Harmony in Goa Trance

[acid being]

In my teens I tried to make sort of techno tracks but they were incredibly primitive because I didn't understand music theory. I've just started to have another go at making music, aiming for something that is at least loosely overlapping the goa trance or psytrance genres. I doubt it will ever sound professional but it's for fun.

I'm using the Phrygian Dominant scale. For a few parts of the tracks I'm using chord progressions (Strictly speaking they're arpeggios with a second note played alongside). Anyway on the track I'm currently working on I made an extra pattern with all the chords shifted up around 4 semitones (Altering a couple of the chords to keep them in Phrygian Dominant). I've got some acid lines playing at the same time as this and now on the new pattern a few notes of the arpeggios are only 1 semitone away from the notes in the acid lines, so it's dissonant.

I can think of three different ways of dealing with this dissonance:

1. Leave it there. I'm not very comfortable with this because it will just sound like I've made a mistake.

2. Shift the arpeggios around or change the chords to match the acid lines.

3. Shift the pitch of the acid lines up at that point in the track, or otherwise change them so they stay in harmony with the new chords.

I've read some people saying that normally at least the bassline stays rooted in a Goa trance track and other people saying a lot of tracks don't even use chord progressions at all, but I still want to use them.

Basically my question is what's the norm in Goa trance, 1, 2 or 3?

(I get that I have the creative freedom to try any of them to just see what sounds best, but on the other hand I don't have the best musical ear and I just want to get an idea for how this is commonly dealt with in the genre.)

 

[MikroMakro]

As you rightly point out chords are not typical. I would make "chords" using 2 from notes in the scale usually.. so maybe you can strip back your chords if triads and remove any notes not in the scale/key you are working in. Good luck with it.

[acid being]

11 minutes ago, MikroMakro said:

As you rightly point out chords are not typical. I would make "chords" using 2 from notes in the scale usually.. so maybe you can strip back your chords if triads and remove any notes not in the scale/key you are working in. Good luck with it.

Thanks. All the notes are in the right key. It's just at this point in the track I'm playing a fixed bassline / acid lines and then playing two different versions of a synth arpeggio I wrote over the top. The second version of the arpeggio is supposed to be the same pattern but higher pitched. At the higher pitch I then end up with an E and F playing at the same time a few times (and in the same octave) because it's clashing with the fixed acid lines and bassline. Maybe I'm overthinking it but this is one of my first few goes at a layered harmony so I want to get the basics right.

[MikroMakro]

In which modify the notes that clash, though I don't see why if it is the same arp up an octave why they start to sound dissonant.

[acid being]

On 5/22/2023 at 9:18 PM, MikroMakro said:

In which modify the notes that clash, though I don't see why if it is the same arp up an octave why they start to sound dissonant.

I raised them by less than an octave, adjusting to keep them in the scale. I guess I can just adjust a couple of notes a bit more to fit the other parts that are playing. I'm more confident about it now, so thanks for your help.

In all honesty the clashing notes only play for a fraction of a second and I can't really hear any dischord. I think it helps that the acid lines aren't "pure" tones. I'm just a perfectionist!

[acid being]

Just listened to Darshan - Awakening and on the second track, Sun Probe, from about 4:40 it really sounds to me like there's a bassline shifting pitch to follow the acid lead, though it all blends together so well it's hard to be 100% sure.

Either way, it's a way to add a bit of interest to a track and surprises are good to have in this kind of music.

[Parasphere]

Would be really interesting to hear a sample to get a feel for how this dissonance sounds. And yes I agree it's very difficult to get it to work, at the same time a lot of the Psytrance I like has key changes. It's difficult because of not only the loss of energy in the bassline at certain keys, but also obviously because of the tonal elements of the kick drum.

The best advice I found when researching this I think is what Erez Eisen wrote or said in an interview. To put the kick drum tuned to the minor third of the main chord the track would go in. There is a lot of transposing the track and changing the bassnotes, BPM and chord sequence, until somekind of balance is found. A good starting point is to analyze the BPM and keys of tracks on albums which successfully overcame this obstacle. 

Such as the Infected Mushroom Classical Mushroom album for example.

As for the melodies/harmony, my impression is that it is common to either put each melody in its own octave, or if they play counterpoint, to make them play harmoniously first all together in one synth layer within the same octave, (or over several octaves depending on the arpeggiated/melodic style), then split them up into separate layers.

This is not the entire solution to complex harmonic compositions, and related issues pertaining to phase, however it's a starting point. If you chose to go the modern Psytrance route, I.E to phase align the kick and bass and working with samples of the bass notes, then I think the whole process will so cumbersome when dealing with key changes. So that I would probably stick to a more monotone non-changing bass key structure. IMO, but that's just me.

But yeah all depends on your experience level/listening options/room accoustics and what not.(how the star constellations are aligned, your aura, chakra tuning etc.) Maybe the right type of incense is the most crucial detail? Just kidding. 

However that should never deter anyone from experimenting I think! Or else no one would ever advance. 

[Parasphere]

Due to this thread I decided to play around a bit in logic this morning with a Nitzho-Goa track sketch with key changes, Spire arps and choir and synth chord pads.

 

*edit* Gonna work it some more.

 

 

[Prana4ever]

On 5/30/2023 at 11:50 AM, Parasphere said:

Due to this thread I decided to play around a bit in logic this morning with a Nitzho-Goa track sketch with key changes, Spire arps and choir and synth chord pads: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gb-mYa_nkpsyoEiwGbTBJTUcPKFiocyS/view?usp=sharing

Headphone mix, it's an half-made intro idea. Nothing stellar.  

 

Your link is dead unfortunately.

[Parasphere]

8 hours ago, Prana4ever said:

Your link is dead unfortunately.

Oops, I will update soon. Became a whole track. Kinda Mindspherish/swirling.  

[Parasphere]

@Prana4ever

Try this potato cam recording.  

Euphoric Nitzho-Trance(In progress)