TW #39–40 — Chord Theory? / Chord What? (Maelcum, Trixter, Basehead)

Sparked by Atlantic's review in #37 reporting a #trax argument (Aahz, basehead and necros vs. a tracker who said "chord theory is not required to write good music").

Key claims#

• maelcum (#39): the "poor individual" was right — "Chords are a valid and valuable tool available to the composer", but chords are necessary only for certain types of music; no knowledge of "the antique western musical system" is required for good music.
• trixter (#40): "A chord isn't a 'thing', it's any combination of notes" — every piece has chords, ambient is "one long, ever-changing chord"; the only chord-less music is deliberately monophonic modern work and Gregorian chant; over 99 % of the world's music has chords; both sides are naive.
• basehead (#40): he was misquoted; the tracker's real claim was "knowing music theory doesn't help you write good music", and he, Necros and Aahz argued that theory "can give you a lot of backing" in any style, not necessarily chord theory; most of the scene writes chord-based music ("piano/string", easy listening, jazz, demomusic), for which theory is "a valuable asset".

Relevance#

Context for the theory pages: theory as a tool, not a gate. Useful quotes for chord-progressions and diatonic-chords.

Pages touched#

maelcum, trixter, basehead, necros, hornet, diatonic-chords, melody-writing.