Chord Changes???

I listened to a couple minutes of the first two songs. I have to say that this is not my favorite type of music, but from what I heard, it is mixed well, the composition and technical production is correct, and well done. For the ideas of how to make it more interesting, the change ups, I am not sure where to go with that. What I would suggest is that you do a little self education in simple music theory. Not real detailed, but from the structure point of view. For instance, the most basic format will have three chords, Like A, D, and G (root, forth, and seventh, but these are changeable, and just an example). This would be repeated as a verse, (maybe four measures of A, four of D, two of G, back to A for instance), with a change that would be a chorus, that might use the same chords in a different pattern, or maybe throw in something different to change it up a bit. Then, you could have say two verses, a chorus, a verse, and then maybe a bridge, that would be totally different, with a chorus and verse to finish it all off. But your music doesn't exactly support that kind of structure.

So, the best thing for you would be to study other songs in your genre, and concentrate on the structure. Don't listen to the beats, or samples, or mixing techniques, listen for the structure. Recognize what is repeating, what is different, how the differing parts blend and combine.

That is what I would have to do, analize for the structure, and then go back and study the format of instrumentation and learn how to build beats, how to use samples. It would be totally greek to me, but maybe if you approach it as something you know nothing about, break it down to its smallest elements and rebuild with your own style....

Not much help, I guess
Later
Albert

They use chords in hiphop? Really? Where have I been?

Investigate different scales, melodic minor for example. Another trick is to start the chord progression on the iim instead of on the I You can have a chorus resolving to the I chord in the first measure. Play a major chord where you'd expect a minor to be, or the other way around. Learn the rules, then ignore the rules.

learn other songs...ones you like...ones that contain different chord changes that grab your attention. See what makes them tick. Lotsa ways to learn.

They use chords in hiphop? Really? Where have I been?

my thoughts too....

Just remember that theory is used to figure out what you did after you did it so you can better understand what you can do in the future.

Just remember that theory is used to figure out what you did after you did it so you can better understand what you can do in the future.

This thread is full of great advice but none better than Bill's IMO

All the best,

ORIGINAL: whattarush
Usually no more than three throughout the entire song which makes it difficult for me to listen to.

There would be thousands of tunes written with just three or fewer chords, most of which would not at all be difficult to listen to. Hip-Hop is a genre I'm not particularly fond of, but there is a huge fan-base for it. Had you mentioned Karl-Heinz Stockhausen's music, now that I DO find difficult to listen to.

ORIGINAL: DSProductionz

I make hip hop track and am looking to branch out to different genres and also expand my hip hop beat making too. I am not the greatest on the keys but I try... I have a small knowledge of chords and scales that gets me by. I practice in hope to get better as time goes by...

My question is how to make my tracks bit more interesting and change up with some chord changes. My songs always seem to be based around 2 or 3 progression chords the whole way through. Any idea or advice on this?

You can hear some of what I do at: www.darksideproductionz.com/blog and just click the music tab. Feedback is welcome too... I have a lot of respect for you very talented musicians so constructive criticism welcome too... Thank you!!!

Hi
I think it all depends on what you want to acheive and wat style you want to cater for.Its great you want to expand,but its hard to offer concrete advise without knowing what other styles you're looking into.
For example in Jazz you're more likely to get chords with flashy extensions.Instead of playing a G7,its more likely to be subbed for another chord wirth flashy extensions,like Gflattened 9,or a G Aug 11Th,or even a D flat aug 6.Melodies are likely to be differant too,making more use of 7ths and 2nds. In pop on the other hand 9 times out of 10 basic traid chords will be used.By this I mean the chord will be based on three notes.So for example in the scale of C you'll get a C major chord with C,E,G in it,an F major chord with FAC in it etc etc.Pop melodies make more use of 3rds and 6ths,as opposed to 7ths and 2nds in jazz.
I think if you are after more unsual chord progressions you should maybe look into jazz - but again it all depends on what you want to do. I think the most important thing to remember is that there are really no solid rules regarding to what you can or can't do.If you want to play the chords C minor,E minor,G minor,B flat minor C minor and it sounds 'right' to you,then it is right,and no-one can tell you differant.Experiment,and experiment some more.All the keys are CONNECTED in one form or another anyway,its down to you decide on what suits your style. I heard a story about the composer bach,who wrote a chord progression based on the letters in his name !!! H in German notation is B flat by the way so he wrote the chords B,A,C and B flat. Was he following rules ?? Nah he was having fun and experimenting.
Hope this was useful in some way to you.
Kev