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I just learnt this today, we were practicing some new songs that I've written to get in the setlist for the band, we started with a warmup of one of our old songs and that was really EXPLOSIVE! And then we went on to the new tunes and they really lacked the vibe, reason why is cause we don't know the song from the back of our heads and so we've got a really tense vibe of playing the song and we're not feeling it cause as I said we don't know it from the back of our heads, but once we do know these songs we'll be feeling it and really being a part of the song.

Sometimes maybe the vibe of the song aint right cause there's nothing really significant about that song, a lot of our songs a really upbeat and thrashy sorta stuff and we're playing this stuff here which is just midbeat and much more chilled, but I know there's something we can really do about that to make it a really good song. For example, one of our songs being more like a Metallica Black Album era song at about 130bpm (midbeat), since there's nothing really intense about that what we need is a really heavy and grooving rhythm section to hold it together and push the presence and vibe right out there because if you're not gonna feel the groove and tune it's not gonna go anywhere and you're gonna be bored playing it.

Any song that you write (unless it actually is REALLY fecking queer) can have one significant thing in it that makes it a really good song, like maybe it's gonna have really awesome vocals, or a guitar melody that's really sweet. It changes with genres and you need different things but the one thing that you need in EVERY genre that you play is Feel.

Felt like sharing that

and sweep picking.

sambrowne wrote:and sweep picking.

Like a Boss

Sometimes it can come together quite quickly in the next one or two practices. Giving it a week to sink in can make a big difference. Ideas seem to unconsciously form so when the guys come back to the songs they're not flying blind like the first run through.

When faced with a grove that isn't sitting right, I usually ask everyone to loop the grove until everyone gets comfy and feels it. If things are still weird it's good to strip the grove down (or build it up) instrument by instrument while playing it to see if there's a part that's not helping the grove or isn't being played as well as it should.

Capt. Black wrote:Sometimes it can come together quite quickly in the next one or two practices. Giving it a week to sink in can make a big difference. Ideas seem to unconsciously form so when the guys come back to the songs they're not flying blind like the first run through.

Yeah man definately like I remember we practiced a new song at the time and then the next week our drummer came back and had heaps of ideas for it, it's cause they're jamming or thinking about the song and their brain just goes tick.

That's a real good idea eh, for me keeping a groove well together is making the drummers bass drum pattern follow the rhythm that everyone else is playing and keeping the dynamics good without adding in fills that kill it.

Hot_Grits wrote:When faced with a grove that isn't sitting right, I usually ask everyone to loop the grove until everyone gets comfy and feels it. If things are still weird it's good to strip the grove down (or build it up) instrument by instrument while playing it to see if there's a part that's not helping the grove or isn't being played as well as it should.

If the grove isn't feeling right, sometimes you have to get a professional in to help...

Basket Case wrote:

Hot_Grits wrote:When faced with a grove that isn't sitting right, I usually ask everyone to loop the grove until everyone gets comfy and feels it. If things are still weird it's good to strip the grove down (or build it up) instrument by instrument while playing it to see if there's a part that's not helping the grove or isn't being played as well as it should.

If the grove isn't feeling right, sometimes you have to get a professional in to help...

haha, or this guy:

There's a whole bunch of songs around that have one really great line or phrase etc and the rest of the song is total garbage.

Sometimes that one thing can be just the intro riff.

Sometimes there's a part of the song which is so abyssmal that it ruins the whole number so that you're left wondering why?

If we could all get it right all the time, there wouldn't be any great songs, 'cos everyone's would be so good there'd be no differentiation.