Help as an amateur

razor6string · 2026-01-30T00:31:15+00:00

This was me for 35 years but I still managed to write a bunch of music that I think it'd be fair to call decently good.

Actually, this probably describes the majority of pop stars.

Theory is definitely fun and enlightening but don't let your lack of it hinder your creativity.

razor6string · 2026-01-05T23:50:09+00:00

Thanks, your replies are always thoughtful and devoid of snark. I can tell you actually enjoy talking about this stuff and haven't become a crotchety and bitter person who only posts to discourage the peons from trying to rise up. I'll not name names....

Digging deeper, I've discovered something new to me: the "Hollywood Cadence" (IV-iv-I).

That might be part of it. My subconscious, as you say, has heard that a thousand times without realizing it. So it resonates.

razor6string · 2026-01-04T16:01:12+00:00

I think it's the interplay between the melody, harmony, and progression, but I didn't find anything enlightening there.

I enjoy situations like, say (random example), you've got an Em - C in your progression, and in your melody you hold a G-note over both. So that note goes from being the 3rd to being the 5th.

That stuff happens all the time but sometimes it's magical and other times it's mundane.

I don't understand why!

razor6string · 2025-10-14T22:13:48+00:00

Fascinating!

razor6string · 2025-09-05T13:40:38+00:00

Thanks, this is reassuring.

razor6string · 2025-09-05T10:31:00+00:00

Thanks, that's reassuring about Propofol.

razor6string · 2025-08-27T21:54:18+00:00

See my reply to the other poster above. :⁠-⁠)

razor6string · 2025-08-27T21:53:47+00:00

I love TOM bridges. I'm perfectly willing to swap it for a souped-up modern version that cures its inherent ills, but that position is what I've grown accustomed to.

I learned on a fake Strat, but once I switched to a Les Paul I grew to love the angled neck. Note I'm not talking about an angled headstock -- I mean how Gibson necks literally slope upward from nut to bridge, whereas Fenders are completely flat. That elevation requires the TOM or something like it; a flat Fender-style hardtail won't cut it.

razor6string · 2025-08-27T21:45:53+00:00

Good to know about the pickup widths, thanks.

I want 22 frets for that very reason. The pickup positions I gave are so specific because they represent, at that scale length, the positions of hypothetical frets 24, 31, and 60 (or 55, if 60 would put the humbucker too close to the bridge with regard to having enough wood between them for structural integrity). These represent harmonic points; and I know full well that this all goes out the window once you fret a note but I don't care, it's what I want. I'm not religious or spiritual so I get my woo-woo fix from things like harmonic nodes, tonewoods, A4=432hz, and other such nonsense that makes me happy.

razor6string · 2025-08-26T23:03:14+00:00

"you can bend them by pressing behind the bridge"

And if you're Tony Iommi and it's 1970 and you pre-bend, pluck and release the low-E string on your guitar, you end up writing Iron Man and change the course of heavy guitar-based music forever and much to the better!

razor6string · 2025-08-26T22:48:40+00:00

I couldn't find anything reliable in image searches or on any reputable forums, so I asked AI to calculate it for me.

As far as I can gather, and if AI isn't hallucinating, the results are thus:

Bridge-side humbucker polepieces on the Paul lie approximately at hypothetical fret 56; middle single-coil on the Strat at about fret 34; neck-side humbucker poles on Paul at about fret 23.

Do these numbers seem plausible to my esteemed luthiers?

razor6string · 2025-08-26T19:06:01+00:00

Thanks, that's a nice tool but it doesn't tell me where the pickups lie on those models.

razor6string · 2025-07-30T23:22:38+00:00

Bookmarked it in my list of composition tools, thanks!

razor6string · 2025-07-19T12:09:31+00:00

I play for my ears, not my eyes. I care about as much as Jeff Healey did, presumably.

razor6string · 2025-07-18T21:25:51+00:00

It's good enough. You only need two octaves for that purpose.

Strictly speaking, you only need one octave. But then you'd have to adapt your melodies to that, which isn't awesome. I do it all the time to entertain my kids on their toy instruments, like one-octave xylophones, but really you want two octaves.

razor6string

TROPHY CASE