Help With Transcribing my own old track

tampadragon

Hi

Not sure if this is in the correct section, I spent 5 minutes trying to decide where to put this.

So 5 years ago I started writing a track, its the only one where I've actually managed to play more than 30 seconds of guitar on. I'd totally forgotten about this track until I logged into Sound Cloud this morning to listen to a new podcast that had been put up. 

This track was staring at me on the front page so I listened to it and remember playing it, and being enthusiastic about it, and not being able to put anything else with it, but I can't remember how to play it, or even where to start. I have a stupid issue where I can pick up my guitar, play some chords or notes or a riff and think it sounds awesome, not record it, and if I come back later on, or the day after or what not, I cannot remember how to play it, what the notes were or even the rhythm!

The track is here - 

Apologies for the terrible playing, timing, technique, well just the terribleness of this!

So is anyone able to help me with a way of working out what I was playing, it was 5 years ago so it will only be something simple, as I'm a better player now I'd really like to try and develop this and actually finish it as a track of sorts, as I never finish any songs I start!

Thanks

Bob

AustrianJohn

I share your pain. I have written many guitar interludes (to call them solos would be rather generous), that I could no longer remember the next day. Nowadays, everything I play gets tabbed - just in case.

paul_xt

If you want I'll tab it and send you a PDF? Just had a quick listen on my break at school and seems straightforward enough

paul_xt

@tampadragon, You have a PM incoming

tampadragon

Thanks for that, it will be a massive help!

koneguitarist

@paul_xt So if I put a solo up, not to be tabbed, as I can still play it, can you (or anyone) tell me what scales or modes if any that I am playing? I ask as I generally don't know what I am playing, but just hope it sounds ok. 

viz

Yep bung it over

paul_xt

Yeah happy to help out

koneguitarist

Cheers boys https://m.soundcloud.com/southern-drawl/dont-call-me-fool solo starts at 2:16 it was done on my Tele through a Princeton playing a dodgy, but I liked the tone at the time. 

viz

Lovely tone, indeed. It's mainly major pentatonic ( ) until you play the 7th and then the 4th later on, at which point you reveal that it's all in mixolydian, plus you have that that one extra passing note when you move to the secondary dominant, the B major chord. Nice. 

koneguitarist

Wow I do all that? Cheers Viz, what is the extra passing note the one before acoustic hits B? 

viz

Well you're moving from the I chord to the II major chord (the secondary dominant), which is from an A to a B, and indeed you're playing A and B in the solo, and to get from A to B, you play the in-between note, A#. So it's a little chromatic run. 

koneguitarist

@Viz Thank you, for that listening back to that, it was about 6 years ago I think, I played Bass as well as Bassist cancelled at last minute and drums were so bad that I wiped them off. It is the only solo where I have had to think about where the chord structure is going.
I was worried that I might not be able to do it, hence the mixture of harmonica and guitar sharing solo, being critical the vibrato is not very good and notes lack sustain, maybe more gain would have helped. 
Sorry to @tampadragon for derailing the thread. 

viz

I think it's spot on, perfectly executed.

Bob, yours is in D minor, and has two main section chords, the D minor (i) and the G minor (iv). During the D section you portray the piece's minor key by relying heavily on the minor 6th; the minor 3rd is really played as part of the minor 6th's 5th degree. That's quite specific and lends the whole piece a sparse quality that calls to mind darkness, fog, mud, effort and pain. Throughout the piece you hold on to that little motif of a quaver or quavers (sometimes on the offbeat, sometimes on the onbeat) followed by a long held note. This is replicated in all the guitar parts at various points and helps to give the piece cohesion, and also drives home the sluggish, monotonous, somewhat hopeless, though still determined, nature of the warriors' journey. It's quite an 'uphill' sort of rhythm if you know what I mean. Is it one warrior or a troupe? You don't say - I feel it's a small faction, broken off from the main army, with a terrible task ahead of them. The compressed, distorted and rather closed tonal quality gives the impression of the warriors, head-down, trudging through the mud, focused on the awful deed they are shortly to carry out. 

In the intro you have Bb, F ... D a few times (you could think of the Bb, F as a Bb (VI) power chord, though the 2 notes are not played together, they follow the piece's trademark rhythm. Then the 2nd guitar comes in again with the rhythm, starting on the offbeat, and plays A, Bb, letting both notes ring and allowing the Bb to fall gently towards the A to create dissonance. Dissonance is also created because while the 1st guitar is playing the Bb the 2nd guitar is on the A, and only moves to the Bb once the 1st guitar has left it. This helps create that gloomy, uneasy mood. 

At the end of the intro you reinforce the harmonic structure (the i and the VI chords) by reversing the sequence and playing D A Bb; because this is a different order, and because it's a little louder, this gives the impression of more determination. In fact this rising section, followed by the repeated stabs is the point in the piece where you feel it's not all hopeless, that determination not submission is the underlying emotion, and it's a good segue to the next bit. 

Then we arrive at the G (iv) section. You introduce it with a C (VII) chord, which itself is heralded by the descending chromatic line D, Db, C, then you arrive at the iv chord with the 3 notes Ab, Bb, G. This is a phrygian-sounding effect, that semitone above the IV is a very 'minor' minor. Despite this, the introduction of this IV chord does create a more optimistic mood, possibly as all these notes are played as power chords with the root and the 5th only so the IV itself is lacking its minor 3rd. Also the top chords on D to C are an octave higher than the root D, so it just sounds more positive. Again you are keeping consistent with the overall rhythm. 

After this lighter section has been repeated, it's back to the more pessimistic main theme, though this time you use the augmented 4th rather than the 5th, so instead of Bb A D it's Ab Bb D. This is rather clever, firstly because the Ab augmented 4th is a very uneasy note, and secondly because it and the Bb also hark back to the Ab and Bb we have just heard in that IV section. 

After that you move back to the iv section (I'm thinking of that as a verse which would mean that the D sections at start and end are chorus, which is a rather unusual sequence. Maybe the iv section is the chorus, but as the piece returns so resoundingly to G, and iv is an uneasy chorus key, I reckon it's a verse). 

Anyway, finally it's back to the aug4 D sections, with your guitar solo, which again creates tension because it's A E F E D E D, and when you play that A, the underlying aug4 (Ab) is heard. This clashy sound describes the cry of the warrior(s) - part pain and anguish, part resolve and hunger for battle. 

tampadragon

@viz I hope you write that stuff for a living as I've never seen anything described quite that well! It makes my playing sound far better than it is, I have very little music theory knowledge and so just tend to play what comes to mind, and noodle around the fretboard until I find notes that I think sound ok to me. That has renewed my want to finish this track and try to do something with this long forgotten sketch!

viz

Cool