Finalized the skeleton of my new song this morning before work. Will record it this weekend; that means I have until then to put together a bridge and some embellishments (why play chords when you can play riffs around a tonal centre?).
It’s a little AC/DC, a little Guns N’ Roses, a little um, Wings? And maybe a little Beatles too…
Geez, April really hasn’t been very productive, especially compared to March.
Come on, hit song
Posted in News & Notes
Today I was going to write about using dynamic variation and orchestration density to create distinction between verses and choruses, but I thought I’d touch on something else.
The introduction of studio softwarez like Cubase, Logic, & ProTools has had a profound effect not only on how we write music, but also the type of music that we write as well. I’m going to be honest, loop-based arrangement softwares have made music a lot more monotonous, and live musicians have struck back as an outlet for people with ADD.
What if we could take the best of both worlds? We already would, if we were smart enough. Which I am, because I thought of this 10 years ago and just never told anybody. Or maybe I did…. Continue reading
Notorious British punk personality Malcolm McLaren, who became famous after he created a punk band to promote his clothing store, has died at the age of 64. That band was the Sex Pistols, whom McLaren would also manage.
So I’m learning fat chords, and fat chord arrangements of 12-bar bebop & swing. Now you know.
Thanks, All Blues for Jazz Guitar by Jim Ferguson
Posted in News & Notes
Tagged adult contemporary music, blues, jazz, jazz chords, jazz composition, jazz music, jazz theory, music theory, song writing, Songwriting
Legendary jazz guitarist Herb Ellis, famous for his work as part of the Oscar Peterson Trio, has died at the age of 88.
Posted in News & Notes
Tagged adult contemporary music, guitar, Herb Ellis, jazz, jazz guitar, jazz guitarist, jazz music, music, Oscar Peterson
Well, it’s way past my bedtime, so you know what that means: my writing skills are at their utmost peak. It’s your lucky day.
I’m going to bed soon, but I tried writing this long blog about different ways to write vocal parts and it ended up boring as a parliamentary debate with the sound off. Needless to say, quite boring. Quite quite quite.
I’ma hit chu wit dis right quick, and give you a little tidbit each blog. So this is only ONE recommendation for writing vocals, with others to follow in other blogs. This one focuses on how to get more words out in less time. We are going to use other people’s music to help us to do that.
Singing other people’s music is always easier than singing your own, and we can often perform other people’s music much more convincingly than our own. Why is that?
Really, it’s repetition. So if we are to be able to give a quality performance, your song must become other people’s music
Ok, so let’s say you have your lyrics written and in front of you. Now spit them over your bed (that’s backing track, for the squares), working loosely, and track it.
Some syllables will lock to the beat, and sound good. These are called in the pocket. As in Polly Pocket. Or pocket pool. Or perhaps “Polly Pocket Pool”.
Others will not be in the pocket. Delete the parts that do not lock to the rhythm. Mute the vocal track take.
Spit your lyrics again, working loosely, delete the parts that don’t work. If the second take is the same as the first take, you are not spitting your lyrics fast enough. Spit faster. Experiment. Take a risk for once in your life; this isn’t junior prom.
Do this ad nauseum.
Use the undeleted parts to create a continuous vocal track. So what if some lyrics appear a bar later. Quantize to quarter notes and move it earlier in the song, so that it follows immediately on the previous part. The quarter notes will ensure that even though you move the part, it is still on the down beat. If that doesn’t work well enough, go to half notes. If you dare! No but really, half notes won’t change the relationship between the vocal rhythm & beat. Unless you have the beat at the wrong tempo. Should be 4 beats to a bar. You might have it at double or half time, in which figure it out yourself.
Print the vocal track to a format that can be put on disc or on your Apple-like iMP3 iplayer and take it with you wherever you go. Listen to it. Pretend it’s a real song, and memorize it. Now your song can become other people’s music, and become ingrained in your psyche.
Come back to the track at a later date, and record the vocals as a single pass. It will just be like recording a cover, but of your own original lyrics.
And that’s how it’s done my friends.
D
Posted in Songwriting
Tagged jazz composition, lyricists, lyrics, music, music composition, music production, music theory, song writing, songwriter, Songwriting, vocals
 | Earline K. Fry on The Making Of: Pool Hoppi… |
 | Gabriel on [VIDEO] Solving Chord Progress… |
 | Tanner Mikray Robins… on Why Mid-Level Bands Can Make… |
