SMBs top musician



I’m in awe of musicians. It’s an incredible skill going back to the date dot. How people create original music is beyond my imagination. Or even how people who do covers remember the words and notes of dozens of songs.
It's really simple. You can do it right now. If I asked you to sing the first verse and chorus of, say, summer of 69, I bet you could do it.

A bit of practice and you can do anything mate :)
 
Our band have a few vinyl and cd releases. Played the o2 Ritz in Manchester the other week. Supported a few of the old school punk bands like Buzzcocks, UK Subs, Dead Boys , Discharge, Dickies . Appeared at a few festivals like Great Brit ALT, Rebellion, Nw Calling. Going to Germany for a few dates next week and will hopefully bag a couple of festival slots there next year. Its a constant struggle and most of the time feels like being on the outside looking in, but we have done ok.
 
I’m in awe of musicians. It’s an incredible skill going back to the date dot. How people create original music is beyond my imagination. Or even how people who do covers remember the words and notes of dozens of songs.
I've had melodies reveal themselves whilst in a relaxed state, in dreams etc The worst times are when you're at your day job (try remembering a melody all day) or on the bus haha No smart phone in the 90s see, had to just remember it then get home and get the melody on to 4 track or whatever. It's a fascinating process, addictive and very rewarding when the band get behind it and feel inspired. It's also quite humbling because, you've literally been given a hit, potentially.

The next phase is taking it (the not hard-earned melody) and fleshing it out using the skills you've learned i.e. which chords for verse or middle 8 intro/outro? This process will present you with many different options but not always. Sometimes the whole thing just falls into place, almost like it's already written you're just clearing out the clutter in your head to help the song reveal itself.

This process was well covered in The Beatles "Get Back" movie recently. all those famous songs were born of a simple/main riff or vocal melody and the writer has to decide which direction to take the melody when connecting the main part to other parts, verses exc This is absolutely key. If you get this part wrong, you end up with an album filler or it get's shelved.

I like the saying 'Greater than the sum of it's parts' and The Beatles were most definitely that.
 
I've had melodies reveal themselves whilst in a relaxed state, in dreams etc The worst times are when you're at your day job (try remembering a melody all day) or on the bus haha No smart phone in the 90s see, had to just remember it then get home and get the melody on to 4 track or whatever. It's a fascinating process, addictive and very rewarding when the band get behind it and feel inspired. It's also quite humbling because, you've literally been given a hit, potentially.

The next phase is taking it (the not hard-earned melody) and fleshing it out using the skills you've learned i.e. which chords for verse or middle 8 intro/outro? This process will present you with many different options but not always. Sometimes the whole thing just falls into place, almost like it's already written you're just clearing out the clutter in your head to help the song reveal itself.

This process was well covered in The Beatles "Get Back" movie recently. all those famous songs were born of a simple/main riff or vocal melody and the writer has to decide which direction to take the melody when connecting the main part to other parts, verses exc This is absolutely key. If you get this part wrong, you end up with an album filler or it get's shelved.

I like the saying 'Greater than the sum of it's parts' and The Beatles were most definitely that.
Great piece that mate. Its strange how some songs just click into place and then others take time to develop. Both ways can be rewarding. It's horrible when you hit a blank spot and think theres nothing left in the well. Then bingo, stuff comes flowing back in, but ofcourse its all subjective to taste. Sometimes I can't remember where the ideas came from and how older songs were put together. Disappeared into the ether.
 
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I've had melodies reveal themselves whilst in a relaxed state, in dreams etc The worst times are when you're at your day job (try remembering a melody all day) or on the bus haha No smart phone in the 90s see, had to just remember it then get home and get the melody on to 4 track or whatever. It's a fascinating process, addictive and very rewarding when the band get behind it and feel inspired. It's also quite humbling because, you've literally been given a hit, potentially.

The next phase is taking it (the not hard-earned melody) and fleshing it out using the skills you've learned i.e. which chords for verse or middle 8 intro/outro? This process will present you with many different options but not always. Sometimes the whole thing just falls into place, almost like it's already written you're just clearing out the clutter in your head to help the song reveal itself.

This process was well covered in The Beatles "Get Back" movie recently. all those famous songs were born of a simple/main riff or vocal melody and the writer has to decide which direction to take the melody when connecting the main part to other parts, verses exc This is absolutely key. If you get this part wrong, you end up with an album filler or it get's shelved.

I like the saying 'Greater than the sum of it's parts' and The Beatles were most definitely that.

Re: relaxed state...

A few weeks back I was just lying down in bed trying to get to sleep when I started getting an earworm of a bit of song idea. This is a fairly common occurrence so I thought nothing of it, but as I was drifting I realised it wasn't just one idea, my tired brain was fleshing it out and coming up with new sections that I was enjoying "listening to" in my brain. So, at that moment I snapped awake and had to get out of bed, switch on all my gear and try to record as much of it as I could remember.

I managed to get an intro and the chorus down in one go, including lead and backing vocals (unusual for me as I usually have an entire song's worth of music down before I even start thinking about coming up with vocal ideas).

So, now I'm at the point where I'm just listening to those bits over and over, imagining different ways I could expand it into a full song.
 
Re: relaxed state...

A few weeks back I was just lying down in bed trying to get to sleep when I started getting an earworm of a bit of song idea. This is a fairly common occurrence so I thought nothing of it, but as I was drifting I realised it wasn't just one idea, my tired brain was fleshing it out and coming up with new sections that I was enjoying "listening to" in my brain. So, at that moment I snapped awake and had to get out of bed, switch on all my gear and try to record as much of it as I could remember.

I managed to get an intro and the chorus down in one go, including lead and backing vocals (unusual for me as I usually have an entire song's worth of music down before I even start thinking about coming up with vocal ideas).

So, now I'm at the point where I'm just listening to those bits over and over, imagining different ways I could expand it into a full song.
I've done this in bed before. I can have a full on tune going. Riffs. Drums. Horn sections. I cannot be bothered to get up and try and put it down though. Not that I'd particularly know how to anyway without humming into some kind of recording equipment - which I don't have.

Besides that, I just feel I can't write. I've tried a bit when younger, but never really got anywhere. Dead ends, blind alleys, or more often than not wind up with something that sounds too similar to something else and so I abandon it (despite knowing many a song has been ripped off, chewed up, spat out and plagiarised over the years). I just get nowhere so don't.


I do like changing the words to existing songs to make them a bit silly (or rude) - mostly off the cuff and just generally being daft about the house. I've 'rewritten' two verses and the chorus to Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla so that's it's all about me bunny rabbit. :lol:
 
I've done this in bed before. I can have a full on tune going. Riffs. Drums. Horn sections. I cannot be bothered to get up and try and put it down though. Not that I'd particularly know how to anyway without humming into some kind of recording equipment - which I don't have.

Besides that, I just feel I can't write. I've tried a bit when younger, but never really got anywhere. Dead ends, blind alleys, or more often than not wind up with something that sounds too similar to something else and so I abandon it (despite knowing many a song has been ripped off, chewed up, spat out and plagiarised over the years). I just get nowhere so don't.


I do like changing the words to existing songs to make them a bit silly (or rude) - mostly off the cuff and just generally being daft about the house. I've 'rewritten' two verses and the chorus to Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla so that's it's all about me bunny rabbit. :lol:

I mean, this happens. One of the first songs I started writing on guitar, I was thinking "wow, this riff's amazing" and then a couple of days later I realised it was near as dammit the chorus riff from "Dude Looks Like A Lady" by Aerosmith.

Even a couple of months ago I put down a cracking riff that I knew even as I was recording it that it was pretty damn close to the riff from Wild Flower by The Cult. I figured that once I put my own vocals on it, it wouldn't sound anything like The Cult anymore, but after a few days of trying to think of vocal ideas for it, I gave up because my mind just kept singing Wild Flower.
 
I mean, this happens. One of the first songs I started writing on guitar, I was thinking "wow, this riff's amazing" and then a couple of days later I realised it was near as dammit the chorus riff from "Dude Looks Like A Lady" by Aerosmith.

Even a couple of months ago I put down a cracking riff that I knew even as I was recording it that it was pretty damn close to the riff from Wild Flower by The Cult. I figured that once I put my own vocals on it, it wouldn't sound anything like The Cult anymore, but after a few days of trying to think of vocal ideas for it, I gave up because my mind just kept singing Wild Flower.
I do wonder though, is it just part of the process. I can pick out loads of bits and pieces from songs that hark back to bits and pieces of other songs. I would stop short of saying Dylan's a plagiarist, but certainly his early works were derivative of older folk songs that came before. He just picked them up and ran with it. Zeppelin the same in the hard rock context. It's happened throughout time. People mention Noel Gallagher, but Cigarettes and Alcohol is a different song to Get It On. It's just being able to put your own spin on it, and having the brass neck to do so. It's part of the creative process and a way of developing.

Some things are however just a rip-off.
 
I do wonder though, is it just part of the process. I can pick out loads of bits and pieces from songs that hark back to bits and pieces of other songs. I would stop short of saying Dylan's a plagiarist, but certainly his early works were derivative of older folk songs that came before. He just picked them up and ran with it. Zeppelin the same in the hard rock context. It's happened throughout time. People mention Noel Gallagher, but Cigarettes and Alcohol is a different song to Get It On. It's just being able to put your own spin on it, and having the brass neck to do so. It's part of the creative process and a way of developing.

Some things are however just a rip-off.

It absolutely can be. Whether accidentally like my above examples, or even done deliberately.

Once at Olympic Studios when I worked there, there was a fairly well-known up-and-coming indie/alternative band recording their album in Studio 1 for a while. I can't remember exactly what band it was, but it was someone like The Ordinary Boys or Embrace or someone else semi-alternative around that time. This will have been mid-2000s. One day I heard their producer discussing with them a plan to write their next song: they were each going to go home and pick a song they liked by another band. Then the next day they were going to make a new song out of the parts of the other band's songs. So, the guitarist would be playing the guitar part from the song he liked, while the bassist would be playing the bassline from the song he liked (adapted to fit what the guitarist was doing), the drummer would be playing the drum part from the song he liked (adapted to fit what the first two were doing), and the singer would change the words and sing the melody to the song he'd picked (adapted to fit what everyone else was doing).

So... if you're ever listening to a new song on an album you've bought by some new young band, and you think "hey that vocal line reminds me a bit of this other song by someone else" or you think "aren't they the same chords as...", then that band may well have written that song using this method.
 
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It absolutely can be. Whether accidentally like my above examples, or even done deliberately.

Once at Olympic Studios when I worked there, there was a fairly well-known up-and-coming indie/alternative band recording their album in Studio 1 for a while. I can't remember exactly what band it was, but it was someone like The Ordinary Boys or Embrace or someone else semi-alternative around that time. This will have been mid-2000s. One day I heard their producer discussing with them a plan to write their next song: they were each going to go home and pick a song they liked by another band. Then the next day they were going to make a new song out of the parts of the other band's songs. So, the guitarist would be playing the guitar part from the song he liked, while the bassist would be playing the bassline from the song he liked (adapted to fit what the guitarist was doing), the drummer would be playing the drum part from the song he liked (adapted to fit what the first two were doing), and the singer would change the words and sing the melody to the song he'd picked (adapted to fit what everyone else was doing).

So... if you're ever listening to a new song on an album you've bought by some new young band, and you think "hey that vocal line reminds me a bit of this other song by someone else" or you think "aren't they the same chords as...", then that band may well have written that song using this method.
I suspect a lot of current pop/rock records are put together like this - especially with so many collaborators given writing credits. Everything sounds like everything else.
 
Our band have a few vinyl and cd releases. Played the o2 Ritz in Manchester the other week. Supported a few of the old school punk bands like Buzzcocks, UK Subs, Dead Boys , Discharge, Dickies . Appeared at a few festivals like Great Brit ALT, Rebellion, Nw Calling. Going to Germany for a few dates next week and will hopefully bag a couple of festival slots there next year. Its a constant struggle and most of the time feels like being on the outside looking in, but we have done ok.
A lad in my year from school is/was very involved with a Durham punk band Voorhees. From what I understand the band has done fairly well over the years.
As for me, I can play three chords very badly.
 
I have appeared on stage in front of approximately 75000 people, sang on stage and on albums that charted in the uk top 20, and played guitar on stage at the London Marquee and Hammersmith Odeon
 
Is she an arse?

ps. Chorus?
She was canny mate.
I play in a brass band marra.
We played with Dave Stewart at his 60th birthday gig at the empire and at the final Billy Elliot show in the west end. Elton John came on stage with us at the end and shook everyone's hand and posed for photos.
The best part was meeting Mark Hamill who had been in the audience and came over to see us after the show and we took photos
 

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