How to analyze modern alternative and metal? And good songs I should analyze?

Branithar

New member
I've been playing around with metal scales and arpeggios on my keyboard and getting my mini-projects a lot closer to the impressive demos I've heard on the VST websites (and close enough for friends to be surprised it ain't the real thing), but there's a lot more to rock than breakneck scales.

Since I've been a classical pianist all my life and didn't really need much ear to play the right notes, I've been focusing on working completely by ear, making my own cover songs of stuff by Red Hot Chili Peppers and Blink 182 and Train 'n' stuff (of course I'm not trying to make money off of them or put them on Youtube). A friend of mine gave me the advice to take rock songs and stay away from the music notation and not make a carbon copy of a song, but try to make it sound different. It's more rewarding than just getting a guitar/bass/drum book and copying it note-for-note.

So...a couple friends are working on a dram-com pet project film, and they want a pop-rock sound, maybe with some strings. So I should work at analyzing some of the alternative and pop-rock hits, so I can maybe make something of my own. Any tips on how to analyze the genre, and songs I should analyze?
 
Yep - I suspect that analysing is the wrong thing to do. The important thing is understanding and getting the 'feel'. Analysis is great for writing a book, not useful that much for composing in a style.
 
Alternative rock has a large collection of subgenres, as all rock does, but alt rock can sound extremely different. Usually metal will be metal, uf we compare modern metal songs to other modern metal songs, but alterntive rock has many forms that diversify the sound quite bit.
 
Back
Top