Recommend Me Some Good Chord Progressions and Key Signature Chords

[Gario]

Oi! It hurts seeing this forum jostled like this... Most people believe that keys have 'emotion' because of the tuning practices of western musical history. From Pythagorian tuning (pure 5ths, non-pure octaves) to Just tuning (5ths slightly off, octaves pure), to Mean tuning (3rds & 6ths approximately perfect, 8ths perfect), musicians and mathematicians were tinkering with the exact sounds of the half and whole steps. Finally, WELL TEMPERED tuning (not equal tempered) took over around the time of Bach, which was standard until roughly 1850. In that tuning system, every different key could be played, but each really did have a different sound or emotion, as each key had a variety of differently tuned half and whole steps. Today, this is not true, so most keys are in fact one and the same... unless you have perfect pitch, of course And, yes I know the quote was Spinal Tap, but some other people seemed confused on this issue, so I hope this helps clear it up a bit.

Now... as for the subject at hand, why do you really want to use 'chords' for you atmospheric music? In your case, it may help you to not think of your music in terms of chords; otherwise, it may be a little clunky for the mood. Try, instead, to think of the music as overlapping melodies. Observe the intervals between the notes and figure out which sounds you enjoy the best (for each particular song) and exploit them.

(If you want to hear my favorite 'progression', though, it's one from a Brahm's Aria (I forget the name right now)... cm - BM 6-3 - bm - BbM 6-3... etc. )

[Ceracryst]

I don't know much music theory, but my <3 chord progression is i - IV, or however you notate it. Cmin to Fmaj. Sounds grand and epic in the fantasy way. Or if you flip it around, I - v, Fmaj to Cmin, you're suddenly staring breathlessly at the sunlight peeking through the canopy of the lush elven forests.

[anosou]

*Sigh*

Some people don't seem to realize that a specific key (ex: D minor) sounds EXACTLY the same as any other key of the respective type (ex: G minor) just that the notes are raised or lowered to the new pitch. Play a line in D- then play the exact same line in G-, it won't be any less sad/happy or any different at all except that the notes themselves are raised a P4 from the D- one. So what you're really saying is: "Huh? Natural minor keys don't usually sound sad" For this reason, when asking for "which specific chords (or progressions) sound good (ex: A to E to F) < this isn't really the best way to say it. A better way would be (1, P5, +6) because this can be used easily in any key. or if you prefer (1[minor triad] P5 [major triad] +6 [seventh chord]) or whatever the chords are.

Just chiming in to tell you you're wrong. Each note (and instrument for that matter) produces different tones (i.e. variations in air pressure or such.. I'm bad at explaining this in english). My point being that different tones sounds different and the same scale in different tones DO sound different. There has been a lot of research about this and I wish I could link you but I've only heard about it in class at university.

Anyway, minor keys DO sound "sad" but C minor and D minor keys does NOT sound the same, they're just visually built the same way (in notes and on instruments)