classical intros

[Matthew M.]

Hey. I play thrash metal, more or less, and I have no clue how to write some slow, classical intros. I was wondering if ya'll could give me some tips. Would music theory be a good thing to use, or not?

[Mettra]

Originally posted by Matthew M.
Would music theory be a good thing to use, or not?

Always. Check out the phrygian mode and the harmonic minor scale. Both are great for intros. They're kinda 'mysterious' and are just begging to be exploited.

[wild_axeman]

GO HERE (http://musictheory.net/load.php?id=50)

[Matthew M.]

Alright. I just went that link, and it helped. But, I'm confused bout one thing. What's the difference between VII and vii. Why is one big and one small? Is it like minor and major? I dunno. :confused:

[wild_axeman]

Yeah in natural minor you have a MAJOR chord built on the b7th.
In Harmonic Minor you have a diminished chord built on the MAJOR 7th.

So in A Minor the chords would be:

Natural Minor:
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7
Am Bdim C Dm Em F G


Harmonic Minor:
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7
Am Bdim C+ Dm E F G#dimSo the 3rd,5th and 7th chords are different for Harmonic minor but all of the other chords are identical to natural minor.SO you just junk that III+ (augmented chord) because it doesn't sound too good and that leaves you with a grand total of 9 chords.

the 9 chords of the combined natural and harmonic minor:

1 2 b3 4 5 5 b6 b7 7
Am Bdim C Dm E Em F G G#dim

[Matthew M.]

OOOOOHHHHHHH, okay. I got it now. Thanks for the help.

[wild_axeman]

this is relevant...

http://www.guitarlodge.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11263

[killeraxeman]

why combine them and not use each one separately? is it just because it's easier to write songs with the two scales combined because you have more notes to use?

[wild_axeman]

It's just basically Natural Minor with the option of using the V or V7, or the leading-tone dim or dim7th chords to lead back to the i minor chord(which can be very helpful at times).The augmented chord isn't commonly used so it's just a list of what chords are available and commonly used.

[Shahab]

You might want to learn the pentatonics too. And also it depends on your listening. For example when i wanted to add heavy riffs to my blues, just learning the powerchords didnt help, i moved from eric clapton to metallica. and it really helped. so try some classic stuff. Santana, Ottmar Leibert, and Eric Clapton have recorded some really sweet stuff.