Hey everyone. I’m late this week! I’ve been very busy writing and recording music and videos and writing grants and this that and the other thing. Thank you for your patience and here’s this week’s track! It’s an instrumental track I named “Thoughts Processed” that I created and improvised over to get what you hear.
Listen here:
How did I write this?
The funny thing about this one is that I was intending on creating another song in the pop realm. I started out with a super basic beat on a few software instruments, made a bass line, added some chords to it – the bassline is just the root notes with stepwise motion between the chords Em and C – with another software instrument, and then I added the intro melody line.
Once I had that all pieced together I felt like grabbing my 7-string and playing over it. That ended up taking it in a whole different direction than what was originally planned. I ended up copying the melody line on the lowest 3 strings (B E A) on my 7-string and then added a rhythm track to beef up the harmony. This then lead to the next open section where I wanted to put my newly obtained “Bias FX” to work by finding, tweaking, and using a clean tone with the combination of the Piezo pickups on my guitar.
The rest is straight up improvisation. There are spots where I harmonized what I improvised because those sections seemed to call for it after I listened back.
That’s really all there was to it all. I knew the harmony was Em and C (so the key of Em or G) and I wasn’t using anything except diatonic harmony (E F# G A B C D) so I just had fun with playing over this track I made.
There aren’t any words or anything to this but I figured I’d call it “Thoughts Processed” because it sounds just like that – like it’s my thoughts processed into a nice little tune.
Parting thoughts
To summarize what I did:
- Start by writing something aimed in a particular genre/style that isn’t what you’ve spent most of your life working within
- Completely throw yourself off by having a go at it from the perspective of your preferred genre/style
- Do your best to have fun
If you spend a lot of time listening to music and, more importantly, practicing… you can also make tracks like this. A big thing – after practicing all the time – is to be kind to yourself and have fun in the process. If you’re struggling to find what you should practice, how you should practice it, or you want to reach your goals a little faster, just ask for some help and/or book a lesson.
You can contact me here or email me here at your convenience and we can book a lesson or series of lessons for you to help you reach your next steps. If you’re just looking to write a 4-chords song, figure out how to write a song using an artist like Taylor Swift as inspiration, or are just looking to find a way to make practice more musical and fun, hit me up! I’m here for you.
Thank you for your time and I hope you have an amazing weekend. Be kind to yourself and keep practicing all the things you want to improve!
All the best,
– Matt