MsTrisMusic.Com

Hey everybody! I had some really good questions ending out last year. I usually answer them in the comment section. Recently I started using post to get the word out to everyone. I can’t do this for all comments, but some which are about theory, hardware and software in general, or that several people need help on.

Here are a few about R&B, but covers music theory in general.

I’m beginning to learn music theory and I seem to be having very little luck
formulating an R&B/Ballad type of song, I was wondering if you could give me any
pointers.2nd I was wondering how do I find out what key a song is in, because I
listen to r&b and soul music and can’t seem to figure it out.Last but not least
where do I find import european soul that you once mentioned. I know I’m asking
a lot of questions but you seem to be a wealth of knowledge and I wouldn’t ask
if I hadn’t already tried to figure out on my own. Well Thanks in advance.
Quick

When I create R&B tracks, I usually start with the melody and follow with the chord progressions. If you listen to some of today’s R&B you’ll notice that there really isn’t too much going on. Some of the main ingredients are: melody, bassline, and a few harmonic chord progressions. The song format is pretty similar to hiphop, rock, gospel and other genres: Song Intro, Verse, Chorus/Hook, Verse, Bridge, Chorus/hook, Outro. Some R&B may have 3 Verse or only 2 Verses which are paired with the other sections. Song structure is actually up to the producer, but usually follows a mix of the above formats . The most important part of R&b is usually the vocals. Let’s take a listen to ” Say My Name” Destinys Child produced by Rodney “Dark Child” Jerkins:

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In this ” Say My Name” snippet, Rodney has: Intro, Verse, Bridge, Chorus/Hook. They are quite obvious to hear. 28 sec a change occurs from intro to verse, 58 sec verse to bridge,1:11 secs bridge to chorus.
This was released in 99, but it’s still one of my favorite R&B tracks. You can hear Rodney’s “Key/ Key Signature” of the song in the first verse. Finding the correct key usually takes a bit of knowledge about major and minor scales. Learning scales through playing and listening will help you identify the “Key or Tune” much faster. For us newbies in theory there are other ways which will take a bit of ear training.
Here are two videos that will lead you in the right direction. Both require playing or humming a music source, listening, and trying to recreate the melody by humming, playing or singing the “main” melody. It’s sort of hard to put into words but you will understand after watching..

How to determine the key of a song (PIANO) by:

PianoPodDotCom Youtube
The song is actually ” Strangers In The Night” but the basic concept can be used for many genres including R&B ..

The next one is from :www.MusicHopper.com
He uses “Happy Birthday” as example..we all know that one…

After listening and using the techniques in the videos, I found ” Say My Name” is in the Key of “C”

Now for the European Soul Question: Crate diggers would bash me if I told you specifics .. ..but for my readers I go far beyond the norm..well at least a step out of “the secret box”… I will give a couple sponsored sources, then you can have fun digging for your treasures…**when you by from, or sign up through the site links you help sponsor mstrismusic.com which is greatly appreciated**

Amazon has made it easy to buy World Music and there are a lot of snippets to listen to here:

Amazon World Music

Another great resource for finding World Music is a paid service with thousands of songs to download and browse full length: Real Rhapsody

You noticed I used the term World Music, but try looking for international music as well. Once you are in the main category try searching in the “Pop” genres of World/International. From here you can get valuable info on the labels that released the songs, even find precious vinyl over the net.

Now it’s time to get to my first full day back to music this year..

Happy Music Creating and Finding!
Pz Til Later

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This symbol represents a site that acknowledges music education bloggers. I am happy to say MsTrisMusic.Com is among the top 100….

Celebrate with me by clicking the link, making some time in your schedule to take a long visit. There is so much information…. I sorta feel like I’m in college. There are sites about practicing, theory, several tutorial sites, and lesson sites…the list is tremendous and I’m sure any musician will benefit from something that’s there….

Here’s a brief introduction excerpt from the site:
This site was established in order to spread the “word” faster about music, technology, and other related educational topics. This site was created by Dr. Prof. Joseph Pisano and began as a sub-domain of http://jpisano.com in August of 2006. It officially became mustech.net in October of 2006.

Although many of the topics discussed here will be about music technology, you also find plenty of material that deals with the various forms of electronic technologies, that aren’t necessarily related to music, as well. From time to time, you may also find COMPLETELY unrelated topics that we feel are interesting to our readers. ………

Now head on over to read the rest, and get a ship load of music education…:-)

MusicTech.Net….What It’s About

MusicTech.Net Home

If you are a Music Education Blogger, be sure to read requirements and apply for the list…

Happy Beat Making To All
Pz Til later

Popularity: 4% [?]

48 Basic Piano Chords

Heres a video that goes through some piano chords. It shows the notes on the piano, then shows notes on a score sheet.I watched the whole video 1st. I took out a pen and wrote them down 2nd. Last I pushed pause and played the notes.

Popularity: 45% [?]

I remember a time when Hiphop was a baby. Back then I had already decided that I wanted to be a star. With rap, that dream seemed one I was able to reach. I started rhyming at a young age. I always loved music and now, destiny had touched me on the shoulder.
I spent years writing notebook after notebook. Studying the great female emcees at the time. I practiced, I rhymed , I recorded songs..always striving to reach “The Industry”. That place never arrived the way I expected.
I had a producer who had his own home studio. We were on the way to that ^place. One day he decided that producing rap music wasn’t right for him. I was left without a producer, but I had something even bigger. I had music inside. I realize now; that year, was a turning point in my life.
Making a long story very short, I bought a small keyboard and began to tinker around. Along with every artist, I thought I made the hottest songs ever created by man kind..lol. One day I’m gonna share some of those lil recordings…
HipHop was flourishing as a full fledge genre. I could only play the keyboard by ear,but that never mattered. My favorite producers at the time Dr.Dre, Rza, Pete Rock,& Havoc all used samples. They were my teachers through sound. Almost every producer/beatmaker mimicked their styles until they created their own. I had no idea that it was against the law to sample. I bought an Asr 10 and started collecting material. I started doing what I heard the big producers do, take a song that you like and make a beat.Today I have over 1400

albums/vinyl.

Once I started to sample it became a lil more than just me making beats.It’s hard to describe, and I’m sure you’ve heard the term ” The Art Of Sampling”. Some will say what kind of art is in stealing other peoples music? I’d have to respond….” Do you think the average 17 yr old knows the laws of copyrights?” Speaking for myself I didn’t understand or know the laws until 5 yrs into my career. When I first heard about copyright infringement, I was told oh it’s okay to use 13 secs…So I sampled on.This was the main way to make Hiphop for many many years.

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Popularity: 13% [?]