There has to be more chords i could use!!

Ok im improvising over the chords Gmaj and Fmaj. im improvising on the c scale but i cant find any other chords that sound good with it? any suggestions?

please help me!

Calm down.

..

What do you mean?

...chords that sound good with the C Major scale? Methinks it's time to learn your "diatonic triads"....

...scales that sound good with G and FMajor chords? Methinks it's time to learn your "chord/scale relationships".

Don't limit yourself to just one scale. Experiment with other things. One cool thing I like to do is to modulate into A minor and play a seventh (I use a F Major triad in the left hand and an A minor triad in the right). I just love that sound. Just mess around until you find your style. It may not sound good at first, but it gets better.

learn those diatonic chords man, they will give you all chords that work with a certain scale.

Ummm... There are seven different triads in the major scale alone. I'm not really sure what you're asking. But I've got to agree with everyone else, learn your diatonic triads, but also, don't limit yourself to only-chordal improvising. Plunk around some and don't think you need to sound good every time you lay hands on the keyboard. That's a reason a lot of people stick to chords--because they're tried and true and a G major chord sounds consonant every time you play it. Get out of your comfort zone, mess around, don't be afraid to hit clunkers, because you come out of it with some really nice stuff that you never would have found if you'd stayed in C major.

But if you want to start off slow, try tossing in: Bb major, A minor, F minor, D major... and of course, chord modifications. Try adding major/minor 7ths, 2nds (or 9ths), 6ths, play with suspensions (sus2's or sus4's)... that sort of stuff.

Methinks you should invest in a jazz primer. That way you will learn all the scales and the chords that belong to them.

robin's advise rocks, as usual.

whatever you do, don't do it in one scale, but expand it on all other scales. And learn your scales and chords.

GM and FM are what chord tones?

GBDF# and FACE, adding the sevenths

Putting that together makes the 8-note scale of

B-C-D-E-F/F#-G-A

That's assuming that you stick strictly to chord tones. Instead, you could just ignore the other chord and assert the other scale tones over each chord, producing scales like

F-G#-A-Bb-C-Db-E, or really anything, so long as you've got that chord in there

Also, G and F would be the

V and VI

of the C scale... resolution to the I should be simple from there...

Ah, Ferk, last time I checked, F ain't the VI chord of C major... xP

Yes it is, Maia. But only when explained in annoying black spoiler abysses, they tend to alter rules. ;)

Ah, Ferk, last time I checked, F ain't the VI chord of C major... xP

Yes it is, Maia. But only when explained in annoying black spoiler abysses, they tend to alter rules. ;)

shaddup the both of you :P. IV and V. the point remains the same, resolution is obscenely simple from either of those chords.

Methinks he meant to say V and IV, and mewonders why he added major 7ths to the chords

Um, you can play many chords together that will work. It sounds like you need to learn a bit more theory.

It's not about juxtaposing chords together and randomly playing a scale on top. You need to create progressions and choose the notes in out of the scales that work best.

The problem tends to be that "diatonic" progressions are way to easy to work with and you feel like you are doing more than you really are. I bet if you put some random chords together and try to find melodies that work you'll get my point. (it's much more difficult and makes you pay much more attention) (just try different notes and figure out what works and what doesn't. After that you analyze what you did and which scales you played on which chords)

In any case usually moving down a 5th or up a 4th works well. Chord quality matters somewhat but is not that important.

Something like

C Dm G C is called a ii V I if in the key of C. It is a stock progression. You can play C F G C which is very similar(the Dm and F can be substituted for each other in almost all occasions).

You can then vary it up some

C Dm Ab7 G C. The Ab is non-diatonic but is related to the key of C(it is called the Ger+6th).

You can insert diminished chords in there or change it up even more by adding just about any chord you want.

You just need to sit down and bust your donkey on them until you figure it out. Anyone can talk to you for ages about it but chances are you won't get much until you hear it for yourself.

Note, a really good composer can juxtapose any two chords in any key together in a decent way.

If you are trying to use scales over those chords then you have to have some idea of the chord structure, the implications(context), and what kinda sound and color you want to achieve. (this is where it helps to have an understand and working knowledge of different styles)

Realize that melodies are not just about playing the scale over the chord. It's about playing the chord tones over the chord and using appropriate non-chord tones to ornament it. Of course you always have the option to do whatever you want.

Some might say one would choose the Cmaj scale over the progression C F G C but that is not necessarily the case. It also depends on the larger context. If that is modulating to G where the C becomes the IV in G then we would use F# on the C rather than F in most circumstances.

Suggestions:

Get a "looper" and record random progressions(2 chords to start). Try to find a melody that works over those two chords. Analyze the melody for the notes you used and how you used them. Note which notes you used on which beats too(as this is important). Which tones seem to be accented rhythmically and metrically. What non-chord tones you used and there implication to the current key. e.g., If you used F# over a Cmaj chord then your implying the key of G or generally the "lydian" mode.

Note any "inflections" you use and what sounds really good(as your goal is to extract all the good stuff). Realize a lot of music is very simple harmonically, rhythmically, melodically but it has something special(one of which is performance related and the other has to do with language aspects). This is where it helps to study the greats as they obviously figured out a piece of the puzzle.

Your goal is not to find progressions that work for you but to make them work. There are people that can take what you think sucks and make it sound good. You ultimately want to be able to do that. It just requires practice, understanding, and osmosis.

Another suggestion is you learn some blues. This tends to be very basic music but a lot of the good blues players as distilled a lot of the fundamental things required for decent music(of that kind at least). Harmonically it is very simple. Just the 3 chords I7 IV7 and V7. Rhythmically it is a bit more advanced than the most basic but it is regular and easy to feel(in a sense blues is more about feeling it than understanding it). The "scales" they use are very simple(mainly pentatonic with the half-diminished tones added). Whats important is how they use them as there harmonic vocabulary tends to be limited. In fact most things blue's players do is limited in many respects(harmonically simple, rhythmically simple, form is simple, melodically simple(although it does have chromatics in it it is nothing special). Because it is simple and most modern music is based off it in some fashion you can really get a lot from it. Of course if your not a "blues" type of person it can be extremely difficult.

You can apply the same concepts to other simple music too such as your basis pop and rock songs. Once you get that your only a few steps away from more complex stuff like jazz and classical.

Remember it's all about what the notes, chords, and rhythm is doing. You need to figure out what works and what doesn't by looking at what they are doing. This is called "resolution". (you even have resolution in form where the recapitulation is the resolution of the development in some sense) It's the resolution, or manipulation/avoidance of it that makes makes the difference. When you can control these intentionally and to good effect you will be able to make good music. When you do do them unintentionally and randomly your music will sound just like that.

An example: Suppose you are just improvising over the vamp C G. You choose the Cmaj scale. You start playing around sorta "randomly". Well, you might play the A note over the C chord... this is not wrong. But you might jump from the A note to the F note while still on the C chord. This is not necessarily wrong but is a resolution of a dissonant A to another dissonance in a generally awkward manner. If you resolve that F to the G note then it might work better but if you leap again to another dissonant note or resolve to G but G is weakly accented then it probably won't sound good. (again though, the better you are the better you will be able to make such things work in the totality of it all)

Or you just make play the A over the Cmaj chord then jump to the F over the G chord. This again isn't necessarily bad but it is avoiding the resolutions of non-chord tones. If you do this constantly it might work... but then again it might not. If you do it randomly it probably work work but might. It all depends on the larger context.

BUT, if you do it unintentionally then almost definitely it will not work. (just too many ways to get it wrong verses ways to get it right) If you know you want that sound and like it and do it then it is ok. If you just play some note without realizing the full implications you are creating then you are playing the wrong note.

All I'm saying with all that crap is simply "Use your ears"!! ;)

what's your tonic? When you improvise with these, which chord do you start on :P?