WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE J DOG?

[melibreits]

E major.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

I think a B major might be a nice change...it could slip back up into C to D to E again...?

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

And a cool way to play that B, since you have a jangling Rick, is to do the 7th fret barre chord, but with the high B and E strings open...

Sorry to butt in!

[melibreits]

Cool.... I'll give it a try!

[jdogric12]

Interesting. So you're playing E major, and mixing in C and D, which are chords from E minor. This gives the E major a nice "lift" kind of quality, since after C and D, our ears are expecting E minor or something closely related. So by substituting E major, you've kind of increased the "happy" quality of the E major chord.

Since it's a bit of a jolt to go from E maj to C maj, I would recommend saving that change for climactic moments of verses/choruses, and the song in general. But that's just me. It might also be cool to churn out the E C D E ad nauseum and save some more "normal" (read: in the key) chords for the "special" moments.

Please keep us posted!

And Mark please don't be shy, the more we share and post, the better this topic is. So, thanks for your post, you're not intruding at all.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Well, okay then... I have to say I'm a big fan of going from E major to C major. When you strum an E major and walk it on down to a C major, it's a very satisfying, revelatory feel. Think of CCR's "Green River"...

On this second verse,

E7
I can hear the bullfrog callin me.
E7
Wonder if my ropes still hangin to the tree.
E
Love to kick my feet way down the shallow water.
C
Shoefly, dragonfly, get back t'your mother.
A
Pick up a flat rock, skip it across green
E7
river. Welllllll....

...they're chooglin' on that E major for the first three lines, but they shift to C major on the fourth line. It sounds really cool!

So if I had a song that hung on E major, and would shift down to C, up to D and up to E again...I sort of envision a chorus or bridge that breaks out of that and hits the B major, maybe going from that to A major and back a couple times. The half step chord shift back up to C would sound cool and pull you right back to the walk-up to E.

All depends on what you've got going, of course, Ms Melibee...

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Okay, I'm coming out of the closet here and linking you to one of my own tunes. This one is an old recording, from the 80's, called "1969". Watch the chords and you'll notice the verses all resolve to E major. But from that E major, the choruses shift into a C when I sing:

C.............G.....
I'm going to cry...

I've always liked that transition from E to C, or A to F. Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInf ... ID=5894894

[melibreits]

Nice song, Mark... the transitions between major and minor keys are dramatic and help to emphasize the point of the song, I think....

For my song I think I'm just going to go with the E, C, D pattern, because it sounds cool just the way it is... I tried throwing the B chord in, but it didn't work with the song. The combination of rhythm guitar, bass line and vocals are interesting enough, and I'm hoping that my friend who is visiting this week will be able to add a cool-sounding lead guitar part to it all.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Thanks, Melissa!

Keeping it simple is usually the best bet! -Mark