After reflecting on how I’ve composed in the past, I decided the easiest way for me to develop ideas is to record them and add other ideas from there. I want to create something that has several layers that combined sound complex and interesting, which is easier to visualise when different things can be layered and recorded at different times. With that in mind, I tried out different tempos with this short bass part I came up with while experimenting and found that 108bpm was comfortable yet fast enough to sound energetic, even though funk metal is usually quite a bit faster.
After some time developing the ideas I had from experimentation, I had the foundations to an introduction and a first verse. I worked around a drum track that Logic generated to hear what it would sound like throughout the song and if any layers would sound clustered. The main goal here was to start trying new ideas, like the low pitched two chord pattern in the second half of this audio.
In this clip, the G to F# and E to F# pattern was quite repetitive here and the drum beat, to me, sounded a bit dull when I introduced the new idea on top of it. The main change in this clip was the addition of the chord strumming layered with the first two notes, continuation of G to F# and E to F#.
This development was where I added the opening note, which was eventually taken out in the end. I also tried out some high pitch notes for harmony in the verse part of this. I removed the layer of chords that I had in the last audio file since I thought it was muddy. The drum part was changed for the second verse to add some variation.
This clip is where I replaced the chords that I used as a placeholder for the bass with the actual bass part on guitar, as I still couldn’t play it due to how fast it is. I left a different drum bit at the end to demonstrate what variation I was thinking of moving forward.
In this part I recorded the additional section that I was thinking of with little accuracy, as it was just a test. I repeated the same part twice to figure out how long it would make sense going for. The guitar placeholder for the bass now has variation in the fact that it uses different chords
This audio file demonstrates the development I made with structure and texture with that second section. The new section now has different layers, as it’s now layered with the starting chord the whole way through and has a rhythmically displaced bass part between the chords. I also removed the clean tone guitar since I didn’t think it fit anymore. Since I now have a structure put together that amounts to a decent song duration, there isn’t much to change since I’m quite happy with how it has turned out.
Any changes in drums in the demo track were guidelines to how I thought the final product may sound with a variated drum part.
Drum development
Since we hadn’t talked about the project in over a month due to the Italy project, followed by Easter holidays, we spent some time discussing what changes we can make in the Logic drum track I used as a placeholder and what we can keep the same.
In the above video, Cody experimented with this drum beat to see if anything would fit better.