Question for the pro's

[Jason Lynch]

Quick question or two for the pro's ( David Hartley and mark Dunn particularly)
I'm considering several tunes to start picking out the melody to.
Q1. How do you pick a key? Do you choose the same as the original, or a key you're comfortable with? Or one you can write a backing track to successfully? Or another reason?
Q2 where would you start? Single note melody, chord positions , scales or places you know instinctively that work for certain keys? Or all of them? Thanks guys and gals.

[Jason Lynch]

19 views and not one answer.......?

[Zebedee]

I'm not a pro, but I will still try to answer your questions.

I would pick either the original key, or a key that I am not comfortable with, in order to stretch myself a bit.

I would probably pick out the melody from the chord positions, so that I would always know that I could get out of trouble quickly, in a live situation.

[Donny Johnston]

I always start with the chords in the original key, see how much of the tune I can pick out, then play it in as many keys as possible, I write all my BIAB tracks in C then transpose to whichever key I decide to play the tune in. Hope that helps.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

19 views and not one answer.......?

Question was aimed directly to D/H and M/D
Had it been open to all I reckon you would have had lots of response

[David Hartley]

Hi Jason..
Good question actually.
If I am recording a backing track, I will always record it in the same key as the song I am copying.
If the finished backing track needs to be transposed to make it more comfortable for either myself or Fran to sing, I will transpose before adding acoustic guitars to the track.

You said you are considering tunes to start picking the melody to, and that's a good thing to do. You ought to contact John Russell, the guy with the Franklin in Norwich. He is doing just this, and tabbing too, He is learning so much, and his tabs are brilliant. He rarely comes on the forum unfortunately, but I can give you his email, some of the songs might not be your cup of tea, neither mine, but I check the tabs for him and they're great. Phantom of the opera and stuff!

I start with drums, intro only, then add bass intro only, then add piano, intro only..
Next, I work on the next 4 or 8 bars, the same way, drums, bass, piano....
All songs have a format, usually intro, verse, chorus, turnaround, verse, chorus, end...maybe a key change...
So, as you can see, I only have to record a few PARTS, before making a song out of these recorded parts.
If I used part 2 (the first 4 bars of the first verse), and it's repeated in the second, or third verses, I just paste it in the appropriate places. You usually find second time round, there might be a different instrument backing up the vocals, so it's a matter of adding just that instrument to the part second time round.

For many years, I have done it this way, you learn a lot, because you listen to just a few bars of a song many times before copying it, and it's surprising what you learn, and hear, especially with harmonies, and effects, panning and acoustic instrument sounds.

Contact me for further info. PS.. You MUST use headphones, good ones, and route both the track you are copying and your own recorded parts through the headphones with a mixer, or wear two headphones, ie. iPod headphones to listen to the original and fully enclosed over the top of them monitoring your recording. The mixer idea is better. You will get the sounds good as you go along. I can listen to music now, and I can identify what instrument sound is being used from what library of sounds available on sounds modules... Yes, most string sections are not real of course, and most pianos are samples. It's good fun, and I am glad you are doing this...

Jason, I replied as soon as I could. 5.30am on Sunday, Its now 6am and I am going out shooting. If I haven't left it too late to get them 'pesky wabbits' that are eating my new trees..

[Jason Lynch]

If I haven't left it too late to get the bloody rabbits that are eating my new trees..

Ahhh, poor little fluffy bunnies...
Thanks david, that's kind of what I was after. And thanks Richard and Donny too. Great stuff.
David, do you start picking a melody single note, or harmonised scale, or chord positions?

[David Hartley]

Jason.

Sticking to the melody when making a song an instrumental is best. I have been told, many times, by players and listeners to my music, that they like my style as they can always here the melody, as if it were being sung, in my instrumentals. So, build it up, maybe singe notes in the first half of the first verse, and adding a single harmony note a few seconds into the song, and working your way up, maybe even an octave higher by the end, or in a chorus, then down in the lower frets later on.. Don't jump around too much up and down the neck in one verse. You will learn so much by doing what you are doing. I told you weeks ago, you are at this stage with your playing. And a camcorder is good to watch and listen to yourself afterwards. You will always 'cringe' at yourself at certain places in your instrumental, I still do that now, but what comes out of your head at the time of playing it, if it's improvised, can't be changed at the time of recording, but can be changed next time you play it.. I can't wait to see one of your pieces, or at least hear it if you don't YouTube it.. Well done, I am only a phone call or an email away if you need further help.

PS.. Re..keys..... I love F, Bb, D, C, and G. Avoid E and A if possible, as you have them open fret zero positions to play in when your slide goes right low, and it's hard... But hopefully, some of your copied tracks, in the original keys wil be in C# and Eb, F# etc.... It's good to play in these positions to and gets you thinking more... I always play COLD COLD HEART in Eb. It sounds good in that key...

PPS... I have 2 less intruders on my land now...

[slimbo]

Good question, and the guy's have given you some excellent advice.
As for what key to play in, that is of course your choice, me, I tend to watch the big boy's and learn from them, and I noticed that Emmons usually plays in a key that plays the lowest note in the song somewhere down on the lower fret's i.e. F/G. It gives you so much richness in the front end of the song, and when the second part of the song need's playing you have all the sweetness of the top end of the steel to do some really fancy moves, just my two penny's worth.

[Mark]

Hi Jason

I missed this post; just picked it up today.

I would suggest at the beginning of your practice session you run over the scales we talked about in the meeting. This will get your fingers moving freely - I should add, practice using a metronome, this helps your timing, bar accuracy and picking technique. Try the scale in 3 or 4 keys each day, and run up and down the scale. After you've practiced this for a few minutes, start thinking about the song you want to play and how you can pick out the melody line using the scale note positions. As David suggested, stick strictly to the melody line. Once you have the melody line firmly fixed in one position start experimenting with moving little sections up and down the fretboard, but remember to stick to the melody - In the meeting we looked at two scale positions for a given key, think about the melody line in both of those positions and think about the scale note positions you have between the two basic positions.

I have to say Jason, I'm revisiting this myself at the moment.

Cheers
Mark