Piano Lesson: Trance - Keyboard Trance Pattern 1
by David Bruce
A common pattern found in dance music is an arpeggio of three 16th notes that form a cross-rhythm with the main pulse. Usually the last arpeggio will 'cut short' to bring it back into the beat.
The most common example of this forms a pattern of 3 - 3 - 2 :
Now listen to how that interacts with the main beat:
For something a bit more extreme you can continue the 3-note arpeggio longer, taking twice as long before we 'bring it back' into the beat:
In theory of course you can carry on with the three notes until they really do match up with the beat:
The problem here is they re-align every three bars, which tends not to be useful in songs that are generally phrased around the four bar pattern.
Now let's go back to our first example and create a pattern using a series of chords. We'll use Eb, Bb minor, Ab and Eb again:
But notice the inversion of each chord we use, to give the pattern a continuous 'falling' feeling. It a sense of melody to the progression.
Chords Used in David Bruce - Trance - Keyboard Trance Pattern 1
Now listen to how that interacts with the main beat:
For something a bit more extreme you can continue the 3-note arpeggio longer, taking twice as long before we 'bring it back' into the beat:
In theory of course you can carry on with the three notes until they really do match up with the beat:
The problem here is they re-align every three bars, which tends not to be useful in songs that are generally phrased around the four bar pattern.
Now let's go back to our first example and create a pattern using a series of chords. We'll use Eb, Bb minor, Ab and Eb again:
But notice the inversion of each chord we use, to give the pattern a continuous 'falling' feeling. It a sense of melody to the progression.