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Shredder
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- 2,211
So been on a bit of a writing roll recently which has been AWESOME as I was in a rut for basically years. I don't even feel fully out of it, but just getting from start to finish on a song feels like an achievement. There's LOADS more stuff I'd tweak musically and arrangement wise with these, but I'm also happy to draw a line under them until/if there is vocals (so the parts can work around that).
For anyone who cares, here's what "unlocked" the writing for me:
- I'll go onto Splice (can be any source of loops that you like) and just listen to totally random loops. It could be percussion, carribean R&B, funk, whatever. Just something that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the music I'm trying to write, but that catches my ear because of the rhythm. They establish SOME kind of rhythmic boundries/emphasis, and even sometimes some subtle harmonic information on what notes are going to work. I'll find 5 or so of these loops and drag them into an empty session.
- I'll loop the loops* indefinitely and just jam riffs over them. Often I'll set myself a little challenge if I have half an hour or whatever spare just to write 10 before moving on. Sometimes I'll do more, but its always just write as much as I can. If I'm feeling confident with whats there, I'll loosely try to cover different ways of playing guitar - single notes, chord based stuff, clean, palm mutey etc. Because the underlying loop has a strong groove emphasis, all the riffs kind of sit together nicely and have a hidden thread.
- Once I feel like there's a good amount, I'll sift through the riffs and make a small mental note of what riffs I like and whether I can envisage them as intro/verse/chorus/whatever riffs. I'll drag the best/most useable ones to another part of the session so they're together and the filler is out of the way.
- From there, I'll start dragging them around and seeing what flows together. Sometimes I'll chop bits of different riffs together and combine them. Its usually pretty easy to get some structure going that makes sense and flows.
- while I'm doing that, I'll also sift through Superior Drummer's MIDI loops and find stuff that works with the riffs. I'll tweak kicks and snares so they slot in nicely. These totally replace the loops I wrote with.
- Some riffs might evolve a bit, or I might come up with little transition bits or swap the odd chord around to make it fit.
- re-record the guitars with more focus on trying to play them well.
- _____________
- profit?
Here's one I just did today:
https://samply.app/p/S5ml0xg7YmvziK0rEQed
I don't really have any emotional attachment to it musically, and I have no idea why I'm doing this style at the moment. But I'm just happy to get ideas down, each one is always a step in the right direction and you always learn something new along the journey. Its just like exercising where its good to stay fresh and up to speed.
For anyone who cares, here's what "unlocked" the writing for me:
- I'll go onto Splice (can be any source of loops that you like) and just listen to totally random loops. It could be percussion, carribean R&B, funk, whatever. Just something that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the music I'm trying to write, but that catches my ear because of the rhythm. They establish SOME kind of rhythmic boundries/emphasis, and even sometimes some subtle harmonic information on what notes are going to work. I'll find 5 or so of these loops and drag them into an empty session.
- I'll loop the loops* indefinitely and just jam riffs over them. Often I'll set myself a little challenge if I have half an hour or whatever spare just to write 10 before moving on. Sometimes I'll do more, but its always just write as much as I can. If I'm feeling confident with whats there, I'll loosely try to cover different ways of playing guitar - single notes, chord based stuff, clean, palm mutey etc. Because the underlying loop has a strong groove emphasis, all the riffs kind of sit together nicely and have a hidden thread.
- Once I feel like there's a good amount, I'll sift through the riffs and make a small mental note of what riffs I like and whether I can envisage them as intro/verse/chorus/whatever riffs. I'll drag the best/most useable ones to another part of the session so they're together and the filler is out of the way.
- From there, I'll start dragging them around and seeing what flows together. Sometimes I'll chop bits of different riffs together and combine them. Its usually pretty easy to get some structure going that makes sense and flows.
- while I'm doing that, I'll also sift through Superior Drummer's MIDI loops and find stuff that works with the riffs. I'll tweak kicks and snares so they slot in nicely. These totally replace the loops I wrote with.
- Some riffs might evolve a bit, or I might come up with little transition bits or swap the odd chord around to make it fit.
- re-record the guitars with more focus on trying to play them well.
- _____________
- profit?
Here's one I just did today:
https://samply.app/p/S5ml0xg7YmvziK0rEQed
I don't really have any emotional attachment to it musically, and I have no idea why I'm doing this style at the moment. But I'm just happy to get ideas down, each one is always a step in the right direction and you always learn something new along the journey. Its just like exercising where its good to stay fresh and up to speed.
