This is the start of what I hope to be something I can write weekly to document what I’ve been listening to in terms of taking inspiration from songs and just learning more about music. I’m gonna start with 3 songs per week then see where it evolves from there. Hopefully this will be the sort of thing where readers can learn about new artists/songs they haven’t heard before and over time I hope to have suggestions coming in so please comment or tweet me with any suggestions of music to listen to. If people are interested, I might review some music too.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to Shinedown’s album Threat to Survival. It’s always been an album I’ve enjoyed since I first heard it around early 2016 I think.
One of the best tracks from the album is Oblivion:
This is a song which starts with a sort of gospel feel with the piano intro, but quickly evolves into a hard hitting rock song, with an impressive smoothness that says a lot for the band’s songwriting skills. Although the change is sudden, it feels right, and the pulsating rhythm of the guitars in the verse is brilliantly composed with the muted notes and the energy in the chords. I’m trying to work on these sorts of transitions in my own music, and taking notes from both that change and the build into the chorus in this song is proving very helpful.
On a side note, the drum sound on this track is incredible
One of my favourite bands ever is Queen’s of the Stone Age, and although nothing in their discography really challenges to Songs for the Deaf, there is still some amazing songs (which just shows the lengths of how good their most iconic album is really). One I’ve been listening to recently is Make It Wit Chu:
There’s a lot to take note of in this song. It’s always impressive when a song can remain engaging al the way through while maintaining the same chords. at 4:50, and keeping the C, A, E chord progression the whole way through, Make It Wit Chu is a great example of this. It keeps a relaxed, almost lazy feel throughout, and the slightly crunchy lead guitar sitting just below the vocals in the verses does a lot for this, as well as the subtle addition of piano helps to create a great atmosphere. This has inspired me to experiment with instrumentation in my own music to change or create the feel of a song, and I think it’s taken a lot of my composition to a new level above where it was, when I would only ever consider guitar bass and drums. It also led me to think more about the drum parts, rather than just keep it consistent, adding small changes every now and then just to keep the listener engaged.
I think Mark Tremonti is one of the best guitar players currently making music. His technique is outstanding and his solos are always interesting and I enjoy him both in Alter Bridge and as a frontman in Tremonti.
One of his Tremonti songs, Throw Them to the Lions is an outstanding guitar performance.
There are two specific things I really like about his playing in this track. The first is in the choruses. He plays in a way in which I feel serves the song really well, especially in the first two choruses. It has a feel of the guitar and the vocal taking turns, this may be due to the nature of him performing both the lead vocals and lead guitar in the band but it’s done in a way that just sounds slightly different to how most people do it. I the emphasis seems to comfortably flow back and forth between the band and the vocals and I feel it just lifts the energy of the chorus overall.
Secondly, the guitar part in the second verse is brilliant. It’s very dynamic and the way it changes twice during the chorus of the verse helps build anticipation for the chorus. I’m going to try and implement this style of changing guitar parts mid-section more into my playing.
This concludes the first of these (hopefully) weekly posts and I hope you’ve found it worthwhile. If you want to , do get in touch via twitter or other social medias and suggest to me some music you’ve found inspiring.
Cheers
