How do I change key in Session guitarist?

JohnIJones

I am playing in A minor but want an E major chord. I can't find any way to include this chord in the playback. If I add another rhythm pattern its always in the same key, A minor which has no E major. The manual says there are loads of chord possibilities but doesn't say how to implement them.

Senator_McCat

You can play E major in the key of Am by playing an open E chord on the keyboard and then playing the third of the chord on the keyboard at the same time, which is G#.

To do this, you will need to turn off "AutoChords." This means that each chord you play will NOT contain any thirds (Session Guitarist Acoustic Strummed refers to these types of chords as "no 3"). As thirds determine whether a chord sounds major, minor, augmented, or diminished, your chords will sound bare and not very melodic. To solve this, you will need to play the third of each chord alongside the bare "no 3" chords. For example, let's say the chord progression you want in the key of A minor is A minor, G major, C major, and E major (Am/G/C/E).

While the easiest thing would be to set up "AutoChord" and then select "A minor," this will lead to a stupid situation where you can only play E minor. This is because this particular program only seems to recognize one form of minor scale, which is called the natural minor. In my opinion this is INSANELY stupid as other forms of minor such as harmonic and melodic are also important, and these other minor scales contain different chord options (A harmonic minor, for example, contains the E major chord you desire).

With all this in mind, your next step is to play the chords you want with their requisite thirds. Because I believe spoon-feeding is the best way to learn new information, this means you would:

1. Play whatever note you need for an A chord with your left hand while holding down a C in your right hand (A minor = A C E).
2. Play whatever note you need for a G chord with your left hand while playing a B in your right (G major = G B D).
3. Play whatever note you need for a C chord with your left while adding an E with your right (C major = C E G).
4. Play whatever note you need for an E chord with your left hand while playing a G# in your right hand E major = E G# B).

Hope this helps!

Milos

Do you play with the keyboard?

reffahcs

@JohnIJones Is this what you're looking for? Which Session Guitarist are you using?

nobadmojo

Are you using Electric Mint? or....?

JohnIJones

strummed acoustic.PNG

Here it is. It's strummed acoustic. Any key change for one rhythm I make will also change all of the rhythm pattern keys. This means I have to load a new kontakt version if I want a chord that isn't in that key. For example, I am in A minor but I want E major in the middle of a run for one beat, so I have to add a new kontakt version.

Also, I can't see any melody option and don't know what it is.

reffahcs

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/126938#Comment_126938

Hopefully someone with more experience can answer your question about the rythm pattern keys and chords, unfortunately I'm not really following you there.

As far as the melody option goes, that's in Picked Acoustic not Strummed Acoustic, which I'm guessing is part of why you're frustrated with not being able to find a solution to your original question.

Senator_McCat

You can play E major in the key of Am by playing an open E chord on the keyboard and then playing the third of the chord on the keyboard at the same time, which is G#.

To do this, you will need to turn off "AutoChords." This means that each chord you play will NOT contain any thirds (Session Guitarist Acoustic Strummed refers to these types of chords as "no 3"). As thirds determine whether a chord sounds major, minor, augmented, or diminished, your chords will sound bare and not very melodic. To solve this, you will need to play the third of each chord alongside the bare "no 3" chords. For example, let's say the chord progression you want in the key of A minor is A minor, G major, C major, and E major (Am/G/C/E).

While the easiest thing would be to set up "AutoChord" and then select "A minor," this will lead to a stupid situation where you can only play E minor. This is because this particular program only seems to recognize one form of minor scale, which is called the natural minor. In my opinion this is INSANELY stupid as other forms of minor such as harmonic and melodic are also important, and these other minor scales contain different chord options (A harmonic minor, for example, contains the E major chord you desire).

With all this in mind, your next step is to play the chords you want with their requisite thirds. Because I believe spoon-feeding is the best way to learn new information, this means you would:

1. Play whatever note you need for an A chord with your left hand while holding down a C in your right hand (A minor = A C E).
2. Play whatever note you need for a G chord with your left hand while playing a B in your right (G major = G B D).
3. Play whatever note you need for a C chord with your left while adding an E with your right (C major = C E G).
4. Play whatever note you need for an E chord with your left hand while playing a G# in your right hand E major = E G# B).

Hope this helps!