Recording Challenge #3 (Write a song in the ' Raga None' Scale)

[Greg_L]

honestly, if you're doing power-chords, you have a few more options than the standard major/minor scale offers.
Your 3rd and 7th chords can be from the major or minor scale; take your pick.
The only additional restriction is that you don't get the 2nd or 5th chord.

I'm not looking to only use powerchords. I just used that example as a simplified breakdown for my own understanding of how the dots in the scale are turned into actual chords. Making music like this is not my usual M.O.

[Greg_L]

haha, and there was me thinking this would be a fun challenge!

Lol. Well I can see how it'd be fun for you. You get off on stuff like this. It's like homework to me, but unlike in school, I'm gonna do it anyway.

@Greg_L did you ever listened to my Challenge #2 song in the end?

No, I saw it, but I haven't been in listening mode and my set up is in shambles right now with a slow rearrange happening. I can listen on headphones but I won't try to come up with any mix ideas or anything.

[JD01]

I'm not looking to only use powerchords. I just used that example as a simplified breakdown for my own understanding of how the dots in the scale are turned into actual chords. Making music like this is not my usual M.O.

Would be cool if you did go well outside a few powerchords and used some odd-ball chords and intervals with some strange riff. That's part of the challenge I suppose, sounding like yourself while playing nothing like what you'd normally play.

I am kinda cheating here 'cos I tried this challenge myself a year or so ago with the Hungarian Minor scale. I chose it totally arbitrarily to teach myself how to learn use different scales and ended up writing a song that sounded just like my normal sort of song.

[JD01]

haha, and there was me thinking this would be a fun challenge!

Lol. Well I can see how it'd be fun for you. You get off on stuff like this. It's like homework to me, but unlike in school, I'm gonna do it anyway.

@Greg_L did you ever listened to my Challenge #2 song in the end?

No, I saw it, but I haven't been in listening mode and my set up is in shambles right now with a slow rearrange happening. I can listen on headphones but I won't try to come up with any mix ideas or anything.

No worries - I won't be doing a great deal more work on the mix anyway - I was just curious what you thought as I've turned an acoustic/strings ballad into a normal pop-punk song.

Yeah - I suppose I just find this sort of stuff interesting and when I listen to music or learn stuff I often consider it in terms of scales and intervals now. One thing learning all this shit has really done in the last few years is improve my memory for quite long passages of music, chord sequences/changes etc. as I now have a framework to use as an aid to memory as opposed to just learning every note and change.

[Greg_L]

Well I never use only "powerchords" so I don't know why yall always think that, but whatever. I always use real major or minor chords, and even sometimes some 7s. I don't use "oddball" chords because they sound fucking odd.

[Greg_L]

No worries - I won't be doing a great deal more work on the mix anyway - I was just curious what you thought as I've turned an acoustic/strings ballad into a normal pop-punk song.

Yeah - I suppose I just find this sort of stuff interesting and when I listen to music or learn stuff I often consider it in terms of scales and intervals now. One thing learning all this shit has really done in the last few years is improve my memory for quite long passages of music, chord sequences/changes etc. as I now have a framework to use as an aid to memory as opposed to just learning every note and change.

I'm not avoiding your or anyone else's song. I just haven't listened to anything here in the command center lately.

That is about to change though, real soon.

[JD01]

No worries - I won't be doing a great deal more work on the mix anyway - I was just curious what you thought as I've turned an acoustic/strings ballad into a normal pop-punk song.

Yeah - I suppose I just find this sort of stuff interesting and when I listen to music or learn stuff I often consider it in terms of scales and intervals now. One thing learning all this shit has really done in the last few years is improve my memory for quite long passages of music, chord sequences/changes etc. as I now have a framework to use as an aid to memory as opposed to just learning every note and change.

I'm not avoiding your or anyone else's song. I just haven't listened to anything here in the command center lately.

That is about to change though, real soon.

Yeah - I think I realised that you've been changing loads of stuff around lately. Is this your new drum room and totally adjusting your whole setup.

Well I never use only "powerchords" so I don't know why yall always think that, but whatever. I always use real major or minor chords, and even sometimes some 7s. I don't use "oddball" chords because they sound fucking odd.

Yeah - I know that really, but it is an excuse to use combinations of chords that you wouldn't normally go for.
I do tend to use powerchords when muting, but full chords when strumming. I also use a lot of Sus2 chords when they're in context.

[Greg_L]

Yeah - I know that really, but it is an excuse to use combinations of chords that you wouldn't normally go for.
I do tend to use powerchords when muting, but full chords when strumming. I also use a lot of Sus2 chords when they're in context.

I even mute with real chords because even though you go for the chug, inadvertently bumping the extra strings adds a little something better to it. I don't know what a "Sus2" is, but I bet I use it without knowing it. I know a lot of chord shapes and sounds without know wtf they are.

[JD01]

I don't know what a "Sus2" is, but I bet I use it without knowing it.

A minor shaped barre chord? Lift up your middle finger, the minor finger, so that the chord is no longer major or minor. Sustained 2nd instead.

D major - lift up your middle finger which is on the F# (major 3rd) and let the top E ring open - again you no longer have a major or minor. But you have a sustained 2nd.

[Greg_L]

A minor shaped barre chord? Lift up your middle finger, the minor finger, so that the chord is no longer major or minor. Sustained 2nd instead.

D major - lift up your middle finger which is on the F# (major 3rd) and let the top E ring open - again you no longer have a major or minor. But you have a sustained 2nd.

Ok yeah no I never do those.

[JD01]

A minor shaped barre chord? Lift up your middle finger, the minor finger, so that the chord is no longer major or minor. Sustained 2nd instead.

D major - lift up your middle finger which is on the F# (major 3rd) and let the top E ring open - again you no longer have a major or minor. But you have a sustained 2nd.

Ok yeah no I never do those.

Well you can get away with a Sus2 as your 4 chord using this stupid bloody scale!

[Greg_L]

Well you can get away with a Sus2 as your 4 chord using this stupid bloody scale!

I just tried those examples you listed on a guitar and they sound dumb, so no.

[Tadpui]

OK I don't think that this is going to get any more done, so here is what I came up with. Vocals could use some retracking but I'm so dang sick of this song that I'm just going to let it go Sorry about the deafeningly loud mix, I got carried away with Waves L2.

20190905-010.mp3

[JD01]

OK I don't think that this is going to get any more done, so here is what I came up with. Vocals could use some retracking but I'm so dang sick of this song that I'm just going to let it go Sorry about the deafeningly loud mix, I got carried away with Waves L2.


20190905-010.mp3

Tad, that's excellent! Really like that song, really like the mix too.
I wasn't listening to that in a "mix critique" way 'cos I was just enjoying listening to it, but nothing jumped out.

What's the distortion effect you have on the vocal there?

[WhiskeyJack]

I am still no further ahead on this one. I have read it and read it and it makes literally no sense to me and if anything i am more ocnfused thna i was with the OP. I may have to sit this one out.

[Tadpui]

Tad, that's excellent! Really like that song, really like the mix too.
I wasn't listening to that in a "mix critique" way 'cos I was just enjoying listening to it, but nothing jumped out.

What's the distortion effect you have on the vocal there?

Thanks JD! It's been a really fun project, I just dragged it out over too long and had to retrack a few times after changing my mind on a few things, and discovering that I was using "forbidden" notes

The vocal distortion is actually just an overdriven preamp. I cranked up the input gain on my 1073 until it distorted, and turned down the output volume to compensate. Usually I just slap a TubeScreamer emulation on the vocal for that effect, but this one was so mumbly that a TS9 made it too indistinct. The 1073 did the same thing, just more clearly.

[vomitHatSteve]

OK I don't think that this is going to get any more done, so here is what I came up with. Vocals could use some retracking but I'm so dang sick of this song that I'm just going to let it go Sorry about the deafeningly loud mix, I got carried away with Waves L2.


20190905-010.mp3

Nice!

Going for kind of a Doors vibe? That makes sense with this scale.

[JD01]

I am still no further ahead on this one. I have read it and read it and it makes literally no sense to me and if anything i am more ocnfused thna i was with the OP. I may have to sit this one out.

You want me to explain this to you later in the week?

[WhiskeyJack]

I am still no further ahead on this one. I have read it and read it and it makes literally no sense to me and if anything i am more ocnfused thna i was with the OP. I may have to sit this one out.

You want me to explain this to you later in the week?

We'll see. I am going to have one more read through it all some night this week undistracted and we'll go from there.

[Tadpui]

I am still no further ahead on this one. I have read it and read it and it makes literally no sense to me and if anything i am more ocnfused thna i was with the OP. I may have to sit this one out.

This was a stretch for me as well. I keep it pretty simple when writing songs, so this was difficult to say the least. Basically just pick a key (I picked G) and pick a mode of the scale (I picked the very first one from the chart). Then see if you can find any riffs or chords that only use notes that are in that scale. It's interesting because it takes away some very familiar options, that's what made it hard for me. In the key of G, this scale doesn't provide a C or Cm chord, so I had to opt for a Csus4 which actually creates some interesting tension before it resolves back to the G. I think that G, Gm and Csus4 are the only 3 chords in my song

Nice!

Going for kind of a Doors vibe? That makes sense with this scale.

Thanks Steve! It's interesting, I always have some sort of image in my head of what I'm shooting for and I never land in the same place I intend to. This time I was thinking of Tom Waits and his tumbling, drunken-sounding blues songs from the 70s. And I landed pretty far away from that. I do hear the Doors in there though, now that you mention it. The organ kind of drives it home.