Russ Suereth
Last
week we discussed getting music ideas from new age and ambient music. This week
we’ll discuss getting ideas from symphonic music and heavy metal.
It’s
hard to find two types of music that are more different from each other than heavy
metal and symphonic music. But they are also similar, because both can excel at
musical passages that are simple and hard to get out of your head.
Case
in point is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor. Written around 1805, this
composition starts with the famous ta-ta-ta-daa, ta-ta-ta-daa. These eight
notes are part of our ordinary music knowledge, and have been used by modern
groups such as the Electric Light Orchestra.
The
point here is that these eight simple notes can be used as a basis for your
eight-note or ten-note hook. Sometimes it’s the simple things that are
memorable and that catch a person’s ear.
The
same goes for heavy metal music. There have been a lot of great hooks in heavy
metal for years. Black Sabbath’s Paranoid album is full of powerful hooks. For
instance, the beginning of the song “Ironman” has a great guitar hook that
feels like a giant metallic beast stomping across the countryside. That piece
still makes me smile today.
Other
heavy metal examples, of course, can be found in Led Zeppelin tunes. The song “Good
Times Bad Times” starts off with a great riff from Jimmy Page that is simple and
memorable.
Just
because Beethoven and Page were, and are, great artists does not mean you
should be intimidated. Just focus on the notes, and forget the rest of the
song, and everything else. Start playing some notes on the keyboard or the
guitar, and find something you like and that sounds catchy. Keep it simple. And
then embellish it a little with your style and tone. Or embellish it a lot. It’s
your riff!
