First thing to do -

First thing — get the whole song down, top to bottom. Follow the original's skeleton for now. I came into this with a style in mind, so now I'm going to track the whole song in sections using just midi - with MIDI even standing in for the vocal for now.

Next — play the original and write the parts down as I hear them. Total free form stream notes in realtime as I listen. I'll then use this as an informal checklist to build the first draft frame of the song in Ableton.

Listening notes on composition by section

Intro section -

  • chords. Not same chords as verse.

  • drums

  • V short

Verse 1

  • Comes in fast

  • guitars

  • Voice

  • Organ pan thing

  • Bass comes in halfway through the verse

Prechorus

  • Bass is doing sick runs

Chorus

  • Lots of ahhhhhhs behind lead vocal

  • Strong harmonies. Really strong harmonies.

  • Harmonies hit harder in the beginning of each line. That's kind of wild.

Verse 2

  • Back in immediately

  • Half the length as the first verse

  • Suddenly we have guitars hitting aggressive panned riffs

Prechorus 2 -

  • Same as before - just now with guitar riffs

Chorus 2

  • yeah, wow. Harmonies and ahhhhs only in the first half of each line in the chorus. I can't believe I've never noticed this.

  • Wow, those chorus vocals HIT.

Bridge

  • Chord change

  • just Hooooooos

  • That was honestly pretty lame

Chorus 3

  • Immediately back into the chorus

  • Still on this harmony first half totally solo second half.

ahhhh yeah here it comes - that powerful end section

  • Wow, it's really just a chunky guitar laying on two notes, with some vocal support

Ta ta for now

Tomorrow I'll start scaffolding the rest of the song.