Backstory
- Number 9 Number 9 Number 9 Number 9 Number 9 Number 9 Number 9! I said it on the instagram post but I’ll say it here too. It was my birthday on Tuesday, and Tuesdays are normally when I write these out, long story short I got lazy and just wanted to enjoy my day without having to dig deep down into my soul for writing lol! But I digress, you guys are here for the song! This one started because of Moana again! I assume you can tell that HFIG is an anagram, but it’s for How Far I’ll Go! I must have just been looking for performances of the song and somehow stumbled upon a video that had the song completely backwards. (If you can’t tell by now I’m a massive Beatles fan and there was a bunch of backwards stuff they did so I find that effect really interesting). I clicked the video and heard when the chorus came in and just fell in love with the motif in it’s inverted form!!!! Aaaaaand now begins the..
Music
- Bass
- So the bass is almost identical to what the notes of the backwards melody sounded like. I think I just changed some timing around to make it sound like a riff that was written normally, you know, with the intent to go forwards lol. I used the Liverpool Bass and had it loop for 24 bars and held that as the foundation of the entire song. It only really changes in the bridge, 8 bars, and was the same rhythmic pattern but the notes switched up and made the song go minor for those 8.
- Guitar
- This is only played through the choruses and the bridge using the chord player screen, the same used for the piano in the song from last week, and I put a picture up too. If easy enough (now and for future posts) I wanna show you what I played so I circled all the ones I pressed and you can figure it out. I don’t like giving handouts, you gotta work a little for it!! But the song is simple and basically the most radical change it has is an F#m in the Bridge.
- Synth Bass
- See Bass ;-)
- Drums
- THIS ONE WAS ALL FROM SCRATCH! If you’ve ever used GarageBand you know the drums have a literal kit that pops up on the screen and you basically just tap the drum you want and you get sound! I layered it up until I got a pattern I felt fit for the song. The choruses and bridge are the same pattern but the intro and verses are essentially just stripped down version of them.
- There’s also a drum machine sound called Pile Driver that gives the song that punchy fake sounding kick and actually doesn’t follow the real kick. It’s mostly there to fill dead space and make the song sound more Nokia Brick ringtone rather than Disney Princess lol.
Conclusion
- As you can see this song wasn’t a masterpiece, nor was it intended to be, it was just something I wanted to try. To see if I could make something completely new out of a well known song, it became an exercise for me and a bit of self confidence boost. Another step in the right direction, and it kept me feeling good about writing, cause it was challenging enough to take on, but not too hard where I was setting myself up for failure (which was the thought process on the Songs a Day-ish as a whole too [I love when things come full circle]). I remember thinking that it would be a great ringtone too! I would use it lol!
Challenging yourself, it’s always a scary thought, usually based on fear of failure and it can be daunting, but the higher your expectations are the more likely you are to fail. If you are reading this while actively trying to get out of a writer’s block, don’t be afraid to lower your personal bar. You need to “Be gentle with yourself before you push yourself the way you could before.” It’s a process and as you go along you can start egging yourself along harder and harder. What I think I’m trying to say is that this challenge wasn’t a major one, but every little step helps you, big or small, masterpiece or ringtone. They all lead to the common goal and it’ll take time, but you’ll get there, and you’ll be writing things you never thought could come from you! “I guarantee it.”
If you missed last week's song "Numero Eight" <---LINK
Instagram: songadayish
Personal Instagram: 2jnandomolinar
Twitter: nandomolinar97
email: songadayish@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment