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This is one of the best songwriting techniques I’ve ever come across. It can have a HUGE impact on what I call your ‘signature sound’. And here it is: When people hear a good groove, it sticks in their heads. Once they hear the same groove in a few different contexts, they intuitively sense a pattern, a motif. But since the motif is wearing another song’s clothing, it still sounds fresh even though you’re already familiar with it. Let me give you a few examples to start so you can see and hear them yourself before I continue explaining: “Cool, but how do I create a signature groove?” You probably have a bunch of potential grooves at your fingertips but don’t even know it. All of that fiddling around you do on your instrument creates the building blocks for a one-day funktastic groove. Once you have enough building blocks, you can start fitting them together in creative ways to build a whole that becomes more than the sum of its parts. If playing the groove makes you bob your head in rhythm, then you’ve got a winner. Otherwise it’s not quite ready… A groove has 4 key elements: 1. Melody 2. Harmony 3. Rhythm 4. ‘Funk’ Melody – The melody of your groove doesn’t need to be epic. That would actually distract the listener too much. In fact, the melody will come together without any effort on your part because the highest notes in each chord of your groove will automatically create the melody line. So while melody is a natural component of any groove, you don’t have to consciously do anything to create it, it will fall into place based on the chords you use. Harmony – Harmony is when you’re playing 3 or more notes together. Harmony in your grooves takes the form of chords. To really make a groove juicy, you want to use unexpected and interesting chords whenever possible. For example, you can take even the most vanilla chord progression and sex it up with just a few small tweaks. Read The (Chord) Dictionary If your English language vocabulary is small, you will find it hard to communicate your thoughts in conversation. Likewise, if your chord vocabulary is poor, how will your music be able to speak? And if your music can’t speak, how can it speak TO somebody…? I suggest you bust out a giant chord book or go to a chord dictionary online (here’s a good one) and just start playing random chords all over the fretboard. You’re going to discover sounds and harmonies that appeal to you and you’ll also find that certain other chords don’t sound good to you. So not only are you tasting your way through the different chord flavors and figuring out how you prefer to express yourself, but you’re also stockpiling a bunch of seemingly random and unrelated chords in your subconscious mind. Certain ugly sounding chords that seem to be useless on their own can also have a beautiful effect in the context of a good chord progression. Then…when you’re just messing around and you least expect it…they suddenly come together into gorgeous chord progressions! Just by experimenting with different chord shapes, you can colorful gems to use in your songwriting. As you discover new chord shapes, start trying them on every fret. Include open strings and see how the flavor of the chord changes. Then combine them in as many different ways as you can. You’ll be surprised at the unexpected relationships that blossom between different chords. Even if you don’t come up with anything immediately, you’ll wind up with a bunch of harmonic building blocks. And every once in a while when you aren’t expecting it, you’ll bust out sexy little groove and wonder, “where the heck did that come from…?” >> What Chord Am I Playing? << Rhythm – The sauce that makes your rhythm tasty is syncopation. Syncopation uses space and “off” beats to tease your ear and create the tension that drives the groove forward and keeps your head bobbing. In other words, instead of strumming your chords like you’re at bible camp, you should be strumming them in a manner that will get you kicked out of bible camp! Here’s an example of a groove played in a straight rhythm followed by the same groove played in a syncopated rhythm. Which one sounds better? Funk – I say unto you dudes and dudettes: a good groove needs funk in it. Funk is sex. And sex is the most natural thing there is. We’re born through sex, we’re here for sex. It’s nature’s drumbeat, its pumping heart. Take the sex out of music and it sounds puritanical, prudish. Sex is a fact of life and there’s only one thing to do with life – embrace it! If sex disappears from music, then the music will miss the very vitality of life itself!  And when that happens, music gets overly intellectual… The thing about intellectual music is… Yeah, you can listen to “heady” music and go “hmm” and “ahh” over it with a hand-rolled cigarette limply hanging out of your mouth and a beret slanted across your forehead, BUT…why aren’t you bobbing your head!? The sexual energy doesn’t come from the mind, it comes from the body. That’s why a funky ass groove makes people dance and jiggle and go home with each other, not sit down to do puzzles. It’s such a primal thing, that when you activate it in your listener and give them permission to let go, you’re going to help them have a spiritual experience where they’re totally in their body and the mind is silent. When I have female company over, I always make sure to throw on some sexy music. Some Sade or Stan Getz… I light some candles and dim the lights… Now, you’re no longer just in some dude’s apartment, you’re in Vic’s grotto of love. Ah..you laugh, but you have to admit there’s no way you’re getting it on if some kind of crazy progressive rock shit is noodling in the background! The point is this: if you can create a groove that puts YOU in a trance just jamming on it, it’ll probably do the same for other people. Let’s wrap up with a few examples of awesome grooves from well known songwriters. I tried to pick examples from a few different genres to give you a better feel for this concept that isn’t limited to any single style of music. If you know some good examples I can add, leave a comment below. So now that you get the gist of how to combine chords and rhythms in an interesting way to create signature grooves, put the information into action today! Otherwise, you’ll just have a bunch of information in your head and nothing happening with your songs… So take action now and feel free to send me some of the grooves you come up with or post them on the Write Awesome Songs Facebook Page…I’d love to hear them! – Vic Dorfman |
