Recycling melodic material is a concept that you can apply to many different situations. Here we will see how to change a melodic line and how to adapt this line (with some harmonic knowledge) to other chords.
1) This is our original melodic line, a D minor ‘jazzy’ kind of phrase.
2) The first thing I could do is to lower all the A to Ab so to use the same phrase on Half diminished chords (natural nine adds a really nice color to the phrase)
3) Let’s now change the m3 (F) to M3 (F#), and the m7(C) to Maj7(C#)
4) Let’s try anther one: m3(F) to M3(F#), m7(C) to Maj7(C#), P5 (A)to #5(A#) goes to morph the phrase so that if fits a Dmaj7(#5) chord. Very Modern indeed.
5) Let’s see if you can spot these other examples: Altered dominant & Dim H/W
This lesson about layers is pretty self explanatory…being in HD you can read the layers pretty well in the video, I think. get in touch if you want me to post them on here.
The typical scenario at a pop/rock recording session is trying to come up with some interesting guitar parts that fit the song, but fulfill your creative side as well. The three parts you are usually asked to record are riffs/chords, solos and what I call ‘noises’. These are usually based on a sound or color, to make a track more interesting, or just fill gaps that seem to sound a bit empty. I am paid to record noise after all the time I have spent practicing those scales! Well…it is not always that simple to come up with a good idea for a great ‘noise’ sound so I will give you some tips to make it easier on yourself…
In general it’s all about being creative with the pedals/gear you have in your arsenal. I try to emulate a synth pad most of the times if you have to create a warm background (think: strings). A good way is to feed your guitar signal into a volume pedal, a chorus and a delay with a decently long delay time (800ms?), with not too much feedback and 50% mix. Play some clusters of notes while you work that volume pedal for a nice and slow volume swell. If you listen to Mike Landau or Allan Holdsworth I am sure you know what I am talking about…if not, go and check them out immediately if not sooner!!!
Another idea is going vintage: get out your Leslie simulator pedal of choice and go for it! Usually very distorted short arpeggios with quite a bit of feedback from the amp work well, I find cheap fuzz pedals great for this task…
Basically everything that takes the attack off your guitar will work well: think reverse delay, swell, natural feedback from the amp. Another way to approach it is to water it all down. A good example of this is to run your signal into a short delay (under 100ms, with a lot of feedback and mix up to 100%) then into a nice and large reverb. Move the Delay Time up and down while you play for a very wacky effect!
There is only one mega rule: don’t be afraid to break the rules…put distortion after reverb, delay or whatever you have never tried before…you might have some nice surprises!
If you are playing through an amp with a spring reverb and running short of ideas…just kick the amp! That’s what I call a noise!
A long-ish lesson about power chords. From The basic 1-5 that we should all know, to more contemporary and fuller sounding shapes, as used by contemporary prog rock bands, and more! Just watch, learn, go out and play.
