Internet colaboration?

Are you kidding? That was pretty cool, it almost looks like a songsheet with just chords and lyrics... Strange that that was added, yet no one has utilised it until now.

I didn't necessarily mean their dance stuff. They have some more ballad-y style songs. In any case, it sounds pretty good, although maybe we could go with some different chords (particularly in the beginning) since the ones you went with sound pretty dark. Also, are the words ''Already getting late to choose'' and then those chords the entirety of the chorus? It feels like it needs a bit more...

I think this is just me but from the sound of it, dark is good. I was listening and I suddenly got this Poets of the Fall vibe.

EDIT: I figured something out, but I'm sure tablature won't work, and I don't have a proper recording set-up... Maybe my phone?

Hold on, let's see if this works.

HAHA, I CAN

OK, so I think I can record a few things. I tried using just voice memos, but the amp is really buzzy and loud. Not too bad, but it's kind of annoying. I've started noodling a bit. Only thing is, I don't what key this song is and I just accidentally discovered a new scale, this thing:

http://i.imgur.com/7rvGNHA.png

What even is this?

its nominally in C minor... but it has 2 key changes, no wait, 3 I think... I just was playing around with the harmonic relationships around the repetitive vocal line and got carried away seeing what I could do with modulating it repeatedly, I am not sure what I even did anymore.

there is no chorus though, it just a refrain.... people forget that there are other song structures besides verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus. so its maybe not what you are used to, but for all the changes in this song it only has a few harmonic ideas and I am not going to add more, it will clutter it... I did a double refrain after the 2nd verse though, 1st time in Eb minor, 2nd one modulates back to C minor like the single refrain at the end of verse 1

if you listen again you should hear it, just transpose the refrain chords, its pretty much the same thing in Eb minor

Are you kidding? That was pretty cool, it almost looks like a songsheet with just chords and lyrics... Strange that that was added, yet no one has utilised it until now.

its cool except no matter how I tried I couldn't get it to maintain the formatting through the last verse... weird

Seriously has so many chord changes. I'm not so familiar with 7b5 chords to begin with, and the key changes are interesting, but confusing.

I have something going for the verses, but before and during the refrain... well, not sure. I have to work that out. I tried something, and it really just comes down to simplicity. Acoustic's already doing the muscle-work, so it just needs a but of lead lines. Anything more and it gets mudded up.

like I said, the acoustic is just a scratch line, if any instrument will hold down the whole chords it'll be piano... it was just quick and easy for me to play it on my beat up epi acoustic

you think its a lot of chord changes? its like a chord a bar with a lot of repetition... most of the Fminor bit is the same as the Cminor bits, just down a 5th under very similar melody bits so its barely a chord change LOL maybe its a point of view thing. Feels simple to me by my standards....

like I said, the acoustic is just a scratch line, if any instrument will hold down the whole chords it'll be piano... it was just quick and easy for me to play it on my beat up epi acoustic

you think its a lot of chord changes? its like a chord a bar with a lot of repeition

It sounds like a lot because I'm not familiar with the chords, I guess. Also, I think it's two chords per bar.

Damn, I wish I had a looper right about now, that would be pretty cool.

You should try straight piano. Might as well, even if it's going to be a bit robotic.

yeah, it is 2 chords per bar, my bad... I don't think about all this stuff that carefully all the time until I'm arranging.... writing is like free flow

m7b5 chords as I played them in the recording:

D - X5656X or capoed at fret 1 X56X00, A - 5X554X, G - 3X332X

maybe I should do a sparse piano version to a click this week so we can all build on it

heads up, I capoed up to F because I liked how it sounded, I originally wrote in B minor but when I took it up to C with barre chords it lsot a little something, got too jazzy, but I just prefer the song in C minor

any other chords you want inversions for?

Fantastic.

One other thing, you did two bars of Cm to Dm7b5, then to Am7b5 and the Ab to Bb. I don't know if this is technically incorrect, but you kind at the second verse, you skipped the second Cm to Dm7b5, and rather did Am7b5.

There's a bar missing, or maybe that's just a structural technique.

that's style baby... its kinda like the phrase shrinks and grows in places to allow the melody to expand and bring on the key change to Em, errr Fminor

That scale is more or less a chunk of major scale by the way. Eb the relative major.

I haven't done a dance track in years, I could think about it... can you sing as well as do club music? I can't really, so I am always looking for someone who can sing.

at the moment I am kinda focused on trying this tune through the internet because I feel really good about the bones.

EDIT:

What version of FL are you in? I just opened my FL files and found a very undeveloped synth thing with cool chord changes that would lend itself to being the core of a dance track and it only uses one vst that's not stock in FL producer 11, which you should download and try anyway because its freeware and everyone needs a roland juno emulator

by the way, you look exactly how I expected you to in that TON user pic

Maybe because I have a user pic here, too? ;) j/k. Thanks.

very funny, can't see your face in this one though

Do you write decent lyrics? I find it to be a struggle to even get to a rough draft... I am stuck right now. ugh.

I think that is a question you have to answer yourself, eye of the beholder and all that. I believe the answer is "yes" though, based on customer feedback over the years :)

It's different for everyone and it's different from song to song. Sometimes lyrics come to me a few lines at a time, over weeks or months. Sometimes the whole song flows in 3-4 minutes as I play the chords. Sometimes if I have writer's block it helps to play a different instrument (like maybe sit down at the piano for a minute). Sometimes I have an agenda, like "I'm going to write a song about the coal industry in West Virginia" and I work at it, and maybe it's decent or maybe not ... http://nicke.bandcamp.com/track/500-mountains

Also, damn, most people are a lot older than I expected. Jim's a dad, Nick looks to be in his early 30's, I'm sure the admins are college graduates since they made this site so well, and I'm a college freshy... Better keep practising.

Don't have to be old to be a dad, but good eyes. I am indeed in my early 30s. Thanks for saying that is old :) Enjoy your 20s. They will pass by extremely quickly. I am also a dad, FWIW.

Haha, yeah. I guess I just don't like to have people waiting until I get something done.

You will go very far in Life, young padawan.

I used to always have an agenda, anymore I go with my approach to songwriting in general when I write lyrics, wait for inspiration and then shed until I finish something I can call a 1st draft. If its not what the song was about when I wrote the music? Oh well. I might work on the melody and harmony to a song off and on for a year before getting to lyrics, so it can be ahrd to look back and get in touch with whatever you were feeling or thinking when you started.

I also drink my bourbon neat. Must be a dad thing.

Haha, yeah. I guess I just don't like to have people waiting until I get something done.

You will go very far in Life, young padawan.

as long as you prioritize... you can't dick around with your primary source of income and you can't blow off your kids unless its a decision between giving the kid what they want short term and providing for them long term in the hierarchy of needs sense... all music stuff for me has to take a back seat to those concerns. People can and will wait, sometimes waiting opens creative doors.