Describe one of your instrumental compositions

[NormanKliman]

Originally Posted by RRuskin

D.I.B.S.


ABABCABCB (Repeat & Fade)

The A section started as a little riff I'd use to warm up &/or goof around with. I just kept any additions to it I liked until I had an ABC that felt & sounded right. Range would normally be between Low E and the A on the 1st string but a capo was on the 2nd fret for this recording so it's all up a step. I probably carried this around in my musical back pocket for a year or 2 before I felt it was complete.

Hi Rick,

I like that a lot. Starts with a simple idea and develops it nicely. Those are real drums, aren't they?

[RRuskin]

Originally Posted by NormanKliman

Hi Rick,

I like that a lot. Starts with a simple idea and develops it nicely. Those are real drums, aren't they?

Yes. Real drums, a late 60's Ludwig kit with the exception of the snare which is a 1930's era Slingerland marching snare.

[islandguitar]

I'll share one....."Lavender Bloom"
This is in CGCGCD tuning capo #2. As I recall I had just worked out Al Petteway's Broken Mist and that's what got me going on this one.

This was composed in the spring of '18....and inspired by a bit of nature. My wife and I had pulled into our driveway and the Lavender was in full bloom. Maybe 200 bees just swarming around getting their "fill" and they seemed to dart from one flower to another. Watching this for some minutes, I realized that the little "pulloffs" in this piece reminded me of these bees "pulling off" one flower to the next and so I kept that theme in there while composing.
I think this is kind of an A/ A with a little change/ B section/ C section, a small D, and the a return to a little A section at the end. I tend to swing back to an A toward the end as a "reminder" and couple this with the beginning. I also like to go up the fret board and mix tones up for anything that might be pleasant to the ear of a listener (B section) and I recall thinking on this "how do I get up there" with something that might go well, mix it up and sound good.
I would guess this took shape gradually from composing to recording over about 6 or 7 months including down time when it sat for a bit.
Interesting topic! Fun!

[Cobby]

Originally Posted by DCCougar

I guess I've gone minimalist, but that whole piece just seems to have too many chord changes. The intro alone has 6, which is OK, but that first chord for the first "A" section just does not fit.

The fundamental, basic (simplified) structure of most any piece is ABA -- it has a beginning, it then departs from that beginning, then it returns to the beginning, thus resolving the piece. You've got some good sections in there, but they're separated by sections that seem to be wandering chord salad.

As LJ said, "This is one that I wrote before I learned to pare things down a bit shorter to hold audience interest. Right. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think listeners want to hear overly complicated pieces. They want to be able to follow along (repetition allows for this), maybe be surprised in a spot or two, but then they want the piece to "come home" and get resolved.

Thank you for listening and for your constructive criticism, I really do appreciate it. You've raised some interesting points that I think bear discussion.

The first thing I thought when you mentioned the basic simplified structure being ABA is that it applies more to a chord progression than song structure - you know start with the tonic, wander around and then return for a resolution. But for the structure of a piece, I would say not necessarily. Plenty of songs, if not most, have the verse-chorus structure, that is, ABAB (in some variation). Ending on B (the chorus) rather than A (the verse) is probably more common overall.

What you alluded to would be the verse bridge structure, typically AABA. That's also common.

Not quite as common, but not rare either, is the combination of the two ABABCB, where A is verse, B is chorus and C is bridge. This is the one that my piece most resembles - in fact, ignoring repeats, my piece is exactly this.

Now one might quibble about the repeats and tightening things up by eliminating some of them. Maybe. But I can justify the repeats based on the A section being only 6 measures and the B section being only 4 measures (if you counted in 4 rather than in 2). But although I do agree that this piece has some problems - I really don't think it's the structure or that it doesn't return to the A section at the end...

"wandering chord salad" --- now *that* could be a problem.

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[catdaddy]

This is an original ragtime/blues piece called 'The Frog Hop Blues' with a basic structure of AABAcoda.

[KevWind]

As I previously said I do not typically play solo acoustic guitar .
In my opinion as a listener , I think that it may well be one of hardest platforms to effectively play and maintain listener interest. And I applaud those that can, do and hold an audience.

With that in mind As I noted in my previous post I tend to use one of three methods usually multi instrument sometimes no acoustic guitar like below.

This one is based more on starting with a rhythm section that has a few subtle peripheral changes for sections but holds the basic rhythm throughout, then building the structure, chord progression sections , and winding the melody around that

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by Cobby

...The first thing I thought when you mentioned the basic simplified structure being ABA is that it applies more to a chord progression than song structure....

Well, you're right. As a keyboardist who also plays some guitar, I think primarily in terms of chord structure, structure change at bridge, return home. And I like 12-bar blues a lot which has a set chord structure (with some possible slight modifications), so you can play along with anyone. The standard is:

111144115415

It only ends on the 5 chord so you can go back to the beginning and repeat, otherwise it should end on the 1 chord. The 5 chord (also called dominant) is the strongest "draw" back to the 1 chord (tonic). I usually use this variation:

1 4 1 1 4 4 1 1/6 2 5 1 5

The 1/6 is where it gets interesting. It means 2 beats on the 1, then walk down for 2 beats on the 6 chord. This sets up a "dominant cascade" (my term) where the 6 is the dominant of 2 (if we were in the key of 2), the 2 is the dominant of 5 (if we were in the key of 5), and of course the 5 is the dominant of 1. This doesn't just bring the progression back to the home 1 chord, it brings it back with a vengeance!

[alnico5]

I tuned my guitar to open C minor, C G C G C Eb, and started playing around. My favorite acoustic instrumental song is Embryonic Journey, a song just less than two minutes long. I wanted to come up with a little instrumental about that length and in a loose "Embryonic Journey vibe".