I've got tons of riffs and ideas and, when it comes to heavy stuff, I am quite comfortable putting together a song.
Today, however, I came up with a really nice sounding progression of sparsely fingered g major, d major and a minor chords. It sounds really pretty - 2 beats each of g and d, 4 beats of a minor.
Problem is, it's an endless loop. I've got a bass line to put under, and even a cool guitar part to sit on top, but I've tried stuff for an hour now, and I can't work out how to break this cycle in a way that makes sense!
I'll work it out, but I have frustrations like this far too often, which is a shame because some of the stuff I come up with occasionally sounds acceptable!
Comments
I'm going to shower then try again. What's making it harder is I'm sick of pod farm sounding naff unless you spend hours tweaking the shite out of it, so until I have a mic I'm just not going to record. I think hearing it playback will give me a better feel for what would work alongside it.
- Play it on acoustic.
- Play it to someone else and then ask them to sing along and then stop playing. See where they take it.
- Take a chord book and pick some out at random and tag them on the end of what you've got and see how it sounds.
- Play it in a different key or stick a capo on it and play it in a different position; sometimes your fingers will find the next chord without you having to think about it.
Just change wjat you're doing and womething else will come.Okay, so I just tried something different - rather than going from sparse voicings to full bar chords, I've gone from sparse voicing on the a minor, then gone for that classic open d major shape an octave higher than normal. It works, slightly better, but I'm going to find more usable d major shapes I've not considered, then when I've got a mic, record it and let the bass fill in some power chords underneath - so the guitar stays pretty and sparse, while the bass gets the rhythm pumping more.
having the same chords cycle round and round is fine if it sounds right
Thanks for the help guys btw. Wisdoms awarded.
Cliché, but it actually works as what it is.
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
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I'll use dynamics and effects and drums to build tension rather than notes.