The Musing Composer: #2 Sad Dark n Sweet

Saturday, November 6, 2010

#2 Sad Dark n Sweet

The Feeling:
   Title says it all.

Inspiration:
   Chord experiment, VHDBL soundtrack

Technical:
   This came together in Cubase 5 solely on the idea of taking an inverted FM (my notation for F major), down to Dm (minor), where that low D would just plow through with its mighty D-ness. The following CM and Em walked the key into sharps territory, paving a nice chromatic scale (C,B,Bb) back to the staring FM.

   The top keyboard gave a daring Bb to the 3rd CM chord, making a creepier push into the top B for the Em. As it repeats, a mid line emerges for harmonies, followed by the bass outlining the chords in arpeggios.

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Site Dictionary

I feel it may be necessary to define the terms I will use most often in my posts that may not make sense to non-composers...or anyone for that matter, so here it goes.

My notation:

F# - F sharp

Eb - E flat

Dn - D natural

1. the key of C Major

2. a C Major chord, with any combination in any octave of C's, E's, and G's

Cm - same as above, but either the key of C minor, or a Cm chord with C, Eb, and G

0:15 - the time I'm referring to in the posted video

4/4, 15/8, etc - the time signature of whatever measure

4th, 7th, etc - the interval between the note I'm talking about and the previous note I mentioned, or the root of the chord that's presented

*note - "8th" refers to an eighth note, I'll say "octave" to refer to that interval, it's just easier to type

half, quarter, 8th, 16th, etc - note duration

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Writing Styles:

Visual writing - writing by manually adding midi notes one by one to a computer program (Finale, Guitar Pro, or Cubase midi editor)

Manual writing - an offshoot of visual writing where the song in progress is played back many many times and notes are slightly adjusted or added each time (this can get frustrating when the song sometimes just doesn't get better, but does work well at times)

Heard in my Head writing - I can hear the idea I want (or have never heard before) in my head, and with perfect pitch can internally tab out what I'm hearing and just write it down on paper or into a program (this usually makes the best songs)

Jamming - here I have the guitar in my hands and I'll just "riff around" randomly, until an idea is played. Usually the idea is developed for a few days kept in my memory before it is written down (translating an early jam idea directly to visual writing can completely skew what I had and I'll never get it back)

Recorded jamming - the guitar is plugged into the mini recording studio and I record into Cubase. These takes are usually done in one shot and puts pressure on to use whatever randomly comes out (which produces unexpected and very natural groove feeling results)

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Equipment

For those interested, here's a list of the equipment I have to make this magic:

Writing Programs:

Cubase 5, Gutiar Pro 6,

Finale NotePad 2008

Guitars/Tuning:

Fender Strat Squire

A D G C E A

Schecter Omen 7

B E A D G B E

B.C. Rich wave

C F Bb Eb G C

Jay Turser Hawk 12

E e A a D d G g B B E E

Music Man Petrucci 7

B E A D G B E

Agile Intrepid 828 MN

F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb

Agile Multiscale Pendulum 62527

F C G D A E ("violin" tuning)

Pedals:

DigiTech RP-1000

Recording:

Tascam US-122L mini studio

Tascam DM-3200 mega studio

Condenser mic, Dynamic mic

Drum kit:

Double combo electric kit - Lloyd Audio LA-7000 plus an Alesis DM6 with a Roland TD-3 drum brain

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Saturday, November 6, 2010

#2 Sad Dark n Sweet

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