Hi everyone,

I produce house music and I have previously played lead and rythem guitar. Mainly blues stuff. I have just bought a cheap bass guitar to DI into my DAW to record some more funky bass lines but I don't know what scales and musical structure house music typically uses. Most of the stuff I am thinking of is eaither quite discoey or latiny. The kind of stuff I am talking about is typical Hed Kandi.

Can anyone recomend what styles I need to try and learn please?

listen to house music and work out what they're using. very simple structures. often one chord all the way through with a bass line repeating every bar.

no no!

why did you reply to this?

I was enjoying watching the total lack of response to a rather silly question from a "house music producer".

Quote RichD:

---

Can anyone recomend what styles I need to try and learn please?

---

All styles.

That question is like asking "how many ping pong balls does it take to fill a squash court."

--------------------
Stand by for action - we are about to launch Stingray!
Cue irritating bongo music ...

Buy some popular music theory books, low grade exam books etc... Then learn/ compose bass lines and see if there is a connection between the theory you've learnt.

Listen to want you like, play what sounds good

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

--------------------
My head hurts!

bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish bmm tish


in all seriousness, if you want to write any house music with even an ounce of originality, i suggest you listen to all genres, and even write other genres, to a point that you fully understand them, and what they require.

then you can strip them back to their raw elements, and use those elements in whatever genre you so wish.

--------------------
Apple Certified Technician. One half of http://www.turnbacktospring.com

Quote Commander:

---

That question is like asking "how many ping pong balls does it take to fill a squash court."

---

The answer to that also depends on if there are any people in the squash court at the time. In answer to your original question you need to ask yourself what sort of music you would like to play and how many people on the squash court.

--------------------
Stand by for action - we are about to launch Stingray!
Cue irritating bongo music ...

Quote turbodave:

---

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

---

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

--------------------
My head hurts!

Quote turbodave:

---

Quote turbodave:

---

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

---

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

---

bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk

(the sound of my head hitting the table- in a perfect 4 on the floor style, naturally)

--------------------
http://anotherfineday.bandcamp.com/ http://anotherfineday.co.uk http://apollomusic.co.uk

First lay down the foundations and construct it from there, you'll want 4 on the floor and walls of sound built to withstand pounding beats, visit sites that have examples you can check out and maybe even cement relations with other houzers

What's the difference between house music and not in the house music - stadium rock?

No no no! It's all about how may people are on the squash court when you fill it with ping pong balls I tell you!

--------------------
Stand by for action - we are about to launch Stingray!
Cue irritating bongo music ...

...the difference between House Music and Garage? ...they're actually very similar, Garage is just a bit smaller and off to one side.

Went to a concert in France last Thursday.

Garage rock.
Keyboards drums and guitar.

Rather loud and irritating.
Unmelodic, incompetently played - everything I woud expect from young "you`re too old to understand ou rmusic, man" band.

And I use the term `band` in its context as an elastic method of bundling things together.

Would have preferred it if it had been next door but three`s garage rock.

An preferably filled with the Commanders acoustic foam-filled ping pong balls.

--------------------
Me? But I`m such a loveable old bugger!

Quote Nightfly:

---

...the difference between House Music and Garage? ...they're actually very similar, Garage is just a bit smaller and off to one side.

---

Do you have to have a SHELL suit to play garage music then?

Quote Nightfly:

---

...the difference between House Music and Garage? ...they're actually very similar, Garage is just a bit smaller and off to one side.

---

I'm starting a new genre, down the garden a bit. I'm going to call it Green House (you heard it here first...)

--------------------
http://anotherfineday.bandcamp.com/ http://anotherfineday.co.uk http://apollomusic.co.uk

at a time when I was" in between jobs" an exercise company paid me a nice sum for 12 housey tunes, completely unaware that I had written them on the Playstation 1 Music game.

--------------------
My head hurts!

Logical conclusion: all this talk of bouncing balls and squash courts leads to Bucephalus Bouncing Ball by Aphex Twin. Listen to it. Then listen to some Bach, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Perotin, Mozart, other western-european composers, then world musics (Indian, Chinese, African, S.American). Then listen some more, and listen some more. That's just for starters.

--------------------
David

Quote turbodave:

---

at a time when I was" in between jobs" an exercise company paid me a nice sum for 12 housey tunes, completely unaware that I had written them on the Playstation 1 Music game.

---

Impressive, but the now 21 year old Dubstep producer Skream made his first songs on that game, kicking off the genre in 2005 at the age of 17. Not bad eh?

Yeah, it became quite a nifty interface(the controller) especially for a games nerd at the time.I could write a housey tune in 10 mins and then complete another level of tomb raider...aaaaa the life of a househusband! I hasten to add this was about 10 yrs ago!!...ahem I now work extremely hard of course!

--------------------
My head hurts!

Quote tomafd:

---

I'm starting a new genre, down the garden a bit. I'm going to call it Green House (you heard it here first...)

---

...which could be misconstrued as Environmentally-Friendly House. You could have hit on something there...

So did Robert Plant play GreenHouse Music, RootsManuva too I suppose!

Quote The Bunk:

---

Quote tomafd:

---

I'm starting a new genre, down the garden a bit. I'm going to call it Green House (you heard it here first...)

---

...which could be misconstrued as Environmentally-Friendly House. You could have hit on something there...

---

That would be what you used to hear at 3am up in the (ahem ...) 'sacred space' field at Glastonbury - ie, a bunch of drongos beating the crap out of their bongos. (This year it just seemed to be full of drunk teenagers, and not a bongo to be heard)

--------------------
http://anotherfineday.bandcamp.com/ http://anotherfineday.co.uk http://apollomusic.co.uk

Drunk teenagers ARE good for summat then!!

--------------------
My head hurts!

sample a minor triad so that you can trigger it from a keyboard.
play different notes up and down the keyboard until you find a bit that sounds good.
like this
major 7 chords work well for this.

--------------------
I've got rhythm, I ain't got pitch

this is in response to some of the ridiculous statements made by some of the people slating what they think is house music. ure just thinking of the mainstream crap that you hear everyday on the radio. get a grip and listen to some of the more club orientated tracks, the technicalities that go into making this genre of music including techno, minimal and anything with a house background is beyond your grasp! im not hitting the roof about your immature comments but i do both, live recordings with instruments and produce house, tec etc.. and it takes a lot more skill and knowledge to produce a releasable track than to just recording and playing in a guitar for example. the science thats behind the scenes of producing and mastering digital music is to much for some people i guess???

I think there are high levels of ignorance from lots of high level peeps! Yes it was a daft question but had he not mentioned house music would it have riled so many posters? Why is house music dismissed when it's roots stem from Jazz and can include very complex chords and poly rhythms. Of course there is a lot of rubbish house music out there but there is also a lot of rubbish music of all styles.

JP

--------------------
Mac Pro, Logic Pro, lots of software and 17 hard drives!

Well I was taking the piss but it doesn't translate well on the internet.

ho hum

--------------------
I've got rhythm, I ain't got pitch

I'm sure that had I posted that I'm a producer of orchestral symphonies and I've just bought a cello to add a bit of texture to some pieces; what should I play? I would have been received with enormo respect and assistance?

Coat.

--------------------
Andi, www.thedustbowl.net Mixing, Mastering, Audio Editing at The Dustbowl Audio

The phrase 'taking the piss' is a bit too strong on my part. I was just poking fun at that genre of parallel chord song writing.
As it happens I love this and the Inner City track.

I like people who get "annoyed" at this kind of thread....go and put the kettle on and get over yourselves...as someone who at one point in his life loved Prog Rock!

--------------------
My head hurts!

Quote fletcher:

---

no no!

why did you reply to this?

I was enjoying watching the total lack of response to a rather silly question from a "house music producer".

---

well well, how wrong I was. I was enjoying the total lack of response, but now I think I'm enjoying the "debate" on "house" music even more.

I can think of a few harmonic bases for house, although blues would not be one of them.

Brazilian harmony, modal, and the sort of harmony used on a lot of 70s funk and disco: lots of suspended chords and sharp 9ths.

A lot of the tunes are put together from samples, so some very unconventional harmony appears by accident.

In short - don't get hung up about the notes in dance music. If it sounds OK to you, then that's good enough.

What defines the house sound more than its harmony, to me anyway, are the sound textures and the percussion layering.

--------------------
Instant gratification is actually pretty good. It's fast as well.

To the original poster.

Try again on another forum mate. Many on here haven't a clue about the genre and yet reply anyhow. They listen to BBC radio 1 during the day and think that is house music.

It saddens me to hear such musical snobbery here on SOS.

You lot that have replied don't know enough about the genre to comment and are taking your "experience" from prime time commercial radio where as true dance music has always been underground.

Shame on you all. You have portrayed SOS in a very snobby middle class only light to an initial question that was perfectly reasonable.

No music is beter than another. Just appeals to different people. No human is better than another. Just have more money etc etc

OK - serious stuff

Hed Kandy style (if there is one that is).

Pick two chords that sound good together, such as A and D. Play one for 2 bars, then the other. Make this on a synth, guitar, keyboard or find a sample you like.

This is your entire song (apart from perhaps at crescendo moments - just stick with one of the chords for a while), the rest is in the production.

Get the drums and the bassline sorted before you do anything else whatsoever. They are the only thing drunk clubbers at Hed Kandi events care about at 3 in the morning - don't f*%k 'em up.

Layer it with a few stabbing synth licks, and then heighten it with a more melodic but still funky lick that is your lead line that you bring in every so often.

Add some swooshy sound effects for builds and drops, and fiddle around with the drums a little at those points.

Find some samples that might fit, find a vocalist if you want a proper cheesy some that might break into the charts as well.

But don't digress too far from 2 chord simplicity, focus on the drums and bass, and think in terms of layers.

I think house is perhaps a feeling you need to experience before you can really understand it.

If you ever go to a Soul Heaven event or a Bobby&Steve event you will feel it and it will move you.

But if you've never been moved dont dismiss it because you just sound like an idiot to those who have.

The tone of this thread is really awful and not in the spirit of helping each other.

Please watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-rQtBjlwFE

Check out: Masters at Work, Restless Soul, Osunlade, Blaze...

To the OP, I think you need to look at Disco, Motown, Funk, Latin, Jazz theory check out a book called 'everything bass guitar'.

See you on the dance floor...


Alex.

this may also be of interest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeybjVt0-AI&feature=related

House is the best feeling. Ever.

Here's a link that will give you the information you seek.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_music#cite_note-Fikentscher-0
The page for some reason opens at the bottom so scroll up to top to read entire review.

Don't let the I think therefore I type people get to you.
Continue to ask questions there are people here always willing to help.

Best Regards, Guitar Wizard.