Do Something Challenge Discussion Thread

[DrewJD82]

 

[TSJMajesty]

Fuck! I just wrote Rocket Man!

Seriously..., I'm noodling around with a crunchy riff, then I turned the volume down, switched to the neck, played an open Gm, figured a C would sound good next..., back and forth for a bit. Then I'm like..., I think the next root note needs to be higher, so I walk it up to an Eb...., next thing ya know, it sounds a bit too familiar!

"Mars ain't the kinda place..."

I hate it when this happens!

 

[DrewJD82]

f**k! I just wrote Rocket Man!

Seriously..., I'm noodling around with a crunchy riff, then I turned the volume down, switched to the neck, played an open Gm, figured a C would sound good next..., back and forth for a bit. Then I'm like..., I think the next root note needs to be higher, so I walk it up to an Eb...., next thing ya know, it sounds a bit too familiar!

"Mars ain't the kinda place..."

I hate it when this happens!

Dude, one night about 10 years ago I'm sitting in my living room playing my JEM unplugged, come along this progression I dig right away, I can hear the drums in my head, a vocal line coming through, grab my phone and make a video of it, text my bass player and guitarist to tell them I just wrote a sick ass section that's going to be killer in a song we were writing, start recording it in Garageband and I realize it's the f*cking "And as we wind on down the road" section of "Stairway To Heaven".

I wasn't wrong, it was a sick ass section, I just didn't write it.

 

[Fireproof]

This has happened to me every time I’ve tried to write a song - it always comes out a rip off of something I’ve heard before. LOL. It’ll be interesting to see if I can actually think of something new for one of these challenges, lol.

 

[duzie]

Well somehow something along this lines of this beginning comes out frequently

 

[TSJMajesty]

Dude, one night about 10 years ago I'm sitting in my living room playing my JEM unplugged, come along this progression I dig right away, I can hear the drums in my head, a vocal line coming through, grab my phone and make a video of it, text my bass player and guitarist to tell them I just wrote a sick ass section that's going to be killer in a song we were writing, start recording it in Garageband and I realize it's the f*cking "And as we wind on down the road" section of "Stairway To Heaven".

I wasn't wrong, it was a sick ass section, I just didn't write it.

I was listening to a song from the 50's, and I thought, Wow, that's the same progression as the verse in Crocodile Rock. Little did I know how oft-used the I-vi-IV-V progression was.

 

[DrewJD82]

This has happened to me every time I’ve tried to write a song - it always comes out a rip off of something I’ve heard before. LOL. It’ll be interesting to see if I can actually think of something new for one of these challenges, lol.

Don't think too hard. Since I'm using a drum track I didn't write, I'm just recording myself improvising riffs over and over, 85% of it is out of time and sloppy as hell, I'm just farming for ideas. Once I land on something cool, I'll track it in it's own track then go back and start farming for more. I'll let the drum track play from start to finish as it also helps memorize all the changes. Most of the MIDI's I posted are pretty basic stuff to not make it a Dream Theater song, but I'd be cautious of going for the thrash metal one.....it's kicking my ass.

And hating everything you come up with is as natural as hating the sound of your voice the first time you hear a recording of it. Second guessing yourself is a killer of enjoyment and progress; you can't know if something sucks until it's finished and chances are, if you think it sucks at the start, you'll do something to make it NOT suck by sticking with it and finishing it.

 

[TSJMajesty]

This has happened to me every time I’ve tried to write a song - it always comes out a rip off of something I’ve heard before. LOL. It’ll be interesting to see if I can actually think of something new for one of these challenges, lol.

So many "common" chord progressions have been used over and over again. Nothing wrong in doing so. The trick is to make it sound fresh.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Or riffing over the Em-C. Oh yeah, that's Pigs (three different ones.)

 

[Fireproof]

Or riffing over the Em-C. Oh yeah, that's Pigs (three different ones.)

Great song, by the way!

 

[TSJMajesty]

I got in a very heated debate with the lead singer in one of my early bands when she claimed "Everything had been done before." Talk about a, "You're-not-gonna-change-my-mind-and-I'm-not-gonna-change-yours" type argument!

 

[PatF]

I want to participate Drew. Thanks for putting it together. I think it is a great idea. It seems like a lot of us have chops and are just stifled by their job and raising families need something like this to get the ball rolling.

Are recycled riffs that were recorded that week allowed?

 

[la szum]

I think we all give Drew the benefit of an initial 1 point advantage. He earned it, didn't he?

He put all this work in, listened to people like me piss and moan about this, that, and the other thing,
and didn't let any of it stop him, or detract from getting this thing off the ground.

All those in favor of Drew getting 1 point for his efforts leading up this 1st week say, "Aye."

Aye!!

 

[la szum]

I got in a very heated debate with the lead singer in one of my early bands when she claimed "Everything had been done before." Talk about a, "You're-not-gonna-change-my-mind-and-I'm-not-gonna-change-yours" type argument!

You were right.

That's like saying. "Every food has been cooked before, so let's never eat again." Or, "People have already done that whole sex
thing since the dawn of time, so why bother?"

Why bother indeed!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Everybody's already talked about everything, so why bother talking?

Get ready for what I'm calling "randomcore"

 

[TSJMajesty]

You were right.

That's like saying. "Every food has been cooked before, so let's never eat again." Or, "People have already done that whole sex
thing since the dawn of time, so why bother?"

Why bother indeed!

I really couldn't believe it. She said the Beatles did everything, and the classical composers of way-back-when took care of everything else. My stance was/is that the combinations are quite literally, endless. And that's even before you start thinking about mixing genres.

Classical prog-funk, anyone?

 

[Whizzinby]

At this point I’m not even focused on writing anything worth a damn, ive got a base track laid down that sounds like something from Donnie & The Daryl’s Camp Spectacular.

Current WTF DAW issue:

• How for the love of Christ can you shorten a take, or overlap a copy of one to it, without it snapping to the grid? It’s snapping either with a small gap between the takes or overlapping too soon on the previous take.

Also how do you guys go about putting down a bass track with a guitar, and it not sounding like raw anus?

 

[Fireproof]

At this point I’m not even focused on writing anything worth a damn, ive got a base track laid down that sounds like something from Donnie & The Daryl’s Camp Spectacular.

Current WTF DAW issue:

• How for the love of Christ can you shorten a take, or overlap a copy of one to it, without it snapping to the grid? It’s snapping either with a small gap between the takes or overlapping too soon on the previous take.

Also how do you guys go about putting down a bass track with a guitar, and it not sounding like raw anus?

Following…

 

[TJontheRoad]

At this point I’m not even focused on writing anything worth a damn, ive got a base track laid down that sounds like something from Donnie & The Daryl’s Camp Spectacular.

Current WTF DAW issue:

• How for the love of Christ can you shorten a take, or overlap a copy of one to it, without it snapping to the grid? It’s snapping either with a small gap between the takes or overlapping too soon on the previous take.

Also how do you guys go about putting down a bass track with a guitar, and it not sounding like raw anus?

Reduce grid level to sample and won't snap to a beat marker. Tip, when recording overlapping takes, use 2 or more tracks for each successive take. Send those track outputs to a common mix bus for additional EQ and other processing.

 

[Whizzinby]

Reduce grid level to sample and won't snap to a beat marker. Tip, when recording overlapping takes, use 2 or more tracks for each successive take. Send those track outputs to a common mix bus for additional EQ and other processing.

Thanks dude. Got it.