Hels

I think you misinterpret my use of theory I use it not for composition, but for communication!

That scale is a whole tone scale (not that it matters it still sounds the same!). Spacey chords are kind weird, In trance there isn't much use of real chords outside of arpeggios. Like if you or I heard a dom7b5#13 chord in the middle of a goa song you'd probably be like "wtf was that?!" In something like trance there is pretty much the bass and melody which outline the chord progression. Kind of hard to say a cool progression for goa...maybe a neat one (one that I use for an ethnic fusion-y sort of sound) is C major b9 (the voicing I use on guitar and piano is C G Db E) to a Db Major chord (Db F Ab, maybe throw an E on the top if you want) to a Bb minor 9 chord (voicing I like: Bb F C Db). That's a neat one but I don't know how youd exactly put a bassline to that progression (haven't really tried) although I have used similar progressions in a background synth-y sort of thing and it sounds pretty good. It's all about experimenting yourself! I hope that answered some questions!

Here is a little theory stuff for those of you interested. Although music "theory" was derived from Bach's music it can be applied to explaining/communicating jsut about any musical ideas. Here's the basics: In C major there is 7 notes (C D E F G A B, all the white keys on a piano). If you are playing in a key of C major (no sharps or flats, ie, all white keys) the chords then are: C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, and B diminished All chords (at this point in theory) are built on thirds (every other note). So the first chord (C major) contains the notes C E and G, and D minor contains D F and A. Their "flavor" (major, minor, etc.) are determined by the intervals they are built in. (This is where it's going to get weird for those of you with little theory experience) A major chord is built like so: Major 3rd and a minor 3rd stacked on eachother (C to E is a major 3rd, E to G is a minor 3rd) Minor chord: Minor 3rd, major 3rd Diminished chord: Minor 3rd, minor 3rd Augmented: Major 3rd, major 3rd. A major chord is designated by a capitalized alphabet numeral thing (I, II, III, etc.) Minor chords are lower-case (i, ii, iii), Dim chords are lower with a "º" at the end (viiº, iiº, etc.) And aug chords are designated by a capitalized letter and a "+" (VII+, IV+). So anyway...further on with the theory stuff. In any key there is seven chords based on the seven notes in the key's scale. In a major key they are: I ii iii IV V vi viiº (look at the C major chords for example) In a minor key they are: i iiº III iv V VI VII (There are only major and minor keys for those of you who don't know)... God damn this is confusing me now... Agh so anyway I totally forgot my point really haha but in Bach's day a basic chord progression would be I IV V I (that's sort of like THE progression) Also I ii V I was quite popular as well as I vi ii V I... Anyway you get the idea, hopefully you can figure that out! It doesn't wholly apply to trance (not at this point anyway) but if you experiment you should get the idea. Of course this is like the first 3 days of a theory class haha there's really much more to it. If you have questions email me or I'll just check back here. Later Hels (that was fuckin long, I hope someone cares!)

From what I've seen it's mostly derivitaves of the phryigian and harmonic minor scales. Phyrigian: 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 (C Db Eb F G Ab Bb) Here's the one I've see the most for that "typical goa" sound which is a mode of harmonic minor: Phyrigian #3: 1 b2 3 4 5 b6 b7 (C Db E F G Ab Bb) Pretty much any scale with a b2 in it works well for goa becuase those scales cater well to Neopolitan chords (major b2 chord or Db major in a C key). Phyrigian #3 scale is cool cause it has a b2 to natural 3 which lends it self to many cool harmonic possibilities.

Well I'm not sure where to start...I suppose it started at guitar center the other day and I was playing with a Korg MS2000r (the rackmount one) and I thought it rocked like hell from what I could do with it in just 15 minutes. But I've been reading about all kinds of other keyboards/synths such as the Nord Lead and the Jp8000 which seem to be very popular among psy/goa trance people. So basically I was just wondering if someone could give me a few of the advantages and disadvantages of some of those keyboards, or some new suggestions even. Also, are there any differences to the keyboard unit and the rackmount ones? For instance the MS2000; the rackmount unit was like 300 dollars cheaper than the keyboard, so if there's no difference wouldn't it be wiser to get the rack version and get a cheesy keyboard to control it (which I already have...)? Thanks a bunch Matt