Chords-In-Keys Template - Ableton Live
For anyone who isn't a music theory ninja, I have put together a Live Template with easy and organized access to all of the diatonic chords in every major and minor key!
As you can see all of the chords are grouped together by parallel keys, which just means that C major is grouped with Cm, G major is grouped with Gm, A major is grouped with Am, etc. The reason for this is that one of the main tricks to making more interesting chord progressions is combining chords from parallel keys into your chord progressions in any given key! You can access all of these chords in session view like the above image, or in arrangement view like the following image.
The real magic of this template happens when you save it to your Ableton browser as an official Template. Then you have access to all of the chords straight from your Ableton browser to drag and drop into any session you're working in to create not only diatonic chord progressions that will work in your key, but to also know which borrowed chords from the parallel key will also work to add into your chord progressions in whatever key you're in. So this is basically a cheat code to creating REALLY cool and interesting chord progressions outside of the same old, same old without having to know music theory. Once in your browser the chords are accessible like this:
So you can just drag and drop and you'll know not only which chords go together, but the theory of which chord numbers you're using. This is the way!
INSTALLATION
- Download the Ableton Project and open the .als file.
- Select "Save Live Set As Template" from under Ableton's File menu.
- Name the Template with the name you want it to show in your Browser. I recommend naming it "Chords In Keys (Diatonic)"
- You can then access the template in Ableton's Browser at the bottom of the "Library" section where it says "Templates."
COMPATIBILITY
Ableton Live 11.3, 12, 12.1