Allen Robot Van Wert

A good way to start your exploration for YOUR tone is to first think of something in your head. Even if it is abstract and not exactly connected to sound, it is a start. Once you have that element defined with certain terms that you may be able to develop with equipment and even technique, Start playing around with sounds that remind you or best fit the terms you list for the thoughts in your head about the ultimate guitar tone that screams “THIS IS ME!”

You could use other guitarist’s tones as a starting point and I think it is very useful to pay attention to how different players get their own sound. This will help provide somewhat of a road-map when developing your own.

Here are some tips and thoughts:

Reverb or the lack of reverb really puts a guitar in physical space of near or far. It also can be used to provide a form of environment or ambient sound-scape. My ROBOT tone uses NO reverb at all which helps give it a distinct raw quality that closer resembles something digital and unnatural.(which was my goal)

Compression is something very useful and dangerous. You can get drastic results with compression depending on how and where you use it. Essentially, compression is where you take a signal and squash it so the louder notes become softer and the quieter notes become louder. This makes things less dynamic and if you really push it overboard, you can have it so squashed that every note regardless of how loud or soft you play, comes out at the same volume. I use this trick with the ROBOT tone to give it a digital and unnatural feel. Eric Johnson uses compression in a different way. He uses it to cause notes to swell which alters the pick attack. Sometimes I do something similar where I make the pick attack compressed and clean but have the fullness of the guitar swell in slightly over a few milliseconds to make sure the picking is defined while still getting that smeared sort of neck pickup tone. There are so many applications for compression that I highly suggest researching compression and various uses so that you can make educated decisions when applying it.

Volume is something to consider when using an amp. Many people agree that there is a sweet spot for tone that happens when the speakers are physically displacing due to high volume. This gives an added natural distortion where you can lower the gain some and add midrange for more clarity while still getting a heavy sound. This deals more with heavy rhythm and chord playing than lead in most cases.

Know your amp! You really need to know you amp inside and out. Different tubes will change the tone. Understand how each tone knob alters the way other tone knobs act and if you should usually take into account how everything will sound or does sound going into a microphone. Mose people use a dynamic mic up close. There are many variations to work with and try. The best way to do this is to have the cabinet and mic in another room. Have the amp head in an isolated room with you so you can hear only the sound that comes from the mic picking up the signal from the cabinet. Have an assistant move the mic around while you tweak amp head settings back and forth to test how things work. Playing live and recording usually means everyone hears your tone AFTER it goes through a mic. This will drastically alter your tone. The goal is to get the mic signal to match what a person hears from the amp alone. You would think that the logical thing to do is to walk around the room with the amp and find the spot you like the sound the best with your ears. Then place a mic right where your ear is. However, microphones have lower bass response at a distance and it won’t work out quite as you imagine it should. Take into account the size and type of speakers the cabinet has. Every speaker on the cabinet sounds different (even if they are all the same brand). Then you need to realize something that most musicians in general simply ignore…

A guitar tone on its own will sound different that a guitar tone with other instruments/sounds playing.

You need to check how the guitar tone works when there is a bass guitar and vocal or piano/keyboard. A classic example of this is all of the guitar players who scoop the mids completely out of their amp. It sounds cool because you suddenly have a thumping low end and harsh distortion sound. That crunch happening. As soon as you place a bass guitar along with it, suddenly the low end is mud. Then you add a vocal and drums and you cant hear your guitar anymore because the midrange is sucked out of it and other instruments are now masking what you heard when it was playing alone. Of course, you then turn the amp up because the other guys are just “to loud” right. Now you are adding this noisy shrill top end to compete with the drums and the low end is just walking all over the bass guitar and it sounds bad in basically every way you can imagine. I agree that rhythm guitar should have the mids scooped. But only slightly and in a specific range(s). You also need to account for the room you are recording in for a recording situation. If you have the cabinet in a room less than 20 feet long, you will usually run into issues with room nodes. This basically means that the room itself latches on to certain frequencies coming from your cabinet and amplifies them itself. This of course gets into the mic and the recording or into the P.A. system at a show. You can lower your bass knob on the amp to help it some but then you are sacrificing some tone. The best way to fix it is to isolate the cabinet and mic from the room sound any way you can. For recording, I use bass traps set around the mic and cabinet. For live, you are usually on your own and get screwed lol. You can however build or purchase an isolation cabinet with a mic inside, just make sure the sound man has you up enough in the monitors so you can hear yourself. On, and don’t even think about using eq to “remove” the room sound lol. You can usually take out some at 400hz but you are losing the guitar tone with it. Best bet is to isolate, unless the room sound is really working for the tone and magic happens. I won’t go into technical sound manifestation, reflection and absorption. I will say this. Buy yourself some Owens-Corning and isolate the room from the mic and cab. Make sure to get thick versions or double or even quadruple thinner ones together if you need. Also, you should wrap them in burlap unless you want fiberglass in the air or on you lol. Burlap works great because it holds the fiberglass in but it is porous enough to allow higher frequency sound to pass into the fiberglass, thereby isolating the upper frequencies from the room and mic as well as the low frequencies. Before you get too excited. There are certain diminished returns when it comes to bass frequency isolation. You should read up on the length of sound waves and know that sound waves that are longer than the thickness of your isolation material will pass right through it like magic. This is why thickness of materials matters. There is a trick though. You can add virtual thickness to your material by allowing an air gap between it and a wall. The closer it is to a wall, the less it will work. You should keep then out as far from the walls as you can for the best results in isolation. Oh, and don’t forget the floor lol. A carpeted floor will stop some high frequency but no lows. A wood or hard floor will cause reflections of high frequency. You should elevate the cabinet from the floor and elevate the mic stand from the floor if you can. This isn’t always a huge deal because usually guitarists or engineers will cut frequencies below 90hz out of a guitar anyway. It still alters the tone though. Just because you cut out 80 hz AFTER the recording was made doesn’t mean the 80hz didn’t affect the rest of the sonic spectrum through resonance and overtones.

I may have gone a little too much into recording guitar since this was meant to be about guitar tone. However, you hear guitar tone after it hits a mic and gets all fucked up. So, it is good stuff to be aware of and understand when dealing with tone.

Other things to look into will be the pickups on a guitar and how well volume is consistent from one string to the rest, How the pick you use changes the attack sound of the guitar and of course how you play it. I wouldn’t worry too much about spending tons of money on some special guitar cable or speaker cables lol. I ran tests on the cheapest through the most expensive and they all sound identical. I did the tests using a keyboard so I could activate every sonic range to be thorough. Many people have also mentioned the bullshit story these companies spin about a special way their cables work. It’s all pretty much the same except for isolation of radio waves and long term wear and tear resistance.

You should also think outside the box. I am told that Mutt Lange had people using a little rockman headphone amp for Def Leppard and/or ZZ Top recordings and massively EQ corrected it to get their guitar tone to work well in the mix and have the needed attributes he wanted. This brings up non amp tone and solid state processing. Some plugins and rack based guitar amp simulations are quite good sounding and very useful. I sometimes get ideas by playing around with various effects in a rack to make cool sounds. Some people use software to emulate guitar tones and to actually see how something might sound in their own rig before purchasing it.

Gain Stage is one last thing I will mention. It has to do with how the sound is progressively amplified from the guitar to the amp and speakers. I have heard many times what lower output pickups give a “better” tone. I agree. I also like to roll off the volume on my guitar until it it right at the breaking point of cutting off and then boost the amp gain some. This seems to give a really breathing human tone. Reminds me of Eddie Van Halen sometimes. Speaking of which, the way you blend effects with a direct signal can really help things out as well. He had his phaser sending along with the direct signal. If you don’t, it gets a little unruly at times. Back to the gain stage stuff. Basically, the gain will take sound and “suck” in more sound depending on how high it is turned up. This works just like compression and essentially, distortion is compression. So just be aware of WHERE things get amplified and how much. Amps all work differently so learn your amp.

After all is said and done. It is rare to ever be 100% complete and happy about a tone for a very long time. It is good to save settings and write down knob positions and go back to them at a later time to see what the sound you liked sounds like. One last tip is comparison. Humans, have a tendency to automatically hear something louder as being better than something quieter. This means you need to make sure wen you change settings of any sort, you are not just liking the change because it made everything louder.

Have fun playing with sounds and reaching your imagination in the more apparently physical world.

http://www.AllenVanWert.com

Please let other musicians know about this book. Also please let me know how it works out in helping you with songwriting. Thank you for all the help and support!

Allen

If you want to get better at songwriting and have tried other books like me and just never gained anything of substance from them except for theory terms and coined phrases then this is the book for you!

I keep away from music theory as much as I can while providing a real world way to look at things and explain it all in a common sense and logical way. I provide the secrets and tools for you to get better immediately after reading it through. However, I feel that there are so many good tips and examples that most people will find themselves going back to it time and time again when they need a quick fix for a song they are working on. Or when they just need to sharpen their craft. It deals with all aspects of songwriting. There are no pointless examples and no old school mentality where you end up learning about how diana ross songs were written about love because love is a good topic. Nothing lame like that. It is the real deal!

So let me know if you are interested and I will hook you up!

Talk soon!

Allen

I like to study music and I am able to find formulas in the music of most bands. I thought it would be interesting to share my studies with you guys and let you see how I see things from a compositional analysis standpoint.

Firstly I will take a few songs that are big radio hits and within a few passes of the songs I discover and plot out the bands “formula”. This is a good way to learn about composition and how things fit together in a song. I would not suggest directly ripping off the formula of a band because you will end up sounding a lot like them in most cases. No one likes a copycat. (Ex: How Saving Abel is 100% copying Three Doors Down’s formula…listen to “18 days” from saving abel and then just about any recent Three Doors Down song.)

Here is how I do it:

I first write down the tempo or BPMs of a song. The tempo is very important to a song and can change everything.

I then listen through and count out how many measures per section, what sections they have (intro, verse,chorus, pre chorus, break, solo…etc.). I also mark down any odd things that stand out like a short set of measures of a post chorus or pre chorus.

Then I take the parts written down in order and mark down the amount of overall energy the part has. Apparent loudness level or excitement level. I also mark down if a section is more on the building tension side or release of tension side of things.

Then I figure out what tuning the song is on guitar, how many instruments are being used (I write down what instruments are being used in each section of the song, when they come in, their feel, rhythm, and use in the song EX: padding, rhythm, counter rhythm, melody or harmony.

Then I write down how many chords are used in each section of the song… are they staccato?…is it a riff? is it a set of openly held chords?

Then I write down the implied mode, key, or scale each section is in. For instance: If the intro and verse is revolving around G major and the pre chorus is playing around the C and D major chords.. I mark it as a basic IV and V tension building scheme to make the chorus sound bigger once it hits in on the G again.

Then I break down the song harmonically a little more and notice the types of notes in a scale they avoid on certain instruments and parts of the song.

Then I look at the rhyme scheme of the vocal part. I look at the tessitura or general range and register changes in the vocal melody. Then mark down the feel of each part…like.. whispering…raspy…open..loud.. etc. On the chorus, what format is it? Do they have a certain phrase or title of the song they repeat.. and when do they use it? how many times?

Next comes the rhythm. I note down all of the rhythm feels. What time signature are parts in…whats the rhythm and counter rhythm doing…is the bass locked with the kick or is it syncopated like in a Disturbed song for instance. This is done for all of the instruments.

Then sometimes I even get into the mix a little and figure out where the instruments are in the sound spectrum. You may notice by doing this that when a guitar palm mutes and 125 hz goes bumping that the bass guitar is all of a sudden in a higher register/octave so that they don’t have to share the same spot in the sound spectrum. By studying the mix you can certainly learn about song arrangement for different instruments. I also take note of the panning of instruments and if they change in parts or widen etc.

Then I compare all of this to the other hit songs they have on the album in the same fashion and mark down the things that happen to be the same in most of the songs… then the formula has been found.

Ok, so here is the first formula breakdown for the band “Breaking Benjamin”:

I just explained how I come to the conclusion of a formula so I will try to leave out redundant information.

song: Breath
About 92 BPM 4/4 time

2 measures of quiet intro on guitar
6 measures of loud intro full band
that makes it a total of an even 8 measures for intro
8 measures of a verse broken into two distinct melodies 4 measures each
8 measures that repeats the last 8 measures of verse with different words
Thats a total of 16 measures of Verse for verse one
6 measures of prechorus
2 measures of a quiet prechorus used to contrast the chorus to make the
chorus sound bigger.
Thats a total of 8 measures of prechorus
6 measures of chorus…the vocal melody of the chorus starts in the prechorus.
2 measures of post chorus/pre second verse
That makes a total of an even 8 measures for the chorus and the
post chorus together.. I am noticing a pattern…Breaking Ben likes even
sets of 8 and will make sure that parts all weigh out to sets of 8 for
consistency and evenness.

Verse 2 is same as verse one except for new words and more action in the
bass guitar part because the excitement of the song needs to build and not
fall back to the same exact dynamic in the first verse. This is good to
note when writing.. The drum has more action too. So the rhythm section
has some more excitement to it.

This prechorus has 6 measures and does not include the quiet part like in
the first prechorus. So we lost 2 measures. This is because the audience
wants to hear that chorus again and they feel it may be a little pointless
to play the quiet part again because it would not be nearly ass effective
this time around since the momentium is building more and more and it
could be a bad move to drop the momentium here. So we have a different
set of measures for this prechorus being that it is only 6… lets see if
they add 2 measures somewhere else indicating that they may have OCD (just
a joke).

8 measure chorus same as first chorus
4 measure break without vocal that contrasts the rest of the song… this
section is basically a pre break section to the actual vocal break section
that comes next…
4 measure break part with vocals that end in a scream and go into a
chorus.
That’s a full 8 measures of break or contrast section that are used
to build up to the next chorus portion. So this can be seen as a prechorus
of sorts, however, since it is used to break the monotony of the rest of
the song it is called a break section.
8 measure chorus with a different bass feel
then the final ending of the song is you guessed it.. 2 measures and then
a hold fade.. 1 measure of clean guitar and one measure held notes.. then
it fades… They did find a way to keep it in sets of 8 afterall.

Here is the section list in an easy to read format:
Intro:8
Verse:16
prechorus:8 last 2 measures are quiet
chorus:6
preverse:2
verse:16
prechorus:6 without the quiet 2 measures
chorus:8
break:8 first 4 without vocal
chorus:8
outro:2 then fade

So we have a total of 88 measures at 92 BPM about 3 minutes and 30 seconds
(That is a great song length for pop radio) Also notice that the intro is
only about 22 seconds before the vocal and verse come in. The rule is
usually 18 seconds or less so I am guessing that on the radio they
sometimes cut off the first 6 seconds of the song (The quiet part). A good
rule of thumb is to have an intro under about 18 seconds. Breakin Ben
broke this rule…probably because of the slower tempo forcing this to
happen. It is only by a few seconds so its no big deal here because the
intro sounds exciting and sets the pace for the rest of the song.

That is the structure of parts.. now we go into a more detailed breakdown
of the individual parts:

Intro a:
Quiet guitar on a narrow band of eq – this is a trick that is used
a TON to make the band sound bigger when it all kicks in.

Intro b:
Full band in Drums, bass, distorted rhythm guitar, distorted lead
guitar. No vocals.

Verse a:
One clean guitar with chorus and some reverb or delay to create
atmosphere. Vocal. Drums playing softly. Bass with more motion than
expected in its part. Some light lead guitar feedback now and then to
also create some atmosphere.

prechorus a:
loud drums with cymbals smashing, 2 rhythm guitars distorted.
bass. Vocals shouting volume.

prechorus b:
This is the quiet prechorus part of 2 measures. Acoustic guitar,
quiet lead guitar, very quiet drums on the hi hat. no bass… the no bass
and no kick drum here will make the chorus sound explosive by contrast
when it comes in.

chorus a:
drums smashing cymbals, bass playing a more focused chord
progression part, distorted rhythm guitar, distorted lead. Vocal doing a
sing songy melody. Song title is mentioned in the chorus “Breath” right on
the ONE beat in the first measure. the rhyme scheme is A-A-B-B.

postchorus/preverse a:
same as verse

verse 2:
same as first verse. EXCEPT the snare drum now has more crack to
it…probably a different snare drum. Band generally has more energy in
this verse. Bass plays around with octaves a little more it seems

prechorus 2:
same as first but there feels like some treble or gain has been
added a tiny bit to the guitars and the drums feel a little bigger.

chorus 2:
feels same as first chorus

break a:
drum feel is on the toms like a big fill section almost. rhythm
guitar is still distorted but it playing stacato. Lead guitar is distorted
still and is playing staccato as well. bass is playing whole notes and not
holding them long until the last part. So staccato feel is what they are
doing… This contrasts the open feel in the chorus to come. The contrast
in rhythm is another tool they use to make the chorus sound bigger or like
a release. So this break is used as a tension section.

break b:
This is the break with vocal. Double kick on the drums. Heavy
rhythm guitars and the lead guitar seems to be holding the fifth degree of
the key of the chorus part to create more tension and release. So this is
tension and release using pitch as well. This part consists of whole
notes… so the tension in “break a” caused by the staccato feel is now
released to this break of a whole note feel but the tension is kept
because of the harmonic content pitch wise. Vocal is hinting at the root
of the chorus but the harmony of the guitars and bass is not in the chorus
part yet.. so it is doing a push and pull thing to create tension in the
form of anticipation.

chorus 3:
this one starts off with quarter note hits on the drums to make it
sound like a reprise of sorts for 2 measures. The lead guitar now has a
harmony on it to make this chorus sound bigger. The band is going all out
because its the final chorus.

outro:
This outro is clean guitar playing a release of the verse
sections. The vocal holds out the word you…and the rest all hold out
their last note and drum hit until fade.

Now for the harmonic breakdown in progression:

intro a:
Major 2nd on the first three beats of every measure and minor 3rd
on the 4 beat. The 2nd degree and 3rd degree of the root in the verse to
follow. The b3rd is also the key of the chorus as major. Breakin Ben likes
to go to the Relative Major in their choruses BTW.

intro b:
Rhythm guitar and bass are playing b3rd first measure, major2nd
second measure. Then measure 3 and 4 are bass playing the verse root of F
minor except they go to the major 2nd around the and of the 3 beat, and
minor 3rd on the 4 beat. The rhythm guitar sticks on The minor root of F.
The lead guitar is playing a melody around the G# major scale that is used
in the chorus. Playing almost as broken octaves. If this melody was played
on its own it would sound major and sing songy like a little kids melody.
This lead is played for the first two measures first over the G# and then
over the G. This sort of drilling in of the major scale regardless of the
chord changes beneath it is an interesting way to hint at the chorus key
of the song. Its like a weird foreshadowing element. Then on the last two
measures each time its playing around what can be viewed as part of a G#
major 7 arp or as a part of a D# major arp which would make it spell out
an F minor 9 including the b7 in the first case.. or in the second case it
would be seen as the V or dominant chord of the G# major root in the
chorus. This is played while the rhythm section plays over an F minor. So
I see this as an interesting idea in composition. Here is what is
happening… The verses are in F minor.. the choruses are in it G# major.
The rhythm section is playing around tension and release into the F minor
and the lead guitar part is playing as if its a release and then tension
in G# major. This is very cool.. so we have.. rhythm going Tension
release to The minor, and at the exact same time we have the lead part
playing Release and THEN tension to the Major. This is a very kick ass
push and pull idea that someone should give Ben some props for composing
and having the balls to even attempt lol. He is actually indicating two
roots at once. This is something that you should really study into and
play with in your own stuff. The last part of the intro has the lead
doing a new melody based around the G# major still except it aims more to
the F minor in its last two notes. The rhythm guitar is doing its same
walkdown. It sounds like the bass chooses an end note of D# or else the
rhythm guitar is holding that while playing the G. The D# is the V of the
G# major. So its like the rhythm section and the lead section change roles
at the same time right before we resolve to the verse in F minor. This is
like some little musical joke Ben is playing with us. Pretty cool stuff!

verse 1:
The bass is playing all over the F note. for the first 4 measures.
Then plays on the b6th of F minor being the C# for two measures and then
back home to its root in F minor for 2 more measures. So we have two
chords in the verse. Only two chords back and forth is all you need to get
the tension and release going people. The rhythm clean guitar plays around
the F sus2 and the F minor, meaning its using the 2nd and 3rd degree of F
minor like in the intro. Its more firmly based in F minor this time
because of the bass guitar enforcing that. Then when the bass goes to the
C# the clean rhythm plays around a C# major7 chord. It hints at the 9th
degree for a moment and then resolves that into the major 3rd degree
(which just so happens to be F…the root of our verse), so thats a form
of anticipation pitch wise on the guitar to show that we want to go back
to the F next. And we do. The vocal melody is playing around F minor and
has its own little ups and downs melodically to give it its own call and
response interest.

Pre chorus a:
This has a lot of tension because of the bass, rhythm guitar, and
the lead playing around the C# for 3 beats and then hitting the C an
octave higher on the 4 beat.. The C is tense to the C# and also the F
because its the natural 7th of C# and the 5 of F. Its like a pivit point
between two worlds and works the same in each. TENSION. Then we add more
tension by walking up 8th notes on C then F then G. This is like saying..
ok we established the C as a tense pivot. now we are gonna use the G as
one too. because G is the b5 of C# and also the 2nd of F. See the thing
is the last note there.. they go back to C# BUT.. that little walk up of
tension is actually a walk up of resolution if they would have hit the G#
on the end of it instead of the C#. So this works in three ways. Its a
tension builder because of the pivit point idea between the F and C#. Its
a tension because it goes to the C# and it would be happier if it went to
the G# major. And it works because the G# is the fifth degree or top end
of a powerchord of C#. So its tension while still holding some harmonic
sense in all aspects. Very cool stuff. Again we are playing off the 2nd
and b3rd of F minor. The vocal melody is doing a walk down of b3rd 2nd
root of F minor. Then it follows the walk up with the instruments. This
vocal melody is an octave higher in register than the verse.

pre chorus b:
The tension finally breaks harmonically when we go to the G# major
chord and stick it for a while in this quiet section. We came from a c#
major so its like going from the IV to the root at this point. The lead
guitar in the intro was hinting at this moment as was the “prechorus a”
section. So what happened here was we released the tension in one way
(harmonically) and we introduced tension in another way.. all of a sudden
we are forced to hear things differently in the context of Major or
happy… and the volume drops out.. so its like a little sign that we are
gonna have some sort of explosion. Its a tension of the dynamic type. To
really drive home the new key feel of G# major the lead guitar is playing
on the five and three of G# Major back and forth. Which is D# and C..
those are also a decent way to get back to F minor.. which we do on the
start of the Chorus. The vocal melody is down back to the same octave as
the verse which is a contrast before the vocal jump and musical explosion
in the chorus.

chorus:
Long holds on chords here. 2 measures per chord!! That is quite a
contrast from what we have been hearing thusfar. First chord is F minor..
then we have C# major.. hes becoming friendly isnt he. Then we have the D#
and then it falls back to F minor for the preverse/verse 2. I see this as
a progression that is used a ton and it holds lots of emotion in it. Its
the Root, B6, B7, root thing going on here. The cool thing is that it can
also be heard as the 6, 4, 5. In G# Major. The vocal melody is totally
outlining a G# major arpeggio. However since there is only one note
different between an Fminor chord and a G# Major chord it all works
without a weirdness feeling. So again, Breakin Ben is about the Relative
Major/Minor thing. You will see interviews with Ben talking about how he
likes his songs to be sad but then uplifting in the chorus. There you have
it. This is one big stand out event in the formula you should take good
note of. Also note that the lead guitar ends on the fifth degree of F
minor.. setting up the verse again as well.

Verse2:
same as verse 1

prechorus 2:
same as the first except no quiet part.. now you can also see the
quiet part from the first prechorus as the chorus… and here is why…

chorus 2:
This starts out on the G#, which is where the quiet last 2
measures of the first prechorus was playing. The vocal melody is the same.
All the rest the same from there on. So its like the first prechorus quiet
part was a foreshadow of the “REAL” chorus with the full band and volume
in G# major.

break a:
Same harmonic content as the first chorus with the root, b6, b7
movement. But it goes back down to the b6 at the end. Lead guitar plays
around these changes. but when the rhythm goes to the b7 or the D#, the
lead goes to its fifth, the A#. and then goes to the 5th of the c# when
the rhythm goes back there. Then the lead walks down right into the F.

break b:
Same as “break a” except the last two chords are G# to G. Setting
up the G# chorus by using tension in the G since its the G#’s natural 7th.
The vocal is playing around the G and G# to build tension and then ends on
the third of G# Major which is a scream on the note C.

chorus 3:
Lead guitar is now playing a different melody and is really
driving home the G# major key, then It goes up a diatonic third and does
the same thing there.. which is like a call and response to its own major
third harmony.

outro:
Ends on F minor.. clean rhythm guitar plucks out a final F minor
to quick F minor 9 or F sus2 chord. The addition of the 9th degree on an
ending chord always makes a song feel a little more special to me.

Now for the Rhythm breakdown for the formula:

intro:
All parts locked. The lead guitar is almost used as a counter
rhythm part.

verse:
Bass is playing nonstop filling up the space so the rest of the
instruments are way laid back. The lead guitar is being used as a
syncopated counter rhythm here. Probably to give it a loose feel so it
implies chords rather than have it doing a boring static part with the
groove. So its being used as a counter rhythm and a pad to outline the
chords. Drums quiet right down and move to the hi hat.

prechorus:
They hilight the pivot chords on the 4 beat by playing them an
octave higher. and near the end of this section they play them staccato.
and lower. The drums add some of their own fills to give it life.

prechorus quiet:
This is a quiet part to contrast the chorus. The acoustic guitar
and lead are filling up space. Bass drops out. Drums are very light and
only using hat and or cymbals.

The rest is the same besides aforementioned changes.

The break:
Staccato and tom fills for the first part. and then wide open with
cymbal smashing for the final vocal part.

last chorus:
First two measures are using a new drum feel of half time. Then it
all kicks back in.

Rhyme scheme:

A-A-B-C in verses
A-B-C-C-D-D In pre chorus
A-A-B-B In Chorus.
A-A-B-A In Break

END..

Ok. So in this big ass analysis on the song Breath from Breaking Ben we
have discovered some really great compositional tricks. The big one they
seems to be into is the use of relative Major/Minor. Another I notice is
the use of lead guitar as a counter rhythm. Or Syncopating the rhythm
part. Another is the use of dynamics as tension and release. Soft to Loud
etc.

So Breaking Ben’s formula:

1.> Dynamics play a big role…the song builds and builds. It has moments
of quiet to contrast, creating an explosion. From snare changes to a
little more gain or treble on guitars, They do it almost like an additave
dance composer does. Adding parts as the song progresses to keep interest.
They do it with Dynamics in volume. This type of writing was really
brought to life by Nirvana. Think about how Smells Like Teen Sprit goes
soft to loud. Breaking Ben do it in a more thoughtful way. Almost like an
Orchestral.

2.> The lead guitar is not an extra musical thing going on just because
lead guitar is cool, It is used as a counter rhythm and lightly implies
chord changes. Note choice is clearly a big deal to this guy. No pointless
shred. The lead guitar serves the song. (See: Tom Petty style lead
guitar).

3.> Major melody over typical Minor progressions. They hinted at the minor
and the major at the same time in the intro of this song which is
brilliant.

4.> Mix of power chords and clean notes of the full chord. This is Dream
Theater type of thing to do. You have the bass and the rhythm heavy guitar
play power chords down low while the clean guitar plays a higher register
and highlights the chords like the distorted guitar couldnt without it
sounding like ass.

5.> Low verse register of vocal, higher vocal register in prechorus and
chorus.

6.> They seem to not end on root much. They use other chord tones like the
third and fifth in the vocal.

7.> They use long ass held out chords in choruses for two measures each.

8.> They use only a few chords to get their point across. They just use
those chords in interesting and powerful ways.

9.> They save screaming for the climax of the song. They dont just scream
like tards non stop.

10.> They use Rhythm to aid in projecting the proper emotion of the song
and its parts.

11.> The song has lots of little parts that all hint at the same big
picture. This keeps things interesting while still keeping uniform.

12.> They let the bass hold some power and highlight it in the verses.

13.> The rhythm guitar and the bass are not always licked on the same note. They let the bass tell another story along with the Rhythm guitar.

I hope you like my little study on the Breaking Ben FORMULA. To test this you need to do the same type of study on the other songs they have and see what is constant between most songs. If you find some let me know. It would be cool to hear from other people and what they discover when studying one particular band.

Also, let me know if you want a study like this done to find the FORMULA of any other band.

Thanks for reading!

Allen Van Wert

I am getting more and more excited that you will be using all of my knowledge to build yourself up to the best musician and guitarist you can be. After years and years of intense study and practice on the instrument and music theory, I find that the next step besides my own creation of music is to help others at their craft too.

I already have over an hour of Audio lesson stuff…(me talking to you about this system).
I have a video for every single exercise… each video also explains other things and what the exercise is for in the overall scheme of things….and the text to go along with all of it.

I just had to delete a bunch of text so I wouldn’t give out my secret in here. I don’t want this method getting out to anyone else…yet. If you would like to know when the instructional becomes available. Let me know in an email, or post a message about it in here.

I can’t wait for all of the new happy emails to come in once this is out there and people are advancing like crazy from using it. The last instructional still has people messaging me all the time saying how much it has helped them and no other system has ever worked. Well, this new one totally destroys my old instructional.

With my self study in other fields of life… some really cool fields that pertain to how our brains work, I am combining that knowledge along with all of my extensive guitar and music theory knowledge and packing it all together in a simple for you… (but, hard for me to develop to make sure its easy on your end) format.

I know that all of my long hours spent studying the mind and all of the learning methods in the world. Along with the years and years on guitar itself, are worth it. I am about to release to the world, one of the most amazing examples of advancement as humans.

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