I recorded this music track as part of a tutorial on how to use my software SLModes to write chord progressions.
Video
Composition Analysis
Structure of the song goes like:
Part A
Verses start with the C Melodic Minor mode – the tendency would be to start with the more familiar C Minor mode, but I used SLModes to force myself to stray away from my intuition. I always view this as a good thing, because my default music intuition is boring and limited most of the times.
Pre-Chorus is in the D# Lydian mode. This mode is not really related to the previous one. But by exploring SLModes for ideas, I discovered that the transition from one to another sounded good.
Chorus is in the G Aeolian mode. This mode is directly related to the previous one (D# Lydian), since both belong to the same parent scale.
Part B – Negative Harmony
After the Chorus, comes Part B (@1:16). I grab the previous mode and I apply to it a very obscure variation of a music theory concept known as Negative Harmony (which by itself is also something obscure). The reason I can it an “obscure variation”, is because Negative Harmony is usually calculated using the Circle of Fifths, but in my case I used the Circle of Seconds. Doing this results in a new music mode that is harmonically very distant and unrelated to the previous one. In our case, that new mode is E Phrygian Major. The song will now sound completely different.
I had a lot of fun writing this section. I wrote a repeating guitar pattern in the 7/4 time signature, and in parallel, I wrote a riff with some completely different rhythmical ideas. Sounded cool and weird at the same time.
After that section I played to neoclassical guitar licks (can’t leave those out, ever), which were mostly played using the A Harmonic Minor scale.
Returning Home
Then notice how at the minute 2:15, the drums, bass and rhythm guitar section start to play a pattern that starts resembling the one used in the Verses originally. We are preparing the return home, rhythmically!
But we must also return home harmonically. And in that front, we are still far away from C Melodic Minor.
But are we, really?
Because if there’s one thing the SLModes can teach us is this: we are never so far away from home harmonically that it’s ever impossible to return. Any 2 random scales have always, at least, 2 notes in common. And so, we can always use those notes as connecting bridges to return home.
That’s what happens @2:28.
How do we return to C Melodic Minor from A Harmonic Minor? Turns out, these two scales have five notes in common: C, D, F, A and B
Chord Progression Transition – The Flip
And so, we use a chord progression that focuses on those notes. So we have:
| Chord | Chord Notes | Notes in common with A Harmonic Minor | Notes in common with C Melodic Minor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cmaj7#5 | C E G# B | 4 | 2 |
| CmM7 | C Eb G B | 2 | 4 |
| D#maj7b5 | D# G A D | 2 | 4 |
| Gmaj | G B D | 2 | 4 |
| Cm | C Eb G | 1 | 4 |
Did you see it? The moment of transition? It happens from Cmaj7#5 to CmM7.
There is a flip:
- The first chord has 4 notes in common with A Harmonic Minor and 2 notes in common with C Melodic Minor.
- The second chord has 2 notes in common with A Harmonic Minor and 4 notes in common with C Melodic Minor.
And just like that, we returned home.
Would you’ve preferred a more smooth transition?
No problem. Instead of a 4:2 to 2:4 flip, you could have come up with chords that had a relation like: 4:2, to 4:3 to 2:4. Something like that.
But this transition sounded good to me 🙂
This concludes the analysis of this song. Don’t forget to check out SLModes and come up with your own musical ideas.
Credits
- Release Date: 10 December 2024
- Genre: Instrumental Rock, Progressive Metal, Neoclassical Metal
- Credits: Written and played by Micael Nobre
Download
You can listen and download this track on my Bandcamp page.
