Droning On Mark 2 - Well Kinda - Guitars101

**Mondy** · 08-21-2003, 01:51 AM

Hi Guys,

I was noodling around with my song idea for Droning On. Those of you less fortunate to hear it, will bepleased to know that my guitar was in tune last night.

Anyway, I didn't record it, but I'll try to remember the tab off the top of my head. I will try to record it later on sometime, but as you may have seen from my less frequent posts, I'm pretty busy at the moment, and don't have much time on my hands at the moment.

Anyway, I'm looking for some ideas on what scales I could use to go over the top of them. Here's what I was messing around with last night :

Chord Progression

Em, C, Em, A (Fingered Open A, 2nd Fret D, Second Fret G, Open B)

Em, C, G, D

Riff 1

Code:<hr /><pre>

e |---------------------------------------------------------------|
B |---------------------------------------------------------------|
G |-------0------0-------------------------0-----0----------------|
D |-----2------2---2-----2---------------2-----2---2---5-3-2-0-2--|
A |---2------3---------2---2--1--0-----2-----3--------------------|
E |-0--------------------------------0----------------------------|</pre><hr />

Code:<hr /><pre>
e |---------------------------------------------------------------|
B |---------------------------------------------------------------|
G |-------0------0-------------------------0-----0----------------|
D |-----2------2---2-----2---------------2-----2---2-----------2--|
A |---2------3---------2---2--1--0-----2-----3-------------2-3----|
E |-0--------------------------------0-----------------3-5--------| </pre><hr />

Riff 2

Code:<hr /><pre>
e |------------7-----------------------------7-----12-7-----------|
B |----------8---8-------------------------8---8--------8---------|
G |--------9-------9--------9------------9-------9--------9-------|
D |------9----------------9---7--------9--------------------------|
A |-7-10-------------7-10---------7-10----------------------7-----|
E |---------------------------------------------------------------| </pre><hr />

They're all gonna overlap each other, and I was noodling with abother riff as well, but can't remember it without the guitar in front of me.

If you have any idea of scales that I could use, then please advise.

I appreciate that it's a bit difficult without hearing it, but any help to make it a bit more colourful would be appreciated.

There are several bends, vibrato, and a couple of pinch harmonics (when I can hit them) incorporated into this as well, but it took me bloody ages just to tab that !

Anyway, any help would be great guys !!!

[img]images/smilies/icon_thumb.gif[/img]

Stiglar · 08-21-2003, 02:23 AM

what i would use is basically just E minor pentatonic get that down pretty hard so you know it and can improvise freely on it ... then add little what i call "colour" notes from the E dorian scale or something ... or even E harmonic minor ... i like to keep my ideas pretty pentatonic just adding little bits here and there from other scales ...

i can post some tabbed examples or scales if you want ?

**Mondy** · 08-21-2003, 02:30 AM

Stiglar, cheers for the info.

If you could post the scales, then this would be of great help. With my knowledge of theory and bad ears, you never know what could happen.

No hold on, of course you know what would happen.

It'd sound shite !

[img]images/smilies/icon16.gif[/img]

Stiglar · 08-21-2003, 02:37 AM

ok sure just as soon as i figure out how to use the tab thingey !

**Mondy** · 08-21-2003, 02:48 AM

I'm sure eric used some tab program thingy that was free. I didn't, and just typed it out, and it took feckin' ages !

D'oh, he says to use Power Tab

[img]images/smilies/icon_doh.gif[/img]

Stiglar · 08-21-2003, 03:07 AM

oh yeah i have guitar pro that can do it . .i just thought that you had to use some special code on here otherwise it goes all messed up ?

**Mondy** · 08-21-2003, 05:14 AM

I just whop it into the <code></code> square brackets mate.

That way it puts out exactly what you type in.

Cheers,

Stiglar · 08-21-2003, 05:51 AM

thanks for that mondola !

lets see if this works :

<code>E||--------------------------------------------12-12-|
B||-----------------------------------12-14-15-------|
G||--------------------------11-12-14----------------|
D||--------------------12-14-------------------------|
A||-----------12-14-15-------------------------------|
E||--12-14-15----------------------------------------|

----------------------5-7-9----|
----------------5-7-8----------|
----------4-6-7----------------|
----4-5-7----------------------|
--7----------------------------|
-------------------------------|

-----------------------------------------11-12-12-|--12----14---------0----|
-----------------------------------12-13----------|--12----12----8----0----|
--------------------------11-12-14----------------|--12----12----7----0----|
--------------------13-14-------------------------|--12----12----9---------|
-----------12-14-15-------------------------------|--------------7---------|
--12-14-15----------------------------------------|------------------------|

---------12-----------------------|--------------------|
------12----15b-------------------|--------------------|
--14b-------------14--12--14--12--|--11----------------|
----------------------------------|--------------------|
----------------------------------|--------------------|
----------------------------------|--------------------|

--12-15----14---12----------------|--------||
--12---------------15--12---------|--------||
--12-----------------------14--12-|----11--||
--14------------------------------|--------||
----------------------------------|--------||
----------------------------------|--------||</code>

ok basically the first bar is an E dorian mode which you can use to mess around with and solo with ... the second bar is an E dorian mode but in a different position on the neck just in case you want some variety , the next bar is an E harmonic minor scale which you can use to get some exotic feel into your soloing ..

then i put in some chords that you can just slot into your improv in places to sound kinda cool

after that i just put in a couple of licks that might come in handy including one that uses one of the chords i slotted in earlier . .i hope that helps i'll put up a couple of harmonic minor licks if you want to give you an idea of how to target the notes in it and make use of the exotic sound

hope that helps you a bit !

Stiglar · 08-21-2003, 05:57 AM

dont' feel like you have to play exclusively the scales i've written etc .. it'll sound much more natural if you play what you think sounds good ... just mess around with those scales and play over your song playing one note at a time quite slowly and just listen to which notes standout and sound nice ... and try and hit those notes when your improvising ... it's going to sound alot more natural if you play what you can and think about playing [img]images/smilies/icon_thumb.gif[/img]

**Mondy** · 08-21-2003, 06:15 AM

Thanks dude !

This is much appreciated. I'll give all of this a go. Nice to learn from the master...

Cheers,

[img]images/smilies/icon_thumb.gif[/img]

**CanyonCarver** · 08-21-2003, 08:13 AM

Great thread guys!
Way to go!

**Mondy** · 08-22-2003, 01:23 AM

I'll try and put some time aside to get something down tonight. It'll just be a drum loop and a few of the guitar ideas, using the excellent pointers that Stiglar has provided me with.

Every night this week, I've picked up the guitar and farted around with this "idea". So we'll see what comes out. I'm thinking of recording it using all three of my guitars (Wolfie, Kramer & Ibanez) to see what flavour that gives.

If I like what comes out of tonights activities, then I may well post it.

[img]images/smilies/icon_thumb.gif[/img]

**Mondy** · 08-27-2003, 01:40 AM

Well guys, I had a try at recording something last night.

Just with the metronome and the guitars.

To me, it sounded like shit !

I kept getting the metronome in the mix for a start, and then I had this flipping echo effect on my lead guitar track that confused the hell out of me. It wasn't echoey when it came out through the amp, yet when I played back what the mike had recroded it was. Maybe it was too much reverb ? I dunno [img]images/smilies/dunno.gif[/img].

And, to top it off, I just couldn't get my blasted timing right, which made it sound even worse ! [img]images/smilies/icon_doh.gif[/img]

I'm not going to be posting this version up here ! Let me tell you that. <Internet Community Breathes A Sigh Of Relief>.

Two positives came out of it though :
<ul type="square">[*]I restrung my guitar[*]I tuned my guitar[/list]Sorry about the negativeness of this post. You guys seem to knock things up so easily, and I find it so difficult, it just kinda gets you down sometimes.

Question

When you guys record, those of you that mike your amp and use Cool Edit, how do you go about recording and playing back ?

Do you use headphones to play back what you have got so far when recording a new track, so they don't interfere with one another ?

What do you use to get your timing spot on ?

Sorry, it may seem obvious to you, but not for little old me !

[img]images/smilies/icon_mad.gif[/img]

Stiglar · 08-27-2003, 02:16 AM

Ok !

i wouldn't worry about it too much ... we've all had bad experiences trying to record .. i know i have !

the echo may be the fact that your mic is too close to your computer ... that's just a guess ? i don't really know about taht one sorry ...

i don't use headphones .. my different tracks don't seem to interfere that much ...

basically the way i do it is just to slam down the complete drums first and just play over the top of the drums ... if you listen to my songs they always start with a drum beat .. i usually chuck in 4 bars of just drums just so i can get ready before my guitar is recording and get in the groove ...

a metronome can be confusing sometimes to get time right a constant click can be interpreted in many ways ... i only use a metronome when practicing scales or something constant

do you lay down drums at all ? if not do that ... it's much easier to get in the right timing with a solid drum beat than a metronome ...

hope that helped !

and believe me my recordings do not come out easily ! it drives me nuts !

**Mondy** · 08-27-2003, 02:45 AM

Hi Stiglar,

Ah, OK. I will try the drums then. No, I usually use a metronome or I loop a drum track. I may just try with the drum tracks. I was thinking that this may be a good idea because then I'll have to think more about the whole song structure instead of just, seeing what happens.

But dude, I even dreamt I met Steve Vai last night, and asked him what I was doing wrong. I was so pissed off ! [img]images/smilies/icon_rant.gif[/img]

It's just that when I playback, my speakers are so loud that my microphone picks up what I've recorded so far and feeds that back down into my new track. [img]images/smilies/icon_rant.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/icon_rant.gif[/img]

And it wasn't even that loud (I know this, because I didn't wake Jen up at all !) [img]images/smilies/icon_rant.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/icon_rant.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/icon_rant.gif[/img]

Anyway, you're probably right about me being too near the P.C. I seriously need to finish tidying that room, but since Jen and I had an arguement about that this very morning, my guess is I will be tidying it pretty soon !

[img]images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif[/img]