Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Deliberate Percussion Mistakes

Drums and percussion can add deeply to your song's mood... including to reflect angst and sorrow with DELIBERATE mistakes. For example, the ear rather expects the kick drum to always fall first on either count 1 or 2 depending on the song, and then to stay there through the song.

But suppose you keep alternating where that kick falls? An off-kilter, "something's not right" feel is added to your song. And if your words have the message that Life is off-kilter and just not right.... well, your percussion mood punches fantastic emphasis into your song.

An easy example: In my song COMFORT IN MISTAKES, I used a standard jazz 4/4 drum loop that had the quiet, sad feel of the words. BUT... the song is written in 3/4. RESULT: The kick and the high hat and everything else "feels" off-kilter when you really listen. What's really cool though is that people generally don't focus on the percussion at first unless that's "their instrument." So the song gives an off-kilter "MISTAKE" feeling that can't be explained from the main instruments.

You'll find this example song at www.DiDoReflections.com after my studio records it next week. And this blog topic is explored further under my blog,
DianaDee Easy Songwriting Hints for Song Writers, dated 28 July 2011.
http://dianadeeosborne.blogspot.com/

Much joy to you in *deliberately* making mistakes that reflect your song's message!
©2018, 2011 DianaDee Osborne

An updated version published 9 March 2018.

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