We are going to talk about a double stop riff from The Mariás's Ruthless this time.
This riff joins in the song in second verse, with 16th note rhythm and palm muting from the right hand. This kind of riff is really useful for it can fill the space in the song without taking too much frequencies. Let's play it!
If you haven't heard this song, please check it out first! (Cover / Original)
Before we talk about the intro of this song, I believe most of you have heard the theme of 007 series.Did you find that it sounds familiar with this song?
The chord progression of 007 theme is a well-known example for minor line cliche! Line Cliche basically means to move one note of a chord in stepwise to create a motion in static chord progression.
Like in 007 theme, the 5th of Fm moves to #5 and 6.
The song “The Unrecognized” is a similar example.
The song-writer also moves the 5th of Fm, but it moves to #5, b7, 6. While it moves to 6, the chord changes to Bb7, instead of stay in Fm.
It could also be applied to major chord progression. Let’s listen to the 90’s hit Kiss Me as an example.
刷弦的動態是一個重要的音色控制角色。刷弦時，透過位置、範圍、輕重的改變，可以影響音色非常多。一段演奏若是一直維持同樣的演奏動態，聽起來其實會有點枯燥乏味。我在這裡會演奏Wish You Were的前奏片段，請參考原曲，並觀察我的演奏，再用附上的譜例試著演奏看看。也試著將這樣的概念，放到平日的演奏中喔！
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The dynamic of strumming hand is a key role for controlling the tone. The position, range and power of your strumming influences the sound a lot. It is insipid when you keep the same strumming dynamic all the way through. I will play through the rhythm part of the intro of Wish You Were Here. Listen to the original song and take a look at my playing before you try out! Also, put this concept in your own songs!
This time in Techniques from Songs, I am going to use Sufjan Stevens’ Tonya Harding to talk about the way back to one chord.
I don’t want to make it too complicate, so I will try not to use musical terms to explain this. You might feel that there are certain orders in the chord progressions from playing lots of songs, like in the key of C, it usually start from C and after G it goes back to C. If you try to analyze it by writing out all the triads in C and give them a roman numeral in order, you will find out that it’s like a song usually start from the I chord and after V chord, it usually goes back to I chord.
In the key of D it will be D and after A it will goes back to D. But in the end of the intro of this song, it goes back to D after G.
That means you can also go back to I chord after IV chord. It’s actually called “Plagal Cadence” and “the way back to one” can be called “Cadence”. Like I said in the beginning, I don’t want to talk too much about these terms, so you can try to google it be yourself, if you are interested!
Next time when you are writing a song, try to use IV chord to go back to I chord, instead of V chord.
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這次的Techniques from Songs將要用Sufjan Stevens的Tonya Harding，來聊聊如何回到一級和弦。
This time in Techniques From song, we are going to talk about the detail inside the electric guitar riff in Julia Peng’s None of your business.
In the 3rd, 4th beat of the 1st bar and 1st beat of 2nd bar, there are 4 notes which are G#, G#, D#, D#. The guitarist slides into the 1st and 4th note, which gives the same note different feel.
The group of notes in the 4th beat of the 2nd bar can be deemed ornament. It is like an auxiliary word, which doesn’t really mean something. It’s alright to not play those notes, but it really feels different if you do so.
There is a G note in the 2nd beat of the 4th bar, a note that is not in the key of E. After previous two defending note, the guitarist went one more half step to G. In a C#7 chord, it is a b5 and forms a augmented chord with the following D# and B note.
Try to follow the chart and listen to the fill one more time, to see if you can notice these thing! Also, try it out with the loop in the video.
This time in Techniques From Songs, we are going to talk about the expression of bending.
Bending is a very “guitar” technique, which conveys a player’s playing character.
It isn’t only a technique pushing strings upward, but also relates to how high you bend, how fast you bend, what you are going to do when you reach the pitch. Releasing the string is another thing, where you are releasing to, how fast you release. You can also combine bending with other techniques into a combo. In sum, bending is a really expressive technique.
First, he bends in half note, whole note and one whole and half note. That is the most commonly used bending range.
Second, his vibrato after reaching the pitch is very distinctive.
Last, there are a lot of combos.
We didn't talk much about "speed" this time, the speed of bending and releasing.
Although there are many possibilities, let's stop at here for now. Since now we know there are different aspects about bending, next time when you are practicing, try to focus more on these details!
I’ve made a guitar backing cover for this song, check it out if you are interested.
This lick appears in the 3rd beat of 3rd bar in the intro. It is a lick in A˚/D going to Gma7.
This lick plays double stop in A diminished scale. Since it lasts only 2 beats, I utilize the character that diminished can be shift in minor 3rd and play the lick again in higher position to make it a 1 bar lick.
Although I still put A˚/D on the paper, it actually suit to A˚7 and you can resolve to any chord A˚7 may goes to.
Welcome to Soulless Project, this time in techniques from songs, we are going to use St. Vincent’s Happy Birthday, Johnny as a example to talk about melody line in bVII.
In the A section, most of the chords are in the key of Bb, except Ab, which is bVII in this key. There are different ways to write melody when you encounter this kind of borrowed chord. So let’s look at the A section to see how St. Vincent deals with it.
The notes in the 3rd and 4th bars are Bb, C, D,and F. The same group of notes as in 1st and 2nd bars. But the difference is, in first two bars, this group of notes sounds like normal major scale, while in 3rd and 4th bars, this group of notes sounds more Lydian with the Ab chord being played.
You can deem the melody line using the major pentatonic scale of 2nd degree of Ab. Even more the major pentatonic scale of the 5th degree of Eb, since Ab Lydian is the 4th mode of Eb major.
So, now we know that, when we encounter bVii chord in a progression, we can just use the major pentatonic of the I to create some Lydian flavor.
If you are interested in using different pentatonic scale in the same chord, you can check out the video I made before to try out more. Otherwise, I will loop the A section for you, when you encounter the Ab chord try to use Bb major pentatonic to create some interesting lines!
This time in Techniques From Songs, we are going to talk about the application of Minor Scale in 4th from the solo of this song.
This is the 2nd to the last bar of the solo part.
The whole song is in the key of E, but in here the guitar player use E minor Pentatonic scale to match the G chord. The E major feel doesn't come back until the B chord.
In this measure, the note are basically moving in 4th. although we can deem it a cliche of minor pentatonic scale solo, we can apply the concept into a natural minor scales, like 1-4, 2-4, b3-b6... etc.
So if we put it into a whole pattern, it will be like this:
You can try to apply the scale in 4th concept to different patterns, positions, and keys. Also, use it in your own solo. I will keep a loop that sounds like the last two bars of the solo, try it yourself!
This time in Techniques form Songs, we are going to look at minor pentatonic riff in a major song. Our example is Long Gone by Phum Viphurit.
This song is in G major and the main riff sounds like this.
The main riff is basically in G major and it feels like he is playing B minor pentatonic shape in mind. Although I cannot really prove that, it is actually a concept that widely used. We can use minor pentatonic scales of 2nd, 3rd, and 6th degree from the key center to come up a riff for the song.
In here, we can use A minor pentatonic, B minor pentatonic, and E minor pentatonic to create a rill in this G major song. You can write out all the notes of these minor pentatonic scales, and you will find that all the note are in G major.
In the video, I will shift to A and E minor Pentatonic scale, and use similar rhythm and fingering to fill in the same progression.
I will keep the backing loops for a while, try this concept yourself!
在我所Cover的Jassie Ware - Midight中，我在副歌時和弦大多的延續長度是八分音符。這裡需要注意的地方是，一個音符的長度其實相當重要。它可能因為不同的長度，而影響律動和情緒。所以影片中會用Midnight的副歌來做示範，以四種不同的音符長度來演奏，分別是斷音、十六分音符、八分音符、附點八分音符，看看有什麼不同的感覺。
This time in Techniques From Songs, we are going to talk about "Note Length". We will still using Jessie Ware's Midnight as example.
In my cover of Midnight, I play the chords mostly in 8th note. What we have to think about is that the length of a note so really important that it will affect the grooving and emotion of a song. So in this video, I am going to play the chorus of midnight in 4 different kinds of note length, Staccato, 16th, 8th, and dotted 8th, to compare the feel of different note lengths.
I believe we can all feel some differences in different note lengths, so remember to consider about this when you are trying to compose a rhythm next time.
