BoC & music theory

[lichtenberg94]

thank you 15 dreams! having fun playing with this

[15Dreams]

thank you 15 dreams! having fun playing with this

I am glad! Still open to requests...now that it's summer I have a good bit of free time on my hands.

[deadfly]

thank you 15 dreams! having fun playing with this

I am glad! Still open to requests...now that it's summer I have a good bit of free time on my hands.

Since you're offering - Have you done Zoetrope yet? I've always been curious about the chord sequence

[Evenflow]

Nothing Is Real:

The main melody goes, starting on the upbeat:

Spoiler: show

I'm still learning how to read music so can someone translate the music above for me so I can understand .

Thanks

Not sure what you mean by "translate." That's just standard musical notation, which you can learn how to read easily by googling "how to read sheet music." There's really no quick way to learn it, just get used to where note names are on the staff and how rhythm is notated.

If you mean what names the notes are it's just Eb, D, Bb, D, F, Bb.

Thanks yea I'm studying how to read musical notation great advice , I luv learning about the deeper side of music theory .
Btw is this Melody in the key of Eb ?

BOC melodies are better than even huge successful and even legendary artis , how do you think they come up with such great melodies like this on a consistent basses , it seams to me there's more to it than just playing scales and chord progression ?
Advice

[bendu]

Had to chime in here. This thread is an amazing resource. Thanks to 15Dreams for the effort.

Is Turquoise Hexagon Sun on the list? Olson?

[15Dreams]

Since you're offering - Have you done Zoetrope yet? I've always been curious about the chord sequence

Had to chime in here. This thread is an amazing resource. Thanks to 15Dreams for the effort.

Is Turquoise Hexagon Sun on the list? Olson?

I'll give all 3 of them a go over the next few weeks! THS is going to be fun because it's almost atonal.

[15Dreams]

Thanks yea I'm studying how to read musical notation great advice , I luv learning about the deeper side of music theory .
Btw is this Melody in the key of Eb ?

BOC melodies are better than even huge successful and even legendary artis , how do you think they come up with such great melodies like this on a consistent basses , it seams to me there's more to it than just playing scales and chord progression ?
Advice

I would go with either Bb Major or Bb Mixolydian for the key on Nothing Is Real. The key center is clearly Bb but the Ab in the bass lends me to go with Bb Major.

Not a lot is known about how to write a great melody; generally lots of wide leaps are bad, syncopated rhythms can help (BoC like those), recognizable phrases are good for retention. I guess just practice writing for awhile.

And, to be blatantly honest (don't crucify me for this), I've never been a listener to BoC for the melodies. A good chunk of their songs don't have specific melody at all, and sometimes the melody is really short or only appears for part of the song (see Eagle in Your Mind/Kid for Today). I find their harmonic structures (see Sundown) and percussion/field recordings/sampling to be the most entertaining. If you want a great melody go listen to Mozart or Gershwin or something.

[Echo the Sun]

I would go with either Bb Major or Bb Mixolydian for the key on Nothing Is Real. The key center is clearly Bb but the Ab in the bass lends me to go with Bb Major.

Not a lot is known about how to write a great melody; generally lots of wide leaps are bad, syncopated rhythms can help (BoC like those), recognizable phrases are good for retention. I guess just practice writing for awhile.

And, to be blatantly honest (don't crucify me for this), I've never been a listener to BoC for the melodies. A good chunk of their songs don't have specific melody at all, and sometimes the melody is really short or only appears for part of the song (see Eagle in Your Mind/Kid for Today). I find their harmonic structures (see Sundown) and percussion/field recordings/sampling to be the most entertaining. If you want a great melody go listen to Mozart or Gershwin or something.

*starts erecting a cross*

JK

I think BOC has a very good handle on melody, but I've never understood how one can talk about melody without talking about the harmony that supports it. So to me when you strip away all backing and just look at BOC's melodies and compare them to Mozart or whoever, everything starts to lose value. So, if you're looking at melodic complexity and just looking at the melodies alone, you can say where BOC falls between certain artists (for instance, lower than classical composers and higher than most other electronic musicians), but what does that tell you? Not much. Cuz I consider BOC's decisions to hold back with melody in certain songs or at certain points within songs (when considering every aspect of the songs as how they work in the whole) shows their mastery of melody.

[15Dreams]

Starting things off chill...with Olson, which is tuned up to about A451 and pretty undeniably in the key of C.

The main chord sequence that you hear the whole time is just Eb, F, C, which is a pretty neat little twist on a plagal cadence. The Eb definitely doesn't belong in C Major but it kind of works as a bVII of F, which is why the whole song has that upwards-pointing feeling. This is further pushed by the IV-I cadence of F-C.

The little melody is this:



The piano bit at the end goes like this, but I believe some of the EQ'ing knocked out a few of the lower frequencies and I could only hear their overtones:



Great piece. Probably one of their least complex, but in a good way.

[bendu]

Great piece. Probably one of their least complex, but in a good way.

Thanks for this.

[7uca5]

All you need to know:
https://larslentzaudio.wordpress.com/20 ... and-music/

[7uca5]

There is also more info about key's and tempo on https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/ar ... -of-canada

[Flory]

Not BoC but it's so simple in structure that it intrigues me.

Stone in focus.