Ha!
Got your attention?
I’m looking for good resources to learn about chords, progressions and how to add them as accompaniments.
I know a bit of music theory but seems like I never got that far.
Find some music with chords on it, learn to play them. Find some more music with chords and repeat. Over time it starts to make more sense and you will start to see patterns in it. Having an instrument which can easily play both chords and melodies like piano or keyboard is useful for experimenting with this. You don’t have to play an instrument well to learn from it.
There are a bunch of welsh tunes with chords here: http://www.alawoncymru.com/alawon/Tunes/Tunesal.html
Slow clap guys.
Try http://www.capeirish.com/ref_lib/harmony.html which covers both standard and modal scales.
Paul Hardy (concertina) http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/tunebooks/ has a set of tunes with chords and also some tunes in parts which will give some ideas.
depends on the instrument, just learn the notes in each key and then keep playing them in tunes until you have a basic arrangement and various counter Melodys and maybe some run to get you into different keys or sets for starting off
The Pianist, thanks, that looks useful.
Yeah Alpinerabbit.. hah, ha, You got my attention! You should be in advertising. I’ll get back to my breakfast now.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HGA998A/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
If you can get halfway through this book you’ll know a lot.
Stop looking for “The Trick(s)”, Silly Rabbit.
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Piano accompaniment ~
https://thesession.org/discussions/10784
Posted by Shtrum July 27th, 2006
My eyes glaze over when I read those charts. They’re undoubtedly correct with their information but I would consider the “tricks” referred to as the various guitar chords played by some of the more accomplished backing guitarists such as these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaiPMxRv0OI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6PF1Y1lsjI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8WhHm3VTy8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOeQ9ruA0V0
There’s a lot of open strings and moving forms that the charts don’t cover because they’re referring mostly to chord names and not how someone might back a tune with the variations of the chord mentioned.
Of course, I could be completely wrong but as I mentioned, the charts offer me little because I can’t extrapolate what’s written to what’s played. Sometimes, a picture or a video is truly worth a thousand words.
Thanks guys, I guess that’s plenty of material for now.
A difficult topic to address concisely and usefully. I’d say that, in general, the ‘trick’ is to play your instrument as much and as well as possible, and learn whatever you can from players you think are excellent. Can’t think of any short cuts. I suspect the first 25 years are the most demanding if you really want to crack it.
But the OP doesn’t mention the instrument on which the accompaniment is to be provided. If it’s not presumptuous on my part (and if the instrument in question is a guitar), the advice I’d offer is this: (a) don’t assume a need to play a chord on every beat - spaces are good - and (b) don’t think you have to hit all six strings at once every time you play a chord. It generally produces a rather ugly sound.
Keep plucking (which is often better than strumming, by the way).
I can adequately strum the standard chords on a guitar but that isn’t what I’m after.
I wasn’t asking about an instrument in particular but about *resources* on the music *theory* behind it.
The Chris Smith book linked above -- Celtic Backup for All Instrumentalists -- is probably the closest you’ll get to a single reference to the theory, such as it is, behind this music.
I read it years ago when I was mainly playing guitar, before getting more into mandolin and flute for melody. I remember that it seemed a bit opaque here and there, but that’s probably because I’m not well-versed in background music theory to start with. I did learn a few things from it, and it’s a good starting point. The rest comes from years of playing and deep listening.
