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The "odd time signatures" shortcut that broke my guitar block
Spent 2 months stuck playing the same 4/4 chord progressions, then forced myself to learn one song in 7/8 (Tool's Schism) and suddenly my writing clicked. Anybody else find a weird music theory trick that actually unstuck their creativity?
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jessica92110h ago
and honestly that's so real. i got completely sick of 4/4 after like a year of just strumming the same campfire chords, then i tried learning "Money" by Pink Floyd in 7/4 and it totally rewired my brain. now i'll write a verse in 6/8 and switch to 4/4 for the chorus just to keep things interesting. tbh it's less about being a show-off and more about forcing your ear to hear new patterns so you stop defaulting to the same old stuff. glad i'm not the only one who went through that phase.
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olivermason10h ago
That odd time signatures trick is cool but I found something weirder that totally broke me out of my rut. Transposing a song to a key way lower or higher than it should be played in. Like take a pop punk tune and drop it down three half steps on an acoustic, suddenly the whole vibe shifts and you start hearing new chord voicings and melody possibilities youd never find just messing with time signatures. Did that with a Green Day song once, turned it into this dark almost folk thing that led to a completely different writing session. Its like forcing yourself to rethink the skeleton of a song instead of just its rhythm.
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