Composing

Writing your own songs – riffs, arrangements, scales, harmonies, notation.

2011-04-15

Songs That Sound Like Other Songs

When I come up with an amazing riff, I pull out my phone and record it immediately using SoundCloud (I hum or sing or something) and then I map them out on the fretboard when I have more time. Frighteningly often I realize it’s a Metallica riff I’ve hummed :-/ At least I’m not alone:

2011-04-12

Progression – a Tab Authoring App for the iPad

Progression is a competitor of Guitar Pro for authoring guitar tabs for MacOS and Windows. And now an iPad version has been released! Having tried it out I have to say it is a much simpler alternative than working with tab notation i Guitar Pro on a computer (especially Guitar Pro 6 which is a bloated […]

2011-03-09

Chord Generator for 7 Strings

Most of us has learned our chords on regular six strings. With a seven in standard B tuning, the six high strings are the same a regular six string tuned to E, but it can be nice to add a tone to the low B where appropriate. Luckily, there’s an interactive chord generator for seven strings. […]

2011-02-26

I Made a Song

As my guitar lesson a couple of weeks ago we made a song! I brought a bunch of riff ideas to class and together with my guitar teacher I arranged them into a song. It was a real eye-opener even though the result was just a draft with a lot of cut-and-paste cheating. Since then […]

2011-02-23

The Kübler-Ross Model for Recording

All who have seen the Simpsons know of the Kübler-Ross model for coping with grief and tragedies (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance). I go through a similar process (albeit a bit more positive) each time I record my playing: 1) Expectation – during the actual recording session spirits are usually high, and it always sounds good […]

2011-02-05

Clever App for Keys and Transposition

Chord circle is a very simple iPhone app that is a reference for those of us who don’t have keys and modes like the back of our hand: It also has a mode for easy transposing: Chord Circle is free and you can find it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chord-circle/id317325569?mt=8

2011-01-17

Riffs and the Unconscious

I came up with an awesome riff the other day. Today I recorded it and added some drums and stuff. I suddenly got that feeling, that you’ve heard something before… And it only got stronger. I finally realized the riff was extremely similar to the start of the main riff of Bark at the Moon. […]