"Music Theory"

cool 8) jazzy 8) and not long enough :( ...smoke

Well, to be honest I don't hear the 'weirdness' very much, even apart from the fact that theory doesn't say something 'belongs' together, it merely labels the possible combinations. It was kinda nice though, I think, there just doesn't seem to be much happening.

hey sounds pretty nice, but it just seems like you had a nice riff in the beggining that set the mood and then later just started doing some random stuff, some of the time it was working and some of it sounded like you were just hitting random notes. Backing arjen up, Music theory just names the distances between the notes so when you imagine a sound in your head and try to play it on a guitar you just think "oh a diminshed 5th" and you play it. The really good people who improvise well or write strange but great music either are the one in a 1000 person whos brain automatically realizes and remembers how music fits together or they learned everything years ago. They are in control of the music not at the mercy of it.

It kind of reminds me of the first song I put up on here where I had this e jam where my solo sounded good and all but it was just total bs when you looked at the chord progression and someone called me out on it. Im just saying that there is a whole other world out there where your weird solos just follow your weird melody and they sound better then the beggining. If your "making it happen" then your melody should imply a harmonic progression even standing alone.

Hey, thanks for all the comments/criticism, I appreciate it.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=652530&songID=4992486

I uploaded an updated version, this one's about twice as long and it goes into some new territory at the end. I ended up typing this out into power tabs to see what it looked like laid out.. on paper it looks insane.
Well, to be honest I don't hear the 'weirdness' very much, even apart from the fact that theory doesn't say something 'belongs' together, it merely labels the possible combinations. It was kinda nice though, I think, there just doesn't seem to be much happening.

I don't know anything about music theory (not something I'm proud of, mind you). Maybe just a little about chord progressions, but that's really it. Using the definition you used for musical theory, I guess this piece would be considered outside the "possible combinations music theory presents." To say that what I played doesn't necessarily belong together according to musical theory or to say the piece is just "outside music theory's labeled potential combinations" is semantics, I think.

Music theory, from what I know, is open-ended. But it does define some of what sounds good together, and by doing that, by definition it also defines what doesn't sound good together. I don't know, maybe I'm full of it.
hey sounds pretty nice, but it just seems like you had a nice riff in the beggining that set the mood and then later just started doing some random stuff, some of the time it was working and some of it sounded like you were just hitting random notes.

Yeah, I liked that riff in the beginning, on the updated version it's a little faster and I tacked a slight variation of it on the end.

But it does define some of what sounds good together, and by doing that, by definition it also defines what doesn't sound good together. I don't know, maybe I'm full of it.

Yup, you are. ;) Theory doesn't describe what sounds good, that's up to the composer to decide. You can't play outside of theory, you can't 'break its rules' or any such thing. Theory is just a system that allows people to analyse music in retrospect, if you ever do something truly unique and unheared of we'll just give it a name and you're back in the system. :D

Anyway, it doesn't matter. What matter is that you write more tunes. :)

This helped me tremendously to think about. There are only 12 notes in western music right. And in a full major or any diatonic scale there are 7 of those 12 notes. So if you start off thinking in C your C major scale is
CDEFGABC
Now if you learn how to use those 7 notes in C, there are only 5 other notes to think about, ever, period!
Playing in C you could also use any of the 5 flat notes (modes help to teach you how to use these)
Db Eb Gb Ab Bb
You could make the same list starting anywhere, and that is it there are only twelve places you can go from anywhere else and once you learn to recognize each of the twelve movements or "intervals" you can make any sound you think in your head instantly on your instrument.

And there is a * by every rule in every theory book that means "unless you can make an exceptionally pleasing phrase by breaking the rule" So if it sounds right then it is right the rules are like training wheels.

My point was that in that first recording didn't quite sound like you had thought up a weird series of notes, but I hope it didnt sound negative cause it was cool and intresting, I just couldn't help but feel like it could be more and it really helped push me in the right direction when someone said it to me. Ill check out your new version and let you know what I think. later

Hey that new recording is miles better, thats what I mean seemed much more in control. like you made a statement.

It reminds me of the bloke in the local music shop who picks up a guitar and noodles on it - very nice, but doesn't actually go anywhere....

I'm guessing this was just an experiment, to see what you could put together from chords & licks that might not be supposed to fit together? Some of it sounds cool and jazzy, other parts just sound as if they don't belong....

As always, just my opinion - can't fault the playing, the tune just doesn't do a lot for me.....but then again, neither do Jimi, EVH or SRV.....

:D :D :D

Vic