major/minor

[Heyclown]

You mean like going from C to Am? Well you could switch between them almost without the listener noticing. It depends on what notes of the chord you play. And the bass note. If you do not change the bass note when you go from C to Am its more like a theoretical discussion if you are changing cord at all.
But; put another way - many of my songs goes in the chord structure of Am-F-C-G. That way it is very easy to hear the difference between the C and the Am.
Another important thing is that if you play in Am the scale will have different intervals allthough the keyboard tangents are the same.
But just don't mind what the name of the chord is. If you want it to sound like a C, don't change to Am

[decay-o-caster]

use chord tones on the strong beats in the melody -
C E G B for the C Majory bits,
A C E G for the A minory bits.

[Frank_Case]

Originally Posted by sheoth

hey guys I want to write a song but then put a key change in to the relevant minor. how would i do this to make the lead bits sound minor if its just notes, not chords.

The C major scale is the A minor scale. So, to change from the key of C Major to A minor is just a matter of changing from a tonal center of C to A. Changing key is just a matter what you emphasize through accents, scales, and chord progressions that lead you to the new key.

To keep the notation simple, let's first only look at this thing in terms of the C Major Ionian mode. In any key, the diatonic ionian harmonized scale is just I ii iii IV V vi viidim.

From this we see that the strongest resolution to the tonal center of C Major is arrived at by emphasizing the three major chords of the above harmonized sequence, meaning the I, IV, V chords, meaning the C, F, and G major chords.

On the other hand, the strongest resolution to the tonal center of A Minor is arrived at by playing the three minor chords of the sequence, that being vi, ii, iii, or the A, D, and E minor chords. If we change perspective and look at these chords from the tonal center of A minor rather than C Major, we see that A-min, D-min, and E-min are just the 1st, 4th, and 5th degrees of the pure minor scale, meaning the root, sub-dominant, and dominant degrees of pure minor. THERE YOU HAVE IT. With this approach you are suddenly very strongly in A-minor.

So, to change to A Minor, move through the minor chords mentioned above in some manner. If you don't want to play the chords (why playing chords bothers you is a mystery) then play fragments of the three minor chords, emphasizing the root and the minor third of the three minor chords until you arrive at A minor. Alternately move through arpeggios of the three minor chords until you resolve to A minor. Alternately, move to A minor by playing stepwise fragments of the E-min, D-min, and A-min scales, most notably using minor pentatonic fragments.

[sheoth]

Originally Posted by Frank_Case

The C major scale is the A minor scale. So, to change from the key of C Major to A minor is just a matter of changing from a tonal center of C to A. Changing key is just a matter what you emphasize through accents, scales, and chord progressions that lead you to the new key.

To keep the notation simple, let's first only look at this thing in terms of the C Major Ionian mode. In any key, the diatonic ionian harmonized scale is just I ii iii IV V vi viidim.

From this we see that the strongest resolution to the tonal center of C Major is arrived at by emphasizing the three major chords of the above harmonized sequence, meaning the I, IV, V chords, meaning the C, F, and G major chords.

On the other hand, the strongest resolution to the tonal center of A Minor is arrived at by playing the three minor chords of the sequence, that being vi, ii, iii, or the A, D, and E minor chords. If we change perspective and look at these chords from the tonal center of A minor rather than C Major, we see that A-min, D-min, and E-min are just the 1st, 4th, and 5th degrees of the pure minor scale, meaning the root, sub-dominant, and dominant degrees of pure minor. THERE YOU HAVE IT. With this approach you are suddenly very strongly in A-minor.

So, to change to A Minor, move through the minor chords mentioned above in some manner. If you don't want to play the chords (why playing chords bothers you is a mystery) then play fragments of the three minor chords, emphasizing the root and the minor third of the three minor chords until you arrive at A minor. Alternately move through arpeggios of the three minor chords until you resolve to A minor. Alternately, move to A minor by playing stepwise fragments of the E-min, D-min, and A-min scales, most notably using minor pentatonic fragments.

thanks, im not bothered by playing chords i just wanted to know if it was possible to do without chords as with chords i would just go from playing 1, 4, 5 in C to 1, 4, 5 in Amin

[sheoth]

Originally Posted by Heyclown

You mean like going from C to Am? Well you could switch between them almost without the listener noticing. It depends on what notes of the chord you play. And the bass note. If you do not change the bass note when you go from C to Am its more like a theoretical discussion if you are changing cord at all.
But; put another way - many of my songs goes in the chord structure of Am-F-C-G. That way it is very easy to hear the difference between the C and the Am.
Another important thing is that if you play in Am the scale will have different intervals allthough the keyboard tangents are the same.
But just don't mind what the name of the chord is. If you want it to sound like a C, don't change to Am

thanks i tried that chord structure last night it sounds proper nice

Originally Posted by decay-o-caster

use chord tones on the strong beats in the melody -
C E G B for the C Majory bits,
A C E G for the A minory bits.

thanks for the help

[alexvdbroek]

Using the V chord of the new key is a basic way to get there.

EG.

Cmajor to Am

C F G E Am
I IV V III vi

Chords of Ami using harmonic minor as parent scale
Am Bdim C Dmi E F G
i ii bIII iv V bVI bVII

Alex
Speak Softly

[Min7sharp5]

When theory questions like this arise- try to learn or identify what guide tones are i.e. focus on highlighting the 3 and 7th tones as they provide the best coloring of the primary chord types, maj, min, dom etc. Choose the closest available guide tones as they tend to be the most easy and pleasing for the ear to follow. Your changes will be smooth and seemless using this methodology.

This link is a reasonable place to begin learning a bit more- Jazz Improvisation : Audio Lesson on Using Guide-Tone Lines to Improvise Jazz Guitar Solos

[Heyclown]

Originally Posted by sheoth

thanks i tried that chord structure last night it sounds proper nice

You´re mostly welcome. More than half of the hit songs use that structure. Not wheel invention but predictable; an important factor when writing for the masses.

[shanabit]

Originally Posted by Frank_Case

The C major scale is the A minor scale. So, to change from the key of C Major to A minor is just a matter of changing from a tonal center of C to A. Changing key is just a matter what you emphasize through accents, scales, and chord progressions that lead you to the new key.

To keep the notation simple, let's first only look at this thing in terms of the C Major Ionian mode. In any key, the diatonic ionian harmonized scale is just I ii iii IV V vi viidim.

From this we see that the strongest resolution to the tonal center of C Major is arrived at by emphasizing the three major chords of the above harmonized sequence, meaning the I, IV, V chords, meaning the C, F, and G major chords.

On the other hand, the strongest resolution to the tonal center of A Minor is arrived at by playing the three minor chords of the sequence, that being vi, ii, iii, or the A, D, and E minor chords. If we change perspective and look at these chords from the tonal center of A minor rather than C Major, we see that A-min, D-min, and E-min are just the 1st, 4th, and 5th degrees of the pure minor scale, meaning the root, sub-dominant, and dominant degrees of pure minor. THERE YOU HAVE IT. With this approach you are suddenly very strongly in A-minor.

So, to change to A Minor, move through the minor chords mentioned above in some manner. If you don't want to play the chords (why playing chords bothers you is a mystery) then play fragments of the three minor chords, emphasizing the root and the minor third of the three minor chords until you arrive at A minor. Alternately move through arpeggios of the three minor chords until you resolve to A minor. Alternately, move to A minor by playing stepwise fragments of the E-min, D-min, and A-min scales, most notably using minor pentatonic fragments.

Great

[Mark Richardson]

don't forget to raise the leading note to get to a relative minor in a transition which in this case is g sharp. Three of c maj, e minor, becomes e major, dragging us screaming, [hopefully] to a minor. Bam.