songwriting.....I'm still clueless!

[roundthebend]

Never let it be said that I give up easily :lol:

Having looked at scales and chord progressions, I still can't make anything that resembles a decent tune. It all sounds generic and lifeless.

So, I think I'm going to study some good songs and analyse how they are put together. The first one I'm going to look at is by Be Bop Deluxe. It was somebody here that reminded me of them so I nipped round to see my Dad and borrowed his CD. The track is Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape. Here's the chords and lyrics:

http://www.e-tabs.org/tab/bebop_delu...hire_landscape

Dm, Bb, C, Dm (with a little D C A G F D lick)
Dm, Bb, C, Dm....C, F (into chorus)

G, F, C
G, F, C

Em, Em
Dm, F#m

Bm, Cmaj7, Fmaj7

Cmaj7, Fmaj7 (repeat til end)

Looking at just the guitar chords to begin with, it seems like a relatively simple Dm based progression right? I - VI - VII - I

The chorus changes key because Gmaj is not in Dm (unless we're playing harmonic minor, right? except, that ruins the Bb in the verse!). I think the chorus is in Cmaj and is therefore a simple V - IV - I progression.

After that, I'm lost! Although the solo section certainly seems to be played with an Em derivative scale over a Cmaj based chord sequence.


Can someone translate this gobbledy ****!?

[frankus]

That was covered in GT not too long ago... I'll look up their take on it .

In the mean time here is an exerpt from the preface of Reginald Smith Brindles (Alledgedly also a Yorkshireman according to an old pupil of his I met on the train) book on Serial Composition:

Invariably this book will seem to put exaggerated stress on the importance of method and technique and ignore the great potential values of instinct and fantasy. It must be constantly borne in mind, therefore, that though these latter are rarely mentioned, they are of overriding importance and can drastically alter technical assessments. In fact, method can frequently be found to be at fault, whereas fantasy and intuition are unerring.

I think you need to check out Ted Greene's Book called Modern Chord Progressions and just play through a few of the examples... they might inspire you and some times they just creep into measures of music and fit... because sometimes you do the work and your ear and fingers remember ... it's vocabulary.. like choosing the right words to say and how to pronounce them... sometimes you need to hear it first. Sometimes you need to quote others, or do a pastiche in the style of someone else... not everyone likes pastiche.. it tastes like Pernod and the French drink it with warm water.

[imported_thomasross20]

To be honest, I play WHATEVER!! OK, so you can get chord progressions which you can stick to.. But I find it best to simply mess about with different chords all over the place.. Just make sure that you can then play over the crazy progression you've created.. Just go for it! Mess around until you get something sounding great! You can always slip in little rules like V - I if you need to get to anothe rkey and whatnot.

[frankus]

Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape - Bebop Deluxe: June 2005 - Guitar Techniques, by Dave Kilminster.

The music has it as Fmaj/Dmin (Bb being the only incidental) so now you can pin it down

Oddness can happen with the chords, if you chuck any queries up people will be able to explain it as using the modes to make new chords ... or the harmonic or melodic minor (these occur to varying degrees in musics) often people will disagree because it's subjective and ambiguous and their take will come from their experiences... but it's all good, just see which one sticks with you.

[Crazy Eddie]

This is my sig on another forum:

"There's too much analysation and not enough rockalysation! And you can print that." - Jack Black

More seriously, I feel I should say that if you sit down and think "Right, I'm going to write a fantastic song.... now!", it won't happen. Just keep messing and eventually a riff, or a chord progression, or a melody, or a line of lyrics, will appear. If you're lazy like me, that's probably all it'll ever be. If not, it could develop into something good.

BUT: The most vast leap in my songwriting came the moment I bought a loop pedal, and I'm sure anyone else in these parts who has one will agree!

- Ed

[Melonfish]

This is my sig on another forum:

"There's too much analysation and not enough rockalysation! And you can print that." - Jack Black

More seriously, I feel I should say that if you sit down and think "Right, I'm going to write a fantastic song.... now!", it won't happen. Just keep messing and eventually a riff, or a chord progression, or a melody, or a line of lyrics, will appear. If you're lazy like me, that's probably all it'll ever be. If not, it could develop into something good.

BUT: The most vast leap in my songwriting came the moment I bought a loop pedal, and I'm sure anyone else in these parts who has one will agree!

- Ed

i'm just getting a loop pedal myself exactly for this reason. otherwise everything here is quoted for truth. just noodle around until something sticks out and work with it. me and my m8 we just doss with riffs till something gets panned out. and usually its quite good.
pete