic ideas.
There are theory books to cover these ideas but you can discover the harmonies that work and create your own vocabulary that's beyond basic harmony and doesn't sound like the traditional ii-V- I based realbook jazz.
Having a good sense of rhythm (being a drummer) will probably make you better in this approach than a jazz pianist that doesn't know modern groove patterns a drummer would live and die by. For rhythms think of the root notes as the bass drum and the chord as the snare.
For songwriters that use these ideas check out Laura Nyro, some Carol King, Billy Joels ballads, and a master of this style: Bruce Hornsby. David Crosby was inspired by Joni Mitchells tunings ideas and his songwriting has always featured these types of "discoveries". He also ended up with a band full of jazz musicians to make the chords work.
Cheers @McD - weirdly, the chord sequence I’m playing with is indeed Bb m, Cm, Eb m and on from there into a nice Gm DM FM DM falling response. I’m just working on a sort of b section now that comes up from Cm… and it did force my lazy guitar fingers to use a new tuning as I’m using bass heavy inversions (I found a drop d with a one toned sharpened b string to c helped me play these things cleaner)
Maybe I’ll just keep exploring, I turned too old faithful tonality first, that led to the bebop scale, but there’s no chords for those in that app, so I turned to Google, and that led to mdecks gear…
Thanks fella
You're already following your musical taste buds to the cool chord patterns that can make a song really stand out over the 4 bar hooks that drive 90% of pop music and really have little emotional content.
Most people tend to judge the songs by the lyrics but some of us want the new and strange that made
bands like Nirvana stand on the top of the heap because the chords were never cliche. They still had a ruthless musical logic that a theory guy (like Rock Beato) can teach lessons from:
Heh, thanks @McD , I’ve been trying to use different scales a lot more lately, harmonic minor modes mostly, but found that to get some of the changes sounding ‘right’, I had to cheat a chromatic note in there from time to time; I guess that’s just how it rolls and I shouldn’t worry too much about correctness or rules of harmony or stuff like that, cheers man 🙏🙏
Harmonic minor rules for metal tunes. Adding chromatic notes just means you're adding more harmonic color. There are rules based on musical conventions and genres but I say "break all the rules" and trust your ears to tell you when something moves you and likely would move "your audience": the people that hear the same sounds and get excited by the feeling evoked. Developing a musical personality is a good way to build an audience that likes the things you like in harmony choices.
Robben Ford is an amazingly gifted guitarist but he decided he wouldn't write tunes with Major 7 chord because they just didn't find his love of the blues. Real blues musicians never play major 7ths... it just sounds too damn "pretty" and the blues is not for the snowflakes of this world. So, Robben writes tunes that mine the emotional terrain of the blues but his harmonic choices are well beyond your basic blues chord progressions. It's a hybrid of the slash chord sounds and the clever use of jazz scales like the diminished scale which is also called the whole-half scale since that basic pattern repeats across the 8 note scale to reach the octave on note #9. There are a lot of videos that demonstrate this scale as an add-on to the blues progressions to create a walk-up to the 4 chord.
Slash chords I definitely need to get into, I’m on Antoine Michaud’s course at the moment, taking it slow and savouring it…
Hey @McD thank you for this post. There’s a lot of good stuff in here.
Yeah really good stuff, very encouraging 👍👍