The Music Theory Behind Trance?, anyone know anything about it Options

[slowintrepid]

Ok recently I've been trying to produce my own tracks (mostly trance)
I've been a guitar player since I was 9 years old so I know theory in genral. but the reason I got into trance was because the genre eludes me and seem quite complex (when in reality it's pretty simple I hear??)

anyways can someone gimme some info on what goes into a trance song (theory wise that is)

thanks alot

[boze]

::rOTfL::

(that was awesome, thanks for starting my day with a smile:)

[slowintrepid]

ummm your welcome...........but I was being serious.

unfortunantly don't find the humor in my original post

[boze]

oh-
sorry.

no offense.

i'm not big into trance myself. but since you have a regular music background you should be plenty capable.

house music is straight-forward enough. and spacey pads are a dime a dozen in any softsynth or sampler you come across. if i remember correctly, gating is also popular so you can gate pads rhythmically to accent your beats and basslines.

the form is usually additive 16-bar like other kinds of house music, so it's a slow predictable grower and you can just build energy and break down once or twice in the middle.

for added flavor try experimenting with something like reaktor- which can lead you to textural material you wouldn't create or discover otherwise.

good luck.

This post has been edited by boze: Mon 5 Jan 2004, 18:29

[slowintrepid]

thanks alot

sorry to sound like an ass it's just that I don't know much about electronic music. (been playing in bands since 8th grade though so that's where I get my music background from)

I'm more having problems with the melodic part of the genre though. like scales and harmony and stuff

[boze]

no i think it's me that's the ass in this thread.

as i recall trance relies pretty heavily on arpeggiators. do you know what that is? if you hold down just one note you get a repeating series of notes that steps up and/or down through the notes of a chord or just jumps octaves every note. it sounds fancy when you hear it but then when you realize you just do it buy using one note and an arp it sorta takes the magic out.

anyway, that's just another thing to fiddle with if you didn't already know about it. kinda old school though and played out imo. but then that's how i feel about trance as well

[slowintrepid]

yeah I know what an argeggiator is. that's not really for me for two reasons.
1. I like to right my own stuff and I feel like I'm cheating if I use an arpeggiator.
2. most arpeggiators I've heard are usually very VERY simple. like 1,2,3,4,5,5,4,3,2,1 kinda like that.

the only good arpeggiator I've heard is the one inside the KORG Karma that was a nice gadget

[boze]

yeah just wanted to make sure you weren't in the dark about that because it seemed like the kind of thing that could make the 'melodies' of trance seem less accessible than they really are.

[Synthetic]

there are many different branches of trance that you could explore too... i find it kinda interesting that someone with a real musical background wants to create trance though... most people with a decent understanding of music find trance boring and too repetitive and predictable for most part.

I understand your not wanting to use an arp because you feel its cheating but... there are some arp patterns that I feel would almost be impossible to play live unless at very slow tempo due to there complexity. Most midi arp files are not near as complex as some the patterns some of the new synths pack... I have heard Death In Vegas use an arp before but it was used on and off with simple pattern to stutter the synth lead as the keyboard player played. Point being... don't rule them out totally because they do have usefullness and depending on the arp generator... sometimes you can create some really interesting patterns using different key patterns with the arp that will sound totally original even if someone has same arp pattern.

With my electronic music... I have always tried to steer clear of the trance genre just because most of it i have heard just doesn't appeal to me. I know a lot of club goers dig this music but ask any of them what their favorite artist is and most can't tell you... or if they do... they just tell you the DJ that spins the music.

To each his I guess. Anyway... you can look at www.dancetech.com for more info on this and similar genres and www.computermusic.co.uk has some nice little production lessons and tips as well.

[slowintrepid]

yeah I would consider trance my "guilty pleasure" like I said though for the longest time I used to hate everything related to eletronic music (including trance) so that means that I'm pretty new to everything electronic music. So I figured that I'd start with somthing easy and something that I like. (yes I know trance is very repetative but I think all music has it's place personally)


anyways thanks for the links. I've been a member to Computermusic.co.uk for quite a while (I'd get a subscription to the mag but it's like $150 dollars to ship it here lol)

the other one I'll check out haven't been there yet so thanks alot