Hi Stone,

Firstly, a quickie.. I think its real cool your on here being so open. Nice.

Anyway, I've been writing tracks for quite a while now, I have released a few, but feel I would benefit from a little music theory knowledge as am getting more interested in writing big commercial house tracks as opposed to deeper 'underground' tunes. Can I ask,.. Are you very up on music theory? or are you like myself, and just put things together that sound nice and 'right' without any knowledge? Out of interest I played 'put em high' by yourself to a friend (who's a classically trained musician). She fired out.."Oh, that sounds to be in E major". I then asked if that means the bass and the keys use only the note in E major. The reply was "not necessarily, It sound like he's got a few 'incidentals' in their (not in the key) and the chords are also inversion...and are the chords of D sharp, F sharp, A sharp etc.. etc.. My brain melted at this point!

I was also watching your future music videos, and unfortunately, it doesn't show you how you put keys into a track when you have a bass.. Do you just Jam with the track until something sounds right, or reference past hits 'n' records for ideas?

So mate, any help will be greatly appreciated...

cheers

I can't read music, but I know pretty much about general music theory and how to invert chords etc. I decided early on not to get too theoretical and go with what feels right rather than what's the conventional way. I think you can find most of the knowledge you need on the net. There are places they show you chords on keyboards and stuff. I bought books in my early career with advanced guitar chord, but that may be a step to far for a bit house track

When I start a track I always have some of the beats and the vocal (if a remix) running. I used to do the bass line next, but about two years ago I discovered that you limit yourself that way so now I usually go with the excellent impOSCar soft synth and play chords and simulate the bass notes at the same time a few octaves down. Hope this makes sense!

Stone

Cheers mate, thats greatly appreciated. I think I was just about to enter and search the deep dark depth's of beethoven 'n mozart.. (jeeezus!!!). I was feeling, wake up dude, this is house , this isn't beard scratching music!

You've helped hugely in what you've just said. It all made sense... and yeah.. the impOSCar is a truly 'smooth' 'n' nice soft synth.

Anytime Jon and if you have more questions, just fire away.