ninjaaron
11-07-2002, 08:37 PM
I have been trying lately to create some unconventional, spacey sounding music, that still sound rather good. It represents a lot of work and experimentation on my part, and the contributors
this is a post of my findings:
simplest way to write spacey music:
use pentatonics, especially minor pentatonic.
it also usually uses a lot of power chords (clean, especially power chord arpeggios) or suspended (2 or 4) chords (especially of one and five, or for the illiterate: Csus and Gsus or Gsus and Dsus.... or whatever), and scales that lack "emotion" notes. for example a scale that has no three or six. this is the scale I like for this kind of thing 1-2-4-5-b7. It is a major pentatonic starting on the second step, a kind of Dorian pentatonic, if you will. if you are familiar with the music of Blue Man group they use this kind of idea a lot. here is the tab for a two octave version in C:
----------------------------------------------8---10-
--------------------------------------8--11---------
------------------------------7--10----------------
--------------------8--10--------------------------
-----------8---10---------------------------------
--8--10--------------------------------------------
The next step up is using superimposing Dorian and Lydian modes. Dorian because it is confused about its sexuality. it has a major 6 and a minor 3. Dorian mode is: 1-2-b3-4-5-6-b7, it is a major scale that starts on the second step and is harmonized accordingly. Pink Floyd used Dorian mode quite liberally. listen to the first track on DSOTM for a good example. the most important chords to use in Dorian mode are the Minor I and the Major IV. Lydian mode is kind of crazy because it has three whole steps right at the beginning: 1-2-3-#4-5-6-7, you might even want to stick a b7 in there, makes it even more extreme. If you want a tab for Dorian or Lydian mode just ask and I’m sure someone will oblige you quite quickly. people love to post about modes around here for some reason.
Moving into more complex waters... you can get some crazy sounds from superimposing modes of ascending melodic minor. Because they are very seldom used, but they are still arranged in a pattern that is pleasing to the ear they can have some very new yet beautiful sounds. I personally love the fifth mode, Mixolydian b6, or as me and my friends have dubbed it: Exotolian, 1-2-3-4-5-b6-b7. its kind of like Dorian in reverse. Radiohead likes it a lot. Here is a tab for it in C:
-----------------------------------------------------8--10--12-
------------------------------------------8--9--11----------
--------------------------------7--9--10--------------------
-------------------------8--10------------------------------
-------------8--10--11------------------------------------
-8--10--12------------------------------------------------
The apex of the theory behind spacey music seems to be found in substituting the different threes and sixes liberally. Modifying the scale as you see fit for the moment, but there are a few tips that can help you. here they are in no particular order.
harmonizing these more complex Ideas can be tough. You can figure out how build the chords on each step, but there are more augmented a diminished chords than tend to be comfortable for most people. Just go with what ever sounds the best, for the most part, keep it simple. If the harmony is overly rich, the melody has less freedom to wander, and has more difficulty ‘floating’ above the mush.
It seems to work best if you use a lot of skips, and avoid just playing a long string of adjacent notes.
Avoid chromatics (especially between major and minor thirds and sixes, makes it sound more like blues).
Avoid the major 7 step of the scale in melodies, unless it is in the chord. This is not super important, but a major seven is more classical sounding, and less modern. -modified by evan_02
For spacey music, effects are your friend. Not simply usual effects such as wah, flanger, delay, and phaser, but don’t forget your slide, or your tone controls (turning your tone down all the way is a great way to make those notes into note soup). but don’t forget the power of a clean single coil either. Also Natural harmonics are your friend.
Panning is a wonderful effect for space music. I use a stereo Ernie Ball volume/pan pedal to pan my guitar signal between two amps, usually one for electric/distortion and a piezo signal to an acoustic amp. It can be kind of cool to hear a distorted chord morph itself into an acoustic tone, especially halfway through the change when you can hear both tones mixed together. Just make sure your tones on each amp (or channel) are very different, and pan from one to the other SLOWLY.- thanks Valtyr
The use of chromatics in melodic and counterpoint structure, and major and minor chords punctuated with counterpoint melodies on 5ths of the root chord (a typical orbital trick).
Keep the chord structures simple but mess with the subtle harmonics and various phrases you can get from those 5 or six notes. 7/8 , 6/4 , 5/4 time signatures work well too, as do filters,multi-tap delays at different note resolutions , analog tape delays, judicious use of ambient reverberation and a lot of musique concrete principals as well. If you have a sampler ,sample fret noise, harmonics etc etc. and cut and paste them up too form an abstract backbone of a more solidly composed piece, use tape loops, reverse segments of audio and strip the arrangement right back too it's bare bones too see what's really needed too make the piece work in a compositional context.- great stuff from U&I of the keyboard forum
Distortion is not so spacey, but it can be.
Keyboards are beautiful toys for creating depth in the background.
Slow playing is more valuable than fast.
This is the only place where the Floyd becomes useful. Lay on the echo and reverb, alternate between the root, the major third, the fifth, and the maj seventh. Play at the 12th fret, at least. As you play, use volume swells and/or slow whammy swoops to mimic whale calls, et cetera. Enough practice and experimentation will give you some gorgeous, evocative soundscapes. -thanks to The Eristic for this one
Instead of strumming, try playing arpeggios.
Use inversions.
One thing I have done for a few years when I'm making "spacey" or "atmospheric" or "psychedelic" music is explore deep open tunings. -thanks to Nza for this one.
The other thing I've noticed is that you want a loop on the bass notes or on the drums. It doesn't have to be a "real" loop, but repetitive. The goal is to lull the listener into the groove...this becomes very trance like... - I don’t know if I agree 100%, but thanks to shredhead7
For spacey music I like to play diminished arpeggios, minor 9 arpeggios and the whole tone scales. I don't play melodic, I just paint sound-textures and let others do the real work. -not my style, but an interesting idea from edeltorus
Try using Drop-D and some open tunings for solo space rock. Alternating between the root and the fifth are good accompaniment, because simple is good in this case, then play melodies up where the frets are wee. It very nearly sounds like guitar and bass together.
Most importantly: forget all this crap and play what sounds good to you personally.
Recommended spacey listening:
Pink Floyd, up to and including the Wish Were Here album.
King Crimson
Tangerine Dream
Radiohead
Blue Man Group
Tool, Lateralus (Aenima also, but not so much)
tell me more and I will add them to the list...
this is a post of my findings:
simplest way to write spacey music:
use pentatonics, especially minor pentatonic.
it also usually uses a lot of power chords (clean, especially power chord arpeggios) or suspended (2 or 4) chords (especially of one and five, or for the illiterate: Csus and Gsus or Gsus and Dsus.... or whatever), and scales that lack "emotion" notes. for example a scale that has no three or six. this is the scale I like for this kind of thing 1-2-4-5-b7. It is a major pentatonic starting on the second step, a kind of Dorian pentatonic, if you will. if you are familiar with the music of Blue Man group they use this kind of idea a lot. here is the tab for a two octave version in C:
----------------------------------------------8---10-
--------------------------------------8--11---------
------------------------------7--10----------------
--------------------8--10--------------------------
-----------8---10---------------------------------
--8--10--------------------------------------------
The next step up is using superimposing Dorian and Lydian modes. Dorian because it is confused about its sexuality. it has a major 6 and a minor 3. Dorian mode is: 1-2-b3-4-5-6-b7, it is a major scale that starts on the second step and is harmonized accordingly. Pink Floyd used Dorian mode quite liberally. listen to the first track on DSOTM for a good example. the most important chords to use in Dorian mode are the Minor I and the Major IV. Lydian mode is kind of crazy because it has three whole steps right at the beginning: 1-2-3-#4-5-6-7, you might even want to stick a b7 in there, makes it even more extreme. If you want a tab for Dorian or Lydian mode just ask and I’m sure someone will oblige you quite quickly. people love to post about modes around here for some reason.
Moving into more complex waters... you can get some crazy sounds from superimposing modes of ascending melodic minor. Because they are very seldom used, but they are still arranged in a pattern that is pleasing to the ear they can have some very new yet beautiful sounds. I personally love the fifth mode, Mixolydian b6, or as me and my friends have dubbed it: Exotolian, 1-2-3-4-5-b6-b7. its kind of like Dorian in reverse. Radiohead likes it a lot. Here is a tab for it in C:
-----------------------------------------------------8--10--12-
------------------------------------------8--9--11----------
--------------------------------7--9--10--------------------
-------------------------8--10------------------------------
-------------8--10--11------------------------------------
-8--10--12------------------------------------------------
The apex of the theory behind spacey music seems to be found in substituting the different threes and sixes liberally. Modifying the scale as you see fit for the moment, but there are a few tips that can help you. here they are in no particular order.
harmonizing these more complex Ideas can be tough. You can figure out how build the chords on each step, but there are more augmented a diminished chords than tend to be comfortable for most people. Just go with what ever sounds the best, for the most part, keep it simple. If the harmony is overly rich, the melody has less freedom to wander, and has more difficulty ‘floating’ above the mush.
It seems to work best if you use a lot of skips, and avoid just playing a long string of adjacent notes.
Avoid chromatics (especially between major and minor thirds and sixes, makes it sound more like blues).
Avoid the major 7 step of the scale in melodies, unless it is in the chord. This is not super important, but a major seven is more classical sounding, and less modern. -modified by evan_02
For spacey music, effects are your friend. Not simply usual effects such as wah, flanger, delay, and phaser, but don’t forget your slide, or your tone controls (turning your tone down all the way is a great way to make those notes into note soup). but don’t forget the power of a clean single coil either. Also Natural harmonics are your friend.
Panning is a wonderful effect for space music. I use a stereo Ernie Ball volume/pan pedal to pan my guitar signal between two amps, usually one for electric/distortion and a piezo signal to an acoustic amp. It can be kind of cool to hear a distorted chord morph itself into an acoustic tone, especially halfway through the change when you can hear both tones mixed together. Just make sure your tones on each amp (or channel) are very different, and pan from one to the other SLOWLY.- thanks Valtyr
The use of chromatics in melodic and counterpoint structure, and major and minor chords punctuated with counterpoint melodies on 5ths of the root chord (a typical orbital trick).
Keep the chord structures simple but mess with the subtle harmonics and various phrases you can get from those 5 or six notes. 7/8 , 6/4 , 5/4 time signatures work well too, as do filters,multi-tap delays at different note resolutions , analog tape delays, judicious use of ambient reverberation and a lot of musique concrete principals as well. If you have a sampler ,sample fret noise, harmonics etc etc. and cut and paste them up too form an abstract backbone of a more solidly composed piece, use tape loops, reverse segments of audio and strip the arrangement right back too it's bare bones too see what's really needed too make the piece work in a compositional context.- great stuff from U&I of the keyboard forum
Distortion is not so spacey, but it can be.
Keyboards are beautiful toys for creating depth in the background.
Slow playing is more valuable than fast.
This is the only place where the Floyd becomes useful. Lay on the echo and reverb, alternate between the root, the major third, the fifth, and the maj seventh. Play at the 12th fret, at least. As you play, use volume swells and/or slow whammy swoops to mimic whale calls, et cetera. Enough practice and experimentation will give you some gorgeous, evocative soundscapes. -thanks to The Eristic for this one
Instead of strumming, try playing arpeggios.
Use inversions.
One thing I have done for a few years when I'm making "spacey" or "atmospheric" or "psychedelic" music is explore deep open tunings. -thanks to Nza for this one.
The other thing I've noticed is that you want a loop on the bass notes or on the drums. It doesn't have to be a "real" loop, but repetitive. The goal is to lull the listener into the groove...this becomes very trance like... - I don’t know if I agree 100%, but thanks to shredhead7
For spacey music I like to play diminished arpeggios, minor 9 arpeggios and the whole tone scales. I don't play melodic, I just paint sound-textures and let others do the real work. -not my style, but an interesting idea from edeltorus
Try using Drop-D and some open tunings for solo space rock. Alternating between the root and the fifth are good accompaniment, because simple is good in this case, then play melodies up where the frets are wee. It very nearly sounds like guitar and bass together.
Most importantly: forget all this crap and play what sounds good to you personally.
Recommended spacey listening:
Pink Floyd, up to and including the Wish Were Here album.
King Crimson
Tangerine Dream
Radiohead
Blue Man Group
Tool, Lateralus (Aenima also, but not so much)
tell me more and I will add them to the list...