In this video we wanted to make a start on writing a song but didn’t really know how to get going. Lewis started with a beat he was working on for a while before and then Jacob started playing some chords from E and thats how he found the chords E7#9, Dmaj, Amaj and Bmaj. After he had found a solid chord progression to try out we started to try add some lead parts or try find other parts to song I was using a simple minor pentatonic box to start with I then move up to a BB box and use the second pentatonic box to resolve back to where I started. (on the fret board)
This first video is clearly us at the very start of the production for this song, I feel it was a good first step to keep playing the same 4 chords over again because this lets us explore with our scales and get a overall feel for the song and what we want it to be. Right now Lewis has a pretty basic drum pattern but the more he experiments in rehearsals at college and at home then the beat will improve. I am sure we will make good progress with the sections of the song bit by bit.
Straight away what I get from this song is elements of Led-Zeplin in the guitars, a nice mix of say 70s – 90s rock feel overall so I think we should do some research into rock songs between that time period to find out what made it so good and then take inspiration
We should all take what we have done today home and me and Jacob should both try to create more sections for the song, if we both do this then we will have 2 different results and gives us more to work with when it comes to applying the idea in the next rehearsal to the actual song and making sure it fits how we want it to.
What Went Well
Well straight away we had a beat and shortly after some chords to work with, this makes the process a lot easier than sitting around trying to find little ways to start so we saved time and got right to it. We have a foundation to work off and I am hopeful to see what happens to this idea in the next rehearsal.
What Went Wrong
For me personally I don’t like how long it took for me to find a flow with the song to feel comfortable improvising and using scales to create more for this song. I think it maybe Jacobs use of the scales and how comfortable he looks while going at speeds of the top of his head, I need to find a way for this to inspire me and motivate me to be more confident in my own ability to play and improvise as we have similar knowledge he is just quicker but I feel I will find a good way for it to benefit instead of hold back, we will see.
What Can I Do To Improve
For that entire session all we did was work on that 1 progression and I think thats the reason we didn’t leave with any thing more that a progression for 1 song. I think we can use our 1h 30 mins a little better than that by splitting the time into 2 and using one half to practice on 1 idea and the other half to practice something else like a different song or possible new ideas, at least if we do this we do more with the time we have instead of overloading our selves with the same 4 chords for ages.
In this session we know we have our foundation of the song from the first session, you can see us using the chords and trying to get a feel for how we want it to be, sadly for this session it was not incredible. I wanted to try find something else for the song maybe a little pre chorus section or something to take it away from that repeating progression however it didn’t really fit at all and just sounded crap. I feel we basically did the same as the last session and spent too long with those chords but oh well this is the first one we our working on and we will find a good way of writing and rehearsing as we go with trial and error. In the next session I would like for us to find other chords that fit in the context of the first progression and work on putting them into the song for another section.
For the solo in the video I am experimenting using the basic minor pentatonic scale in E and connecting it with another simple “BB Box” so I don’t stay using the same notes and get lost while improvising. I really like the sound of these two scales in the intro and I plan to sit down when I get home and practice with that scale to hopefully return with a near enough full solo for the intro I just need a little time.
I really like the sound of Lewis playing drums for this song now I don’t know much about drumming but I know that little pattern he plays for this song works really well and thats probably the only thing I am certain about for this song, thats a strong beat. I think the more chords and section we create for this song lewis will find good ways to keep control of the dynamics and to carry the song with a strong feeling.
Jacobs just doing the same as me really noodling around the same chord progression he doesn’t seem to have much luck with soloing today but that is what it is we know any other he can do it fine. I think if me and Jacob had a little sit down for an hour to look for and test different scales to see if they fit and how they fit with the song to better it. this will solve our little standstill.
What Went Well
I feel lewis’s drumming is really strong for this tune. I am very fond of the beat he plays for this and hope he continues to use it. When I hear my self improvising I feel like some of the little bits of what I did I can take and use like the little screech at the start thats good to open a solo and also I tried to do some form of repeating fast lick but instead of hammer ons and pull offs I slide back and forward whilst hitting a note on the higher strings to keep it nice, this is very cool if I can do it right so I will practice.
What Went Wrong
In this session there was an attempt by me to try come up with a pre chorus section or at least any thing different, I started on a G power chord and then just kept rising in tones but this sounded terrible and I wont do that again. Although for a brief moment that G chord sounded like it did fit. I still feel we did not utilise our time properly in these rehearsal sessions because we just repeated the same progression like before.
What Can I Do To Improve
The obvious thing is to come up with a new way of spending our time in rehearsals as we keep getting stuck making no progress on one song. I plan to through another song into the mix to work with, that way we wont get stuck doing the same thing because if we see no progresses with the first song we can chill and work on the other song and back and forth so we aren’t wasting our time.
Like I said before I plan to see if there are some chords I can connect to the G power chord to build a pre chorus or whatever it may turn out to be. Its the same for the scales too me and Jacob will have a moment where we can have a look at some different scales and see which ones match the song the best.
It is crazy the amount of progress we made rehearsing at my house for the first time. We rehearsed and brainstormed for about 4-5 hours and now we have to other parts to the song guitar wise and also the drums are sounding a lot better now Lewis spent some time with the beat around the chords he has found some good ways for the drums to blend with guitar really nicely, don’t get me wrong I don’t even know if I am happy with the current structure but either way at least we have other parts to work with now. So after about 2 days we have a great start to the first song.
The video shows us just after figuring out what we wanted the other chords to be, so the next section is the pre-chorus with power chords G, B, D, and E x2. Although I am happy with our progress I will say I don’t know if I am happy with the structure of the song right now purely because of the x2 pre-chorus I think we could space it out a little more so it doesn’t seem so rushed but we can figure it out as we go. It also shows that we have got a chorus idea for the song that seems pretty catchy if I do say so myself, the chords are Cmaj, Dmaj, Bmaj G, F# E.
One thing I am really happy about it the fact that I wrote a crazy intro solo for the song, after listing to it for a while it reminded me of Rock You Like A Hurricane and they have an awesome intro solo to really set expectations high so I wanted that for our song so in this session I used the same scale I used before but with a lot more confidence and after seeing some of the stuff Jacob was doing with his scales I wanted to see if I could take little things what I hear and apply it to my solos. Then after a lot of improvising I played a solo that just clicked with me, now that doesn’t mean I played it perfectly or that I cant change any thing to make it smoother but it does mean 1 I am getting better and more comfortable soloing and improvising and 2 means I managed to find a good way to not be disheartened by Jacobs solos and can now play on different levels just as confident as one and other.
For next rehearsal I think we should work on putting in a bridge to continue the song, maybe like a slower build up that can merge into the chorus without a worry. I really hope Ben can make the next rehearsal as it may hinder our progress.
What Went Well
Rehearsing at home has proven to be a massive help when it comes to progress in writing songs and sections for our songs as we have doubled our work time and tripled the amount of work we produced in the last rehearsal in college compared to at home. We now have an intro, verse, pre-chorus and chorus to arrange into a almost finished song.
What Went Wrong
One big problem we faced was making sure all of our equipment was in the right place and working how it should. The night before I set things up to the best of my ability with the space we had available and found that the High-Hat on my kit sounds like it was made before christ and my snare sounded like it should be a Low-Tom, I will say we got the kit to a better standard when lewis came up as he has a drum key and more drum knowledge than me to help set things up. This could of cost us some valuable time if I had not done it the night before and if we didn’t have all the time we had this session we might not have produced such good work.
What Can I Do To Improve
Firstly I can familiarise myself with setting up the basics of a drum kit, that way the set up wont take so long and we wont have to worry about losing time to setting up gear or moving stuff around. I can arrange the room so I can easily move the keyboard from A to B along with amps and drums. Secondly I can sit down in my own time to try look at different arrangements for the pre-chorus so it doesn’t feel so rushed and out of place.
This video shows the first time we have a clear structure for our song with a Intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro. The song is really coming along and I see clear progress from all of us although I do feel we need to go through Bens parts and separate his chords from the guitar chords some how or maybe get him to play a little bass on the keys as well. Since now we have a full song structure I can start looking at writing lyrics for the song and finding what we want it to be about.
Before we started recording I showed the lads how I think we should change the pre-chorus as it felt rushed and I thought the new version would improve the quality of the song and the lads agreed so in the video you can here the G power chord followed by a B, D and a E all power chords and we do that twice whilst playing the main riff in between.
The biggest issue that stands out to me straight away is the bridge, now don’t get me wrong I know we only just made it but we could have that a whole lot tighter starting with me changing up my strumming patterns and separate my self from what Jacob is doing to really bring out the build up and develop the over all quality of this tune. After a few more practice sessions with Lewis I am sure he will have the bridge down a whole lot better than he did in this video I am sure of it and again maybe we can find something else to do on the keys instead of all 3 of us playing the same chords.
I think it would be a good idea to leave the last chorus to do alternating solos between me and Jacob as that would just finish us off nicely.
Also I came up with a good on stage idea for the bridge on Some One Call The Doctor. The idea is if me, Jacob and Ben march to Lewis playing the kick drum, I feel this will show more personality on stage and will make us look more like entertainers instead of just shy on a stage.
What Went Well
This is the first video of the entire song full structure. We have the intro down pretty well and the verses sound like they are ready for some lyrics. In past attempts lewis didn’t always play the end right and go on for too long but in this take he got it right and yeah we feel better about this song so we may start looking at the next.
What Went Wrong
The bridge sounds absolutely terrible right now because the guitars and keys are all playing the same chords and the drums is just very very out of time for the bridge which really brought the quality of the video down but this is what the rehearsals are for.
What Can I Do To Improve
Like I said earlier for the bridge I can help with Ben and find him something else to play and I will find different strumming patterns to separate me from Jacobs guitar. I definitely think we need to work a lot more on getting the ending down and tight because for now it is rare we can grab an ending like we did in this video.
Instrumentally this is the best copy of this song we currently have, it has every thing we want in it. The intro sounds great the only thing I would change is to a humbucker pick up for a fatter sound on the solo. Every thing is tight instrumentally this shows we are gaining a comfortability with this song which is great as we need to have that comfortability if we want to perform well and more importantly ready and perfected for recording.
Now this is also the first video where we have lyrics and vocals for the verses, for the lyrics I have been writing them and adjusting them as I have stayed with them for about a week or so now. One thing I need is some lyrics for the chorus and I think I will struggle with this part but a way I can make it easier is if I can find a little melody within some scales we use to solo for this song that would help me massively so I will spend some time working to find a good melody for the song.
The last thing I want to say is we either need access to the room with the desk in or the mics all need to be plugged in one desk only because its difficult to use with no access to the room with the desk in it, in result of this since we cant adjust the volume for some mics the sound quality sounds terrible and really low in volume.
What Went Well
We have never sounded so tight with our instruments which is a great sign. We can now add vocals and the lyrics I have written to push the song’s progress even closer to recording. I think we are all pretty confident in our ability to play this song now.
What Went Wrong
The vocals were really quiet which is not good for our practice or our videos because I cant tell if we am doing a good job of it. We do not yet have all the lyrics completed for the song causing us to stop singing in the chorus making us look unconfident and unsure on what to do.
What Can I Do To Improve
I can start by working on a melody for the chorus and start jotting lyrics down on top of the melody to get this some completed and strong for recording and live performances. I can also see if we can use a different room since we don’t have access to all the mics in this room.
I know it does not sound like much now but I can imagine us putting some sort of repeating sentence on it, something about being cocky or something obvious like that.
This is the first time we worked on the summer song together, I had written a chorus which I felt was really strong and just asked the lads to jump on with whatever they could just to get a feel for it. I also made a little drum track on Ableton for lewis to take inspiration from just because without it I would not have had the same feeling about the song. (I had my mind set.) I had made a verse in little time but I was not a hundred percent sold on the idea as it was quite rushed so I thought it was rubbish. Give me a little more time and the verse will surely grow.
I really like some of the high end stuff ben is adding on the keys as well playing the chords with me, theres something about a guitar and piano on some songs and this is one of them it just goes nice together. Don’t get me wrong there is some moments where we both sound terrible together but thats bound to happen on first time playing the idea with each other so we just play through it. I really want to be able to capture some of the energy Lewis was putting into some of the sections of this song because it would work great for a final chorus to really amplify the feeling the song provides.
Overall I think the session went pretty well I think lewis did well to bring energy and capture the kind of feel I had in mind for the song and Ben did some things on the keyboard that brought out aspects of the song I would never of thought of if I had not been working with him and hearing what he can do. Jacob was not with us this session which I feel will impact or progress speeds a little but as long as he makes the next ones we should be okay he is good.
What Went Well
We did a good job of improvising with each other and managed to show little hints of what we can add to the song, this can set us up in the next session with what to do for the chorus and I should have a verse to work on with them by then too.
What Went Wrong
There was some moments for all of us where it was like we all clashed with each other and some of my improvising was absolutely terrible but I cant look at it too seriously as it is our first time playing the song with each other. I feel like my tone could of been better as I can hear a lot gain and I don’t feel that is necessary.
What Can I Do To Improve
I can start building on the verse chords that I wrote and turn them it something better than just one chord being played over like 4 bats which is a super boring let down. I can also look within the scales I used to improvise today to find a melody for a verse or maybe a chorus melody just something to sing along to at least.
This is the new verse and already it sounds better and easier to sing over though I haven’t tried yet, but I will.
I also came up with an awesome new bridge which is sort of like a pop style of build up with some lead parts over the top of it that I wrote it should should sound beautiful and I bet Lewis could do something cool with it too.
Well I am just going to point out the obvious Jacob’s guitar is well out of tune and non of us spotted it (which is a bit embarrassing but oh well we move.) This really brought the quality of the recording and rehearsal down now I look at the video. We need to make sure we are not making these little mistakes and if anything look out for them in future clearly our ear isn’t as good as we thought. He is getting the chords down and his timing seems to be right as well so I cant fault him there, I like the way he switches from playing the same chords as me for the beginning and then moving them to the bottom of the fretboard a few octaves down I feel when he is in tune that will bring out a thicker sound and provide more feeling for the listener Lewis started off strong for the first minute I see he must if been practising at home I do feel he does well, don’t get me wrong there are still parts that will need work for example I feel he could do with sitting on the kit with me playing the song so he can really get that structure in his head and to practice different fills over it because in this video he mainly sticks with his snare for the fills.
Looking at the sections of the song the 2nd pre chorus seems to be the weakest, looking at the video it is hard to differentiate the verse and chorus with the way that this sounds which is all sloppy. We really need to tighten this up but I am sure we will when we get familiar with it.
Now on to me, my tone is still the same as the last rehearsal and it does not fit, I need to remember to switch my tones depending on what song I am playing because this is another rookie error and its recurring. I felt my hand getting pretty tired when I am playing the chorus and I feel I am pressing to hard on the fretboard so I need to make sure I chill out and loosen up in future and have a good few practice sessions in my own time to get my strength up. In the second verse me and Jacob really clash with the individual notes we pick out of the chords, the timing is just all off, we need to organise some patterns and ways to sound different but fit in with each other, we need to do this soon. My timing seems to be tight in most areas until my hand starts to ache so I need to be training that strength.
This is the second session Ben has missed while working on this summer song, he needs to be with us or he may fall behind and that is good for no one.
Overall I think we can all do a lot better by looking out to see if we are all in tune, getting used to the song and by practicing at home because once we target these areas I am sure this song will sound as good as it did in my head.
What Went Well
I feel lewis did well to remember the sections of the song and keep his drumming pretty much consistent other than a few small errors and the he quickly corrects it.
What Went Wrong
Lets start with the obvious again I don’t know how any of us didn’t pick up on it but Jacob was way out of tune and it really made us sound like we didn’t know what we was doing and to add to it for this supposed to be soft and summery song I have gain and distortion coming through my amp to really add to exactly the opposite of what we want for this song maybe it just was not our day. I had to quickly show Jacob the chords for the bridge resulting in me being late to the lead part which we need to learn from and remember it so it doesn’t happen often.
What Can I Do To Improve
I can have a moment with Jacob and make sure he knows what chords to play on the bridge and after that I am sure it will be fine he does well. When me and Jacob have that session we will also cover the timings and right notes to pick out so we don’t clash so much in the verse sections. I can gain strength in my hand by practicing warm ups and going over the song also I plan on finding a video to build fretting hand strength. Lewis just needs to practice and decide what he wants to do with the fills.
I came across this video and thought this would be no problem as I went over other exercises that I thought looked similar but my god was I wrong, to start with I couldn’t even do the exercises at any speed never mind 70bpm it took me a good 30 minutes to reprpgram my brain to move my fingers like that. It looked so simple yet I found it so hard it first, I played around some more with it started getting the hang of it and then left it for a night to come back to it, now I can play it at just about 100 bpm. I feel this is a great exercise for building strength and I plan on adding this to my routine of practice.
From the start of this video Lewis just is not having a good day with the drums, his timing is all off for the intro and it just carries on into the verse and so on, I think he definitely did not practice as much as he should of since we last rehearsed at mine. Not only does his timing seem to be off but also he is not playing how he normally plays, with his brain that is I think he may need to have a good solid practice session and hope he has a better time near the end of the session. this went on after we restarted the song and then we restarted again because of me, looking back I feel it would of been smarter to keep playing as we need to the practice but maybe my thought path was to really make sure he had that intro down but I do not feel I should have made every one stop as much as I did. (I will work on this) He still needs to look in tot he fills he is playing and find something other than the snare and the occasional use of a tom but I feel when he practices he will have it down nicely with new fills.
On a more positive note me and Jacob seem to be collaborating well today from the start Jacob is in tune and has a beautiful tone and I finally got rid of the gain ruining the song so my guitar sounds nice as well, very fitting for the the song. Our timing seems to be pretty much on it even if Lewis was a little off putting. For the verse I feel like I need to figure out the little notes I want to pick out along side Jacob because it is still clashing while I improvise and look for something that fits. I really like what Jacob does with the little triads to really bring out the chords I am playing in the pre chorus. we did not make it to the end of the song because I kept stopping us which resulted in us loosing time we could of practiced for. (I think I was just getting a little frustrated, needed a break maybe.)
Ben still is not here to rehearse on the weekend so I think we need to do a few extra rehearsal sessions at college which is not such a bad thing considering we cant get to the end of the song.
Overall I think we did not use our rehearsal time to the fullest which may set us back in our progression and slow us down getting to the recording period. Lewis definitely could of played better and had better timing, I need to stop stopping us when we make mistakes and figure our what notes I want to pick out in the verses I also think I need to strum faster on the bridge with more energy to deliver the feel of a build up instead of just continuing the song. and Jacob played really well, his timing was great and he was in tune.
What Went Well
Mine and Jacobs timing was on point, my tone fit the song and I got rid of the gain, Jacob was in tune resulting in a way better sound than heard in the last video.
What Went Wrong
Lewis had his timing all wrong today and he really was not playing to the degree he normally does, my lack of playing resulted in an empty sounding bridge with no build up making the song sound boring and drag. I kept stopping us after every few mistakes to go back to the beginning which resulted in us loosing time to go over the start again, I didn’t even let us finish the song.
What Can I Do To Improve
Lewis really needs to practice the song and improve his timing and look into his fills for the transitions to add some more exiting variations on the toms instead of sticking to the snare. I can look into the section in the verse and get like 3 notes I can play to not take attention away from what Jacob is playing so the chords can blend well. I need to remember to strum more in the pre chorus to show a build up.
I had some time to write some lyrics out last night and the video shows me and Jacob after meeting and getting the chords and structure down like we planned we managed to move on to fitting in a melody with the words I wrote but overall we are just getting an idea of what we want the verse to sound like and trying to find a good note to end on and hold that note so I can jump on with words for the pre chorus. Jacob was messing around with a scale and managed to find a vocal melody for us to use in the verse.
Other than a few timing errors in the very beginning all of us seem to be spot on with the timing of the song, Lewis is getting a lot better after a couple of run throughs with him he is started to get it for this intro using different fills on the toms and overall just playing a lot better. I have a little bit of gain running through my amp and I actually don’t mind it because it is not a crazy amount and it sits well with the other instruments and feel of the song. All of the chords are ringing out clear and both of the guitars can be heard just fine. The feel of this intro hits exactly how I wanted it to its powerful from the moment it kicks off after the intro to when it calms down for the verse. Lewis also seems to be a lot calmer and in control of what he is doing instead of winging it like he did in the past few videos.
On to the verse me ands Jacob have found a way where I strum the chords and pick out 3 notes at the end of the bar and he arpeggiates those chords and has them ring out around the strumming of my guitar. The timing is right the only thing I will say is I need to get those 3 notes sounding smoother although they sound better its not fully there yet. In the second verse I seem to get it smoother on the first time round which is an improvement it just means I need to practise it.
For the pre chprus I feel we did a better job as a build up and it really does sound great but I am still not hyping the build up enough I need to hit harder but I will remember this.
The chorus I am very happy with as it all sound tight and clear, I feel this is a great example of how we wanted the song to sound and a great example of how we play when we are well practised and focused on the music we are playing. I like the way Lewis plays this chorus as it has energy and feel in it, mine and Jacobs guitars seem to bounce off each others perfectly and I think that is because of a good volume level for once so thats something to consider for next time.
What Went Well
We played to the end with no stoppages this time. We all were playing a lot better than before by our tone being better, our timing and our team work were all better this time around. Lewis included other toms instead of just sticking with the top left and snare. The tone was a light mix of gain in a clean channel and seemed to work well with Jacobs and guitar and the overall feel of the song and Lewis has way more control over what he playing. I feel our volume level was at a good balance, every thing could be heard clearly.
What Went Wrong
I feel like a few of the fills lewis played were improvised and he was close to loosing the timing with some of them but luckily saving them in time for the next section he would also occasionally speed up a little. I really do need to hit the pre chorus harder and really make that build up clear although it was good it was not perfect yet but it will be soon.
What Can I Do To Improve
I can have a sit down with Lewis to organise some fills that are a lot more solid and that fit in time with the song a lot better instead of just having random ones and praying it works we will find some that fit the song. I need to strum the pre chorus with more aggression to really bring across the build up that we want to show. I think we would benefit from just focusing on playing this song for a while and make sure we are all caught up with it has we haven’t had Ben either.
One idea to help with the vocals would be to get ben to do strong backing vocals as he wont struggle us much as we do with the higher section. I need to find a way to be able to hit the same notes but not have to shout or bely to be able to get em out.
Today me and Ben used the session to find a vocal melody for the chorus as that is the main thing we need to do before chorus lyrics. We spent some time taking some videos humming and scatting different melody’s trying to get a feel on how we wanted it to go. In the video you can hear me trying scatting, as strange as it is it kinda works and helps with finding little melody’s or helps figure how what kind of lyrical rhythm we might want or how fast we sing. I do wish it was more on key but that will come from practice and getting used to the song.
We did that for a long while until we could see we weren’t getting any further with it we started brain storming lyrics and ideas of what we want the chorus to carry. We figured since the rest of the song is like just being tired of doing so much and wanting some normal time with a loved one without a worry of drowning in whatever tasks overflow daily life. We want the chorus to represent finding that peacful moment, that hideaway just for you, like a mental haven.
After spending some time on the melody we wanted to find out an overall theme and motive for the lyrics as this would make it a lot easier to write good lyrics. The notes show us going through ideas of holidays and places that would be relaxing for a break away from stress.
We worked together well me and Ben its always nice to work with him on melodies and lyrics because he thinks like me and we share similar views.
Here is us trying again with still no result. We were trying to figure out if we could put harmonies on the chorus before writing the lyrics but we didn’t manage to get any thing we like so in a way we kinda failed this chorus but there is still time.