Lord KJWilliams
Member
What do you do when you working on something, whether its your game, artwork, music, or even something that your writing and you get a writers block?
I got this problem when I compose music , I create this really beautiful score, and I get stuck at the point where I want to continue it but I don't want to repeat what I just played. It happens to me a lot. So I end up with a ton of saved music files that only play for 1 or 2 minutes but they go nowhere. I cant explain it.
Recently, I started playing around with a Kontakt Library for my DAWs ( LMMS and Cakewalk ) that I purchased from Impact Soundworks called Shreddage 2 : Absolute Electric Guitar.
https://impactsoundworks.com/product/shreddage-ii-absolute-electric-guitar/
Now my problem is that I am a musician who is experienced with keyboard, piano, organ, harpsichord instruments. And unlike the guitar , which I happen to own a Ibanez, is different. My learning curve is that
keyboards are polarized, with black and white keys to mark the differences in half steps. Guitars do not have this, every fret is a half step ( e.g. A - A# - B - C - C# - D - D# ...). So I had to make this picture guide ( see below). I thought middle C on the Piano was universal with all instruments, not so with electric guitars.
So I had to create a model of a guitar fretboard and mark all the sharps ( or flats ) black - so I could learn where they are on my guitar. The colors of each of the strings mark where they are on the standard notation model. Shreddage 2 uses a 7-string guitar tuned to A1 which is not seen. So the problem is that I am used to having all of my keys on the same line, not broken up into individual octaves like the guitar has. This is where composition thinking has its faults. Middle C as I discovered is on the 3rd fret of the 5th string. Shreddage 2 tuned to standard tuning, because when I play C3 via Shreddage 2 the dot lights up its fret board display.
One of reasons that I purchased Shreddage 2, was not only to compose instrumental music but also use it to teach myself how to play this stuff on my Ibanez which is a 6 string. There is a lot of things that I do not understand in this software (e.g. I do not know what sound compressor does ), mostly dealing with guitar terminology.
So my struggle is adapting what I know in keyboard ( piano ) to guitar with its limitations. I have to tune my electric guitar with my BOSS chromatic tuner every time I use it. I have to clean my strings after use, because the dirt or oil on the strings change the way the string vibrates. On my keyboard - theres no tuning that is needed. Tuning a real piano requires the patience of a saint, 88 keys ( or 88 strings ) vs 6 or 7 strings on a electric guitar. Oh, theres another pain, becuase I have a tremolo bar , when I change my strings , I have to redo my intonation because of the tremolo bar unit.
The Ibanez sales rep. said to me , it does not matter if I had a rosewood tremolo bar unit - I would still have to tune again as usual. Tremolo bar units when used - detune electric guitars from normal use, especially from long hours of playing.
So I am still learning the electric guitar, my guitar is being used as tool to help me understand how to compose music for it.
I want to write my own music in standard notation with tablature for guitar but I dont how to do that , because its missing the cleff and I cant write below what is recognized as middle C because thats where the lines for the tablature is. I also have to transpose anything that can only be played on a 7-string guitar on its 7th string for a 6-string guitar, which is near impossible to do sometimes because that deep sound on the 7th string is gone - which I like. I will have to buy an 7-string ibanez, one of these days, that will have come after I buy my next ibanez guitar that I plan to modify with a sustainiac coil.
So the heart of my problem is that I am so used to thinking as a pianist to write my music, but I am new to composing music as a guitarist. Thats my problem - and I the only way that I know how to get over it is with practice and experimenting.
This may be similar to your problem....
Feel free to copy the picture guide if you want and modify it to suit your needs ( you will have to modify it if you want it show a 7-string guitar's 7th string to be seen on both figures )
How do you deal with your writers block when your building your game, the art for your game, the music, or even the basic story line or plot line when your game becomes suddenly more complicated than what you realized? I try to plan out and make outlines to follow, but there is no way to compensate the sudden discovery of what you have is expanding as a idea as whole and where to lead the construction of it.
Thanks
I got this problem when I compose music , I create this really beautiful score, and I get stuck at the point where I want to continue it but I don't want to repeat what I just played. It happens to me a lot. So I end up with a ton of saved music files that only play for 1 or 2 minutes but they go nowhere. I cant explain it.
Recently, I started playing around with a Kontakt Library for my DAWs ( LMMS and Cakewalk ) that I purchased from Impact Soundworks called Shreddage 2 : Absolute Electric Guitar.
https://impactsoundworks.com/product/shreddage-ii-absolute-electric-guitar/
Now my problem is that I am a musician who is experienced with keyboard, piano, organ, harpsichord instruments. And unlike the guitar , which I happen to own a Ibanez, is different. My learning curve is that
keyboards are polarized, with black and white keys to mark the differences in half steps. Guitars do not have this, every fret is a half step ( e.g. A - A# - B - C - C# - D - D# ...). So I had to make this picture guide ( see below). I thought middle C on the Piano was universal with all instruments, not so with electric guitars.
So I had to create a model of a guitar fretboard and mark all the sharps ( or flats ) black - so I could learn where they are on my guitar. The colors of each of the strings mark where they are on the standard notation model. Shreddage 2 uses a 7-string guitar tuned to A1 which is not seen. So the problem is that I am used to having all of my keys on the same line, not broken up into individual octaves like the guitar has. This is where composition thinking has its faults. Middle C as I discovered is on the 3rd fret of the 5th string. Shreddage 2 tuned to standard tuning, because when I play C3 via Shreddage 2 the dot lights up its fret board display.
One of reasons that I purchased Shreddage 2, was not only to compose instrumental music but also use it to teach myself how to play this stuff on my Ibanez which is a 6 string. There is a lot of things that I do not understand in this software (e.g. I do not know what sound compressor does ), mostly dealing with guitar terminology.
So my struggle is adapting what I know in keyboard ( piano ) to guitar with its limitations. I have to tune my electric guitar with my BOSS chromatic tuner every time I use it. I have to clean my strings after use, because the dirt or oil on the strings change the way the string vibrates. On my keyboard - theres no tuning that is needed. Tuning a real piano requires the patience of a saint, 88 keys ( or 88 strings ) vs 6 or 7 strings on a electric guitar. Oh, theres another pain, becuase I have a tremolo bar , when I change my strings , I have to redo my intonation because of the tremolo bar unit.
The Ibanez sales rep. said to me , it does not matter if I had a rosewood tremolo bar unit - I would still have to tune again as usual. Tremolo bar units when used - detune electric guitars from normal use, especially from long hours of playing.
So I am still learning the electric guitar, my guitar is being used as tool to help me understand how to compose music for it.
I want to write my own music in standard notation with tablature for guitar but I dont how to do that , because its missing the cleff and I cant write below what is recognized as middle C because thats where the lines for the tablature is. I also have to transpose anything that can only be played on a 7-string guitar on its 7th string for a 6-string guitar, which is near impossible to do sometimes because that deep sound on the 7th string is gone - which I like. I will have to buy an 7-string ibanez, one of these days, that will have come after I buy my next ibanez guitar that I plan to modify with a sustainiac coil.
So the heart of my problem is that I am so used to thinking as a pianist to write my music, but I am new to composing music as a guitarist. Thats my problem - and I the only way that I know how to get over it is with practice and experimenting.
This may be similar to your problem....
Feel free to copy the picture guide if you want and modify it to suit your needs ( you will have to modify it if you want it show a 7-string guitar's 7th string to be seen on both figures )
How do you deal with your writers block when your building your game, the art for your game, the music, or even the basic story line or plot line when your game becomes suddenly more complicated than what you realized? I try to plan out and make outlines to follow, but there is no way to compensate the sudden discovery of what you have is expanding as a idea as whole and where to lead the construction of it.
Thanks