1

(12 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Great song. Creative lyrics and catchy title. I also love the harmonic shift in the chorus.

2

(3 replies, posted in Music theory)

Yes this is a common chord progression and is used a lot in music. You can also try substituting the F for a Dm. You then get a ii-V-I progression at the end, which is really useful to learn in different keys.

3

(13 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Great lyrics and a really good song.

I like the descending chord progression in your intro. I think it would be great if you could use it somewhere else. Just a thought, the word "devil" is associated with hell, which is thought of as beneath us, as opposed to heaven up above. Your descending chord progression could help to portray this.

4

(5 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Damn. Being from the UK, I looked at the title of this thread and thought it would be about fantasy football in the English Premier League (soccer for most of you guys).

5

(1 replies, posted in Bands and artists)

Very interesting arrangement! I like the shift to free jazz at about 1 min which then builds really well to the chorus.

6

(4 replies, posted in Songwriting)

These lyrics definitely want to make me get a glass of water! Nice chord changes aswell, especially the use of C and E major, outside the tonic key of D major.

7

(5 replies, posted in Bands and artists)

Great voice and so much better than the British singer Alexandra Burke, who did a version of Hallelujah after winning X-Factor a few years ago.
Karise's voice has a wonderful tone to it but I still prefer Buckley's version, although she comes close!

8

(13 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Buzzwagon wrote:

I have to say the opening ceremony made me proud to be British. Absolutely superb! The excitement here in the UK is at fever pitch, it's all anybody's talking about and its all over the TV. Fantastic!

Jerry

Couldn't agree more! It was quite emotional watching it as I am from the UK. It seems to have generally gone down well across the globe, although it might have been a little difficult to understand for some. Going to see the diving next week!

9

(7 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Great lyrics and very fitting to the current situation many of us are facing at the moment. I like how you have a string of verses together, rather than the standard verse chorus structure. This really helps to get your message across.

10

(2 replies, posted in Songwriting)

An interesting read. These songwriters all seem to have different approaches, which obviously work really well. I particularly like Thom Yorke's comment about how a particular rhythm or melody sticks with you and from that everything fits together.
However, Prince's views on songwriting went a little over my head smile

11

(8 replies, posted in Music theory)

Suddenly playing the 5th chord of the new key is effective.
What you could also try is a pivot chord modulation which is when you have a chord common to both keys, and then play the 5th chord of the new key.

E.g C major to D major

Pivot chord = Em or G (both chords work in both keys)
5th chord of new key = A
New key = D

This can make the key change smoother, if that's what you're after. Sometimes abrupt key changes sound great!

12

(9 replies, posted in Recording)

jerome.oneil wrote:

Yeah, I haven't used Audacity in a while, but I downloaded it last night just because it comes up here so much.

The biggest issue is that Audacity doesn't work on an audio signal, it works on an audio file.  That is, it processes the data on disk, so you can't hear what the effect is doing until after you've run it.   A DAW will allow you to play the audio through the effect processor in real time so you can hear what each tweak is having on the sound.  When you find the one you like, you're done.

Good point here. Audacity is good for some of the basic functions but it certainly has limitations. I have used it occasionally and found trial and error works best for some of the plugins. If you want some basic settings for Gverb, have a look here.

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/GVerb

You can tweak them accordingly to get just the right amount of reverb

13

(17 replies, posted in Music theory)

Ear training is the ability to identify notes, intervals, chords, rhythms etc by ear. It's incredibly useful. Try www.musictheory.net or www.teoria.com for some practice exercises. If you do a little bit each day, you'll soon improve!