Introduction To Dice Songwriting

Beginner Grade 2 Module 11: Fingerstyle & Songwriting First Steps
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We’re going to write a song together from start to finish in just 30 minutes… this should be interesting!


View the full lesson at Introduction To Dice Songwriting | JustinGuitar

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Hey Justin this is one of the songs i’ve managed to finish and produce too:) let me know what you think, great video and thanks for the lessons as always:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf2eZcj7hCo

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Very nice, quite enjoyed it.

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Hello @liamcarmichael10 and welcome to the community.
Feel free to pop in to the Community Hub and introduce yourself there. Community Hub - JustinGuitar Community

I listened to your song with interest. Good stuff. I’m wondering what your connection is with Justin’s site and how long you’ve been using his lessons?

We have section dedicated to recordings - with some rules and etiquette about posting - if you want to drop more posts. Please read and check it out. Thanks. Community Recordings - JustinGuitar Community

Cheers :blush:
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Moderator

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Hey man, nice work!

I would suggest to make ‘big’ bigger and ‘small’ smaller so the song changes a bit more as it progresses, but halfway through I actually had the feeling I was listening to a real, finished song.

How long have you been playing?

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“Through the fire and flames we carry on” is from Through the Fire and Flames By Dragonforce \m/

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Seeing the basic process drawn out like that was surprisingly insightful and actually convinced me that songwriting is not out of my reach. Going to do some experimenting with this, thanks!

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Hi Justin, I am wring my song but struggling to find the right chords for the verse. I’m using the stuck 3/4 and I am not sure what key they are in? E maj7, D add11/F#, C add 9 and big G. If I just take them as E,D,C and G that are in the key of C but is that how it works? When I use Am to go into the chorus it doesn’t sound right. I’ve tried a few different combinations but it doesn’t sound right. Help?

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The chords that you are playing are not the key of C. You are using chord out of the circle of 5th. In the Key of C the D and E would be minor chords. Using circle of 5th the chords would be C G D E and A not Am so try A.
Hey Joe also uses the circle of 5th chords.

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Thanks Stitch. I will give that a go.

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Bravo! Very clever! May motivate me to do some songwriting.

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Sounds good.
The Dice method is great. Stop you from thinking.
With will definitely help you write a better song, not.
You only can love this Guy.

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One question I have, how do you go about writing a melody to go with the chord progression? In the video, Justin uses dice to pick the chords. He then starts singing the random lyrics from Instagram over the chords as he plays them.

Do you build a melody out of notes from that scale (e.g., if that bar is a C Major chord, do you write the melody for that bar from notes of the C Major scale?)?

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Todd to keep it simple, try and use the chord tones (notes) as the frame work for the melody lines, to start with. Even if its a couple of notes over each chord to start with, just make sure the notes are from each chord. Then add additional chords from the scale to expand it further, most will work and some will sound better than others. The chord tones will always sound best. You can try adding some non scale tones as passing notes, again some will work others will not. Your ears will tell you if its working ! Just have fun and experiment.
:sunglasses:

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Coming back to your lessons after sort of going my own way a few years ago has been good. one fingerstyle song I learned myself which has an F chord in it is an instrumental, solo guitar song by Faith No More called “Jim”, from when Chuck Mosley was still their singer. for some reason that song really helped me pick up big F and I’ve never had trouble with it since.

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I am speechless… I went into this course intending to someday have my own songs, but I didn’t expect to have them so soon. I had so much fun with the dice method! I have, however, replaced a lot of the original random chords. I am actually pretty happy with how this song turned out. It started out pretty light and mellow, but the more I worked on it, the more it changed. I didn’t have a goal when I started the song, but I am really happy with where it is now. It’s not perfect; there are stuff I would like to improve, but I am judging it good enough and moving on for now!
I still don’t have a way of recording myself, so I tabbed the song in GuitarPro and exported the audio. I will record it properly when I’m able to.
I’m just thrilled! Here is the YT link to the song if someone wants to have a listen. I would love any kind of feedback. Constructive is best, but whatever… :smiley:

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I wrote songs a decade or so ago. Mainly Christian worship ones. They were rubbish (well maybe one was ok) - they’ve never been used. The one secular one I tried was even worse - the lyrics were embarrassingly dreadful.

I had a listen to this lesson. It inspired me to have another go. My current situation and some words someone said to me in a single sentence gave me the material I needed to get some lyrics together. A lesson in the last module on chord sequences was helpful in getting the chords together (I didn’t use the “Dice” method). I now have the song.

Next steps:

  • Let one of the people the song is about, hear it (given the subject matter I have to do this prior to recording it);
  • Record a demo.
  • Get my son to put some drums to it. He heard the song at band practice last night (minus the final verse which I wrote this morning before work), liked it and agreed to do drums.
  • Add bass and guitar to it.
  • Decide whether to publish it or not and where. If it’s more than a personal one I’ll need someone who sings better than me and plays guitar better than me to contribute (I have plenty of people I can ask).
  • Write down my process and share it. Actually I should probably write it now whilst it is fresh in my mind.

As it’s a guitar forum I’ll share one bit of my process now. I wrote it on my piano (I’m way better on piano than guitar), but strumming chords on guitar gave me a bit more vocal freedom than I have on piano which resulted in some subtle changes to the melody.