Jam report

[CanyonCarver]

Hi all,

Though I'd post this to share my experience with last night's Jam. Boy do I need a life! [img]images/smilies/icon_ball.gif[/img]

Anyways, left the house around 9:00 to meet my mates and start playing at this great place we get to use for free. It's a church with a great sound system, a stage, lights, and all. Now, I can tell my mom that I actually go to church twice a month! [img]images/smilies/icon_lol.gif[/img]

Our Keyborad dude was MIA from food poisoning, so we were a trio. We improvised a blues in C, a funky Aerosmith-style song that I am in the process of writing and re-writing, and other fun experimentation with various chords progressions I lifted from my guitar lessons.

And then during a break, the bass and drummer were chatting, when this sweet and harmonious chord prog came to me while noodling around.We picked it up and beat it like a dead horse until all of us had it down pat. I'll try to record it ove the weekend. I don't know if it can be a song, or should be an intro to something that picks up the pace; I haven't decided yet. More chords are probably needed to break up the drone effect of looping the main chords for too long.
I feel that I may need some composition lessons, theory lessons or something like it... [img]images/smilies/icon_jam.gif[/img]

Your thoughs? [img]images/smilies/jot.gif[/img]

[ericgtr]

I think that's when the magic happens personally, just noodling around and having it come to you. Now, I don't want to dog theory because it's valuable stuff but one way I like to approach it is to keep it simple.

IMO you will get your catchy bridge and/or changes more so by noodling than you will by studying theory. All that matters is having it sound right to you, I personally suck at theory but at the same time I don't feel confined to it. I don't worry about what scale or mode I am in and just pick notes until I get what I want. Just my .02 cents [img]images/smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[CanyonCarver]

You're right, these are precious moments when you land on a cool lick and it turns into a song.
So far everything I've come up with and posted in the mp3 section has come to me from improvising and not actually writing, following a method or logical approach. However I believe that some theory knowledge may give me foundations to boost the creativity.
I'm sure Joy Basu would have interesting comments on this issue...

You will also notice that I try to stay away from learning cover songs because I know I can come up with killer chops of my own, even if they have the influences of my favorite artists.

Thanks for your 2cents, Eric.

[Stiglar]

learning theory is very helpful to song writing ... despite what some of my all time guitar heros have said !

i still write from noodling but you have more of a vocab so to speak so you come up with more interesting ideas on the spot .

my biggest suggestion is just buy or find on the net a book or site full of chords .. .jazz chords , weird chords , awkward chords ... it really helps trust me ! ... especially the real beautiful sounding 7th chords : Mi7 Mj7 Dom7 MiMa7 , Mi9 ... Mi7b5 .. just learn heaps of them and afteryou know them well . you'll find that start to spring up in your noodling .... and it can loosen you up if your stuck for ideas ! ...

[Scott Parnell]

i agrree with you eric. coming up with ideas,,, it always happens when your relaxing jamming on the guitar and just having fun. I always seem to come up with my stuff during alot in the summer. I own a 30 ft. self contained camper and on the weekends,, Im down at my campsite with my acoustic. Half thew time ill just be noodling around and all of a sudden, something cool comes out of me and on my acoustic. so it is so true what you said there.