Hey everyone. This week’s track and post is about writing your own slower song like Zakk Wylde’s many amazing ballads.
First thing that anyone should do when they’re trying to emulate another player/artist’s work is to listen to their music extensively. Zakk Wylde is the guitarist that really kicked off my journey into learning how to actually play the guitar. I’ve listened to his music for about half of my life and I’ve gone through stages of being way too obsessed with pinch harmonics as well. Strangely enough, this track contains ZERO pinch harmonics… neither do most of his ballads, so we’re good on this one.
Zakk’s written quite a few songs where he’s playing piano and then includes a solo in it, so I’ve done the same thing with this song. Let’s give it a listen, take a look at the lyrics, and then dig into it. It’s called “Lose It All”.
Listen here:
Lyrics
Verse
It doesn’t matter what you bring
If all you do is take
It doesn’t matter what you say
If all your words are fake
Chorus
What can ya do?
When you’re lost
Ya tried not to fall
But you managed to lose it all
Verse
You never had to struggle
Just arrive and you’re there
You pulled up the ladder
You showed you couldn’t care
Chorus
What can you do?
When you’re lost
Ya tried not to fall
But you managed to lose it all
Bridge
It just takes time
To look inside
No matter what ya think
You’re no one’s king
Chorus
What can you do?
When you’re lost
Ya tried not to fall
But you managed to lose it all
What can you do?
When you’re lost
Ya tried not to fall
But you managed to lose it all
What can you do?
When you’re lost
How did I write this?
I started out with a little line I played on my guitar – the one that repeats through a large portion of the song – and then transferred it to the piano. This became the building block of the entire song and I was able to pretty easily piece together the rest of the music from it. After I recorded the piano section, I began writing lyrics and, in typical fashion with how I write songs, I proceeded to write everything else as I pushed my way ahead.
The verse keeps up with the intro material, however, the chorus changes slightly to allow for a slight alteration in harmony and scenery. The chorus also sets up some harmony for use in the bridge. Here is the chord progression for the song:
- Verse: D, A, Bm
- Chorus: G, A, Bm G, A, Bm G, A, Bm, E, G, A D, A, Bm
- Verse: D, A, Bm (band joins)
- Chorus: G, A, Bm G, A, Bm G, A, Bm, E, G, A Bm
- Bridge: Em, D/F#, G Em, D/F#, Bm Em, D/F#, G Em, D/F#, Bm
- Solo: G, A, Bm G, A, Bm G, A, Bm, E, G, A Bm
- Chorus: G, A, Bm G, A, Bm G, A, Bm, E, G, A Bm repeat and fade
In the case of this and many other of my songs, I let the music and lyrics dictate where things were going to go as I wrote it. So I didn’t just write all of the music for it this time around and then record vocals overtop; I wrote the music and the vocals as I went along. This allows for a slightly different approach to writing where it doesn’t so much feel like “okay, now I have to write vocals to this…” as it feels like “Okay, so if I ended that line with those words and that melody, that’s leading everything in this direction…” which feels like more organic and natural way of writing music.
Furthermore, when I write a solo into a song, I make sure I actually think of the song I’m playing when I’m soloing. I want the solo to fit the song and not just be “look what I can do” with digital patterns played at light speed overtop of the chord progression. Use or paraphrase the melody (this is a very common and successful soloing technique; quote the melody!). There is at least a million songs written with nearly every chord progression you can think of; the difference between each of them are their melodies. Think of a solo as a composition within the song that takes material and rearranges/interprets it in a slightly different way to change the colour and add meaning to the composition. Speaking of the composition and philosophies around making music, here’s my take on how I often think of writing music.
One way I often approach about how music is made is by thinking that all music already exists but just needs a vessel to come through. You can think of yourself as a musical lightning rod that allows the electricity of music to flow through you and into creation. If you practice all things music – theory, technique, learning tunes, practicing writing music, having an open mind, etc. – then you are putting your lightning rod in a storm and allowing yourself to be receptive to the creative process. However, if you don’t practice and just expect it all to happen then you’re effectively keeping your lightning rod underground and unable to actually be hit by creativity.
Parting thoughts
Thanks for taking the time to listen to and read my material. I hope this is beneficial to your own process of writing music and practicing in general. If you keep doing something over and over and are conscious of what you’re doing, you’re bound to improve over time. Writing music is just like anything else; you have to do it in order to get better at it.
Take some time each day to write a little bit of music and have fun during it. It’s hard to do with our “monetize everything” society, but try to remember that music is meant to be enjoyed. On top of that, we won’t write a masterpiece our first time, or possibly ever. Think of a carpenter that builds a beautiful spiral staircase and the amount of work it took for them to develop the skills to be able to do that successfully. They didn’t just show up one day and decide to do that; they practiced and worked at it for, likely, decades and had guidance the entire way to help them along their path.
With that said, I’m here to help guide you along your path. If you’re interested in lessons with me then contact me here or email me here and we can move forward together on a plan to help you reach your goals. I offer a sliding scale so you can fit music into your budget one way or another. I understand the cost of living and how if you don’t receive a yearly wage that is higher than inflation, you are effectively being demoted every year. That’s hard to live with and even harder to afford extra things that colour our lives like music and music lessons. We’ll find a way to make it work for you.
Thank you for your time, be kind to yourself and others, practice what you want to improve, and have a great day!
All the best,
– Matt