Guitar Gear Forum

I've been trying to record something for the drumjam I just posted. I have the overall riffs/chunk together. But I am having a problem with keeping things consistent take to take. For example, if I record a particular riff and dislike the feel or make a mistake, I am having a hard time playing the same way the next time through.

So how are you writing/charting stuff out? Tab? Or do you have your own coded method?

Also, I am finally catching on to using multi-tracking. Took me a while. But I am dense.

Charting out?

WAT

Is notate a better choice of words?

I have honestly never written a single note of what I "write" when it comes to music. Well, except when I was in orchestra and forced to. Turns play time into work time and fuck that. I'll MIDI Map drums because I have to, but I just like playing the guitar.

I say this in all seriousness, I have an uncanny ability to play everything 99.6% accurately from take to take. Even if it is something I just came up with. Same thing with "off the cuff" leads. If it ends up being a keeper track, I can usually nail it every time after that.

JerEvil wrote:I say this in all seriousness, I have an uncanny ability to play everything 99.6% accurately from take to take. Even if it is something I just came up with. Same thing with "off the cuff" leads. If it ends up being a keeper track, I can usually nail it every time after that.

Yeah, that.

I will say there are things I hear in my head that take me a while to work out once I get a guitar in my hands, but once it is worked out, that's it. It's permanent.

nightflameauto wrote:

JerEvil wrote:I say this in all seriousness, I have an uncanny ability to play everything 99.6% accurately from take to take. Even if it is something I just came up with. Same thing with "off the cuff" leads. If it ends up being a keeper track, I can usually nail it every time after that.

Yeah, that.

I will say there are things I hear in my head that take me a while to work out once I get a guitar in my hands, but once it is worked out, that's it. It's permanent.

Reading back, I worded this all wrong. I can play a riff again and again. What I am struggle with is blocking things out into a structure.

RiffA=8X

RiffB=6X

Etc......

I'm realizing a lot of this will be dependent on what I program the drums to do too. So I figure they will have to evolve together. The small details of a particular riff aren't a problem. Once I commit it to memory, it's there.

I'm getting hung up on song structure.

Memory. If I forget I'll just listen to the take again and figure out what I played. I do the same just for writing and general ideas -- record random rough takes. If I listen to them again even months later I can figure out what I played 99% of the time.

I only notated my riffs and leads when I was writing ensemble pieces for teen bands when I was a teacher at The Boys and Girls Club. That was when I was at the height of my knowledge of theory and was most apt at reading music. So much of my day was spent with instruments in hand or staff paper and pencil and my mind was on point.

Fast forward years later through life, kids, wives and drama etc., and I'm so fucking out of practice and practically illiterate all over again.

But anyway, I only chart arrangements at this point and I do so by indicating how many bars per section, with notations of when lines change, bass kicks in, drum fill etc. No actual riffs or lines notated.

Charting Arrangements.

Thank you, those are the exact words I am looking for.

TurboPablo wrote:Charting Arrangements.

Thank you, those are the exact words I am looking for.

I'm not always a complete idiot. I occasionally contribute something valuable to GAB.

TurboPablo wrote:Charting Arrangements.

Thank you, those are the exact words I am looking for.

Hmmm … I actually try to have that established before tracking. Generally I'll have the riffs, then right down on a piece of paper and play it through to a click and see how it feels, like if parts feel too long, and all. Outside of that, I am like the Beatles/KISS.

Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, chorus out

I store it in my lil brain

Alright, this is from the drumjam I posted that nobody is downloading.

Anyway, once I started recording, I realized the count on the drums was a bit fubar. Kind of hard for me to tell when it's just a beat in EZDrummer. Finr for a scratch drumjam, not good if I were to try and actually make a song. Now that it has a track over it, regardless of the velveeta factor of the riff, I can hear that the slow dirgey part needs to stretch out more. It's this kind of blocking/arrangement stuff that I need to work on.

https://soundcloud.com/heezzies/drumjam-3-vintage-modern-kit-bassmanratlpc

So that's what I am asking, how do you guys arrange your stuff?

JerEvil wrote:

TurboPablo wrote:Charting Arrangements.

Thank you, those are the exact words I am looking for.

Hmmm … I actually try to have that established before tracking. Generally I'll have the riffs, then right down on a piece of paper and play it through to a click and see how it feels, like if parts feel too long, and all. Outside of that, I am like the Beatles/KISS.

Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, chorus out

Ok, thank you. This is what I am after.

I was expecting you to be all "I just play it and it comes out perfect "

Arrangements get "charted" when I start recording. If it feels wrong after drums and a scratch guitar track, that's the time to start slapping around the arrangement. A lot of tunes are hashed out as I write the drum parts and play along with them. Sometimes I'll go back, dump the scratch track and rearrange the drums after, but most of the time if it feels right as it's coming together it stays that way.

Before I had a decent recording setup the closest I came to charting was writing out lyrics as I was writing the song and letting them remind me of the structure.

Only thing I ever chart out is structure and that is usually for other bandmates so they can grasp my genius.

I do chord charts for riffs and chord progressions.. My solos or single note lines I actually write in standard musical notation, which is super easy for me, since I learned to read music before I learned my ABCs.

I actually read/write better than I play.

1. I play the main guitar theme over the drums, and hope it's good.
2. I play my overdubs, and have to stop and redo them to make stuff fit.

I don't really chart anything, I guess. I just play 4 or 8 of any given part, and then go to a different one.

I record a rough guitar track for the song at the correct tempo to a click track, program drums to that rough guitar track and then re-record final guitar tracks to the drum track.

Back in the old days when I actually wrote songs I would do something like this:

riff 1 x 2.

riff 2 x 2.

bridge x 1

riff 2 x 2

riff 1 x 2

middle section

solo



Now I just do drum jams. If I'm having trouble remembering when a riff cuts in or out, I just record that riff all the way through the song on a separate track(s), then pull up the fader as needed. Or down. A lot of times the riff doesn't even fit the drums when I force it over an entire drum jam, but there are some unexpected instances when it does. And when that happens, it rocks.

honestly, if i wrote it, or am writing it, i'll just record it- and if i need to, recording it clean and slow or multiple times. i haven't found any notation to trump just hearing something! most times if i write crap, i never think like 'riff a' or whatever.. and even if i do, the transitions are generally where things go wonkadoodle anyhow-- so it's just easier to piece together by ear.