SSG9 - Week3 - Lost Control

Hi Paul

This is looking good so far. What do you have for the tune at this point? If you could post even just a verse, maybe we could suggest some ideas for the bridge.

Bridges by their nature are meant to be a bit different. One thing that might get you started is to pick a chord that uses the same melody note you started with but takes things in a new direction. For instance (and using an easy example for demonstration), let's suppose you're currently playing this song in C and it ends on both a C note and the C major chord. You could start the bridge with either Cm or Fm, both of which have C in them, and see if that might give you some ideas.

If you're in a minor key you could switch over to the major, particularly to accentuate or lead up to a more positive aspect to the song like Peter mentions.

Looking forward to reading more of this, not to mention getting to hear it.

Peace

Peter,

Yeah they said you were the king
they tried to tell you what to sing,
Made you believe you had a starring role
And the moment you were down
They tried to steal your crown
But we all knew they could never steal your soul

fantastic bridge thanks for that Ill use it with your permission.

David, thanks mate, the song is basically in Em although the verse progression is E7sus4 Am7 D6 Em so already I'm crossing the Major minor boundary. I was looking for a bridge that was different enough to give some relief. At the moment the bridge is C D G// C D G Em seems to work but not strikingly different.

cheers
Paul

Just a suggestion for a bridge . . .

And who could have known
You would have gone this far
That (just) chasing your dream (From chasing a dream)
Would make a Rock and Roll star (To a Rock and Roll star)

Hi again, Paul

Obviously without hearing the melody this is difficult, but how about A (or A7) D G // A D B7 Em? That might still work and also be different enough to give you the feel you're looking for.

Another possibility which would probably work more with the melody but initially seem strange would be to use Fmaj7 (or Fmaj9) instead of C - Fmaj7 D G // Fmaj7 D G Em. Just a thought.

Peace

Obviously without hearing the melody this is difficult
David, here's the sound track (warts and all), my guitar is tuned 1/2 step down so the chords I mentioned are relative to that.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_music.cfm?bandID=328886

Hi again, Paul

Thanks for the draft. I actually like what you have, so I tried to not change it around all that much, but rather give the chords some more interesting voicings and possibly melodic / harmonic movement. So take this for what it's worth and I simply hope it may help. It's an eight measure phrase with each chord getting one measure except the last one in each phrase gets two measures. And I'm sure I'm wrong about some of the chord names so my apologies in advance for that. A lot of these are what most folks just call "guitar chords" as they take advantage of the open strings to make some very interesting dissonances and resolutions. First time through would be this:

Em7 (075700)
Em6 (075600)
Em (b6) (075500)
Em (075400)
Am9 (x05500)
Dadd4add9 (x54030)
G69 (320200) (eight beats)

Second time through:

Em7 (075700)
Em6 (075600)
Em (b6) (075500)
Em (075400)
Am9 (x05500)
Dadd4add9 (x54030)
Em (022000) or Emadd9 (024000) (eight beats)

When I worked this out I used the same basic strumming style you used in the verse. And that got me to thinking that another way to deal with the bridge could be to use the chords you already have and change up the rhythm, or simply use different voicings (possibly played as arpeggios). For instance:

C becomes Cmaj7 (x35500)
D becomes D69 (x57700)
G becomes G6 (320030)

Just a thought.

Again, hope this helps in some way. No worries at at if it doesn't fit what you want. After all it is your song!

Peace

Ken thanks for the feedback mate.

David, I love the sound(s) of those chords very much in keeping with the song thank you very much for the time you spent. I only wish I was capable of playing them smoothly enough to do them justice, definitely something I aspire toward.

What I love about this whole process is the way thing change as you progress through it. In the final version of this song I think that I will phrase the verses slightly differently, dropping the last line. For the bridge I intend to change the strumming pattern a bit but go with the existing chords. Unfortunately the final version may take a little while to get out due to other life commitments.

cheers
Paul

Hey Paul,

Looks and sounds good :D

Suggestion:

It seemed from my reading on Elvis this might be more like what happened

Yeah they said you were the king
they TOLD you what to sing,
Made you believe you had a starring role
And the moment you were down
They tried to steal your crown
But we all knew they could never steal your soul
Man I agonised over this one, took me ages to come up with a theme.
Me, too. :cry: Even Cirque Du Soleil is doing Elvis 8)
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/viva-elvis/default.aspx

Thanks for sharing :D

James

Nice job. You've really captured Elvis' vulnerability. I like the progression and BK's new bridge. You got a lot of good feedback and I relate to your comment about the process. It can be exciting.

Ernie