Help on various things

[TopHaggardDoll]

Does anyone know like....any guitar chords that are used in Goth music? Or am I being retarded because they just happen to be standard rock chords just with effects on?

Yes, it sounds gay, I just need an idea and i'm totally stuck.

[Tha Duckman]

Generally, they're pretty standard chords with effects like delay, so on so forth. Nothing very fancy.

[KontanKarite]

Also, this is just an observation I made and it actually might be the bass doing these things, but a lot of the guitar sounds almost like the kind of guitar you'd hear for that old school surfing music. You know, like when the surfers would run at the waves and that guitar would play kinda fast and well... slightly twangy.

[Tha Duckman]

You can get that effect by running a bottle along the fret board, or if you detune the guitar slightly.

[KontanKarite]

Yeah. I used to do something similar with a bass and a wrench.

[Tha Duckman]

A fun thing to do is take a Y cable, and put two ends from the same cable into the input and output of the same pedal, and then thread through a bunch of other effects. You can get some pretty far out sounds from the feedback of the pedal itself, all minus an instrument. Also, if you haven't already, make yrself a contact mic'.

[MIRON]

You can try some alternate tunings like "OPEN C" or "DROP D". I use "OPEN C" myself.

[Bete Noire]

Originally Posted by MIRON

You can try some alternate tunings like "OPEN C" or "DROP D". I use "OPEN C" myself.

Down-tuning is usually used in "GAWWWTTHHH" rather than "Goth"...


Goth rock typically (and this doesnt apply to every band) uses the phrygian mode. I duno how much music theory and stuff you know so I dont know if that helps.

The usual effects are light overdrive/distortion, Flanger, Reverb, Chorus and Delay.

As for chords, they are usually played quite high on the fretboard, or on the higher strings.

The guitar melody uses "angular melodies" rather than thick chords, but it still has the fast downpicking style of punk.




Not sure if that helps at all. It helped me. If you want to know more ask me.

[TopHaggardDoll]

Originally Posted by KontanKarite

Also, this is just an observation I made and it actually might be the bass doing these things, but a lot of the guitar sounds almost like the kind of guitar you'd hear for that old school surfing music. You know, like when the surfers would run at the waves and that guitar would play kinda fast and well... slightly twangy.

Yeah....in quite alot of the music, I noticed the guitar is doing most of the "jangly" bits and it's the synth and bass that are the main things you hear.

[MIRON]

The biggest problem with music today is that it's been divided up into so many specific genres, each with a specific formula and description of what each instrument should sound like and what it should do.

[Tha Duckman]

YES! I'm in a country band, and we do some pretty funky covers. It's fun to use unconventional things as instruments. It's called discount [Genre]. I use a remote control and a fork a a washboard, made my own violin out of bits of crap, and we have a pretty tight upright bass made out of shit people threw away.

[TopHaggardDoll]

Originally Posted by MIRON

The biggest problem with music today is that it's been divided up into so many specific genres, each with a specific formula and description of what each instrument should sound like and what it should do.

Each genre still has that specific sound individual to itself though.

I have trouble playing Goth mainly because I've been playing Depressive Black Metal for so long and the way you play it is COMPLETELY different.

In DBM, the guitar is the most prominent instrument, with alot of minor/strange chords being strummed very fast.

As I stated before, in Goth the guitar is used more as a higher melody to cut through the sound of the synth and bass, much like a solo is to Metal. Usually though, replace the synth with a second guitar.

[delicti]

Originally Posted by Tha Duckman

YES! I'm in a country band, and we do some pretty funky covers. It's fun to use unconventional things as instruments. It's called discount [Genre]. I use a remote control and a fork a a washboard, made my own violin out of bits of crap, and we have a pretty tight upright bass made out of shit people threw away.

Ah, so you do mostly Swans and Lemon Kittens covers then!

[MIRON]

Originally Posted by TopHaggardDoll

Each genre still has that specific sound individual to itself though.

I have trouble playing Goth mainly because I've been playing Depressive Black Metal for so long and the way you play it is COMPLETELY different.

In DBM, the guitar is the most prominent instrument, with alot of minor/strange chords being strummed very fast.

As I stated before, in Goth the guitar is used more as a higher melody to cut through the sound of the synth and bass, much like a solo is to Metal. Usually though, replace the synth with a second guitar.

True for crappy 90's goth stuff. But I hope no one uses it as a definition of what is goth and what isn't. A lot of early gothic bands were heavy guitar oriented bands where the guitars were everything and the synth was just there for atmosphere. Attitude and imagery are more important than which intrument is used in which place.

[Tha Duckman]

Originally Posted by delicti

Ah, so you do mostly Swans and Lemon Kittens covers then!

Mostly punk covers, like "Teenage Kicks" and shit, but we actually do a tight cover of "Failure" by Swans.