What are the Chord Progressions to Some Good or Well Known Trance Songs

[TimTheAncient]

Within the trance/electronic genre its hard to find out what the chord progressions
are for any given song, and I want to get a feel for what kind of chord progressions are typically used in these genres. So I was thinking that maybe
some of you might have this knowledge, and if you do maybe post a link to song or just give the name and artist along with the chords or chord progression it uses, or if you don't know something that specific maybe just post what you think a typical trance/electronic chord progression might look like. Thanks.

[arkmabat]

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/show ... ferrerid=2

[ghettosynth]

Am Am Am Am Am Am Am...

or, for the really emotional stuff

Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm...

[BertKoor]

Jeez, the idea of making music is that you come up with your own shit.
Or play along with what someone else did, figure out what the pattern is.
If ideas don't come, then maybe you're not the creative type.

[TimTheAncient]

Jeez, the idea of making music is that you come up with your own shit.
Or play along with what someone else did, figure out what the pattern is.
If ideas don't come, then maybe you're not the creative type.

I totally get what you are saying. However my intention is not to mimic others, I only want to get a sense of what other people are doing, so that I can use that understanding as a starting point to arrive at more unique things. It would be hard for a painter to paint a picture if he didn't know what certain colors were called, and didn't know what colors to mix to get the shades he wanted.

[DJ Warmonger]

Here's tutorial for typical uplifting trance arpeggio, which can be nice starting point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O8oWn6Pm6c Major chords all the way. This works also nicely with downward progression, minor chords, inverted chords etc. Here's where composing begins.

[aquar]

Major chords all the way. This works also nicely with downward progression, minor chords, inverted chords etc. Here's where composing begins.

Can't say I agree.
Most of the Trance tunes I've analyzed seem to fall into the category of Aeolian Mode.
Now if you'd said Happy Hardcore then yeah Major all the way.

Agree with the use of inversions though.

[DJ Warmonger]

"Major chords" referred to the tutorial I linked, not the genre in general.

Anyway, you could elaborate that "eaolian mode" concept.

[aquar]

"Major chords" referred to the tutorial I linked, not the genre in general.

Anyway, you could elaborate that "eaolian mode" concept.

Ah the TranceMastery vid yeah. Stange as it seems I think Scott did a lot of analyzing himself and also seemed to come to the conclusion the vast majority of Trance falls into Aeolian Mode. Might be worth contacting him just to be sure.?

As for the Aeolian mode its better if I provide a link.
Basically the Aeolian mode uses the same notes as the natural minor scale and the chords formed from it lend themselves very well to Trance. Especially uplifting as there's a nice palette of chords to choose from. Apart from the diminished triad which sometimes gets substituted with a variant.

Not sure if this is the best link but it'll save me a lot of typing.
http://www.basicmusictheory.com/aeolian-mode

This link provides some example progressions in the key of A Natural Minor.
http://www.guitar-chords.org.uk/chords-key-a-minor.html
As you can see you are not limited to just A Aeolian but also have A# Aeolian and B Aeolian and so on all which have different chords.

[DJ Warmonger]

This link provides some example progressions in the key of A Natural Minor.
http://www.guitar-chords.org.uk/chords-key-a-minor.html

This is an interesting resource, but still not sure if that's what author asked about. Oh, maybe only he knows.

[aquar]

This is an interesting resource, but still not sure if that's what author asked about. Oh, maybe only he knows.

Yeah it is an interesting resource, I stumbled on it a few years ago and it really helped me get to grips with things that I couldn't quite get my head around at the time. It was like finding another piece of the puzzle I was missing.

As for the OP I think the best option would be to analyze existing progressions
So I provide this link
http://www.nonstop2k.com/

I don't think there's a better resource since the free midi files contain the progressions of most of the popular Trance tunes.

[rockstar_not]

Replying to grab some links later at the music computer.

To the OP: don't be ashamed for asking this, regardless of other thread participants deriding you for asking.

If someone was just starting out with blues, they would ask - though blues chord progressions have been discussed ad nauseum for 50+ years. Not so much with electronic dance music. And there will always be snobs who look down their noses at this or any other type of music. But if you enjoy it, don't deny it.

[jancivil]

Aeolian mode

nice palette of chords to choose from. Apart from the diminished triad

that chord endangers the mode, it pulls to C major if you aren't adept. I would recommend just skipping it and making the most of a couple, three of these chords if you want the mode's real flavor. i / / / VI / VII / | i

[aquar]

Aeolian mode

nice palette of chords to choose from. Apart from the diminished triad

that chord endangers the mode, it pulls to C major if you aren't adept. I would recommend just skipping it and making the most of a couple, three of these chords if you want the mode's real flavor. i / / / VI / VII / | i

Yeah right jan,
I usually skip the diminished chord and don't personally use a variant/substitution and now limit any progressions I make for Trance to 3 or 4 chords.
Your advice in another thread really helped me knuckle down and concentrate on other ways to keep things interesting rather than overcooking my progressions.

as a general principles, I'll say a modal flavor is obscured by use of too many chords.

[vurt]

a a g g h h h h...