A serious thread

Art is proof of the limits of logic. I don't think you're gonna be able to reason this one out, but it's an interesting read.

  lumpenprol said:

Art is proof of the limits of logic. I don't think you're gonna be able to reason this one out, but it's an interesting read.

Excellent phrase. And your probably right but I think it is interesting discussing this stuff (more so than enlightened predections about new albums & lost tracks ) Keep it coming people. There's some really good stuff here.

Not sure if this makes sense, but on some tracks (don't know the titles) it seems like they hit notes in a new key/mode while the notes of the previous one are still ringing out. This creates sort of a sinister sound through the dissonance. It seems to me this was done a lot in the Apocalypse Now soundtrack too. I might be wrong about this though; I don't know much about music theory.

Whitewater in the key of A:

A maj root position

E maj

G maj

D maj

A maj going C#, E then A

I havent done anything like this in music theory, but there's a nice example of a 5 bar chord progression

  february31st said:

Examples include Oirectine, Olson v.3, The Devil Is In The Details, and Heard Through Telegraph Wires.

And Whitewater.

Oops, see above.

  Demerzel said:

Whitewater in the key of A:

 

A maj root position

E maj

G maj

D maj

A maj going C#, E then A

 

I havent done anything like this in music theory, but there's a nice example of a 5 bar chord progression

I MAEK MISTAKE LOL

Whitewater in the key of A is fuck all like that. that's still a nice basic example though. whitewater in the key of F, though:

F maj; C maj, G maj, D maj, A maj. 5-chord chord progression.

the melody that interests me the most is the one at the end of happy cycling - what scale is that?

I find the chromatic scale fits my writing style best.

You're asking such a horribly vague question...all the songs have different chords! And there is no 'theme' to the melodies between all albums. They all have different ideas. But an interesting example of what Boards of Canada does with their chords is that they tend to break up the melody so the chord is significantly hard to detect.

Also a lot of times they create melodies that transpose in a cycle, like in Alpha & Omega, first you have a G minor 7th chord, then G 6th, then G flat 6th, then F 6th, and back to G minor 7th. The chords go in a circluar motion that really adds the magic to that song. The same thing is in songs like Skyliner, and many others.

  Salvatorin said:

You're asking such a horribly vague question...all the songs have different chords! And there is no 'theme' to the melodies between all albums. They all have different ideas. But an interesting example of what Boards of Canada does with their chords is that they tend to break up the melody so the chord is significantly hard to detect.

I guess it is vague (shows my lack of musicla knowledge I guess). We're getting some great replies though (including your own). All good stuff.

  Dogboy73 said:

  february31st said:

It is interesting how BOC's harmonies have gotten more complex over time--fewer triads, wider chord spans, more pitches in each chord, etc.

The newer material certainly sounds more complex than the older stuff. There's more going on. But is it more going on musicaly or are there just more sounds & elements in each track? From what your saying their actual music has become more complex. Can you eloborate on what you are saying? It's interesting that for a lot of people MHTRTC is some of BoC's best material to date. Is this because it is less complex musically or more stripped down ......... or both?

well i think that the production of MHTRTC was a long time coming and had a lot of time to stew in their minds and to really be optimized and perfected to their liking. No, i dont think that many think its better because it was less musically-complex. i actually think that most of the tracks are much more "effective" at expressing a particular fascinating concept. and they were extremely versatile with the different concepts embodied in the album. 'an eagle in your mind' being wonderfully haunting and mysterious, 'sixtyten' being extremely, insidiously bad-ass, 'roygbiv' being almost enlightening with its message of hope, and 'rue the whirl'- which in my mind communicates incredible concepts of supernatural beauty, divinity and power, with that incredibly divine airy-horn noise. not to mention how mesmerizing and hypnotic that 'whirling' loop is. and then 'aquarious' is classic boc eccentricity and playfulness. not to mention all the other great songs on the album, i also tend to think it is their quintessential, most undeniably amazing work.

but noone can disagree, each of the other albums have their own undeniably incredible mind-bending songs.

Yeh I prefer it than fascism

wake up Neo... :on2long:

  Caustic said:

wtf LOL!

  ۞ Syntheme ۞ said:

they use the 'black keys' a lot and then re-scale by twisting the tune knobs on their synths.

I think Synthemes only half-joking. The minor pentatonic or slight modal variations on it, feature a lot.

I'd imagine BOCs main production technique is serendipity. As evidenced by the fact they produce an album every four years. I bet there's an awful lot of crap hidden away somewhere (no, I'm not referring to TCH).

  GORDO said:

arent modes exactly the same scales with focus on different notes?

 

they don't really use lot of notes anyway, so i'm going with standard pentatonic scale with synths detuned at unusual intervals.

If you play all of the white keys, starting with C, you'll play a major scale, which is: W-W-H-W-W-W-H (where W=whole note, and H=half note). This is Ionian (or Greek Lydian).

If you play all of the white keys, starting with A, you'll play a minor scale, which is: W-H-W-W-H-W-W. This is Aeolian.

Remaining modes:

Locrian: White keys from B to B.

Phrygian: White keys from D to D.

Dorian: White keys from E to E.

Lydian: White keys from F to F.

Mixolydian: White keys from G to G.

To make tunes in alternate modes, I usually cheat and initially play the melodies on the white keys, then transpose the MIDI data afterwards to whatever key I'm looking for.

  kakapo said:

I'd imagine BOCs main production technique is serendipity. As evidenced by the fact they produce an album every four years. I bet there's an awful lot of crap hidden away somewhere (no, I'm not referring to TCH).

Interesting theory & quite possibly accurate. It's well recognised that a lot of the best musical ideas in popular music have come from accidents. Clearly BoC have a game plan with their musical structure. But I wonder how many of the melodies they come up with are accidental.

  skytree said:

Modes basically work like this:

 

If you play all of the white keys, starting with C, you'll play a major scale, which is: W-W-H-W-W-W-H (where W=whole note, and H=half note). This is Ionian (or Greek Lydian).

 

If you play all of the white keys, starting with A, you'll play a minor scale, which is: W-H-W-W-H-W-W. This is Aeolian.

 

Remaining modes:

 

Locrian: White keys from B to B.

Phrygian: White keys from D to D.

Dorian: White keys from E to E.

Lydian: White keys from F to F.

Mixolydian: White keys from G to G.

 

To make tunes in alternate modes, I usually cheat and initially play the melodies on the white keys, then transpose the MIDI data afterwards to whatever key I'm looking for.

Although technically correct, this is a rather sophomoric, naive and incomplete explanation. However, I'm not prepared to give further elaboration.

  kakapo said:

  skytree said:

Modes basically work like this:

 

If you play all of the white keys, starting with C, you'll play a major scale, which is: W-W-H-W-W-W-H (where W=whole note, and H=half note). This is Ionian (or Greek Lydian).

 

If you play all of the white keys, starting with A, you'll play a minor scale, which is: W-H-W-W-H-W-W. This is Aeolian.

 

Remaining modes:

 

Locrian: White keys from B to B.

Phrygian: White keys from D to D.

Dorian: White keys from E to E.

Lydian: White keys from F to F.

Mixolydian: White keys from G to G.

 

To make tunes in alternate modes, I usually cheat and initially play the melodies on the white keys, then transpose the MIDI data afterwards to whatever key I'm looking for.

 

 

Although technically correct, this is a rather sophomoric, naive and incomplete explanation. However, I'm not prepared to give further elaboration.

Thanks Kakapo, for assuming that's the limit of my understanding...

FYI, I've taken two years of music theory at the university level.

This is the most basic explanation, for the purposes of this thread.

  skytree said:

  kakapo said:

  skytree said:

Modes basically work like this:

 

If you play all of the white keys, starting with C, you'll play a major scale, which is: W-W-H-W-W-W-H (where W=whole note, and H=half note). This is Ionian (or Greek Lydian).

 

If you play all of the white keys, starting with A, you'll play a minor scale, which is: W-H-W-W-H-W-W. This is Aeolian.

 

Remaining modes:

 

Locrian: White keys from B to B.

Phrygian: White keys from D to D.

Dorian: White keys from E to E.

Lydian: White keys from F to F.

Mixolydian: White keys from G to G.

 

To make tunes in alternate modes, I usually cheat and initially play the melodies on the white keys, then transpose the MIDI data afterwards to whatever key I'm looking for.

 

 

Although technically correct, this is a rather sophomoric, naive and incomplete explanation. However, I'm not prepared to give further elaboration.

Thanks Kakapo, for assuming that's the limit of my understanding...

 

FYI, I've taken two years of music theory at the university level.

 

This is the most basic explanation, for the purposes of this thread.

KakaPWN™

  kakapo said:

Although technically correct, this is a rather sophomoric, naive and incomplete explanation. However, I'm not prepared to give further elaboration.

OMG Marcus?

i'm guessing what kakapo means is that if you want to play in a G dorian mode then your starting scale would be D major: D E F# G A B C# D - which has two sharps(black notes) in it.

the next step would be to rotate the scale to a g root note: G A B C# D E F# G

voila G dorian.

you can draw a mode off say a diminished scale too:

C diminished: C C# F# G A Bb B

G mixolydian diminished: G A Bb B C C# F#

and so it goes

Keep em coming people. This is all good stuff (much more interesting than speculating on a new fucking album!!)

  Dogboy73 said:

Keep em coming people. This is all good stuff (much more interesting than speculating on a new fucking album!!)

But yes...worrying about it at the moment is just speculation. This is a bit more interesting.

  skytree said:

  Dogboy73 said:

Keep em coming people. This is all good stuff (much more interesting than speculating on a new fucking album!!)

Which is actually on its way, so it seems.

:teeth: Says who? the fairy god mother?!