'Orchestral Chords' - New Original Music/Song Idea Mapped in Ableton! Electronic/Orchestral/Instrumental + Walkthrough!
I was playing guitar yesterday
and I started writing a chord progression which I thought would sound really good played with like, a full orchestra, or at least a string section. Unfortunately, I don't have any good orchestral VSTs or Instrument Packs right now, they're on a hard drive at home, so I decided to just map the chords into Ableton using a synth-string instrument. Everything you hear in the song is also UP 4 half steps, as the samples I used were playing an E, rather than a C to begin with, but it's just a map of the song, so when I record the REAL version, it will be in tune and sound a lot more interesting.
Listen to Orchestral Chords here.
We have 4 sections total, which repeat
in various order throughout the song. The TAN section as pictured in the overview begins with an Emin to a Cdom7 x2, then we modulate to F, playing an Fmaj, Bbmin, to an Fmin then up to a Bbmaj. This moves us into the next section, pictured in BLUE. We descend playing minor chords, from Dmin to Cmin and finally to Bmin, which we stay on for 3 bars of 3/4, giving us the feeling of 9/4. Next, with the same rhythm, we substitute in Amaj, to G7, to F#min (in 9/4 also). This again repeats before returning to the tan section.
2nd half of TAN section into BLUE section.
2nd half of TAN section into BLUE section.The GREEN section is next,
which plays the following: Cmin, Abmaj, C#min, F#maj, Bmin, Emaj and finally to Cmin and B7, which helps us to resolve back into the Emin of the TAN section. The last part is a little mini-section, in LIGHT BLUE, between the 2 BLUE sections towards the end. This plays a Bbmaj7b10, and a Bbdim chord. This section feels random in this mapping, but would be a sort of floaty, ambient section of the actual song with strings.
Listen to Orchestral Chords here.
I hope you've found the walkthrough interesting! I know this is a bit of a boring post, as it's just about the chord progressions involved, but I will be sure to update when I record using Miroslav Philharmonik for the orchestral sounds. The chords feel a bit untethered in this mapping, but when I blend them and add some voice-leading and timbre changes, I think it'll work nicely.
||| EP 1 - Bandcamp | EP 2 - Bandcamp | EP 3 - Bandcamp |||
||| EP 4 - Bandcamp | EP 5 - Bandcamp | EP 6- Bandcamp |||
It can be imagined that this would be having a lot of power if you had an orchestra play it.
I would love to get a real orchestra but I'm going to use a digital one instead lol.