How do you go about your notes and scales?

For example when you want to move on with the bassline. When composing a beat it's easy, but when sampling, how do you know what scale or octave your in, if you haven't yet trained your ear?

Just gotta know what sounds right I guess.

by comparing it to other instruments or virtual instruments.

All music has some sort of root note to identify its key signature. If you can hum out what sounds to match a particular note or series of notes, then you're halfway there.

This is how I manage to work bass notes into anything from sample based music to completely raw compositions.

dabmeister wrote:All music has some sort of root note to identify its key signature. If you can hum out what sounds to match a particular note or series of notes, then you're halfway there.

This is how I manage to work bass notes into anything from sample based music to completely raw compositions.

Thank's.

' All music has some sort of root note to identify its key signature '


Learn your notes - you'll eventually be able to identify them by ear ... the rest comes a lot easier.

dabmeister wrote:All music has some sort of root note to identify its key signature. If you can hum out what sounds to match a particular note or series of notes, then you're halfway there.

Just to add to that....

You'll know you've picked the root note if you can pretty much hum that same note through out the sample without it sounding out of place. Even if you've picked the wrong note, it's prolly still the 3rd or 5th note of the correct key. Which still gets you closer to your goal.

Lately, I've become paranoid about sampling and where the pitch is on the turntable when I go to grab the sample and it's because I don't want to throw it off so I then can't tune keys or whatever to play along with the sample.

I still don't understand how those songs with sped up samples work out in the end. Like if you have a c note and you speed up the record to 45 is it still a c note? What about if you sample at 45 -8pitch? What key is that??

compare with a keyboard or get a guitar tuner?

happyhour wrote:Lately, I've become paranoid about sampling and where the pitch is on the turntable when I go to grab the sample and it's because I don't want to throw it off so I then can't tune keys or whatever to play along with the sample.

I still don't understand how those songs with sped up samples work out in the end. Like if you have a c note and you speed up the record to 45 is it still a c note? What about if you sample at 45 -8pitch? What key is that??

I don't really see the problem. You can tune the sample in the MPC or just your module in the master settings (assuming you use hardware).

But, no. A C note wouldn't be a C note if the record is sped up to 45. The same way it wouldn't be a C note if you sped it up on the MP or used 16 levels. The same principles apply.

good thread..

these days i go by ear using whatever patch i feel i need in the track on my fantom, but as a rule of thumb it's easier to find the right notes with a higher pitch sound/patch, then once i now the scale i have a piano chord/scale book i bought for $15, and i just look at a bunch of scales which are by picture of an octave or two, just to know the scale.. otherwise if you you don't learn the scale it's a waste of time i feel...

back in the day i used to look up 'piano scale/chord finder' into google and find a online scale finder, like this....

http://www.8notes.com/resources/notefinders/piano_chords.asp

punch in a bullshit scale and learn it, if it sounds good i'll come up with a melody/bass line/something and get crackin within 10 mins.. this is how i go about composing original music. it's awesome imo!!

i had about 5 lessons 3-4 yrs ago, learnt the basics of piano.. and taught myself using the method above from there. i'm not bad on keys now, as soon as i know what scale i'm working in(and the root key-which is very important!) i can just play, idk.. especially when i'm drunk or in the zone, i can just play, it's strange like that.

side note: the basic theory behind a chord is.... 1-3-5 refering to notes in a scale + going up or down(flat -b or sharp -#) on the 3rd note... as a very basic start to chords... it's pretty simple stuff.

i strongly recommend a few piano lessons to anyone without the knowledge, it's very easy! i had a head start-and most of you should do too, as i had rhythm/drums down pat!

padlock wrote:good thread..

these days i go by ear using whatever patch i feel i need in the track on my fantom, but as a rule of thumb it's easier to find the right notes with a higher pitch sound/patch, then once i now the scale i have a piano chord/scale book i bought for $15, and i just look at a bunch of scales which are by picture of an octave or two, just to know the scale.. otherwise if you you don't learn the scale it's a waste of time i feel...

back in the day i used to look up 'piano scale/chord finder' into google and find a online scale finder, like this....

http://www.8notes.com/resources/notefinders/piano_chords.asp

punch in a **** scale and learn it, if it sounds good i'll come up with a melody/bass line/something and get crackin within 10 mins.. this is how i go about composing original music. it's awesome imo!!

i had about 5 lessons 3-4 yrs ago, learnt the basics of piano.. and taught myself using the method above from there. i'm not bad on keys now, as soon as i know what scale i'm working in(and the root key-which is very important!) i can just play, idk.. especially when i'm drunk or in the zone, i can just play, it's strange like that.

side note: the basic theory behind a chord is.... 1-3-5 refering to notes in a scale + going up or down(flat -b or sharp -#) on the 3rd note... as a very basic start to chords... it's pretty simple stuff.

i strongly recommend a few piano lessons to anyone without the knowledge, it's very easy! i had a head start-and most of you should do too, as i had rhythm/drums down pat!

Thank's for taking your time and giving a bunch of advice. I actually printed several sheets on chords and scales yesterday, and its very easy to come up with a basic melody. As long as I can find the root note everything is much easier from there.

happyhour wrote:Lately, I've become paranoid about sampling and where the pitch is on the turntable when I go to grab the sample and it's because I don't want to throw it off so I then can't tune keys or whatever to play along with the sample.

honestly, i tune my samples to whatever sounds/feels right when i am sequencing the beat. then when i add synths later if there is any type of tuning issue, i use a midi vst to tune any synths to my samples.

there are a bunch of free plugins out there that will do this, but if you use reaper you can use the ReaControlMIDI plugin to do this.

punchdrunk wrote:there are a bunch of free plugins out there that will do this, but if you use reaper you can use the ReaControlMIDI plugin to do this.

So it's like a "tuner" plugin? I'll have to look into it.

I don't know why I started over thinking whether or not shit was in tune. I do go by ear. But I have run into loops where I've been like what tuning is this?!

happyhour wrote:

punchdrunk wrote:there are a bunch of free plugins out there that will do this, but if you use reaper you can use the ReaControlMIDI plugin to do this.

So it's like a "tuner" plugin? I'll have to look into it.

I don't know why I started over thinking whether or not shit was in tune. I do go by ear. But I have run into loops where I've been like what tuning is this?!

yeah man, I never looked at it that way... until recently I stumbled apon something asking me what key my song was in... yeah, the entire song.... maybe some music is like that where the ... "root note" is the same? is that what they mean when they ask what key the entire song is in?