| | | Hey Friend,
Have you ever had a week where a single song is stuck in your head... the entire week!?
No matter what you listen to, that one song continues to jump front and center every morning and pops up throughout the day? That was me last week.
What song, you might ask?
"Hot In The City" by Billy Idol. Yeah, I know, I fly my Eighties flag high and proud!
Despite whatever music you might align yourself to today, you are a product of your history.
Okay, full disclosure. I'm not a trend setter. I'm not the guy who is into the latest, greatest bands or musical styles. It usually takes me a few years to...
- Start listening to the band's music, and
- get what all the hype was about
Recognizing a new, hot trend in music is probably a muscle all of us could developed, but that would mean being immersed in a trend-setting music scene in a city where new music abounds and you're inserted deep in the culture like a kingpin wannabe. Ya know, NYC or Austin, London or Berlin, or maybe Nashville, although my guess is Nashville is a bit more traditional in musical styles.
Not that those are the only choices, mind you. New music ideas take shape in some off-beat locales all the time. Seattle gave us Grunge back in the Nineties, and new bands make names for themselves from all over the world by doing the work - building an audience, touring and putting out new music.
Maybe Orlando... hmmm???
No matter where new music comes from, it's still the result of the cumulative music history of the songwriter(s). So yeah, the Eighties are full-on ingrained in my DNA. Music of that time infuses itself into many of my ideas and probably drives the guitar tone and synth sounds I really like.
So back to "Hot In The City."
Once you get past the cheesy video and Billy Idol's sneers, there's a good guitar lesson in there (the song, not the video).
Keeping with the all important chord theme, the intro and bridge riffs from this song had their grip on me. I'm not entirely sure how they got a hold of my brain - it's not like I had heard the song recently. It just sort of jumped out of the fog of Monday morning and latched on.
The Riff
The intro/bridge is a three chord progression made up of G, C and F. That in itself isn't all that interesting, but how and where the chords are played is.
In order to give the chords that cutting, in your face distorted sound that let's them sit out front in the song like a solo or lead vocal, the chords needed to be played further up the guitar neck for higher pitched notes. The lower strings are completely bypassed, so no fifth or sixth string action. We also want to be able to play each chord in close proximity to the others so we're not jumping around the neck too much.
Just a quick side note: power chords and barre chords utilizing the fifth and sixth strings emphasize the bass frequencies in the sound spectrum. That's what gives the chord real punch, or power.
Tight, Dynamic Chords
Getting the super-clean distorted chords like what we hear in "Hot In The City" requires the use of some different inversions of the chords than you might be used to playing.
Remember, inversions are just shapes that change the arrangement of the three notes of the chord.
In this example riff, rather than just playing the standard open or barre chords, Steve Stephens plays the following:
- Root G major inversion on the fourth, third and second strings
- 2nd inversion of C major on the fifth fret of the fourth, third and second strings
- 1st inversion shape of F major, again on the fourth, third and second strings
Three chords, three different inversions. Here they are... |
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(Stay tuned for on how to make these chords in the chord course "Chord Clinic," coming soon!)
You can look at inversions like this - it's all about making the dominant note stand out to give it the effect you want it to have on people. This is the power of learning chord inversions.
The same old chords we learn at the beginning of our guitar journey are fine for casual playing, but you have an entire neck of chord possibilities. Learning to play chords in different positions lets you focus on the notes that serve the song. Chord inversions allow you to add different textures to the piece of music.
If you listen to a recording of any song close enough, you'll usually hear multiple layers of guitar parts - parts that add subtle nuances to the song. Most people won't pick up on those background noises, but you're a guitar player, a musician - you hear things mere mortals can't hear.
Viva la musician!
As you go through your day, try to do a deep dive into the songs you're hearing. Listen for those little hidden gems of sound. If you can, listen to CD quality (or better - WAV or FLAC) versions - MP3s tend to lose some of the sound quality due to how they're compressed to smaller sizes.
You'll find over time that you get better at it - you'll start to understand why these subtle layers grab our attention, often without us even knowing they're there. Hear's (heh, heh) to better listening!
Peace~
Dave |
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