How to use the coolest modulation in music...

Check out how this guy uses harmonic movement to make (and keep) things REALLY interesting in this song. Dig into this song with me and see if we have any constructive criticism for our friend Stephen here.

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CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome! Ramblings on a typical session day…
0:53 I do this in my spare time, sometimes before the session day starts
1:18 I have a song from a subscriber–he just needs someone else’s ears on it
….this is very common for writers, producers, artists, players
3:50 My rig for playing along and playing through some ideas
4:31 Here’s the song, “Marie”
8:39 This feels so much like a Ry Cooder meets The Band. VERY cool.
9:25 This kind of stuff is some my absolute favorite music
9:47 I have some thoughts…
11:40 Ry’s stuff is very carefully constructed in terms of what sticks out when…
12:13 I’m intentionally leaving the “session guy on modern radio” hat OFF.
12:42 I’m a huge fan of all these 70s artists that this reminds me of.
13:14 But there are a lot of things happening kind of all the time
14:21 If we were on a session, these would be the ideas thrown out by the players
15:27 The chord movement here is AWESOME
16:42 Some other influences I hear…
17:16 Let’s check out this chord move again…
18:02 “Grace don’t come cheap, but it’s free.” :)
18:49 THE MODULATION…let’s figure this out
19:35 That’s a 2- 5 1 in A. He got there walking down to a 4- chord in F# that IS the 2- in A. Get it?! That is SO COOL
20:00 Final thoughts. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE :)

[stevenestes]

Just wanted to say "thank ya kindly" to folks who took the time to share some feedback. I greatly appreciate it. If you're curious, I bit the bullet a signed up a bunch o' fantastic Nashville session players. I've got 10 songs for a full album they'll be beating into shape. They'll take on everything but the acoustic, which my poor pocketless soul will handle. I figure that'll put a nice rough edge on things :-). Here's a rough go at a chords sheet for the curious...
Verse
| F# /C# | Bmaj7 B | A#4 add b5 | B B/A
| F#6 | G#m B | G# D11 | F#

Bridge
| A# dim F#11/B | B | Cdim5 D#dim |
| G#7 C#aug

Chorus
| F# C#7/G# | A#dim B6/F# | D#m7 Bsus2/C# |
| Bm E7/G# | A6 A7 | Dsus2sus4 D | C#4 | C#7 |
| F# C#7/G# | A#dim B | riff |

[JeffreyDopp]

Love how diplomatic you are!! I had the same thought out of the gate. Cool song and I can relate to too much going on to land on anything.

[mattsdf]

Fellow Nashville musician here. Love your stuff. Professional and most importantly - USEFUL. Your content nails it man.

[ericleary]

The worst thing a song writer hates to hear…. “Sounds a lot like ‘….’!
Man, I love your tune dude. Sure you have influences, but it sounds just like you!!!
Great job!!!

[peterdvideos]

I love the musicality of this song. Love the changes. More songs should be like this!

[buzzfretwear]

Cool song, kudos to the writer for submitting and sharing for all of us to learn. Haven’t seen the whole video yet but it’s a really dense arrangement. It doesn’t need so much "stuff" going on because the song itself can stand on its own with less.

[ianmartens]

Great song! I totally agree with your assessment of how the parts are cool but need to find their space in the arrangement. Great vocal and delivery.
Great video once again!
Greetings from Saskatoon Canada!

[stevekottwitz]

Justin, you really touched upon something that those that do this on our own seem to struggle with. I, too, tend to "fill space" both sonically and with various instruments / parts and often need to do some subtractive revisions when the mix starts to shape up. Thanks for the content you put out there. Wonderful vibe in this song Steven.

[markpeam]

100% agree. Great writing, great playing and singing. Lyrics slightly overshadowed by the mix - easy fix. Hope Stephen finishes it off, and keeps its character. Great video - thanks.

[JarickL]

Totally agree. Listening back, the guitar and banjo(?) panned hard left and right were kind of conflicting and pulling attention away from the vocal. I almost wanted to hear more of a bed of music, like a B3 or some mellow acoustic strumming that provides an anchor. Then the vocal comes in front and center, and the guitars (left or right) come in the breaks. But yeah the core of the vocal and song is just awesome, you can't fake that.

[fiddlefolk]

I enjoyed your song Steven! It has a soulful Ray Charles vibe to me! I can't wait to hear the finished product!

[TimsGuitarWorldwithTimFeskorn]

Even a little feet thing going on there. Pretty neat. Interesting Chord changes. Great voice. Thanks Justin, great content here. more like this...

[UnitedEffect]

Great stuff!!!! Love the harmony/chord structures... vocals... heck, all of it!

[bg]

"So much movement I couldn't focus on the lyrics" that is exactly what I was thinking on the first pass. Super cool voice but it was hard to follow because my attention went all over. Anxious to hear a second version with some of Justin's suggestions

[HuffwareStudio]

Agree with your input 100% Justin... 🔊🎶

[graemero]

100% agree Justin, this could be fantastic.

[Hbomb]

Yep, definitely Randy Newman. Personally the vocals or what is getting me or specifically the background vocals I’m feeling like a gospel-ish, female voice or voices a little more in sync with how he is singing or maybe even slowed down and sort of floating above his vocal. Definitely a great song. I would love to hear the finished product.

[TonyThomas]

Reminds me of Little Feat, Tom Waits, and Jerry Garcia. Great song...just think it needs a better rhythmic foundation with fewer conflicting instruments so you can feel the groove.

[gf]

Well i see the composer has already hired himself a band, so i guess comments are a little redundant.
But for what it's worth i thought Justin nailed it, it felt
like everything was fighting for the same spot.
But the vocals were so strong they really didn't need that much help, even a single acoustic guitar backing might have actually been enough.
That said there was plenty of cool playing so hopefully the band found a home for everything.
There isn't another channel quite like this, one of my favourite things is seeing what really makes up a song, where every note earns its place.
Justin is a consumate pro in this regard and such an
outstanding guitarist, it's fascinating watching him
at work.
So I'm grateful YouTube threw in this suggested channel, why it thinks I'm also preoccupied with cage fighting i don't know, but I'm sure they know best.

[chrisg]

Crikey it’s so cool to listen to you Justine yip your right. There’s thousands of us out there ! I realised it would be silly to attempt to send you a bit of creativity, the important thing is to keep listening to what your saying and thank you your doing great job.

Love that you got the answers Justine and the track is likely to be absolute winner if sorted I hear it’s very cool the fact you chose this near eclectic piece and saw such potential was what was so cool.