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Post by yeastydeath on Dec 27, 2014 13:25:48 GMT -5
I always wondered amongst grindcore musicians how much of a grasp most of you had on music theory and if it informs your songwriting too much, or if you just recognize harmonic patterns from listening to other music and kind of figure it out on your own or a combination of both.
Personally I don't utilize scales very much and can only read sheet music if I really sit down and focus, but the basic root, fifth, octave triumvirate comes into play a lot being a bass player and certain things like flatted fifths get used as well but it's a lot of muscle memory and established familiar patterns for me.
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Post by dragunov on Dec 27, 2014 15:57:24 GMT -5
I learned basic theory/sight reading in middle school when I was playing trombone, and basic approaches to improvisation when I was in a jazz band the year before I started high school. Started playing guitar when I was 14, and utilized little to none of the music theory/sight reading knowledge I had gained previously (I can still read standard notation, but can't sight read for shit on a guitar; I don't really know the notes on the fretboard lol). I learned a few scales, modes, and chord shapes, and just kinda played what I thought sounded good. Granted, most of the riffs I write could be analyzed in terms of harmony and phrasing, but I assure you NONE of that is going through my head when I'm trying to come up with punk/metal oriented songs.
That said, I've started doing a bit of leisurely studying (dynamics/arrangement) so I can have some more ideas/feel comfortable taking certain routes in composing for a synth-based/video game music project I recently started with a friend of mine who knows a lot more about music theory than I do, and will probably throw vocabulary at me as we go along.
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Post by thelampincident on Dec 28, 2014 19:54:50 GMT -5
Only thing I can remember is pentatonic blues scales. Don't use them for a hell of a lot. Forgot how to read sheet music a long time ago. Everything I do is just based on what sounds cool and each riff calls for a different definition of cool.
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Post by conscience on Dec 28, 2014 22:47:23 GMT -5
I played saxophone for a little bit in fifth grade but then switched over to percussion as I liked to drum more at the time. I played percussion (multiple forms) from fifth grade up to the end of sophomore year. That would include both concert and marching band, so I knew all the scales, sheet music, etc etc. Then I just stopped for whatever reason, been meaning to get behind a kit and relearn but haven't found or made time to do so.
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Post by yeastydeath on Dec 29, 2014 0:38:24 GMT -5
Percussion has scales?
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Post by yeastydeath on Dec 29, 2014 0:39:09 GMT -5
I guess if you played xylophone or marimbas and shit that makes sense.
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Post by geeheeb on Dec 29, 2014 0:47:58 GMT -5
I played viola in a few school orchestras and youth symphonies around michigan from ages 12-18, and I also played guitar and viola in the school jazz group under a dude who played with wynton and branford marsalis and he hammered a lot of theory into us too. So I know a lot, and at one point in time could read treble and alto clef but wasn't great a with bass. I was great at sight reading on viola but not on guitar.
with all that background I should know a lot more and should have retained a lot more than I do...but oh well I think it heightens my enjoyment of both larm and mozart.
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Post by flesheater on Dec 29, 2014 7:26:12 GMT -5
I was trained in music theory and mostly played fingerstyle classical stuff when I was younger. I've forgotten nearly all of it by now and don't really care because it felt constricting.
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Post by yeastydeath on Dec 29, 2014 12:35:43 GMT -5
I've also taken a few classes, was in band in middle school and taken theory lessons a few years ago since more heavily diving back into bass guitar and it really is amazing how much of that shit you don't retain. The info is in there somewhere I'm sure, lost in a haze of smoke.
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Post by Torch the Mall on Dec 29, 2014 17:16:56 GMT -5
I took classical music theory all four years of high school (as well as the AP test) and a little in college (but the college courses I took weren't introducing new material to me because I picked a sucky school to go to). I remember fucking around a little bit with condensing song structures down to grindcore timescale (or I guess Schumann miniature size) but it didn't offer too much.
If anything, the most I have used for grind and punk in the little writing I have ever done has been based off of pivot chords and modulations to keep riffs fresh. It adds a little bit of life to what would otherwise be the standard octatonic grind riffs that you've heard on every grind record you own.
Dynamics are almost totally useless in grind, but I've tried to use them a bit more in any acoustic, noise, and shoegaze stuff I ever write.
I suck at sight reading.
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Post by thelampincident on Dec 29, 2014 17:41:29 GMT -5
Oh, also I played the flute in fifth grade and was considered to be really good at it by my teachers. However, my greatest fluting achievement was breaking a window with it by swinging it like a lightsaber and the top two pieces flying off.
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