Hello everyone,
I've been diving deeper into music theory and recently came up with a relatively weird chord progression that's a bit wild and dissonant. I come from a background of producing dark and industrial Techno music, which heavily uses dissonance and unresolved tension to create hypnotic effects. This genre normally doesn't utilize a lot of music theory, it's more about sound design. A techno artist is usually much more skilled in audio engineering than in music theory/ traditional composition. I'm trying to combine both lately without creating generic pop edm.
Anyway, that's why I freely (meaning without picking a scale prior) wrote a progression which includes a lot of sustained chords, a power chord, and an augmented chord.
Here's the chord progression I wrote on the piano (inversions are written as /note; each number 1-4 represents one bar in 4/4):
- Gsus2 - Gsus4 - Cm/Eb
- Csus4/F - Csus4/F - Cm(maj7)/Eb
- Ab5 - Absus4 - Absus4/Eb
- Daug/F# - Daug/F# - Daug/A#
Yeah... So that's the progression. I wrote the chords in a formulated way, but the voicing is often a bit different. Like Daug/A# has the 5th as highest note added, so the chord has two 5ths. But I guess, this doesn't matter? Anyway...
Now, the challenge is figuring out the scale for this progression, that's where I struggle. It includes the following notes:
Ab, A, A#, B, C, Db, D, Eb, F, F#, G -> totaling 11 notes.
What scale could this be, or is it possible that a progression doesn't necessarily have to fit a specific scale or have a "clear tonic center" (for a lack of better words)? Any jazzy people who can help? I mean, it's one semitone shy of the chromatic scale...
Additionally, I'm planing to create melodies over this progression but not sure which scale/mode to use. Since the progression seems almost chromatic, can I pick any scale that includes the notes above? Or is there something I have to look out for? I'm considering options like C melodic minor, Db leading whole tone, F overtone, or even A Locrian, though that might be too dissonant even for my taste.
My goal is to combine this never-resolving progression with a simple melody (3-4 notes max since the progression has a lot of movement) in a "darker" scale/mode and play it as a short polymeter over the chords (something like a 3 bar melodiy loop over those 4 bar loops). I want to achieve an intriguing "vibe" that immerses the listeners, inducing a trance-like state of never ending anticipation since the tension never resolves and the polymeter usage would complicate it to find the 1 or the start of section. My goal is to induce an immersive experience for certain listeners similar to the effect of more experimental Jazz but in the context of EDM. What your opinion about this idea? Do you think I would get the desired results this way?
I would greatly appreciate your expertise and insights on this matter. Overall, I'm seeking help to better understand the relationship between chord progression and scales/modes with the example I described above, and also if my approach to creating melodies could achieve the desired results in your opinion?
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this! And apologies for the long post; English isn't my first language.
I'm looking forward to your input! Thanks in advance (:
Submitted July 28, 2023 at 10:19AM by Imarottendick https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/15bxa58/understanding_an_unconventional_chord_progression/?utm_source=ifttt