Solo of the Month (SotM) #90 - Challenge

stratman3142 · January 2023

This is the 90th solo of the Month (SotM) Challenge.

The challenge is now open and ends at midnight 24th January 2023

Discussion:

This backing track was kindly provided by @fastonebaz

You can download backing track from Soundcloud below: It ends suddenly, so add a fade if you wish.

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sotm90-fastonebaz-wheres-the-f-king-beat?si=5d8f547a45e74af7b03e2d8bc4177d7c&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Record your solo over the top of it and then submit it (ideally in mp3 format) to solos@theFB.co.uk

Also, feel free to comment on how you approached the solo, which will add a bit more interest and maybe we can learn something from each other.

Title: Where's The F_king Beat

Tempo: 145 bpm

Chords: (Not sure if this is dead right, but here's the gist of it. Those with better ears, feel free to correct it)

Em (for 16 bars) (edit possibly E7#9)

Fma7#11 F#m11 G6 Am11

Am (for 16 bars)

E7 E7/G# E7/B E7/D E7 E7 E7/B E7/D

Am to sudden ending

There should be headroom to record your solo. Try to set a level without excessive master limiting, because we want to avoid loudness wars.

Voting will start soon after the submission deadline, with each voter selecting their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice.

First choice gets 5 points - Second choice gets 3 points - Third choice gets 1 point

The order and scores of the top three entries will be announced soon after the voting ends.

No prizes. It's just for fun.

As people submit their entries, I'll post them below to hopefully promote some discussion on approaches used for the solo:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/sotm2023-01?si=3cb46262a1474ac99d795b34213409f0&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

digitalkettle · January 2023

Good lord...I feel like I've been beaten up by The B-52s!

fastonebaz · January 2023

I have no clue what lead to play

mudslide73 · January 2023

fastonebaz said:

I have no clue what lead to play

If you can't there's no hope for me. I find long passages without changes difficult never mind the climbs

Oh well.

fastonebaz · January 2023

mudslide73 said:
fastonebaz said:
I have no clue what lead to play

If you can't there's no hope for me. I find long passages without changes difficult never mind the climbs Oh well.

It's part of the fun of the challenge. Stretching ourselves for creativity. You can do it I'm sure

stratman3142 · January 2023

fastonebaz said:

...It's part of the fun of the challenge...

Yes this is certainly a challenge

stratman3142 · January 2023

Well it's definitely fried my brain. I wrote the first chord down as Em, but my ears keep leading me to play a G and a G#, which gives it a minor to major "2001 Space Odyssey" vibe

How are others hearing the tonality of that first section?

digitalkettle · January 2023

stratman3142 said:

How are others hearing the tonality of that first section?

I'm hearing:

an E7#9 thing for the first sixteen bars......that might explain your G/G# dilemma...might go for blues, might go for dorian
chromatic build-up for four bars to take you from E to Am
solid Am (probably dorian) for another sixteen bars
E7 build-up for eight bars
close out with eight bars of Am

flying_pie · January 2023

So much for my New Year's resolution of stopping resorting to gimmicks as far as solos go ...

Definitely an Athens, GA alt/indie pop vibe to it. I'm immediately drawn to a call and response guitar with a baritone male and 2 part harmony female vocal singing about a psychedelic shrimp

digitalkettle · January 2023

flying_pie said:

So much for my New Year's resolution of stopping resorting to gimmicks as far as solos go ...

Definitely an Athens, GA alt/indie pop vibe to it. I'm immediately drawn to a call and response guitar with a baritone male and 2 part harmony female vocal singing about a psychedelic shrimp

"It wasn't a rock..."

flying_pie · January 2023

digitalkettle said:

flying_pie said:

Definitely an Athens, GA alt/indie pop vibe to it. I'm immediately drawn to a call and response guitar with a baritone male and 2 part harmony female vocal singing about a psychedelic shrimp

"It wasn't a rock..."

"It was a prawn rock-tail (prawn rock-tail)
Setting sail in a car as big as a whale...."

stratman3142 · January 2023

Mine's in the playlist.

fastonebaz · January 2023

There's really nothing fancy about any of the chords. It's just as @stratman3142 described except the initial Em is more of a basic E5 power chord really, although it would be Em if I played the chord in full.

I've got one brewing, just reviewing my mixing.

fastonebaz · January 2023

What bit rate does everyone else export their mp3 files in?

fastonebaz · January 2023

Hmm I think I need to use a higher bitrate in my renders

fastonebaz · January 2023

maharg101 · January 2023

fastonebaz said:

What bit rate does everyone else export their mp3 files in?

320 kbps every time. It's not like that makes a huge file by today's standards.

stratman3142 said:

Well it's definitely fried my brain. I wrote the first chord down as Em, but my ears keep leading me to play a G and a G#, which gives it a minor to major "2001 Space Odyssey" vibe

How are others hearing the tonality of that first section?

I don't have enough musical grounding to describe in formal terms, but for me it has a lot of unresolved tension, like it's pulling in different directions - you think it's going to release after the climb, but it doesn't really. I've got something which I think fits for the initial section. It's great fun !

stratman3142 · January 2023

maharg101 said:

fastonebaz said:

What bit rate does everyone else export their mp3 files in?

320 kbps every time. It's not like that makes a huge file by today's standards.

Same here and for the same reason.

fastonebaz · January 2023

I was doing 192 but will go with 320 now I think

fastonebaz · January 2023

Sent one in.

A fat 320 kbps.

My approach was to use a totally new patch in my Bias FX2 to try to make me play and sound different to normal, but it ended up sounded exactly like me anyway

maharg101 · January 2023

fastonebaz said:

Sent one in.

A fat 320 kbps.

Forget the quality, feel the width !

stratman3142 · January 2023

fastonebaz said:

Sent one in.

It's in the playlist.

maharg101 · January 2023

Sent one in.

stratman3142 · January 2023

maharg101 said:

Sent one in.

It's in the playlist.

I think this is the strangest SotM we've had

maharg101 · January 2023

stratman3142 said:

maharg101 said:

Sent one in.

It's in the playlist.

I think this is the strongest SotM we've had

FTFY

Not sure if you meant my entry in particular, but either way, I concur !

stratman3142 · January 2023

maharg101 said:

Not sure if you meant my entry in particular, but either way, I concur !

No. They're all weird. But interesting.
Then again the backing track is weird, so I'm not sure whether it's possible to be not weird.

stratman3142 · January 2023

And one from @flying_pie in the playlist to continue with the madness.

That's 4 already.

flying_pie · January 2023

Sent one in as well. Great, albeit utterly barking mad backing track @fastonebaz ;

I decided to keep it strange so I didn't use the D or G string at all. I'm sure nobody famous for psychedelic surf/indie guitar playing has ever done that...

I think it's Em blues, chromatic, A dorian and A harmonic minor along with some chordal and dissonant double stops. And a bitrate of 320.

maharg101 · January 2023

This was a very interesting challenge, up-tempo with a tremendous groove, and musically quite outside my comfort zone initially.

Kit wise I went with a tele with a rails-type bridge pickup (DiMarzio Chopper) >Treble booster* > Nobels ODR-1 (last section only) > Secret pre-amp > ValvePower 18 watt > Ox

* Treble booster - a really nice clone of Keeley's Java Boost by ian_sheridanuk

It certainly wasn't a single take job - I had to really experiment outside of my usual blues-rock noodling to find that something that felt right to me. What @fastonebaz said about it still sounding "like me" really resonates. I find I tend to follow the same well-worn paths through muscle-memory, and the grey matter. So it's a little scary but brilliant to step outside that. But ultimately really rewarding.

So I ended up finding something that worked, and in the first section I hit on a nice sweet harmony part with one part being more staccato, and one left ringing out. I decided to leave the first climb with the backing only for a bit of space, with a little volume bump for that gorgeous bass riff to really pump. The middle section got weird quickly and more discordant but I decided to stick with it and overdub more weird shit over it and go ape with the panning automation, before reverting largely to type with the final section. Every track was EQ'd with ReaEQ. Here's how Reaper looked at the end:

Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52613027844_21c4cc0b72_o_d.png

Lots of learning points for me in this one including

- leave some spaces here and there

- don't overdo the wailing bends

- automation of volume and panning in Reaper is dead simple - just pick a track, press 'v' or 'p', shift click to add points

Overall this was massive fun and as always I look forward to listening to what everyone else has made of it.

p.s. off to buy a Reaper license. The evaluation is now complete !!

flying_pie · January 2023

I've just realised that I restrung and setup my guitar... then played through some ideas over an hour or so before eventually recording without rechecking the tuning! It sounds okaysih to my dodgy ears but apologies if any of this is out of tune to the rest of you!

maharg101 · January 2023

@flying_pie god no, it sounds brilliant ! Nice job

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Solo of the Month (SotM) #90 - Challenge

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