"Midnight at the Chronolab" by the Tomorrowmen dishes up some beautiful sounding chords. I haven't taken the time to learn it yet, but it sounds like it has lots of 7th chords with colorful alterations in it.

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Generally I avoid anything but major or minor(occasionally sevenths both major and minor) as the chord that is played the entirety of a measure. I do a ton of different fingerings to the point where I don't really know what I'm playing throughout that measure. Literally... I don't know some of the chords I'm holding. My finger just goes there. Those go throughout the measure to build an underlying melody and to add dynamic drama at key points in a song.

I don't finish most of it. I have no idea what I want to do!

http://soundcloud.com/jacobdobner

Here is the highest quality demo(I'ved posted it before) I have that is solely me and not having friends contributing. It is pretty straight forward/the most accessible thing I've done. Loads of flaws still, I've done some more mixing/recording to this. I'm still meaning to change several things. I'm a perfectionist on my songs. Perfection is really fucking hard...

Last edited: Jun 13, 2012 19:23:57

So, on that song

Intro/Part A
Am Am C C

Part B
C G9 Am F9

Part C
C F9

Generally the Am gets a G chord made up of open strings on the d, g, b strings. Just smacking that G and hammering on into a Am rather quickly.

And The 9th chords, they don't stay that way. My fingers dance around on those, I can't even tell you what some of the chords are. Only chord in the whole song that is static are the C chords.

For example in part B, the F9 goes from:
F9 F ? F ?

The ? chord is maybe like a Fmin7

0 - - - -
0 - - - -
- - 2 - -
- - - 3-
x - - - -
x - - - -

And the beginning Am is

G hammered very quickly to Am remember. And below is laid out per strum, not even per beat.
G->Am Am Asus Am Asus2 Am Asus2

From what I've learned 7th and 9th are used often, but most of the time it's the simple minor/major stuff. Like Danny wrote it's the moody songs that contain a more unusual songwriting.

Moon over Manakoora is a good example I think:
A Am A Am (Intro)
A Am E E
A Am E E
B Es6/G B/F# B/B
B Es6/G E E7
B Es6/G E C E C (Ending)

But also faster songs can be more complex. Anyone downloaded our album? Check out 'Cat Mobile' to get an impression of a faster song containig weird chords. MOAM uses the 'devil's chord' a lot.

Btw, what's this:
-7-
-7-
-8-
-9-
-7-

Last chord of the James Bond Theme but I can't figure out what it's supposed to be?!

@Jake: Nice recording!

The Hicadoolas

Bob from Beloved Invaders taught me the james bond chord. Try
0
10
9
8
7
x
(you can also play the high E open, if you choose) it's an Em/maj9

.

Last edited: Mar 01, 2020 08:09:56

JakeDobner wrote:

I don't finish most of it. I have no idea what I want to do!

http://soundcloud.com/jacobdobner

Here is the highest quality demo(I'ved posted it before) I have that is solely me and not having friends contributing. It is pretty straight forward/the most accessible thing I've done. Loads of flaws still, I've done some more mixing/recording to this. I'm still meaning to change several things. I'm a perfectionist on my songs. Perfection is really fucking hard...

Nobody reaches perfection, but the pursuit of it leads to greatness, which is a nice consolation. The key is perseverance, keep working the nuances.

That was pretty good Jake. Are you familiar with Björn Olsson? You may enjoy his music, check out this video:

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I am now playing trumpet with Prince Buster tribute band 'Balzac'

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

I like to play with more complex chords than you generally hear in surf music. I find they help build tension and make a song more interesting. I play in a 3 piece, so I have much more freedom to do what I want (double edged sword.) Unfortunately, I can't tell you what those chords are, because I have no idea

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

josheboy wrote:

Seriously?

Seriously. I'm a musical moron when it comes to describing chords, scales, etc. I don't really write music from a theory perspective. It doesn't really interest me that much. I would like to know more and be able to communicate things better, but most of my songs are in my head and I just play them to the band until we work out the tune. In fact, I don't even pay any attention to what the chords are in a song until I have to find them to teach the song to our bass player. Kind of a backwards way of writing, but I tend to write from the melody first and then discover what chords are there later. I should have been a flute player...

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

Last edited: Jun 14, 2012 11:12:26