Tribute to George Harrison, recorded on Oasys

jgsidak · Post by **jgsidak** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 1:20 am

Tonight, I posted on my music website my tribute to George Harrison, entitled, "Songs That I Have Written But Forgotten." I composed the song 24 years ago, but it could only reach it full potential on an instrument as versatile as the Oasys. The song appears at the bottom of the following webpage:

http://www.gregorysidakmusic.com/compon ... lbum_id,4/

Greg

Charlie · Post by **Charlie** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 3:27 pm

Cool!

Did you do the strumming manual or with Karma?
The Bass is quite distinctive and fun listening to.

jgsidak · Post by **jgsidak** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 4:16 pm

The strumming is all manual. I recorded the solo more than a year ago on a quite different arrangement of the song. I did not like that arrangement and decided this weekend to rebuild the song from scratch by copying individual tracks into a new song, leaving behind what I did not like. In a departure from the way I usually compose, the bass line was the last track to add. I find it pretty difficult to write a bass line to a song that is essentially finished. I typically integrate the bass line with the drums at the beginning of the composing and arranging process. I worked for some time with a simple bass line that accented the high and low notes of the chord progression, but the result was much too predictable. So I thought about what Paul McCartney might do, and I was drawn to his greatest bass playing on any Beatles recording: "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window." So that is the inspiration for the bass line--my imagining of Paul playing on a tribute to George, in the feel of Abbey Road. The result is that the bass line throws off lots of differing harmonics that cause the simple chord progression to vary continuously throughout the second and third iterations of the verse and chorus.

Charlie · Post by **Charlie** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:19 am

Interesting - I never added the Bass in the end but always did it like you discribed as your "usual way": together with drums.

Personally I think the bass is quite often underestimated. I've heard from many songwriters moving from the guitar to the keyboard for composing. The main reason for this is IMHO that on a keyboard you usually "define" the chords via the bass. A chord without a bass could be many things. C-E-G could be Cmajor or Am7 or Fmaj7/9 etc. If you play this on a guitar, it is up to your imagination what you hear (which is interesting, too

. But once you play the bass in addition it becomes clear. Just like you described: your bass-line (re)difines harmony. I like doing that in my songs - esp. in the last chorus I sometimes redefine them - just a little bit - so one can hear "Hey - something has changed - but what is it?".

jgsidak · Post by **jgsidak** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:01 am

Listen to what Sting does on bass on the last verse of "Wrapped Around Your Finger" on The Police album Synchronicity. Something changes and the song sounds jazzier.