Hi everybody
Apologies for asking a generic question on Fantom G forum but this forum is full of experienced people, hard to find an audience like this.
I have a Fantom G and a Gaia. I like electronic music and want to play these. House, trance etc. I started playing keyboard about 2 years ago and have been taking jazz piano lessons since then (I figured learning jazz would help me understand harmony). So far I am doing OK on jazz but I am dying to start playing some pad sounds with arpeggios, play some chord progressions etc. Cheap electronic music :-)
Learning jazz and practicing it takes all my time at the moment... How long do you guys recommend me to go like this? Would it be dumb if I started spending time learning trance chord progressions etc? And where can I learn those from?
Sorry for keeping forum busy with my questions.
Question on priorities
Re: Question on priorities
If you're enjoying it I'd keep going with the jazz lessons as that will educate you and give you good keyboard playing skills, which you'll be able to do a lot with. But if you can find the extra time, why not learn some more synth orientated stuff too? The GAIA would be great for that. Just have fun with it. Have you ever heard of Keyboard magazine? That has great lessons in it that can cover jazz/rock/classical/dance music. Maybe subscribe to that for the synth side. But I'd keep the Jazz stuff going. I should do lessons again myself.
And enjoy your Fantom!
And enjoy your Fantom!
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bluehonour
- Posts: 65
- Joined: 21:32, 3 May 2012
Re: Question on priorities
Good suggestions! Thank you Leh173. I will check out the Keyboard magazine.
Re: Question on priorities
The more training and practice you have on your instruments the easier you will find it to articulate the music you hear in your head. Keep the lessons going to help you work on technique and theory.
If you have the time, spend about an hour a day messing around for fun with the Gaia and Fantom. With the Gaia you have a great opportunity to learn about creating your own sounds. The more sounds you create the better you will understand uses for them and how to edit something to fit a track. On the Fantom try to give yourself a little compostion assignment EVERY day. Even if it's something as simple as "Make a 4 bar bass line." Your creative writing in music is like anything else- use it every day and it will never stop growing.
As far as EDM, I love studying the forms, listening, and writing it! Depending on the style, the music theory and harmonies are very simple (not a bad thing). For example in Psytrance, you will find that the Harmony is almost always the i chord throughout the whole piece, sometimes you'll get a i7 or slight change in the progression. But it's usually that you are creating movement and interest through how you change sounds and motifs over that single minor chord.
Here is an example practice schedule of how I would lay out my time trying to learn the things you are working on:
1 hour of Jazz studies
1 hour of sound synthesis on the Gaia
1 hour of self-motivated composition Exercises.
Again, always have a small goal with each of these, for example Jazz- "Analyze and play Blue Bossa. Record the chord progression on the Fantom G and put backing drums behind it, improvise a solo with the harmonic content as a guide." Gaia- "Create a String Orchestra patch" Fantom G- "write a 12 bar dance groove using Drums, Bass, and Pad."
Then you cover everything you want! :)
If you have the time, spend about an hour a day messing around for fun with the Gaia and Fantom. With the Gaia you have a great opportunity to learn about creating your own sounds. The more sounds you create the better you will understand uses for them and how to edit something to fit a track. On the Fantom try to give yourself a little compostion assignment EVERY day. Even if it's something as simple as "Make a 4 bar bass line." Your creative writing in music is like anything else- use it every day and it will never stop growing.
As far as EDM, I love studying the forms, listening, and writing it! Depending on the style, the music theory and harmonies are very simple (not a bad thing). For example in Psytrance, you will find that the Harmony is almost always the i chord throughout the whole piece, sometimes you'll get a i7 or slight change in the progression. But it's usually that you are creating movement and interest through how you change sounds and motifs over that single minor chord.
Here is an example practice schedule of how I would lay out my time trying to learn the things you are working on:
1 hour of Jazz studies
1 hour of sound synthesis on the Gaia
1 hour of self-motivated composition Exercises.
Again, always have a small goal with each of these, for example Jazz- "Analyze and play Blue Bossa. Record the chord progression on the Fantom G and put backing drums behind it, improvise a solo with the harmonic content as a guide." Gaia- "Create a String Orchestra patch" Fantom G- "write a 12 bar dance groove using Drums, Bass, and Pad."
Then you cover everything you want! :)
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bluehonour
- Posts: 65
- Joined: 21:32, 3 May 2012
Re: Question on priorities
Macska, thank you for taking the time to type that. Very helpful. I am not that yet at that level (I can't play Blue Bossa with 1 hour of work) but I understand where you are coming from. I do need to put my brain to use more and practice proactively. I will do this. I unfortunately don't have 3 hours a day to practice because of my demanding job. But I should be able to practice 1.5 hours a day. You post inspired me, thank you.
One question pls: Do you have any recommendations on a book which teaches trance progressions? I did subscribe to the Keyboard magazine and I am hoping this will help. However, if you have other suggestions please let me know. Thank you.
One question pls: Do you have any recommendations on a book which teaches trance progressions? I did subscribe to the Keyboard magazine and I am hoping this will help. However, if you have other suggestions please let me know. Thank you.
Re: Question on priorities
I'm glad I could be of some help. Yes, my example schedule should of course be flexible to an individual's own needs and time frame :)
I don't know many resources for trance chord progressions in particular detail. My advice there would be to analyze a piece and try to figure out its chords. Most of the chord progressions seem fairly simple and free to the composer's choosing on where they go and how far. Usually in trance, you know how you get the Bass line playing on each up-beat? That bass is usually the root of a minor chord, which revolves around i. Ex- bass line is all "C" on upbeat, chord is most likely C minor and may move to any chord in that key throughout.
As far as books that cover Trance form and history, I recently started reading/using the "Dance Music Manual" book by Rick Snoman and have recommended it to a few people wondering about similar things. It's helped me understand several dance forms much better, and I have grown to appreciate some EDM that I previously hadn't cared for. There is a short section on Trance along with other genres, and there is a ton of great information on creating your own sounds on the synthesizer, so that would be good for the Gaia. There is also a chapter on the general form (Intro, body, Outro, etc) and what should happen in what measures. Really useful stuff!
Wikipedia has some useful information as well.
Enjoy those awesome keyboards!
I don't know many resources for trance chord progressions in particular detail. My advice there would be to analyze a piece and try to figure out its chords. Most of the chord progressions seem fairly simple and free to the composer's choosing on where they go and how far. Usually in trance, you know how you get the Bass line playing on each up-beat? That bass is usually the root of a minor chord, which revolves around i. Ex- bass line is all "C" on upbeat, chord is most likely C minor and may move to any chord in that key throughout.
As far as books that cover Trance form and history, I recently started reading/using the "Dance Music Manual" book by Rick Snoman and have recommended it to a few people wondering about similar things. It's helped me understand several dance forms much better, and I have grown to appreciate some EDM that I previously hadn't cared for. There is a short section on Trance along with other genres, and there is a ton of great information on creating your own sounds on the synthesizer, so that would be good for the Gaia. There is also a chapter on the general form (Intro, body, Outro, etc) and what should happen in what measures. Really useful stuff!
Wikipedia has some useful information as well.
Enjoy those awesome keyboards!