Songwriting Study Gift: Backing Tracks from Ultimate Guitar

I noticed an interesting offering from Ultimate Guitar the other day that may be useful to people trying to create better, and more professional arrangements.

For many classic hit songs they have “backing tracks” similar to karaoke that show the actual instruments and accurate parts you can study in two forms—a .wav form mixer, and a tabbed sheet music mixer with left-hand instrument board.

The thing that stands out is how SIMPLE most classic, memorable hits are and how much “white space” there is in the mix. In other words, you don’t hear a lot going on at once. It is a MIX.

The tab version of these songs also shows the intro verse chorus bridge style across the bottom which is very useful for songwriters to see. It’s all here, so to speak.

Backing Track Let it Be

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/backing_track/the_beatles/let_it_be_17255

Official Tab Let it Be

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/the-beatles/let-it-be-official-1939035

Such mixes would be easily doable in BIAB if you were to follow the idea that each “slot” in the main program has a letter associated with it, and you can “program” the chord progression so that basic tracks comes in at certain times and you save the full band for later. It is not a gimmick to solve all mixing steps, but it will get you started.

And if you open the file in Real Band you can visually “see” how you are doing in terms of simplicity and flow.

Here is your “typing” code. (This applies no matter which instrument is actually in the slot.)

1st slot bass=b
2nd slot piano=p
3rd slot drums = d
4 slot guitar = g
5th slot strings = s

(Please see preferences to see the midi channels of these tracks)

Example intro (using chord dots)

C.bpd Dm7.bpd G.bpd C.bpd

This may be good for the upcoming FAWM challenge.

Studying hit mixes/songs and using band-in-a-box to construct similar songs/mixes is easy, as long as you realize it is a mix, not a wall of sound.

One thing I did not see in any of the hit mixes (even with Aerosmith and Joe Perry) was a block of instruments all playing at the same time and same volume with a 4 minute pentatonic noodling scale screaming over top the entire time.

I searched and searched and searched but could not find one. Strange. It seems Joe Perry only comes in every once in a while, but when he does, he nails it. Odd. Hmm…..

Did a pentatonic scale once startle you as a child? That seems to be a trigger for you.

No.

Like most people suffering from Pentatonic Scale Trauma Disorder (PSTD) it is not the exposure to a single pentatonic blues noodling riff on a canned backing track that causes the permanent nightmares.

It is the daily exposure to millions of bogus noodling riffs that creates symptoms of foaming at the mouth and wide, staring eyes, barking at the moon and so forth.

The trigger can sometimes be as simple as logging into websites at the wrong time and seeing forty such songs dumped at the same time.

Cute little gifs can cause hospitalization.

Does that cover it????

Yep.... my thoughts exactly.

Appears to me you are giving us a look into the future of computer assisted music, Dave. Every time we sit down with a multitrack and lay in an original vocal or instrumental, we have taken a step, acknowedged or otherwise, into the Brave New World of trans-humanism, the ultimate merger of humans and the machines. Sure, you could say the same thing about driving an automobile, but this is art.
Plainly, the DAW was a huge step in that direction. As was the Porta-studio, which put recording into unlimited hands. Band-in-a-Box upped the ante beyond description, and still does. Still, our persistent question is "When have we come up against "that wall," and how to we scale it?"

I've used pentatonic scales but not in my own music. I used them when teaching children to create simple melodies in their 1st few steps as musicians. It wasn't for long either...soon the extra notes were reinstated on the gloks & other tuned percussion so that the kids had to navigate the 12 tones, (as artificial in their own way),to create something that worked for their ears 1st.