SSB Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 As a person with a not-so-great ear for picking out notes, this has always left me wondering. What do YOU GUYS use mainly to figure out the chord progressions of songs you remix? Do you find a ready-made midi and just figure it out from there? Do you hunt for some sheet music that may or may not exist and go along with the chord symbols that like to make their homes there? Or do you pick them out note by note with your ear alone? Just wondering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OverCoat Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I learn how to play the song by ear heehee I just find the first note and then I know all the intervals, It takes me 15 minutes to half an hour maybe to know how to play the main melody, then I get sequencing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSB Posted October 27, 2006 Author Share Posted October 27, 2006 melodies aren't hard at all - it's the chords that are tricky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnappleMan Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 www.vgmusic.com All my ReMixes start with source MIDIs from there. Transcribing music by ear is for idiots with too much time on their hands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazygecko Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Chords can be tricky, but I always find it's much easier to first recreate them as arpeggios. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rellik Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 Well, the way I've always done it seems to work pretty well, so let me explain it: If you can pick out even just one note from the chord (i.e. any note that sounds significant in the current context of the harmony), then you can find the chord - there are only so many possibilities, and (a) most often you're hearing the bass note ( after a while you kind of get a sense for the function of a note in a chord just by hearing it. If two significant-sounding notes are present and easily pick-out-able, even better - and if you've got three or four, well, it's not exactly a problem to figure out the chord from there, is it? In most cases this process will get you to an accurate chord progression quickly (although it can be easy to mistake functional equivalents, especially relative majors/minors). I guess that's all pretty intuitive for anyone once they've actually worked at it for a bit, but I just wanted to make the point that you don't have to pick out all the notes to form your chord, because it's more of an informed guess-and-check process - so that even if you're not good at picking out notes, you still can figure out chord progressions by yourself, and over time you'll probably get a better sense for what you're hearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Taucer Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 I always go by ear. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. Sometimes I end up with a different chord progression from the original. I call such occurrances "Remixes" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splunkle Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 Usually I cheat and bust out somebodies MIDI. Often, though, I like to try to derive the chords from the Melody - its an interesting exercise, and leads to some preety cool ideas usually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 The problem with listening to just the bass note is that if you have inverted chords then that's not going to be any more help than picking, say, the top note of the chord. Though, it's not a bad place to start. Really the best way to train your ear to recognize chords and melodies is to simply practice. The more you spend time at a keyboard or a sequencer, the faster you will recognize different intervals and chords. Taking an ear training course or two can help as well. I'm taking my second ear training course at Drexel right now and my ability to recognize ANY interval (major or minor, up or down) has vastly improved. As far as I'm concerned there's no secret technique besides working at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSB Posted October 28, 2006 Author Share Posted October 28, 2006 No doubt practice makes you better.. I can figure out almost any melody now with relative ease. It's just picking out the nuances of a progression. Chords like Csus(13) can be hard to figure out by ear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rellik Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 No doubt practice makes you better.. I can figure out almost any melody now with relative ease. It's just picking out the nuances of a progression. Chords like Csus(13) can be hard to figure out by ear. Additionally, hard chords don't really matter - they're generally equivalent to more friendly chords, just with added or subtracted notes for "flavor", so if you pick out a note or two, you can still form an equivalent chord that isn't exactly the same but has the same function. Once you've got a basic representation of the chord progression, if you want a more accurate rendition, then you can listen back and see what's different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Taucer Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 I found that learning guitar made me much better at recognizing chord progressions by ear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zylance Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 www.vgmusic.comAll my ReMixes start with source MIDIs from there. Transcribing music by ear is for idiots with too much time on their hands. Hey, some of us here were the ones to transcribe those midis in the first place... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feline_ki Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 Transcribing music by ear is for idiots with too much time on their hands.It's kinda the only choice if no one else has done a MIDI of the song, and there's no sheet music or anything available, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drack Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 Well, when I made a couple Genesis midis, I used GYM2MID or whataver it's called that converts a .gym file to a totally crappy midi, just to see the notes, chords, and intervals. From there it was much easier to write an accurate midi from scratch. There's also a converter out there that can convert .spc to .it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazygecko Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 SPC is more difficult since in a lot of cases the samples are tuned differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spellmynamewithabang Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 I use MIDIs, mind I usually win't MIDI rip unless I feel very very lazy. Instead I just look at the piano roll then play that. Then I get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-RK- Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 I just listen for the root note of the chord. After you know that, and figure what key the song is in, it's VERY easy to build the chords after that. Or you can use midis. That's easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 That doesn't work for any chord that is inverted... eg. the second chord in the progression of "Final Fantasy Legend". The bassline goes from an E to a D, while the melody continues to play back and forth between E G# and B. Can't assume the root note determines the chord. You have to look at all the notes and rearrange them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-RK- Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 That doesn't work for any chord that is inverted... eg. the second chord in the progression of "Final Fantasy Legend". The bassline goes from an E to a D, while the melody continues to play back and forth between E G# and B. Can't assume the root note determines the chord. You have to look at all the notes and rearrange them. I'm not talking about figuring exact progressions all at once using the root of the first chord. I'm talking about figuring ONE chord, exactly how to play on a piano, one at a time. I've had success using that method, and that's what the poster is asking, what we've had success using. Please don't discount my method just because you personally don't believe in it or use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Maybe I'm misunderstanding your method. To make sure we're being clear, using your method, how would you approach analyzing the chord progression of the Final Fantasy Legend main theme? The mp3 is here. Take me through step by step. http://www.soundtempest.net/FFLTheme.mp3 Keep in mind I'm not trying to discount you simply because I feel like it, or because your opinion isn't my opinion. I just don't want a method to be used that doesn't actually work in all cases, or one that will give you incorrect information when used. That is obviously bad. And of course, I wouldn't be posting a response at all if I didn't think there was the possibility that I might be mistaken and that I might have misunderstood you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-RK- Posted December 16, 2006 Share Posted December 16, 2006 Talked to zircon. Misunderstanding. Drama extinguished. Carry on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSB Posted December 17, 2006 Author Share Posted December 17, 2006 I just listen for the root note of the chord. After you know that, and figure what key the song is in, it's VERY easy to build the chords after that.Or you can use midis. That's easier. That is not always true, especially when you get into stuff that's maybe a bit jazzier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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