pretty cool....warning

[WEBCYAN]

For the past 4 years or so I've been singing a certain way that I seem to be stuck in. It seems like everything I sing has a very indian(dot not feather) vibe to it.

For instance...to make things simple...imagine that a guitar was playing just a drone note on the A string. Just A through the whole thing....well, I would probably find myself singing somthing a vocal melody that if played on guitar would be played on the 4th D string and would start on the 7th fret and progress like this:
7 7 14 14 9 9 10 10/12 10 9 5/7 2 0 2/8 7

A A E E B B C C/D C B G/A E D E/A# A

ive noticed that Alice in Chains does this a bit....not alot, but to some extent. Godsmack as well....but that's due to copying AIC..

Well, I was watching TV today and the video for Incubus's new song "Warning" came on. Their previous 2 singles have just been terrible, but this one was pretty decent. One thing I noticed is that their lead singer(brandon whatever) did some very similar vocal melodies. They had a veery indianesque sound to them. It sounds like the kind of stuff I do...only less pop-rockish..

Does anyone else here seem to be stuck in certain intervals? I do....Everything I do sounds Egyptian or Indian..even on guitar. I want to do somthing different!!!!!! While it does sound cool and gives me a different style it also kind of limits what I can do. But it seems that no matter what I do i cant get out of it....

also...what is it about the sequence of notes i listed above that make it sound "indian"?? I mean, there has to be a reason..i guess.

[joro]

Originally posted by WEBCYAN
Does anyone else here seem to be stuck in certain intervals? I do.....

Oh yeah...for sure brahhh....
I feel ya pain amigo...
sucks ...don't it...
APC, AIC and Tool rule brahh...
I can dig where ya comin' from...
those lame wannabees like "Godsmack" just make me wanna puke brahh...ya know?

yo yo yo...man...you know more than 3 chords?
WOW!
I am so impressed?
so if I play the 7th fret 4th string and mute it...I can be like APC?

Way cool
Thanks man...you da best

[WATYF]

I have the same problem. Whenever I pick up my guitar, my hand invariably falls to the same chord every time. And when I write,... it's usually based on the same chord structures and patterns. It's pretty annoying. I need to take some jazz classes or something to get my brain on a different track.

WATYF

[WEBCYAN]

"so if I play the 7th fret 4th string and mute it...I can be like APC?"

while that was semi funny, the rest is getting old.

[joro]

Originally posted by WEBCYAN

while that was semi funny, the rest is getting old.

I thought I was the old one...
the aged one...
the sage one...
the old fart

[nave]

Webcyan....there is nothing indian or egyptian about those notes......your just playing in a minor key man....If you want to do something different try playing in a different mode or how bout this (brace yourself, cuz I know how you feel about this) Play in a major key for once........yep try a major key....and shut your trap about AIC....and APC and whoever else.....Do you always have to mention a goddamn band in every post.....Why don't you try and find you're own freakin musical identity....that's you're problem....everything you play probably sounds the same because you're brainwashed. Your adulation and audacity for these bands is akin to the fifteen year old girls that are obsessed about boy bands......EXPAND your musical horizens.....try listening to something you wouldn't ordinarily listen to for once.

[area510studios]

yeah.turn off your mind relax and float downstream.
learn to unlearn what you have learned.
turn off the radio.it sucks the creative life out of you.

[charger]

I think a little music theory would do wonders for you. It's not really "Indian," without an incredible amount of study. But it may be phrygian, natural or harmonic minor, or diminished, or any numbe of other possibilities. Now if you learned a little music theory, you could find out waht it is you're doing, and how to do it differently...

...nah, that's way too crazy.

On a side note, isn't it weird that all the bands you listen to can be referred to with three initials starting with A? and that you call all the singers of all these bands by their first names?

[Nate]

You know, Web, the Beatles did some Indian-sounding stuff, too. Maybe you should check some of it out. Try "Rubber Soul", "Revolver" and "Sgt Pepper"

You could really benefit from some basic theory. However, since much of western music theory was developed prior to 1985, it may not be pertinent to you.


It would really make a huge difference in your playing and writing to know some basic scales and chords and how to apply them. You are a college student, right? Does your school have a music department? Any music students you could play with?


Nate

[chazba]

After many years of playing I'm starting to believe that there must be a circulating vibe that pickers can tune into or not. So many times i have had an idea come to me for a lick , a groove, a hook and have one of my pickin buddies play it backto me days or months later as "something that just came to me while I was goofin".
I think that this stuff kinda floats around in the guitar zone and we can tune into it if we spend enough time there. What do you guys think????
chazba

[Scriabin]

Webcyan tends to take it in the ass more than a 3 dollar whore around here...
People, give the kid a break from all the ego raping

Web,
a little music theory would work wonders for you. I know it hurts but you'll thank me in the morning.

[Scriabin]

Originally posted by chazba
After many years of playing I'm starting to believe that there must be a circulating vibe that pickers can tune into or not. So many times i have had an idea come to me for a lick , a groove, a hook and have one of my pickin buddies play it backto me days or months later as "something that just came to me while I was goofin".
I think that this stuff kinda floats around in the guitar zone and we can tune into it if we spend enough time there. What do you guys think????
chazba

I think you need to avoid the brown acid thats floating around...

[nave]

I actually sort of feel what chazba is saying......I've often got the same feeling that songs are just floating around waiting to be picked out of the air. Maybe it's collective unconsciousness thing?....I dunno....


Then again maybe the whole picking of the song out air thing isn't that far fetched.....Sometimes, I think it just the natural experience that comes along with the first hand experience of writing a song......Everyone here who is writing music is part of a long lineage of people that have done the same.....Living in this modern era, we are all exposed to every point of that lineage..From baroque chamber music to present day punk rock...There is no doubt that everything you have ever listened to in your life has spoken to you on a subconscious level(subliminally) and simultaneously has helped to form your own sort of personal songwriting matrix....That said, since we are all products of this particular time period, being exposed to similar things, it would follow that our own personal songwriting matrixes probably wouldn't be all that different relatively speaking....(i.e. when viewed in the grandscope of music as a whole).....What these matrixes are is a manifestation of the current state of the lineage of songwriting......Given all the history of music that has proceeded us, there is probably a natural way for this lineage of songwriting to continue and reform itself....Given that chazba and his friend live in the same society and are exposed to the same types of music it is inevitable that one day they will wind up writing a riff or a song that is very similar if not the same....Perhaps, that reflects the state of this "collective unconsciousness" in the present......Or in other words the current direction of that lineage of songwriting.......So is it a coincidence that someone would write the same song as you?.....I would probably say yah it is....is it the manifestation of collective unconscious?.....I would also say....yah....I think it's a bit of both...


You know what they say about books.....they are the way the dead communicate with the living.....same goes for music

[WATYF]

I think something similar to that also... although, I'm more spiritually inclined, so I would say that real music is more Divinely inspired rather than just a glimpse of some unconscious "energy".

To me.. there are only two types of songs...

Those that should have been written..

And those that never should have ever seen the light of day.

I think inspiration is an external thing... it's not something you can force, or conjure up, or can. It hits.. and if you're ready for it.. then you'll be lucky enough to write something substantial.. but if it doesn't hit you.. then don't waste your time... cause all you're gonna end up doing is writing a song that should have never been...

WATYF

[Peter D]

I'm new to the board and am a non-performing songwriter whose lyric output far exceeds my compositions. I'm constantly dismayed how my melodies sound so much alike no matter how hard I try to come up with different tunes in varying keys and timing. While I've never been crazy about alternate tunings, except for Dropped D, I 've now started using them just to get out of my tune writing rut.

About 30 years ago I wrote what I thought was a really original tune which was a variation of a descending A minor progression. After pitching the song to some local performers they commented (almost in unison), "That sounds just like a Townes Van Zandt tune." At the time I knew who Townes was, but he hadn't really caught on outside of the southwest yet. I liked my song anyway and continued to pitch it to folks until a local folksinger started doing it. Everytime he would come back home after being on the road he would remark how everyone asked him if my song had been written by Townes Van Zandt.

Cut to the chase - About 3 years ago I'm reading a memorial article about Townes in which Steve Earle talks about how all the Texas writers were always concerned about writing songs in minor keys because people thought they were Van Zandt songs.
Earle said they would be at picking parties and would introduce new songs by asking, "Do you think this sounds too much like a Townes song?"

I guess the point is that no matter what a songwriter does to change the way he writes, it's still going to have his "stamp" on it; his/her thumbprint that people will identify with a certain writer. The only thing we can do is hope our thumbprint is unique and good enough to be recognized as ours. Happy Writing!

[detuned6]

Originally posted by WEBCYAN
Does anyone else here seem to be stuck in certain intervals? I do....Everything I do sounds Egyptian or Indian..even on guitar. I want to do somthing different!!!!!! While it does sound cool and gives me a different style it also kind of limits what I can do. But it seems that no matter what I do i cant get out of it....

also...what is it about the sequence of notes i listed above that make it sound "indian"?? I mean, there has to be a reason..i guess.


ohh yeah, sure sometimes i feel than everything i write is based around arabic/ jewish/ middle eastern hemisphere kind of sounds clashed with gg alllen meets country kind of twist. Hmmmm...... ill try your "indian thing" possible it will bring "new light" to my songwritting style. apc, aic, mm,tool rule man (lol)

[cat-eggs]

(dot not feather)...hahaha..

listen, i know what you're talking about. what you should do is this: try playing an instrument that you aren't used to. a piano or accordion, perhaps. You'll stumble accross combinations of notes and chords that sound new and interesting. Then pick up your guitar, smoke a small amount of marijuana, and play, damn you.

[BigPapaFly]

wow...you guys are brutal in this forum...and I though A & R guys were assholes...

[Decrink]

I have been stuck on one note for several years now. Its a good note but that's all I play. Its a note that happens when I play my guitar on the A string on the 11th fret. I've noticed some of my favorite bands like ARU and AVP play it a lot too.
Can anyone help me find another note to play?

Thanks if advance for your help.