- Best
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- Nov 07, 2020
Chord Quotes
Musicians on chord progressions, craft, and finding a sound.
These lines come from musicians talking about how a chord progression gets built, from early jazz-inspired experiments to modal melodies borrowed from European sources. One artist recalls squeezing in practice time between odd jobs just to sit with an instrument. See how it connects with Composition for more on the craft side of songwriting.
- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- More
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- Nov 07, 2020
I am into drones and one chord freak outs and the paintings I am into are more minimal things the New York colour field painters and the soviet schools of the early/mid 20th century suprematism and constructionism.
- Enough Money
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- Nov 07, 2020
I was working like a dog as a housekeeper, barista, nanny, cook, so I could save enough money to really sit with my instruments. Whenever I had 20 minutes, I would practice a new chord or write a new verse.
- Punk
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- Nov 07, 2020
My favorite punk rock song is 'Linoleum' by NOFX. That's pure harmony, the coolest chord changes.
- Look
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- Nov 07, 2020
After all, what is cinema? It is an interaction, a discussion that throws up questions and provides some solutions. The solutions might look simple, impractical or too fictionalised. But one must realise that viewers empathise with certain characters because they strike a chord with the viewers' needs and frame of mind.
- Love
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- Nov 07, 2020
I think The Hulk really hit a chord with me, I love the Hulk. But, I never dreamt I'd be playing Doctor Doom.
- Love
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- Nov 07, 2020
I fell in love with R&B music at a young age. The energy and aesthetic of that genre strike an emotional chord with me.
- Nov 07, 2020
Yes, basically, like you said, I'll work out a chord pattern and work out the lyrics over that.
- Make
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- Nov 07, 2020
There are certain choices you make as a songwriter, based on vowel sounds and melody and chord changes.
- Depicted
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- Nov 07, 2020
The third note in a chord is what depicts whether it's major or minor. Rhythm and Blues hardly ever uses it because it means that the melody is free to move between major and minor because you're not clashing with the third being depicted one way or the other.
- Just
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- Nov 07, 2020
I just scribbled away and eventually a C-major chord was there. I didn't ever decide I was going to be a composer. It was like being tall. It's what I was. It's what I did.
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- Nov 07, 2020
I used to try and make up visually for what I couldn't play as a musician. I used to get into very incredible visual things where, in order just to make one chord more lethal, I'd make it a really lethal looking thing, whereas really it's just going to be picked normally.
- Harmonic
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- Nov 07, 2020
After 35 years of bone-crushing rock guitar playing, I'm finally starting to get my head out of the harmonic sand and learning how to play over chord changes.
- Best
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- Nov 07, 2020
A scale is just the notes that are in a chord played one at a time instead of together. That's what has allowed me to go through the possible notes that work with a chord and make choices about which ones I like best. I go through by ear; you can do it by theory too, but the best way is to learn by ear.
- Guitar
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- Nov 07, 2020