Synthesizer and electronic music news, synth and music software reviews and more! 20 Tips On Songwriting Every songwriter goes through times when the inspiration just seems to dry up, and the perspiration doesn't seem to be working. Debbie Poyser offers some guidance. Songwriting is a skill that is rarely taught: musicians more often than not tend to write instinctively, absorbing their ideas about form and structure from the music that's around them, and relying on inspiration for their melodic and lyrical direction. For many this works perfectly well, but there's no harm at all in trying to make a good thing better. You can improve your craft as a songwriter relatively easily if you accept that your work isn't just the result of some mystical process over which you have no control: certainly you need some talent to begin with, but you can hone your songwriting skills just as you can work on your playing or mixing skills. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
Writing Songs : Harmonic Movement : How Music Works In the previous topic, we created a harmonic backing for a melody using the related chords of the melody's scale. You may have wondered how we decided to arrange them in a progression, since there are so many combinations we could have chosen. In general, you will be relying heavily on your ear to decide which chords work well with the melody, and what order they should be arranged in. As you listen to harmonic movement, it may help to imagine a 'shape' to the music, feeling the tension varying with each chord change, up to the satisfing release (or resolving) of tension with the last chord. There are many common harmonic movements from one related chord to another that occur often in music. We will express all of these movements in roman numeral notation to help you transpose them to any key, but an example for each will also be given in the key of C. Here's another example progression with the I and V chords. The next most important chord after the I and V is the IV.
Critical and Creative Thinking - Critical Thinking WHAT is it? – Critical Thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do. This definition does not exclude creative thinking. WHO is it for? – Any person in any profession or any circumstance of life can practice critical thinking. Critical Thinking Dispositions Seek a clear statement of the thesis or questionSeek reasonsTry to be well informedUse and mention credible sourcesTake into account the total situationTry to remain relevant to the main pointKeep in mind the original and/or basic concernLook for alternativesBe open minded: a. Tendencies toward distinct patterns of thinking behaviors (See graphic 2)Disposition to be curious and questioningDisposition to think broadly and adventurouslyDisposition to reason clearly and carefullyDisposition to organize one’s thinkingDisposition to give thinking time Critical Thinking Abilities Associated Pages (Original page based on compilation by Mary Frangie)
40 Helpful Links for Guitar Players I'm doing my best do save you some room in your bookmarks tab on your browser by compiling the 40 most helpful links and websites I've ever come across for guitar players. These aren't just gear or lesson sites, but sites that I've found to be helpful in other ways that I wouldn't have initially expected. So I'm passing the knowledge on to you. If you play guitar, every link on this page will be worth checking out or at least keeping handy for future use. I've included a quick explanation beside each link. 1. If you ever want to record guitar on your computer this is a free piece of software that will allow you to record any stream coming into your sound card. 2. Ceaser Huesca is a guy who got his start on YouTube and provides some of the most inspiring covers available. 3. Ever curious what kind of gear your favorite guitarist is using? 4. Here you'll find curated deals and bargains on guitar gear from reputable websites (none of the shady operations), updated every week day. 5. 6. 7. 8.
I analyzed the chords to 1300 songs for patterns. This is what I found. (Part 3) Interactive Discovery | Blog – Hooktheory Last year, we discussed the first results of a long term effort to study the patterns found in the chords of popular songs. The reception that we got was incredibly positive, and we received a ton of great feedback. The two most common questions we’ve gotten from people have been: “I really like the sound of chords X Y Z together. What other songs use this same progression?““After I’ve written a few chords that sound good together, I need help knowing what a good next chord might be. Our answer: Hooktheory Trends Our crowdsourced database is uniquely suited to answer these questions because it contains the harmonic data of songs indexed in a way that makes it easy to perform this type of analysis. Hooktheory is experiencing VERY high traffic as a result of this article. Mirror 1 Mirror 2 How Trends Works When you open Trends, you will see the most commonly used chords in the key of C. Click a song to highlight where it uses the chords. Get started using Trends by clicking here!
Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Reviews Guitar Technique and Warm Up Exercises with Tabs Here are some technique and warm up exercises that can help you to gain fluency, speed and accuracy on the guitar neck. It's a good idea to do some of these exercises every day. Don't do them too long at a time, it's better to exercise regularly (daily) for a short time. You gain the most out of these exercises if you use a metronome. Just to make sure we understand eachother in terms of finger naming (warning: the numbers on the tabs below are not finger numbers, but fret numbers): Click Here To Download Your Free Jazz Guitar eBook Warm Up Exercises This first exercise helps to develop your fluency, speed and left hand-right hand coordination. The next exercise trains your individual fingers. String Skipping Exercises The following set of exercises train your picking abilities. This is one of bass player John Patitucci (if I remember it well). The next exercise uses the G major scale. Intervalic Guitar Scales The next set of exercises run through the G Ionian scale in different intervals.
The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Blog Zoom.it Know Every Note on the Guitar in 9 Days Knowing every note on the guitar is a challenge unique to the instrument. A saxophone has only one way to finger each note, while a guitar usually has a few different strings and four fingers to choose from. String a few notes together and the permutations of how to play them will wreck your brain. The challenge with navigating the guitar fretboard is its two-dimensional layout. Why Know the Whole Fretboard? If you don’t know every single note on the guitar cold, without hesitation, then I highly recommend taking a little time to get that under your belt. The primary advantage to knowing every note on the fretboard is in creation. If you haven’t started playing yet, come back to this after you’ve learned some music. Day 1: Open Strings From low to high (in pitch), thickest to thinnest, ceiling to floor:E A D G B E Know your open strings like you know your alphabet. Day 2: Structure of the C Major Scale The C major scale is the only major scale without any sharps or flats. Conclusion
Arrangement Tips and Tricks: Fills and Transitions Twice a month we revisit some of our reader favorite posts from throughout the history of Audiotuts+. This tutorial was first published in March 2010. Even the best track can be let down by bad arrangement. Let things slide in this area and you're in danger of losing your listeners' interest. Often getting things right in this area is down to lots of small touches. It really is all in the detail. One area that is hugely important is creating interesting transitions and using varying fills when introducing new elements. Step 1: The Basic Drop For the purpose of this tutorial I have mocked up a small dummy arrangement showing the transition between a few different sections of a hypothetical track. In each step of the tutorial we'll look at different techniques for creating varied and interesting fills. First up let's take a look at perhaps the most simple method for moving between sections in your track, the drop. The basic drop. Automation is also added to compliment the edit. ... ...