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I'll give you 3 guesses...
1) I, like, you know, play with sounds, and like, you know, play some stuff, and like, move the notes around until they just sound right, and i REALLLLLL-Y feel it, man... you know ? But, you gotta be a natural, you know? You either have it or you don't...
2) Drink a 6 pack, snort a line of high grade brazilian coke, and smoke a serious fattie of purple humboldt... then get naked, soak myself in a proprietary mixture of calf and goats blood, and proceed to channel the spirit of Segovia...
3) I use a surprisingly small amount of basic theory, and am actually amazed myself at how FEW things are in my "bag of tricks"
Editor's note: the smart money is on #3..... LMAO
All kidding aside, this is how it was constructed...
a) The entire piece is in C minor pentatonic scale with the "E" added as well as the Eb normally in the scale...
b) I was fooling around with 1/16th note "sweeps"... arpeggios, broken chords, and short partial scale runs. Once the basic half measure of it had the right sound I liked, I arranged them using (I, IV and V) choices only, one after another, until i liked the pattern of them. 6 of these perfectly filled up 3 measures. Thats in the "upper octave" (the IV and V "graze" the next octave... but not in the tonic sweep, only when transposed) basically b) and C) form just a double matched set of 3-voice-canons...the 2 sets of canons move in and out of unison, and in and out of various harmonies to create th effect...
c) since I knew I could finally "strum" simultaneously while I "sweeped", and grew up hearing Yngwie Malmsteen do it "ad nauseum"... I experimented with various chords and partial chords in syncopated "fan picking" (fan strumming? lol) under each half measure "voice" of sweeping. This occurs one octave below the sweeping octave.
d) in practicality, a classical guitarist would play this by arpeggiating 16ths rapidly with his left hand on the lower 3strings of a 7-string guitar, and with his right hand on the upper four strings, "finger pick" the chords. (EDIT: note that these upper (thicker...) "strum strings" would have to be previously tuned to the proper notes you needed, as you wont have a left hand to hit frets...) here, youd need a C, E, F, and
G natural... since most guitars have EADG normal tuning, I'd keep the E and G and tune the other 2? on a 6 string this would leave 2 lower (highr...) strings the do all the arpeggiating in, tho... I think a 7 string would give you more leeway at that, so your arpeg hand wouldnt have to travel so much) EDIT: since your right hand is doing chords "solo" you have to use your fingertips, as 1 note of every chord is fanned while the oth(s) remain constant thru a single block.
e) the chord(s) under the sweeps, ended up thusly, after experimentation... 3 of the 6 sweep blocks are in tonic, and have a matching major under them (IE, the 3 C/Cm sweeps have a C major played under them in unison). BUT, the tonic of the chord isnt constant, its fan-picked in a syncopated rhythm, although the 3rd and 5th are sounded just once long.
f) 2 of the the 3 remaining sweep blocks are in IV. They share the same lower octave chord... tonic C constant root note, with a syncopated note above it. I dont know the name of it, but, its basically a power chord with the upper note lowed a full tone. note that the tonic is now constant with the remainder of the partial chord fanned.
g) this leaves the single V sweep block... its lower octave chord is constant tonic, constant third, and slower-fanned 5th
h) this all creates a "give and go" of fast harmonic interaction.
i) this was th basic melody (motive?) it was based on, and it all occurs in 2 octaves, 3 measures long. 4/4 time @ 120 BPM.
j) I do the 3 measure "sweeping" twice, once without the fan strumming, and once with it, making 6 measures total.
k) after I had this major thematic element developed... I needed somethign to break it up. Constant arpeggiating gets aggravating otherwise...I noodled with 1/16th sweeps (c to c to c...) and interspersed them with whole, half, and quarter notes to create suspensions, and syncopated "passing chords" and "partial chords". EDIT: I might not be using these 2 terms properly... byt partial and passing chords, I mean chords and partial chords just HAPPEN to occur thru the sweeps passing each other as one rises, falls, or a long suspended tone sits... I would have used th term "accidental chords" but accidental means somethign else I think, and wouldn't want to use the wrong term. (wink!)
l) this forms the rest of what you hear inbetween the 6-measure-long sweep blocks... BUT, you hear it standard, retrograde, inversion, retrograde-inverted, etc etc at different times. (this basic motive is also 3 measures long)
m) this all sounds terribly like I am TRYING to sound pretentious, but I'm really not... if you were sitting here beside me, you could easily see what it is, and how little theory is involved in its construction. In reality, its just a 3 measure block of one handed arpeggios, a 3 measure block of strumming with one of the notes of the "chord" fan picked at all times in a syncopated rhythm, and a single melody that gets used with "variations of a single motive". The rest is just cut and paste arranging.
n) hope this is clearer than mud. Done very slowly, and in individual components/blocks... it would actually sound quite childlike in its simplicity, IE twinkle-twinkle easy... but at speed, with arpeggiating and syncopated weird strumming, you'd have to play it at VERY slow speeds in individual blocks, slowly bringing your speed up until you hit 120BPM.
o) the only mixing is a light compression with a slight boost, and some reverb.
p) Ironically, setting the reverb perfectly took longer than the whole tracks constrution start to finish... too much, it gets muddy quck. Too little, and it sounds harsh. "room size/reflections" tweaking interacts with the other 2 somehow (and I dont understand exactly how, LMAO) so I had to "tweak" slowly. My ears were seriously fatigued by this point, so I couldn't hear sh!t by then, LMAO... the last couple hours went like this... listen at top volume, listen at low volume, listen everywhere inbetween.. and tweak-tweak-tweak the reverb settings, LMAO, trying to make it sound decent at low/mid/hi volumes, and stereo/mono...then I had to sit and smoke cigs and drink coffee until my hearing settled down, and repeat this a zillion times until it was perfect (I have like "zero" mixing skills, I think a pro would have had this part done in 10 seconds, LMAO) I also cant EQ my way out of a wet paper bag, so I just ignore EQ on the basic enginering philosophy that if you dont know exactly what your doing, dont touch it.
again, I iterate... if you were sitting next to me, looking at the screen, you would instantly see how it was put together, a picture's worth a thousand words and al that rot.
PS - I almost forgot th most imprtant thingy... since I dont happen to be the bastard love child of Eric "Cliffs of Dover" Johnston and Yngwie "Trilogy" Malmsteen, I let the computer play it, LMAO. At times like this, I just know Beethoven once in a while said "F()ck this, I just compose it, some other poor b@stard has to learn to play it..." LMAO
PPS it is ironically interesting to note that in classical guitar, a LOT of the fastest best sounding stuff is actually quite simple as far as which notes are picked... (IE, most of it is just chord notes, not even scale notes) its just the speed and precision that takes years to develop... and the fact that often the left hand and right hand are doing separate things (here, you cant even use a pick with your "strum hand" since one note of every chord is fanned... you would pull 2 strings simultaneously, and while they ring out, you would "twiddle" the remaining finger in a syncopated rhythm... brush the pinky edge of your palm against the strum strings, then move onto the next strum block...)
PPPS - it is doubly ironic that I play no instruments other than drums. Oh, I can read proper sheet music, and identify the keys on the piano, and point to which key relates to which string/fret... but I have no dexterity to actually PLAY keyboard or guitar, nor anythign else. 4 or 5 years ago I started reading theory, LMAO. *shrugs* It dawned on me one day that if I could pick the proper notes (compose...) the computer would play whatever my mind could comprehend, theory wise. (being more or less a polymath probably helps out in this pursuit, if i had to guess, eh? LMAO, I am SUCH a pretentious shlt, ain't I? hee hee)
to me, learning to compose is an intellectual diversion, a crossword puzzle to be solved, basically (If I dont have somethign to DO, I get fidgety and cant sleep for days) other than the inherent satisfaction of solving ever-more-complex crossword puzzles (which is rewarding enuogh in its own right, to me) I figure if I ever hit a certain "point", I can just work at home, on the computer, in my boxers, at my own hours. But, I figure I'll never GET there, so, its a fun hobby besides.
some of my other hobbies are (HAM radio, electronics, Benchrest shooting and precision reloading, and general engine repair/tinkering, submission grappling, drinking caffeine in any form I can get it into me, LMAO) Personally, I view music as nothing more than simple set theory, th more I learn about it.
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