The music went and led me astray

Hey, I’m back again with another song. As I told you all a couple posts ago, this time I am going to give a shot at a bass cover. To do this I find it only fitting to pick another Drum and Bass song. Actually, I’m going to label this song as Drumstep. Some genre enthusiasts, I’m guilty of being one, become picky with the way some songs are labelled. Still in the end a good song is a good song though, right? Drumstep is a sub-genre of Drum and Bass. It is roughly the same temp but does not feel like it because of the half time feel and it features elements that are commonly found in dubstep. The song I’ve picked for this one is ‘Led Astray’ by Friction. Friction is a big name in the Drum and Bass scene. He is ranked as the second best Drum and Bass DJ, not to mention has produced some anthems such as ‘Back to your Roots’. He also currently hosts his own Drum and Bass show on BBC Radio in London, England. ‘Led Astray’ has been met with a mixed audience response. A large portion of the listeners believe Friction has lost his touch with production and is beginning to try to appeal to the mainstream. An equal large portion believes the song is of quality production and enjoys it.

The song is built in a similar format as a rock song. There is an intro, which in this case can act like a verse. There is the main instrumental part which acts like a chorus. The song starts off with some violins which personally, I love when producers add violins into their production. It creates a really grand atmosphere. The grandness of the song then continues into the big sounding instrumental part. The tone of the synth is not exactly one I would expect to follow such a violin intro but it works for maintaining that big sound. The bass emphasizes the lead melody by playing the same thing but in a lower octave. The song is in the key of Cm. The entire song follows the pattern of Cm, G, G# and Fm. The instrumental chorus builds on that pattern by basing the melody on it.

Hope everyone’s dealing well with the stress of mid-terms and all, next one should be posted in a week; check back then!

Bit of an Intro and "Love Has Gone"

Alright, so I am extremely late in hopping onto this due to coming down with a sickness, developing bronchitis and finally losing my voice. But whatever, life must keep rolling right? Bit of a cheesy introduction to my first blog post and to explain the purpose of my blog. My blog is entitled “let the music roll” because for me personally if the music stops, there will be a huge empty gap in my life. From a very young age, I have always had some weird fascination with sounds and sequences and how they form appealing patterns which led me to pick up a couple of instruments and experiment as I got older. To this day, I still have the same weird love for music but a much better understanding of it. I am no musical expert. I cannot read sheet music. I am not always certain why different aspects of a song work together as I found reading up on theory extremely boring. However, I am here to share my view on a few handpicked songs on why they appeal to me and a bit of an explanation of what might be going on in the song from a guitarist’s standpoint as that is my instrument of choice.

For my first song that I have picked, I look towards the genre I have come to love the most over the last four years. Drum and Bass is a form of electronic dance music hailing from the UK. I will not delve into the history and description of the genre as I would be able to write endlessly about it so let us jump right to the song and hopefully you will get the idea of why this genre is unique. The song I have chosen is called “Love Has Gone” by Netsky. It is off of his latest album simply called “2”. His first album had a more typical drum and bass sound. By typical drum and bass, I mean the sounds used in the production are very ‘fake sounding’. They are pre-recorded samples that producers tweak around with to try to make it into more of their own sound. The instruments do not sound genuine. With the latest album, Netsky has unveiled he will now be conducting shows with a live band as well as his usual duties as a DJ. Spinning a DJ set is the most common way for a Drum and Bass producer, or actually any electronic music producer, to showcase their material to an audience. Netsky was composing his second album keeping in mind he would need to re-create the songs live with the band while making them sound identical to how they sound on the record. In order to accomplish this, for this record he used synthesizers that had plenty of vintage sounds. These sounds were able to be tweaked as well a little in order for them to fit the mood and theme of the song being produced. Most drum and bass is simplistic and repetitive in the sense that it is on average a five minute piece made of a twenty second segment being looped over and over again with variations here and there. “Love Has Gone” is in the key of C# minor. It has a highly catchy melody made of single notes picked out of the C#m chord. Posted below will be a video of me doing a cover of the song for any guitarist interested in the way I would play the song. For future videos I will do them in more of a tutorial format but as my voice is still gone I will not even bother. ‘Till next time!