Do you use the idea of chord progressions to write?

[Isaac Moss]

Hey guys! So lately (as in the past few days) I’ve been thinking quite a bit about something I read the Syn said about chords. He said he was more obsessed with chords than soloing because great chords can be used make great solos. I think that’s a pretty cool way of looking at it actually, and in the background of most of avenged’s stuff is like power chords and stuff so is he talking about for example hitting a C over an A power chord and therefore give off Am vibes? Also do any of you guys know where the jazz elements in Syn’s playing are? I know in Hail To The King he uses a few gypsy arpeggios and he also he uses chromatics which is a jazzy thing I suppose but besides that do you guys know how else he adds that element into his playing?
Also I probably should have mentioned this first due to the title but do you guys normally consult chord progressions when writing songs and stuff? I’m pretty sure I understand the concept of them using like scale degrees and stuff but when I think of chord progressions I just imagine a dude strumming a few chords or something like that and not really too metal or anything.

 

[idssdi]

I ALWAYS do chord progressions first when I write a song! They are the core of the song. And thinking about cadences and stuff like that. In power chords the minor/major quality is implied a lot of the time due to the harmony that is implied by the chords.
Syn’s Jazz influence is kinda everywhere in his playing because he used to study it. Hail to the king has a very distinct gypsy jazz vine because he uses a lick Jimmy Rosenberg uses a lot of the time too. Also gypsy jazz(and classical) are very arpeggio based styles. I would say the first guitar solo in The stage is very gypsy jazz influenced and the intro of Exist reminds me of Bach quite a bit. I also think Syn is really into fusion so that’s also there a lot of the time.

 

[Isaac Moss]

Ah thanks for the info dude!Normally when I write I just kinda mess around until I get a cool riff or lick or something like that. So if I want to try writing with progressions should I find one like 6-3-4-1 for example and then mess around with those chords as in like vocal melodies with all chord tones or just riff around with it maybe?
Also it’s really cool how Syn has combined so much stuff into his playing, by any chance do you have any tips on trying to take from your influences and stuff like that to help blend those into your own style, I’ve done that a bit natuarally but it’d be cool to do it more I guess haha

 

[idssdi]

When you write a chord progression the trick always is how you play with tension and release so where you put your plagal and perfect cadences. Plagal and perfect cadences usually show the end of a piece of music or chord progression (this does not mean you can’t repeat them) ii-V-I and I-IV-V would be good examples.
All I know about implementing all the different styles of playing in your own playing is to play a bunch of different styles and take the stuff you like from all of them and kinda mold them I to your own playing style. Havimg an eclectic music taste also works like a treat.
I’m really tired right now so I’ll go to sleep. If you have any more questions I can try to answer them.whe. I wake up.
Hope this helps!

 

[Firsty Lasty]

“when I think of chord progressions I just imagine a dude strumming a few chords or something like that and not really too metal or anything.”
You might be surprised how many metal songs sound great with just one singer delivering the melody over simple guitar or piano chords. For example, I’m currently listening to a lot of Slipknot. Think about how many of their songs have a chorus with a melody that could work perfectly over simple chords- Wait and Bleed, Psychosocial, The Devil In I, Duality, etc. There’s not any band on earth that is “more metal” than Slipknot, so if it works for them then it could work for you.
As for classic metal, the bands that us older people call metal (ACDC, G&R, Ozzy, Ratt, etc) all are/were chord enthusiasts. You can’t write that style of music without loving good chord progressions.

 

[Isaac Moss]

Thanks for the advice! I like the idea of using plagal and perfect cadences as I haven’t thought about like structuring songs like that! And I haven’t listened to Slipknot I’ll go check out how they used their chord progressions and stuff.

 

[Isaac Moss]

When you guys use chord progressions do you normally throw in other chords and stuff like that or just strictly stick to the progression?

 

[idssdi]

I tend to have different chord progressions for the verse, chorus and bridge but that doesn’t have to be the case to write a good song.

 

[Isaac Moss]

Aye I gotcha, what kind of music do you write by the way? I mostly write metal and some like alternative ish stuff, I haven’t written any full length songs yet though just a ton of riffs and future song parts.

 

[idssdi]

Mostly jazz/blues inspired poppy stuff. I’m not really into metal and a little bit obsessed with harmony and love blues and jazz a lot!

 

[Isaac Moss]

That’s actually really cool dude! I’ve listened to a little bit of jazz and from what I’ve heard I think I’m more of a metal guy, but at the same time I wanna get into it because Syn uses it a lot and stuff and Syn’s style is killer. Do you have any recommendations of jazz/blues artists? Also do you find that the music you listen to affects the way you improvise or just noodle?

 

[Isaac Moss]

Also on the topic of chord progressions do you know what progressions Avenged uses or just some harmonic stuff? I know a good chunk of their stuff is in Dm and Syn uses Harmonic Minor sometimes and blues scales but not much else.

 

[idssdi]

For Jazz I would say Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, Robin Nolan, Rosenberg Trio and Barelli Lagrene(I have no idea whether I’m spelling his name correctly)
For Blues I would say B.B. King, Freddie King, Albert King, Eric Clapton, Robert Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mayer(Trio), Jimmy Vaughan, John Mayall and I probably did forget some people(I’m more familiar with blues people because Jazz is a little bit to duptie duptie Doo for me sometimes).
The chorus of afterlife is I-V-Vi-IV
The chorus of nightmare is i-VII-III-VI and ends on Am because perfect cadence back to the verse
Shepherd of fire chorus is VI-VII-i and ends on Gm because plagal cadence back to the verse
Paradigm chorus is i-Vii(the VII is kind of a fancy pants chord here)-III-v.
Beast and the harlot chorus is I-V-IV-V I believe

 

[idssdi]

And yes the music you listen to 100% influences the way I improvise and noodle. I try to play stuff I like to hear over a certain backingtrack as much as I possibly can so I always listen to myself thinking do I like what I’m playing over this backingtrack. Since you usually listen to stuff you like to hear that kinda creeps in to your playing automatically (for me anyway)

 

[Isaac Moss]

Dude I just listened to two Django songs and woah I really liked them both a lot!They were was Minor Swing and I’ll See You In My Dreams, it almost dance music but ten times better XD I really liked the swing feel thing. Also thanks for the chord progressions I’ll have to mess around with those!

 

[Isaac Moss]

it was almost like dance music*

 

[Isaac Moss]

Since you mentioned Beast And The Harlot do you know if the chorus is a different key, The intro and verses sound minor to me but the chorus sounds really like it’s major to me but I’m not sure.

 

[Isaac Moss]

I actually just realized that a few months back I wrote like a chord arpegiation thingy out the same progression as afterlife!

 

[idssdi]

Django is a boss. It’s gypsy jazz btw in case you’re interested. Beast and The Harlot is in D minor. The chorus is its relative major.

 

[Isaac Moss]

Oh okay that makes sense. I can also see why Syn likes that stuff!