Ricochet is probably the most complex song I have written. It has elements of classical guitar and acoustic playing, as well as the heavy drive of a full metal band. This mixture of sounds is what makes this song unique in comparison to my first two pieces.
The reason I went for the name ‘Ricochet’ for this song, is because this song feels to me as though it bounces around between clean and distorted guitar tones. In addition to this, the term ‘ricochet’ is also normally associated with a bullet bouncing off of a surface, so I felt as though this title couldn’t have been more fitting for my EP.
The song itself instantly has a ‘Metallica’ vibe about it as the introduction slowly fade in with a clean acoustic guitar sound playing a menacing chromatic riff, similar in shape to the one in my previous track ‘In Flames’
When looking for inspiration for how I wanted this last song to sound, I was listening to Metallica’s ‘…And Justice For All.’ This song has an acoustic intro with a classical feel that switches to a heavy guitar sound almost out of nowhere, and that’s what I was hoping to do in my own work. The actual idea for my riff came from me still wanting to mess around with chromatic sounds, and eventually I had something that I liked.
Again this song is using an E minor blues scale, due to the chromatic notes in there. In addition to using chromatic notes to give a menacing vibe, I also never let the guitar riff resolve itself down to a low E; instead I end the riff with a G or an F# before shooting back up to a B on the A string. Here is how it sounds:
While this riff is being played a quiet bass guitar comes in ringing out a single low E every two bars. Once this is in, there is some soft clean guitar improvisation over the top of it playing an E minor pentatonic in the centre of the fret-board.
A heavy version of the acoustic riff then comes in for two bars, before fading out again. this repeats twice in total, with the third time being played for four bars as the main riff comes in. Here is the heavy riff variant:
When the heavy riff comes along, The lead guitar comes in as well playing an E harmonic minor scale. This is also improvised, but it rises up from the bottom octave to the top octave on the first time, and then decedents back down the same pattern on the next.
Now for the main riff of the song. This track is much slower paced than the first two as I wanted to have a slower song to give the EP more variety, so this riff is thus much slower than my previous tracks.
Essentially the riff is built up of sparse palm muted power-chords, and filled with the melody line. This is all on one guitar rather than a lead and rhythm guitar as I felt as though this added to the drive of the piece. This riff/melody starts by bending G on the D string half a step before playing a hammer on from D to E on the A string. Once again this is a riff with a changing ‘tail,’ as it ends differently on each repeat. The line itself repeats eight times, with a 3rd harmony coming in on the last four times. Also this line makes use of the chromatic blues notes, and when they are played, the second guitar plays the same notes but an octave higher. Here is what both parts look like:
In the next section, the song drops out back to the original acoustic guitar riff. In this section I included a bass guitar solo. I did this because not only did it feel like it belonged there, but it was also adding more variety to my EP and new sounds to it. The solo itself isn’t particularly demanding as it wasn’t a major focal point, but it worked really nicely with the backing. The whole solo is just improvisation in an E minor pentatonic shape, and consists of mainly just triplet cascades, and short runs.
After this small section comes the guitar solo. I wrote a different rhythm part to go underneath the solo to this song, although it remains similar to the heavy intro riff. The main difference is that it settles on the E and G chord of the riff rather than having the chromatic notes as the focal point. Here is how it sounds:
As with the other two songs, once I had my sections completed I began to structure the song accordingly:
Intro (Clean and Distorted)
Verse (Main Riff)
Intro Riff + Bass Solo (Clean)
Half Verse
Guitar Solo Section
Intro Clean then Intro Heavy
Verse (Main Riff to End)
Now that this was in place, I began working on a guitar solo for the track. On this song I wanted to make use of my ‘wah’ pedal, so I held back on the speed of my playing and payed more attention to the effects.
The solo itself focuses on playing ‘Chuck Berry’ style blues bends and using the wah pedal to give a sound similar to that of Kirk Hammett’s playing. The majority of the solo is in E Aeolian, and follows the rhythm section, but with added runs and such in between. I tried to land on the route notes as double stops whenever the rhythm locks onto either an E or a G as I felt as though it worked really well. This overall isn’t massively demanding to play and is more focused on timing and pedal work, but really adds to the sound of the track – especially when combined with the use of a wah pedal.
Here is a video of what the solo should look like with the track when performed live:
This solo in particular is a lot of fun to play and perform as the combination of the slower tempo and use of effects allows you to be a bit more free with your strumming hand, and have a slightly more laid back or messy play style. This completly contrasts the precision and speed of my other two solos, and brings in more diversity to my EP while still fitting into the ‘Heavy Metal’ genre.
This song took three weeks to finish, the longest out of the three to reach completion, as not only was it longer and more complicated in arrangement, but while writing this track I also had a couple more ideas recorded that never got used in the end. In addition to this, I had less recording time on this track as other students wanted to use the recording room so I had to wait my turn.
After finally getting this song done, here is my final draft before mixing:
The main bit of feedback i got from my peers after them having listened to my final draft, is that the audio levels between the distortion guitar and clean guitar needed some serious balancing to be done. So when going back into the recording room to help make the professional mix, I lowered the levels of the distortion guitars to closer match the clean parts.
Here is the final mix after having it mastered by an industry professional:
Summary / Evaluation:
Overall I was the most pleased with this song that the other two. This was because I feel as though I have really pushed myself on the composition side of the work, and the result was a much more complex and interesting song to listen to. Many of my peers even said that this song was the best out of the three in terms of complexity, and I believe so too.
As I have said, this song took the longest to produce as it had many different parts, however I feel as though the time spent on it was worth it. The Verse rhythm/melody section was more unique than any other parts from my songs as it combined the idea of having a rhythm section and a melody line, and made it into one part. The addition of the third harmony for this line was a great touch I feel, and it gave the section a very ‘Iron Maiden’ sound.
The use of the wah pedal in the solo of this song makes it extremely fun to play, and it also makes it sound very similar to the playing style of Metallica’s guitarist ‘Kirk Hammett’ which again is the kind of style I am going for. It also makes this solo sound unique to the other two songs as its the only one that uses this effect.
I also feel that the acoustic guitar introduction section with a fazes of distortion make the song have this real harsh feel and builds up a sort of suspense as the song begins to kick in. A fitting sound for my final EP.
This song however was the hardest to record as I had several failed attempts at sections, and even some issues with recording equipment not working due to other students leaving the recording room with equipment not used with respect. This was all worked around though, and I got things in working order with the help of some of the music staff who have more knowledge of the equipment there than myself.
Ultimately, this song was a success in the end. It was the hardest one to work on, and even frustrated me at times, however the end result is defiantly something to be proud about. I am very pleased with this song, I dare say it is my best out of the three, and it was such a sigh of relief to have finally finished this. Not only had I finished another track, but my whole EP was now ready to be launched.