In Threes

Kebab Dylan – In Threes

In short, this is an experiment and not necessarily a good song. I attempted to build a song from the ground up. The verses where based on the bass line and then I began layering keyboard on top of it. I was also trying to really understand the whole MIDI thing and get familiar with the tools. The drum part is a 123 123 123 12 12 pattern which is also the bass line. I called the drum wav file “in threes.wav” and that stuck. So the verses are constructed with three chords repeating.

I came up with the melody by playing a piano part until I liked it. Then wrote the lyrics which are pretty much throw aways.

—– a continuation ——–

here was the process for composing this one…

Started out with an old song that never had lyrics or anything, just a guitar part (verse chorus), so I took the chorus and made it the current pre-chorus, and the old verse and made it the chorus. The verses of this composition was just one element of the prechorus. I started with just that repetious bass line.

first track was a midi one with (ha ha) distored guitar sound. Doubled that with actual distorted guitar.

From there, I decided to jump on the in threes motif and began layering synths over the driving bass line in a slow manner. My goal was to make the changes seem very slight almost non-existent. I got an organ in there and a “warm pad” what ever that is. Another pleasant keyboard part during the singing walks up on note at a time in the first verse and then walks down in like manner the second verse.

With basically a very non-descript chord progression as the underlying music, I decided the melody of the verses should be a single non-repeated line. I thought about making the second verse, yet another unique melody, but thought better of it.

I added the extra guitar in the second verse just for some value add. decided to mimic it with yet another keyboard part (it actually comes in earlier though)

By the end I have two extra counter melodies going on with “atmosphere” and something other instrument , the yummy choir Ohs. Lots of stuff. A bit ole happy midi family.

The lyrics were inspired by 2 things. One is a story related by a friend who was put on corrective action at your work because (i kid you not) “you are struggling with 20% of 30% of your job”. They went on, not to give her concrete examples and action steps to fix the situation but intead told her “there must be something wrong with you, inside or something in your history” — say hello to mr. lawsuit.

I took that and the fact that I was going to name the song “in threes” and added a slight to myself and began approaching “there is something wrong” to the actual song.

I end the verses with “so you might as well stop” and immediately, it’s just guitar. Eventually, they decide to be friends so the chorus is equal parts midi and guitar.

The chorus is the for the listener. “to tear this song apart couldn’t be that much work”

Kebab Dylan – In Threes

As a side note, this is the debut of a new drum sequencer called Hydrogen. It’s open source and free and I actually like it better than fruity loops. I’ve decided that I need to keep drum parts more basic than I am inclined to.

as i stated this is sort of an experiment. I wanted to do something different than what I am used to. I have one more experimental and not very good song that I will post next week. So get ready for the kebab as singer/songwriter as he performs what can only be called a boring song.

 

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