Have you every tried to compose R&B music but you feel you are not getting the right sound?
This is porbably because you are paying too much attention to standard music theory and trying to use chords that belong in a certain scale. Let’s take the C major scale for example, on the piano it is very simply, basically all the white keys.
If you make a song using only the following chords (C major scale), Cmaj, Dmin, Emin, Fmaj, G7, Amin, Bdim, no matter how much the singer tries to sound soulful, the music itself may not have that R&B vibe you are looking for. to get more of an R&B vibe we need to use chords from other scales. e.g. trying using Bmin7 instead of Bdim. Or E7 instead of Emin7.
There are no major rules here, it’s about being creative and using your ears to judge. However, there are some typical good patterns you can use, and even better if you understand the musical notation (roman numerals).
Check out the below video for an example.
This is great advise thanks. I noticed Ab is the root key when you play Dbmaj7 – any reason for that
It is just Dbmaj7 played on an inversion. Playing it like this gives it more of a soulful vibe.