Now it’s time for the keys to step into the spotlight as we move on to think about creating chords and harmonies

In our bass and leads sections, we’ve essentially focused on sounds and techniques that apply to single-note parts. As we’ve seen, these parts may well be generated by synths, and using said synths in monophonic mode often achieves the best outcome.

In this section we’re going to focus on production elements that can (though may not always) provide harmonic or chordal content. These parts are often provided by instruments that can play multiple notes together, such as any polyphonic keyboard (piano, organ, polyphonic synth and so on), or some other polyphonic instrument —a guitar for example. That said, it’s important to be clear that this isn’t always the case — bassists sometimes play chords for example. What’s more, in larger band ensembles, chords are often built from multiple individual instruments — think of a string section in an orchestra.

Here we look at three different aspects of the keys conundrum. Firstly, we’ll create a synth pad from scratch. If you’ve not really used synths much before, creating sounds from scratch can seem a bit daunting. But we’ve broken it down into nice easy steps and coupled with the excellent Synapse Dune CM synth, which is extremely easy to understand, this is a great way to familiarise yourself with synthesis and sound creation.

Secondly, we’ll look at what notes you need to use to create chords. This is a pretty big topic and we’re definitely not looking to give you a full grounding in keyboard harmony. Even so, with a few easy pointers, and if we stick to the white notes, it’s possible to impart some handy hints to get you started.

“Arpeggiators provide an easy way to add harmonies, even with limited keyboard skills”

Finally, we’ll look at arpeggiators. These creative devices are often found in synthesisers and provide an easy way to add harmonic content, even if your keyboard skills are a bit limited.