When I was a young man in university, I thought I was an alright guitar player. My friend Pat, who was learning to play guitar at the time, came back from one of our work stints having added Radiohead‘s Street Spirit to his repertoire. I would be damned if I could have some young upstart thinking he was actually better than me, of course. Naturally, I got him to show me how to play it.
Radioheeeeeeeed
Being a new guitar player, Pat played Street Spirit with a pick / plectrum, and with all down-picks. As we say in the sciences: an elegant solution, this was not. Continue reading →
Oh WordPress.com, how I’ve missed you. And oh how patiently you’ve waited for me to return to you, with your spam folder filled with nonsense comments, and all-new menus.
To business!
I have been having a bad day. Not as bad as Steve Jobs, perhaps, but decidedly far too much time spent in a doctor’s office, thank you very much.
Upon my return home this evening, I decided to muck around with some jazz chord voicings that I’ve been lifting from All Jazz Blues, and some lead licks that I copped from a PowerTab of Django‘s Sweet Georgia Brown, which I downloaded last night prior to falling asleep on the couch with my guitar on my chest.
What a day. My house is both spotless & dreadfully quiet right now, and I am exhausted. I dropped my iPod this afternoon, and now when I turn it on, it greets me with a frowny face and a URL for Apple Support. Oh Apple, how cheeky.
I have a new recording to share. I actually finished it late last night, but a strange thing happened before I had a chance to write it up & post it. You see, we had a really wet snow last night. And when I went to fold my laundry, I found that a portion of that awesome wetness was dripping in through my exterior wall into my bedroom. Needless to say my attention was required until the wee hours of the morning, and I slept on the couch. Likewise, today was spent rendering my home impeccable such that I might host representatives of the condominium management company for review about what to do. But I digress.
So I am really happy with how this one turned out. I think it really shows off my rhythm playing, and how much I’ve learned over the last few months. I also hope that it presents a more challenging listen, as opposed to being too predictable. Uber sloppy, but the ideas are there.
I’m sure you want to know how and where this came from, hmm? Shall we begin? Continue reading →
Welcome to another installment of everyone’s favourite songwriting blog. Listen and enjoy:
Today’s installment is the product of far too much Led Zeppelin. I will admit, I did review the main classic rock hits written by Free, Lenny Kravitz, Edgar Winter Group, Deep Purple, and Golden Earring within the same general time period, but I haven’t noticed any influence whatsoever on the resulting piece of music.
More so, not only did I clean out my collection of PowerTab files, but also found myself left with an insatiable hunger for a larger aural vocabulary at several stages in the writing process. What is amazing is that even though this resulted in my listening to the Zeppelin catalogue in my car for a few days, not as many ideas as you might think ended up in the final product. I blame two things: tempo, and the fact that I chose to limit myself to 3 guitar tracks maximum, or 4 where harmonies are required. The kind of intricate layering of multiple guitar parts is more fitted to a much slower song, so I passed.
Intro
The free time intro was inspired by Nobody’s Fault But Mine. I was listening to too much Zeppelin and realized I needed some slide (sometimes you just need to slide a bitch). Couldn’t find one in the house, so I bought one. Snap! Then I had to learn how to use it…
Man oh man, I’m not going to lie; this took a couple of takes to get something usable. So much can go wrong when you’re playing solo slide guitar, so so much. For example: on one of my takes, my house caught fire, and burned to the ground. True story.
I put a flanger on it because I had dinner tonight with among other people this dude John, and I told him that I bought a slide so I could play Nobody’s Fault But Mine, and he said “that’s the only song that uses a flanger that I can actually stand”. And there you go. I must have done something right, though, because I just want to listen to this intro over and over again. I just kinda hit notes all over the place, so it’s just so interesting – you can’t memorize the melody at all. That’s what we in the industry call “staying power”.
Verse
The main verse riff is a really simple A minor pent run with some chromatic transitions between the tones. You can do this too you know – you take every single place in the pentatonic scale where there is only 1 tone between notes, and you stick one in: that right there is the frickin’ definition of the frickin blues. And the 1.5-tone gaps – you leave those alone. What did they ever do to you?
Ok, so more on the verse riff: I have already expounded enough on how much I love to transpose up a tone for my solos; it’s generally awesome when you come back down to your tonic. Turns out it was Zeppelin’s Heartbreaker all along that got me loving this. I use the same tonal transposition as Heartbreaker for my verse riff, but faster, and with my chromatics in a different place.
Pre-Chorus
Yes, pre-chorus is a word. It’s like a premature chorus, and other male dysfunctions. Although women have pre-choruses too… My pre-chorus is based around E. E is the 5th of A, so it has a very satisfying draw back to A.
The pre-chorus used to sound a bit more like the ending of What Is And Should Never Be, but then suddenly I heard this chromatic pattern in my head. Then I got bored of everything else I had, and just played what I heard in my head. I do a Dadd4 – D transition, and a C – G transition, and double the chromatic part with a double-stop part of low 5ths to thicken it up.
The transition to the chorus used to be the same riff as is used in the chorus, but I thought this was a bit boring. That’s because it was. So I did what I always do: I stopped playing right before the part I needed to change, and listened to how my brain filled in the gap. Then I just played what I heard. That’s called insanity. It’ll be our little secret.
Oh, and the chromatic pauses into the chorus were inspired by the turnaround in Zeppelin’s Since I’ve Been Loving You where they play these fun little diads made up of the 5th and 3rd. They descend; I ascend; it’s all good.
Chorus
The chorus is just the traditional blues form used in Free’s All Right Now, lot’s of KISS and Ozzy, etc. It’s really just there to set up the pentatonic descending pattern, and thus will be the first do go during the Rapture. The pentatonic descending pattern has a few different variations depending on what part it’s going into, but it’s played so fast that you’d never win a copyright case claiming that one isn’t a copy of another.
Solo
This was hilarious to me. I pretty much just restructured Zeppelin’s The Lemon Song into a different structure and formatted it as 12-bar. With the slide solo, it makes for a nice break, and finishing with a bass solo version of the verse riff is a fun way to bring back the verse riff as the intro to the final pre-chorus and chorus.
Outtro
Until earlier this evening, I just had a let ring for the ending. But I kept hearing something like the ending of Zeppelin’s Over the Hills and Faraway in my head, so I play an Am figure with a descending baseline into an E major. This Am with a descending bassline is a classic feature of music, used in songs as disparate as Moonlight Sonata, Simon & Garfunkel’s America, and Carl Thomas’s I Wish, to name a few. The addition of the E major at the end is from Babe I’m Gonna Leave You. My outtro would sound even more like Over the Hills and Faraway, but I couldn’t figure out how to make the super-sustained notes. I think it’s an e-bow maybe, if they had such things in the stone ages that were the 70s. I think it’s more likely a country lap slide guitar, like Junior Brown plays.
At any rate, this is the second time writing up a blog about this song. I’ve discovered that the secret to making your writing interesting, as I should have learned from one of my earlier blogs, is sleep deprivation!
I should really be loading clothes into the dryer right now, but whatevski.
Episode IV: A New Arrangement
Thanks to Last.Fm, I have learned to play and also compiled my own arrangement for the song Tonight You Belong to Me. As this is my first time ever putting together a new arrangement for a standard, this article will focus on how that new arrangement came to be. Are you ready for non-stop excitement? Continue reading →
So this has been a productive weekend. Here’s the new song; you can listen to it while reading along. It’s super sloppy, like your mom at New Years, but it’s not like you even have a blog, so you can shut it:
On Saturday morning I awoke with the intention of picking up where I had left off in my studies. If you’re just tuning in, this meant going through classic rock, hard rock, and blues PowerTabs alphabetically. I went through some Cream, Darkness, Gary Moore, Guns N’ Roses, and KISS. For the most part, I was a little underwhelmed. However…
For GNR, I only went through the songs off Appetite for Destruction that were not radio hits. These were songs like Mr. Brownstone, Out Ta Get Me, etc. I was blown away. So much blues-based hard rock, I learned a lot. One of the things that struck me the most was the number of key changes. I decided to try the same.
I also went through some great old KISS tunes. I learned that I’d been playing I Wanna Rock n Roll All Night wrong all this time, and I also saw a lot of I bIII IV used to reinforce the I.
With these tools under my belt, I set to work. The song ended up being rather complex, so it’s ridiculously sloppy. But my goodness, so many ideas. First and foremost, I decided to base it around a 12-bar figure, with lots of key changes. Here’s how it breaks down:
Intro Riff (I)
The intro riff is in A, based on the guitar work under the “Loaded like a freight train” lyric, blended with a b3 2 1 double stop lifted from the main riff of It’s So Easy. This double stop cadence is the theme of the song, and you will hear it everywhere in the song. The background guitar reinforces the A minor pentatonic feel with C and G bends surrounding an A let ring.
Verse Riff (I)
The verse riff is in A, and features a standard blues transition to the 5 using the b3 and 3, subtended by E and G. Also the b3 2 1 cadence theme is in there too. Slash based his Mr. Brownstone riff off this move; he plays it everywhere. This was too difficult to play upside down on a righty bass, so I just stick to A and reinforce using C and G.
The Flop - (IV)
The IV (D) is the standard 1 b3 3 5 6 5 I tend to play everywhere now, mixed with a high note twiddle from songs like Panama, Kick Start My Heart, and Won’t Get Fooled Again.
The Turn – (V IV)
For the turn, I used a figure lifted from the intro to Think About You, which is played in that song over B, A, and G. I used it in E and D, and liked it so much that I decided to play the progression twice, unlike a standard 12-bar. The tone changes considerably with the upward transposition, so I reinforced the sound with the same figure an octave lower. the theme is used to get back to the I, for which I rehash the intro before repeating the verse again.
Bridge(IV becomes the I)
For the bridge, I decided to move the tonic center. I thought D would be fun, because the ear is already convinced it’s just the IV for our 12-bar A pattern. So at 1:55 I throw down a chromatic transition to D as the new I, and reinforce it using a I bIII IV progression like KISS often uses.
Transition (V becomes the I)
I was messing around with The Turn (V IV, from Think About You), and found a really great sounding variation that used F and G, so I needed a way to move to E. The previous part ended on G, which gave me the opportunity to use a quick bIII bVII (G D) cadence to get to E as the new tonic center. I then used the Thinking About You pattern to play The Turn, extending into F and G to outline the Bridge and give a good reason to go back to D as the tonic center.
Solo (II becomes the I)
Once I was on D, I realized that the same move I used from the Bridge to the Transition (G to G D E) could be used from D to get to B (D to D A B). I wanted to get to B because I am in love with solos that start a tone up and shift back to the tonic center. I based the solo around Dorian bends, which are a Slash trademark, most notably in You Could Be Mine.
Outtro
Since I was studying the non-radio songs from Appetite for Destruction, a few times it ended up that I had no idea what I was listening to. I had to look them up on YouTube to hear the lyrics. While listening to Think About You, I read about how the last 29 seconds was so unlike much of what was in the rest of the song, and the album as well. I liked what I heard, and decided to emulate it with a different chord progression. I resolved to use the I bIII IV progression I had been using for the Bridge, but in A instead of D. Even though I intended to play it half or quarter time, I tracked it over the normal tempo drums. It sounded good, so I adapted it earlier in the outtro.
I’m exhausted.
Next up is Led Zeppelin. I have a LOT of Zeppelin to go through.
Well, so much for a new song a week – this one is a bit overdue. So be it; it’s not like I’m on contract. This one took longer because I wasn’t happy with the result. Ain’t that the thing with writing; the more you write, the less from your repertoire available for future works. It’s scarcity of ideas; the economics of songwriting. The end result, for your listening pleasure.
The fundamental concept for this song came about while I was driving in my car; Guns ‘n’ Roses Paradise City came on the radio, and I resolved to write something that evokes the same kind of energy as the outtro. I wanted the opportunity to have a walking rock bassline chord progression, and a blazing fast pentatonic solo.
The first thing I did was open the PowerTab file for Paradise City and look at how the main verse riff was played (a nice chromatic double-stop riff, used as the foundation of the outtro), and check the tempo for the outtro: 208 bpm.
Part of what took so long was finding and downloading a drum loop or set of drum loops with a shuffle feel at anywhere near 208 bpm. It didn’t happen. The closest I could get was 175 bpm, which I could convincingly increase to 180 bpm (thank you ACIDized loops), the final tempo. It also means that the backing drum track isn’t really as interesting as it could be, and the dynamic disparity between the chorus and verse aren’t adequate for it to be obvious which is which right now. Fortunately, the beef is there in enough quantity to enthuse a drummer; he (or she) will take care of the details come rehearsal time.
For the riff, I messed around with the double stops from Paradise City’s verse. Since I’m not used to work in Gminor pentatonic, I moved it to home turf: A minor pentatonic. From this position, my mind taps into a lot more existing music (the only other song I know that uses Gm pent is the solo from You Shook Me All Night Long). Of course, I could have used G major, but I have a pretty big disregard for arena rock in G major. Your options are limited to You Shook Me All Night Long and Knocking on Heaven’s Door. That’s it. That is IT. Neither of those songs are blazing.
From my Am position, I came up with the riff that backs that first half of the solo. This is actually what I had for the verse originally – heavy on Am, thin on C and G chords, which destabilize of the tonic center. I recorded a first take in this format, and it sucked. This arrangement (3 riffs, short C & G chords) mean that vocals would be over the Am riff, and likely not over the C & G.
Monday night on my way home from the ski hill I “heard” the song in my head differently, and re-adjusted the arrangement to be heavier on the C & G chords, to act as the bed for the vocals, and then have the Am riff intersperse these chords, likely without vocals. It also meant I could riff a bit with the C & G chords, delving into some classic blues figures – lots of fun. The lead guitar riffs use the blues hammer-ons made famous by I Wanna Rock n Roll All Night by KISS, and the rhythm riffs uses a chromatic blues scale. The tracked result was much more satisfying.
For the Am riff specifically, the tracked version uses 4 formats to imply the same tonality:
1. Van Halen – Hot For Teacher 1: this version is played by the rhythm guitar over the verse, and is modeled after the main riff from Hot For Teacher, at open position on the A, & D strings.
2. Van Halen – Hot For Teacher 2: this version is played by the lead guitar during the intro, and during the solo. It is based on the clean guitar part from Hot For Teacher, which in itself is heavily reminiscent of ZZ Top’s La Grange (therefore likely a common blues move). It is played at second position on the D & G strings.
3. Guns ‘n’ Roses – Paradise City: this version is played using double stops at fifth position, very similar to Slash’s part during the verse of Paradise City
4. This version is just barre chords. Although the other versions use a chromatic lead in to the tonic, that was too hard with barre chords, so I use E & G to get to A. This part sounds weird to me, likely because I am playing parallel 1 3 5 barre chords. Who does that?
For the chorus, I really felt that Detroit Rock City brought something I liked to the table, so I looked into emulating it with something similar, but different. However, what I found was a lead in to the C# minor tonic riff using A and B – when I transposed this to lead in to A, I discovered something very peculiar: KISS had plagiarized their own I Wanna Rock n Roll All Night! So screw writing something different – I’m using it too you bastards! And yeah the rhythm I chose (as a lark) is also suspiciously similar; there are so many rhythmic variations to choose from, I’ll work that out if the song ever ends up being used for commercial gain.
But where does this leave us? Can we assume that since it’s used repeatedly in multiple songs, the F-G-Am lead-in is a feature of the genre, and not owned by the songwriters? Can a band claim you have ripped them off if they themselves have plagiarized their own work? Are bands free to plagiarize their own work? The answer is surprising:
1. Bands can indeed plagiarize their own work, but should be careful about it if the music is released under different labels. John Fogerty had to go to court because he rewrote a song for a different label. However bands like Live (with Lightning Crashes), and Offspring (with songs like Self Esteem, The Kids Aren’t Alright, and Gone Away) repeatedly release the same song on multiple labels without issue.
2. Is the music they are plagiarizing really that original? The simple answer is no. Chord progressions like those used in the above listed songs have been around for generations, have been popularized in other genres, and are featured in the Berkley manifesto “Power Progressions” as the key to songwriting success. The F-G-Am cadence / lead-in that I took from Detroit Rock City is used (even in the same key) for GNR’s Don’t Cry, and Triumph’s Lay It On the Line, to start.
3. Should we rip off other artists? No. Absolutely you should not hear a riff or chord progression you like, and consciously decide to plagiarize it. Life is better when you challenge yourself, and the language of music has so many options, you shouldn’t ever need to resort to this.
4. Cover yourself: If you can prove that multiple artists have used the same piece of music in multiple circumstances, or even used it themselves repeatedly, you can and should consider that it could very well be a part of the musical lexicon. This is also a good way to protect yourself from claims of plagiarism, by claiming public domain. No one ever got sued for writing 12-bar blues. But if you don’t know your history, you could be the first…
