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Chords Section in newtfmpage/Dhool

Topic started by MS (@ 129.252.25.241) on Thu Apr 17 01:02:28 EDT 2003.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

In an effort to make dhool a li'l more comprehensive, we are adding a section "chords" for some songs. This table is presently hidden since we have chords only for a few songs. DFers can mail their own set of chords for the songs they have played / written in the format suggested in the Chords conventions page. Take a look at the way the page is arranged and send your chords to andholanam@hotmail.com. Try to make it as complete and accurate as possible including the interludes. This will help others who are searching for chords to use them. Appropriate credits shall be given to those who send the files.

(1) Paatu paadava
(2) Janani Janani
(3) Kuzaloodhum kaNNanukku
(4) nila adhu
(5) ponnondru kaNden
(6) vaseegara
and other chord files are available here - http://dhool.com/chords/articles.htm

some conventions:

http://dhool.com/chords/chords_conventions.htm

BTW, all these files were created by me and pardon the errors if any.

MS

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: selva (@ 172.190.235.224) on: Wed Apr 30 18:38:59 EDT 2003
  
  MS,
  
  The way, this thread has progressed so far, it seems it is meant for a wider audience. But, the impatience, in some, does call for a balancing act. And hence, the need for two levels- basic and advanced.
  
  In my understanding, integral components of 'any' music, are notes and counts; or tunes and rhythms; or the unlimited!!! and hence, whether chords first or tunes first; lyrics first or notes first; or rhythm first or tune first is immaterial. It is like our very old chicken first or egg first, kind of story. When they come together... aha!! thats supreme!!!
  
  I am currently dabbling in scales, be it carnatic or western. Quite thrilled, I should say. But sadly, my weakness is ... timing! ever since I started learning music, its been my achilles heel. I am now, going to try out the metronome, and hope that it helps. A desperate hope, its going to be. Any suggestions in respect to this will be, very welcome.
  
  Much more to share, but all in good time. OSIG, Kiru, UV (Ganesh) and BB, its been a pleasure.
  
  
• From: selva (@ 172.190.235.224) on: Wed Apr 30 18:46:56 EDT 2003
  
  MS,
  
  Thanks! I didn't know that you were going to post a fresh set, when I was typing mine. It was a pleasant surprise to see your most recent post!!
  
  I'll now work on Poomaalaiye!
  
  
• From: MS (@ 129.252.25.241) on: Wed Apr 30 22:37:06 EDT 2003
  
  selva:
  
  One way you could improve the rhythm sense is by playing the beat by your hands. As the song is played in your musci system, just use your hands and play the beat. A month's consistent effort should get you into the groove. ANother thing which people do is play the beat in their teeth :-)
  
  Srikanth's articles should help you if you are just starting. Just keep reading them and also practice the notes of VK with the chords provided here. You should be able to understand music very fast.
  
  
• From: MS (@ 129.252.25.241) on: Wed Apr 30 22:37:59 EDT 2003
  
  OISG:
  
  Sorry I did not answer you. Yes, we will take up easy and familiar ragas first and then go on to unfamiliar complex stuff.
  
  
• From: UV (@ 134.113.4.168) on: Thu May 1 11:50:42 EDT 2003
  
  MS,Kiccha,Sri
  Hats off to you guys.
  Lot of sincere music fans,amateurcomposers like me and the rest is truly indebted to you folks.
  
  I would also request you folks to compare similarities and difference in rthyms
  because for guys like me I more familiar with thalams adi,thisram,chappu than 4/4 2/2 etc eventhough now I am getting familiarize with them also.
  And please write about BPM
  
  Regding composing style your right MS esp for film music. I saw one documentary about Sting's live concert there he was mentioning about settling on chords progression and then work the way round.
  
  thanks
  Ganesh
  
  
• From: Paatu (@ 210.242.24.130) on: Fri May 2 12:21:30 EDT 2003
  
  Live Deejay On Air. Open Winamp, Press Ctrl + L And Type radio.mp3tamil.org:3185 Or Just Go To http://radio.mp3tamil.org:3185/listen.pls .
  
  You can also use windows media player, open it and press CTRL + U and type http://radio.mp3tamil.org:3185
  
  
• From: MS (@ 129.252.25.241) on: Fri May 2 15:54:15 EDT 2003
  
  The third article of Srikanth is up.
  
  http://dhool.com/chords/articles/Srikanth/003/mt3.htm
  
  BTW, all the articles + chords + notations have been grouped in one page.
  
  http://dhool.com/chords/articles.html
  
  available from the front page of dhool.
  
  
• From: Prabhudas (@ 140.251.171.216) on: Fri May 2 17:18:21 EDT 2003
  
  Dear MS, Srikanth, Swamiji and all others who have ben contributing to this thread,
  
  first of all Congratulations on a nice effort,
  
  now just for u people to laugh about how bad it was on my part in missig all the great information (direct and linked) u guys are posting in this very good thread,
  U know the title of the thread kind of triggered my ignorance centers in brain, when I first saw the thread's title I never bothered to enter the thread thinking this is some thing to do with "dhool" film songs chord arrangement,
  (although I do like VS's music),
  once I entered the thread, I realized I didn't miss a lot as the thread was started just 2 weeks , yet with amazing info.
  U people are doing a great service to beginners in TFM learning
  I have been an irregular visitor to TFM these days amidst my embryonic steps in music learning between a career as an Intensivist.
  
  Kiru,
  I am sorry, my email replies to u got bounced back from ur Yahoo ID couple of times, once again thanks for sharing all that info.
  
  keep up all the great work, Kudos to all of u
  
  Prabhudas
  
  
  
  
• From: MS (@ 129.252.25.241) on: Sat May 3 00:39:18 EDT 2003
  
  Prabhu - thx for your nice words. A little revamping was done. Now all the articles and chords are available in a single page.
  
  http://dhool.com/chords/articles.htm
  
  
• From: MS (@ 129.252.25.241) on: Sat May 3 12:57:38 EDT 2003
  
  In the articles session, we have included links to our fellow DFer Ram's articles (Isaioviam in tamil) on ragas used in films, that appear on http://www.tamiloviam.com regularly. These articles have appeared a year ago in the "dhinam oru kavithai" - yahoo group and are being republished in tamiloviam with the intention of sharing good stuff. Ram's lucid style is very helpful to all those who want to know "something" about carnatic and films. Enjoy reading them !!
  
  
• From: UV (@ 134.113.4.168) on: Mon May 5 12:30:39 EDT 2003
  
  Nice one srikanth.
  MS and admin can this thread be made a permanent one. Just like ragas in movies thread.
  
  thanks
  UV
  
  
• From: MS (@ 129.252.25.241) on: Mon May 5 17:12:12 EDT 2003
  
  innum konjam vaLarattum UV..paNNalaam. atleast oru 10 articles in each section varattum.
  
  
• From: bb (@ 12.234.176.52) on: Tue May 6 23:37:11 EDT 2003
  
  I've renamed the thread name, so that it is not confusing with the film "dhool" :)
  
  
• From: bb (@ 12.234.176.52) on: Tue May 6 23:40:14 EDT 2003
  
  MS, add a link to chords_conventions.htm to your home page too.
  
  
• From: Rajesh G (@ 167.202.196.72) on: Sun May 11 13:20:12 EDT 2003
  
  MS,
  
  Appreciate your efforts. And at last, I've started learning chords ! and this link helps a lot.
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 156.77.105.122) on: Tue May 13 14:27:48 EDT 2003
  
  Guys,
  
  The articles and the chord transcriptions are excellent! Great job!
  
  During Nov-2002-Feb2003, inspired by an Ilaiyaraja interview, where he composed a song on stage, I have been doing a lot of researching on songwriting, composing. Came across quite a lot of excellent books.
  
  Maybe we should put together a series of articles on songmaking. THe premise is that (a) we should encourage creation of lyrics and music together
  (b) everyone has the content in them in terms of emotional experiences waiting to be expressed and just like learning a language, songmaking can be done by anyone if they start out and practice out there.
  
  There are distinct stages in songwriting:
  1. Concept - choosing a theme and an unique angle for a song.
  2. Lyrics - Words and imagery that express the theme in an absorbing way.
  3. Tune - Core melody that is singable and is catchy.
  
  2 and 3 can happen in the reverse too.
  
  4. Arrangement - designing chord progression, intros, interludes, rhtym, bass, layers etc.
  5. Production - actual performance of instruments and recording and mixing and mastering.
  
  Like Srikanth says, sometimes you start with a
  melody and build a song, sometimes a rhtyhm is a starting point. sometimes a chord progression.
  It is like digging out a statue from under ground.
  
  Just like learning to drive a
  car it is good to learn and practice one thing at a time and then add one more, instead of trying to do everything and failing.
  
  I will try to write in the form of a workshop - concepts followed by an exercise. We can use the forum to review and encourage each others work. Meanwhile, here are the list of books for those who might be interested:
  1. Melody in songwriting - this one is an excellent practical text on melody and chord progression.
  2. Writing songs on the guitar
  3. Teach yourself songwriting.
  4. How to dress up naked music on the piano.
  
  
  
  
  
• From: UV (@ 134.113.4.168) on: Tue May 13 14:34:09 EDT 2003
  
  welcome back rjay.
  Looking forward to your postings.
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 156.77.105.122) on: Tue May 13 15:07:51 EDT 2003
  
  Skeletal melody
  
  This is a key concept that provides a missing link
  between melody and harmony and also is a remedy for newbie composers!
  
  Basic idea is this.
  
  Any good melody, if you take, there are few strong notes in the melody and they form a clear arch of upward or downward movement and then they are embellished with ornamental notes.
  
  Skeletal melody or structural melody of a melody is the melody consisting of only the strong emphasized notes.
  
  By stripping out the ornamentations, you see the skeleton and understand why the melody works!
  
  Let us take an example and try to understand the concept.
  
  Take Anjali Anjali Anjali song.
  
  The melody goes as follows:
  
  ga ga ga ma ma ma ga ga gaaaa - sa ri
  ga ga ga ma ma ma ga ga gaaaa
  
  
  What are the skeletal tones:
  
  Ga Ma Ga -
  Ga Ma Ga
  
  is the skeleton which has been embellished using
  REPEATED TONES and the SCALAR TONES
  
  ga ga ga is repeated tone.
  sa ri is the scalar (passing) tone.
  
  Notice that the skeleton is a simple one
  Ga Ma Ga.
  that moves between adjacent notes.
  
  I am going to create my own song inspired by this melody I heard now:
  
  I start with a simple skeleton.
  
  Ga Ri Sa -
  Ga Ri Ga -
  Pa Ma Ri -
  Ga Ri Sa -
  
  This is a seed for my composition below:
  
  gagaga ririri sa . . . .
  gagaga ririri ga . . . .
  papapa mamama ri . . . .
  gagaga ririri sa . . . .
  
  There you go. It sounds a bit like a nursery
  rhyme, but then we have a simple skeleton and
  we have used only one type of embellishment -
  REPEATED TONES.
  
  (If time permits, I will create real audio version of this tutorial and exercise).
  
  How does this help composing?
  
  1. Your melody stays on track and understandable.
  You dont jump everywhere across the keyboard.
  Listener has time to digest each structural tone and see patterns of repetition and contrast across
  lines.
  
  2. You will notice that for the first line I can use a simple C chord, to start with.
  THen for the second line, when I touch the Ga for the second time, I can jump to Am for a contrast.
  Then the third line, I touch Ri, so I can get to G. emphasizing the melodic contrast using a contastring chord.
  A skeletal melody dictates its own progression.
  
  
  Recent research shows that we only listen to traces of notes. If 4 notes come in a succession we probably listen to the most repeated ones or the most stressed ones and probably the last one!
  
  So this exercise helps you focus on macrostructure, where thinking about form begins.
  It is like the difference betwenn a professional artist and a novice. What is the difference?
  
  A professional always draws in two stages. He sketches and then draws the detail. The sketch is the skeleton that helps hold the details in proper places. Again, he does subsketches within sketches and until he progressively refines the whole picture.
  
  ***
  
  I have analyzed many hits and found surprisingly simple skeletons. For instance Ilaiyaraja's megam karukkuthu mazhai vara paakudhu has a
  Sa-Ni-Da-Pa-Ma-Ga-Ri-Sa skeleton in Abheri!!
  
  Megam karukkuthu
  pa Sa Nida nida
  
  Mazhai vara paakuthu
  Pa pama gaMapaMa
  
  Veesiyadikkudhu
  Ga ga ri Sa sa sa
  
  Kaththu
  Saa Saa
  
  Let us learn to reduce the melody:
  Lyrics - notes - Structural tone - Type of embellishment
  
  Meham - pa Sa - Sa - JUMP
  Karukkudhu - Nida Nida - Ni - NEIGHBOURING TONE
  Mazhai vara - Pa pa ma - Pa - Repetition and passing tone
  Paakudhu - ga ma pa ma - both neighbouring tones
  Veesi adikkuthu - Gaa ga ri saa sa sa - Ga Sa - repetition and passing notes
  Kaathu - Saa Saa - repetition
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 156.77.105.122) on: Tue May 13 15:18:12 EDT 2003
  
  MS, Kishmu
  
  Can you create demo midis for your songs -
  for instance Poovilum vaasam undu, with only the melody line and the guitar strum accompaniment?
  it will help up grasp it better. (Lazy guy!!!)
  
  
  

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