'Galaxicoustic' - New Original Music/Song Idea! Electronic/Piano-Centric/Instrumental + Walkthrough!

grapthar (74)in #music • 6 years ago

So I took the main piano part

here and built this version of the song around, but then took the marimba/bell parts, and built an electronic version around those (also on my Soundcloud, Galaxiosis), so this is the acoustic version, hence the title. Each section is 5 bars of 4/4, which over the course of 2x around, go through the full progression. Let's go through it.

Listen to Galaxicoustic here.

Track 1 is our grand piano

which everything else is built on. We are in Ebminor, but I use the parallel major tonic chord, Ebmaj, quite often, to make the resolve feel a lot more powerful, without utilizing a boring major scale chord progression. Basically, we have an Eb5 on the top which sort of just pedals the whole time, and only occasionally drops to a G/Eb. The bass notes in the piano are where we derive the harmonic idea, beginning on a Bb, then up to a Db and an Eb. For the 5th bar, we drop to a C natural (sharp 6), then the 2nd set of 5 bars begins, with a Cb (our natural Vi, B enharmonically), to Db, and resolving to Eb. Finally for the last bar (10 of 10), the bass moves up to Gb, then we repeat the whole thing.

Track 1, the main progression, described above.

Listen to Galaxicoustic here.

Track 2, the bass guitar, described below.

Next is Track 2,

a bas guitar, which plays the progression pictured above. Over the Eb chords, the bass provides the major 3rd which defines it as the parallel major, as the piano part on its own doesn't have a 3rd, major or minor. Track 3 is our drums, which are nothing special, and for sure not finalized. I just added them to have something basic to fill in the track and let me jam over.

Listen to Galaxicoustic here.

Tracks 4 and 5 are plucky synths

which play the same progression as Track 1, but compressed within 2 octaves, rather than spread out. These just have 1/2 note staccato hits. Tracks 6 and 7 are the final two tracks, using the same progression as 4 and 5, but with an arpeggiator (1/16th notes) added. I also sidechained Track 6 with a compressor to the snare hits, so it cuts out completely on the 2 and 4 beats of each measure. Track 7 is in turn sidechained to Track 6, so when 6 disappears, 7 fills in the blank, and vice-versa. This was such a cool effect, I wound up taking these two tracks and making the other version of the song (Galaxiosis).