Songwriting 101. Part 4: Alternate Tuning

not bad. Keep it up.

You just ramble on and on about things most of us-guitarist know, and advertise your music... Speak and show something that is truly innovative and informative. One is bound to find a lot more helpful stuff on the net about alternate tunings. In comparison, I prefer how Dale done his lessons that was more interesting and informative.

agree

'orange tuning'

Man, alternate guitar tunings is one of the least important topics in songwriting study. This lesson should be somewhere at the end of your lesson course. Please, make a video where you explain how to basically write a song (how to construct chord progressions, melodies, harmony, etc.). We can already find inspiration when we need it, and there are lots of lessons about alternate tunings and stuff like that.

Here's a tuning for you: Shutup. You have nothing useful to say. Dale had a lot of interesting stuff to say, bring him back.

Hey Kole, this is cool man! Thanks for the video.

These lessons pretty blow. You can see from the other posts.

I feel bad for Kole, guys. Maybe we should lay off.

he has a nice sound in his music, and it is important to utilize the different aspects of guitar ex: the interchangeable tunings of your strings... some people actually DON'T know anything about them, or haven't learned anything special that you can do outside of the "standard" string tunings... chill guys.

Wow...he's contributing to UG, and you all snap at him.

He chooses to do this, he doesn't have to. Bear that in mind, you bunch of *******s.

This was a nice video. I knew most of it already but I know that it will help a lot of new guitar players. Keep up the good work!

Ever thought people might not know this stuff and might be interested in it? If you dont like his videos dont watch, simple as that.

"yada yada yada"

Feel bad inc. wrote: Ever thought people might not know this stuff and might be interested in it? If you dont like his videos dont watch, simple as that.

And I didn't bash him or anything like that. But it would be nice to see here some topics that are more obscure and benefitial than what is already known by many UG'ers.

A complex time signatures and weird song structures lesson would be much appreciated.

Feel bad inc. wrote: Ever thought people might not know this stuff and might be interested in it? If you dont like his videos dont watch, simple as that.

What I'm saying if the stuff he's saying is not helpful to anyone. He has not said ANYTHING about song structure. He has not said anything in relation to Music Theory. Basically he's a useless advertiser that talks about "inspiration". He needs to give the tools to create a song of how we feel. People with no knowledge of music theory or song structure have a very hard channeling their thoughts into the music and expressing it as how they want it to be. His lessons just tell you to do that when he hasn't provided those tools.

It is not helpful for beginners or even intermediates. The people that actually get something from this inspiration thing are the people that already know exactly how to put their feelings into a song, and very few do.

Guitar Sushi wrote: Feel bad inc. wrote: Ever thought people might not know this stuff and might be interested in it? If you dont like his videos dont watch, simple as that. What I'm saying if the stuff he's saying is not helpful to anyone. He has not said ANYTHING about song structure. He has not said anything in relation to Music Theory. Basically he's a useless advertiser that talks about "inspiration". He needs to give the tools to create a song of how we feel. People with no knowledge of music theory or song structure have a very hard channeling their thoughts into the music and expressing it as how they want it to be. His lessons just tell you to do that when he hasn't provided those tools. It is not helpful for beginners or even intermediates. The people that actually get something from this inspiration thing are the people that already know exactly how to put their feelings into a song, and very few do.

Unfortunately, as much as I don't want to join in on the bashing.....this is pretty much true.

Going to have to agree with Guitar Sushi on this one too.

These lessons have been useless to beginners, because they aren't being shown how to actually put this stuff into practise. Intermediate and advanced watchers won't get anything from it either, because... well, because they're already advanced, this will be inherently useless to them.

It's like taking a random person from the street and asking them to drive a car down the road. Either they'll already be able to drive so it'll be a pointless waste of time, or they won't have a clue and they won't be able to anything with it anyway.

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed this video and found value in it.

For those of you who say there is no value in this video (or any of the previous ones for that matter), I ask for you to simply refrain from either watching these videos or posting negatively. This does nothing but attract everyone's attention away from the video and change the focus to something that is hardly music related at all.

Also, I might add that in Part 2 of "Alternate Tunings," I do speak about structuring some of your musical ideas and starting to form your song.

Best,

Kole

Kole* wrote: Thanks to everyone who enjoyed this video and found value in it. For those of you who say there is no value in this video (or any of the previous ones for that matter), I ask for you to simply refrain from either watching these videos or posting negatively. This does nothing but attract everyone's attention away from the video and change the focus to something that is hardly music related at all. Also, I might add that in Part 2 of "Alternate Tunings," I do speak about structuring some of your musical ideas and starting to form your song. Best, Kole

without negative comments, we cannot get rid of things that are not useful. IMO this video isnt necessarily bad, its just really not useful at all, and not helpful either.

ok, i guess what i said makes it, basically, a bad video.

Kole* should change the title to something like "Look at me talk and bore every viewer to death"

Kole* wrote: Thanks to everyone who enjoyed this video and found value in it. For those of you who say there is no value in this video (or any of the previous ones for that matter), I ask for you to simply refrain from either watching these videos or posting negatively. This does nothing but attract everyone's attention away from the video and change the focus to something that is hardly music related at all. Also, I might add that in Part 2 of "Alternate Tunings," I do speak about structuring some of your musical ideas and starting to form your song. Best, Kole

On the contrary, we try to make the videos more musical and beneficial for viewers by addressing what kind of information would be the most useful and needed for the people here. It's good that you spend your time making these free videos, but it would be nicer if you took some advice from the criticism here. We just want to make UG a better place than it already is ;]

But this video was a milestone. The guitar was used for the first time. For 25 seconds, but, hey, progress is visible, although nothing improtant hasn't been showed on it either...

A great way of advertising

That was interesting. I had never thought of using alternate tunings to help with chord shapes.

Kole, in the song Hope by Rush,(I can't take credit for this) I found a very very cool tuning. DADAAD. from lowest to highest. the two A's next to each other are the same note so you get a really cool chorus effect. You should listen to the song and try out the tuning.

Sonic Blast wrote: That was interesting. I had never thought of using alternate tunings to help with chord shapes. Kole, in the song Hope by Rush,(I can't take credit for this) I found a very very cool tuning. DADAAD. from lowest to highest. the two A's next to each other are the same note so you get a really cool chorus effect. You should listen to the song and try out the tuning.

Thanks for watching and I'll definately check out that song. Also, I changed the tuning of my guitar to DADAAD to get a feel for it and your right...the 2 A's right next to each other have a very cool sound.

I appreciate your contribution and hope to read more like it.

Best,

Kole

Yeah, Kole, while some people may be harsh, and all you nancies are saying "OMG LIEK HE DOESN'T HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE, DON'T WATCH THE VIDEOS" this lesson is pretty weak. This is called Songwriting 101. So maybe you should talk about things more like it is a beginning class. Like basic theory, song structure. Maybe write a basic song to get a feel for these things, than in later lessons expand.

So for all you little girls, I reiterate; This lesson blows. Do better next time.

I thought they paid guys like Kole and Kristofer Dahl for making these videos, was I wrong?

Guitar Sushi wrote: What I'm saying is the stuff he's saying is not helpful to anyone. He has not said ANYTHING about song structure. He has not said anything in relation to Music Theory. Basically he's a useless advertiser that talks about "inspiration". He needs to give the tools to create a song of how we feel. People with no knowledge of music theory or song structure have a very hard channeling their thoughts into the music and expressing it as how they want it to be. His lessons just tell you to do that when he hasn't provided those tools. It is not helpful for beginners or even intermediates. The people that actually get something from this inspiration thing are the people that already know exactly how to put their feelings into a song, and very few do.

Agreed.

I'm sure we all appreciate these videos but that doesn't stop them from being short of useless. Not to be rude but all this "lessons" sound as an alternative to meditation for writing songs. What we as UGers actually need is lessons on actual SONGWRITING. Things such as: chord progressions, scales to apply to these progressions, improvisation, and examples that are actually helpful. This is a guitar website and the lessons should be directed at guitarists and focused on playing guitar.

Kole* wrote: Thanks to everyone who enjoyed this video and found value in it. For those of you who say there is no value in this video (or any of the previous ones for that matter), I ask for you to simply refrain from either watching these videos or posting negatively. This does nothing but attract everyone's attention away from the video and change the focus to something that is hardly music related at all. Also, I might add that in Part 2 of "Alternate Tunings," I do speak about structuring some of your musical ideas and starting to form your song. Best, Kole

Also, there is no reason for you to be so deffensive about the subject; we're meerely trying to let you know what we think would actually be beneficial to us through simple and direct critizism.

jesus christ guys, relax. I think you're all espection these lessons to be quick and straghtforward like kristopher Dahl's, but thats not how songwiriting works. All kris has to do is play the lick, explain the technique, and post the tab on the screen. Kole is trying to get us to CREATE something of our own, which requires alot more patience and alot more thought. he's trying to teach creativity, which is alot harder to teach than technique.

sry, *expecting not espection

Agregg9815528 wrote: jesus christ guys, relax. I think you're all espection these lessons to be quick and straghtforward like kristopher Dahl's, but thats not how songwiriting works. All kris has to do is play the lick, explain the technique, and post the tab on the screen. Kole is trying to get us to CREATE something of our own, which requires alot more patience and alot more thought. he's trying to teach creativity, which is alot harder to teach than technique.

But how can he teach creativity. When he has not taught the technique required to be CREATIVE with.

Guitar Sushi wrote: Agregg9815528 wrote: jesus christ guys, relax. I think you're all espection these lessons to be quick and straghtforward like kristopher Dahl's, but thats not how songwiriting works. All kris has to do is play the lick, explain the technique, and post the tab on the screen. Kole is trying to get us to CREATE something of our own, which requires alot more patience and alot more thought. he's trying to teach creativity, which is alot harder to teach than technique. But how can he teach creativity. When he has not taught the technique required to be CREATIVE with.

Because just maybe there's a few people here that actually are smart enough to combine the shredding and riffing of other lessons with the creativity of koles and therefore create something really cool but it seems as though a lot of people here wants to be taught a number of licks first and then put them together... which is like everything but writing an own song...

Keep it up kole you have interesting views on a lot of stuff and its useful thanks!!!

without negative comments, we cannot get rid of things that are not useful. IMO this video isnt necessarily bad, its just really not useful at all, and not helpful either.

of course you can't use it if you don't understand it =) cheers

Guitar Sushi wrote: But how can he teach creativity. When he has not taught the technique required to be CREATIVE with.

I dunno about you, but I don't need a "technique" to be creative. Making things up doesn't necessarily require any theory, unless you want to limit yourself to that.

The main problem that I see in this video is that he just talks. That's all he does. I've seen all four videos and I haven't gained anything useful.

I don't need someone to tell me how to be creative or where to gain inspiration. I (and most of the people here) need to hear about interesting and unique chords and progressions and how to apply them to the specific mood that we wish to create and these videos just don't do that.

He's boring and the videos are boring.

graybass_20x6 wrote: Guitar Sushi wrote: But how can he teach creativity. When he has not taught the technique required to be CREATIVE with. I dunno about you, but I don't need a "technique" to be creative. Making things up doesn't necessarily require any theory, unless you want to limit yourself to that.

What are you talking about? Of course you do, If you make something creative and you don't know what is. Then how can you expand it into a whole song if you don't even understand what a key is for example.

Guitar Sushi wrote: graybass_20x6 wrote: Guitar Sushi wrote: But how can he teach creativity. When he has not taught the technique required to be CREATIVE with. I dunno about you, but I don't need a "technique" to be creative. Making things up doesn't necessarily require any theory, unless you want to limit yourself to that. What are you talking about? Of course you do, If you make something creative and you don't know what is. Then how can you expand it into a whole song if you don't even understand what a key is for example.

My thoughts, exactly. These videos offer just inspiration, but they don't teach any real songwriting techniques, which are vital to create even a simple song.

hey kole i stumbled upon an altered drop d tuning i wanted u to check out its used by all time low in the song jasey rae its their acoustic version of the song the tuning is something like this from low to high D G# C# G b e let me know wat u think about the tuning and what not, keep up the great videos!

Please...Pleeeease! STFU!!

this video really helped me. thanks!

Noob_Cakes12 wrote: hey kole i stumbled upon an altered drop d tuning i wanted u to check out its used by all time low in the song jasey rae its their acoustic version of the song the tuning is something like this from low to high D G# C# G b e let me know wat u think about the tuning and what not, keep up the great videos!

Wow what an interesting tuning. It definately has a unique sound and you could pull off some interesting chord shapes with this tuning. One thing I particularly like is that there is a G# open and a G...that could create some crunchy dissonance.

Thanks for watching and the contribution!

And Thank You Kole for completely not acknowledging anything of what we just said even though it makes complete sense. We are offering constructive criticism. Not just mindless bashing. Please just take note as you always tell people in your videos.

video summary:
1. standard tuning - here's how it sounds
2. ooh look what i did i changed it
3. yay look i make no sense

@Guitar Sushi

Someone as self-important as him would never acknowledge such a damning and obvious mistake.

Lets just use this to warn him that another useless video will bring about the ever-engulfing flames that come from distraught UG members.

I love using alternate tunings when writing music, a lot of times for the sake of the harmonics that a tuning might offer, just like you said Kole. I had experimented with tunings like Dmaj7 and Dm7 tuning before, but I found a new one to be pretty sweet. It's an Ebm9 tuning. Try this guys, Eb Gb Bb F Bb Db, This chord works great with an Eb Dorian scale as well, lots of room for using either the natural or minor 6th in this tuning. Hope you guys enjoy.

fade177 wrote: I love using alternate tunings when writing music, a lot of times for the sake of the harmonics that a tuning might offer, just like you said Kole. I had experimented with tunings like Dmaj7 and Dm7 tuning before, but I found a new one to be pretty sweet. It's an Ebm9 tuning. Try this guys, Eb Gb Bb F Bb Db, This chord works great with an Eb Dorian scale as well, lots of room for using either the natural or minor 6th in this tuning. Hope you guys enjoy.

Great contribution! That is a very cool tuning and I really like Eb tunings for electric guitar, so I'll be sure to use this in my own composing in the future.

By the way, just because I'm not responding to every comment that doesn't mean I'm not reading and acknowledging each one. I've heard what you guys would like to see in the next video and it will most likely be on one of the more "important" topics to Songwriting.

However, do remember that there is a method to the order of these videos and I've found that "opening doors" before you "close" them with theory/structure/etc. is more beneficial in the long run when learning the art of Songwriting & Composing. It is quite the opposite when teaching technique and I understand why many of you may have been confused in my choices, but I ask for you to trust in my methods.

Best,

Kole

Ok then, Kole. I'll wait for your next video.

that was great, man... since i've seen this video i've written 6 amazing songs..... i used the alternate tuning you're using on the video... it's really awesome....

i hope you don't mind....

I don't mind at all, Guitaraddict7. I'm happy that you've been able to write so many new songs with that alternate tuning.

Keep it up! =)

Kole

Dude, no offense, but I agree with most of these people, you need to show us how to write a song. And your videos are kinda boring, try Kris Daul's style of video

Add some tabs to!!!!!

I loce the idea of new tunings, but actually I knew all these things by thinking a little locical
nice video though

Wow, so many critical reviews... Where the hell's your instructional video?

Lets look at how shitty it is an not even consider that SOMEONE might find the info useful? You negative tards need to pull your heads out of your self righteous butts.

Example. Hawaiian slack key guitar. No one showed Hawaiians how to tune a guitar. Now, (because of the nature of its non-standard tuning) its a thriving cash cow to those who can actually perform it.

..retards..

For some reason the video wouldn't load for me, but alternate tunings add to your sonic arsenal. Very useful for getting out a rut, finding cool new sounds, and simply being original. Just look at Tremonti.

+1 what duexe said.

chimpinatux wrote: 'orange tuning'

I'm not synesthetic, either. Sound != color in my brain.

...
anyone else notice that this guy has a lisp?

It would be better if you cut to the chase. Lay out a few different tunings that are interesting and explain how to apply them. Don't spend most of the lesson explaining why the last 2 minutes is going to be useful.

I think you've got good material, but it needs refining.

You have no talked about song structure or any topic related to ACTUAL song writing. Anyone can write songs in alternate tunings, but that is irrelevant to song writing. this is like the second thing that a guitarist figures out when he gets his first guitar.

I want to see a lesson on song structure. If you don't put it out, I am going to record a video on song structure for everyone.

silentdud wrote: I want to see a lesson on song structure. If you don't put it out, I am going to record a video on song structure for everyone.

Is that a threat? :P

hey says "you're gonna need your guitar for this lesson". Did he actualy play something (I'm not sure, I clicked away after I have seen a few minutes of the video)

why is he holding that damn guitar if he doesn't play anything????

er45ujykuiiiii

keep in mind he doas this by chioce and if you keep slamming him he'll stop so cut it out you jackasses

how can Kole teach Creativity when he's not Creative? Is anyone else missing that? he's basically just playing typical classic guitar. Coasting off the fact that he's a "professional musician." He should take some creativity lessons first.

this is terrible. not useful at all. he doesnt even play the acoustic till the end, for like 5 seconds. waste of download.

BLABLABLABLABLABLABLABALAABLAAAAABLAAAAABBLLLLLAAAAABLABLABL ABLAAAAA!!!!! either get to the point or shut the fuk up retard!

Sorry guys, but if you think you need as video to help you write a song, you should think of somthing else to use your time because YOU SUCK

For fecks sake why is everyone knocking kole for this video.Its titled "alternative tunings",not "complete guide to songwriting".He is just giving an idea that may not work for some,but will for others.As for the whole theory/technique business i point you to the following quote "imagination is more important than knowledge" by Albert Einstein.
Love and peace y'all

personally i thought it was an excellent explaination of the benefits of alternate tunings...i may be wrong, but it seems to me when you get to the point where you are seriously thinking about songwriting, you should be beyond the "this is a pull-off" "this is a hammer-on" phase of guitar playing and you should have done a little homework on the basics of theory and technique(which seems to be what most people want). And for the others complaining about you plugging your album one second then whining becuase you didn't play the next????? doesn't make much sense..what do you want? a music video, or something that may actually help you understand the guitar better?
For what it's worth, you got a 10 from me

Thanks for the insight

all you need to know to write songs is a scale and all the chords in the scale and how to use cadence. alternative tunings basically nothing to do with songwrwiting.

Agregg9815528 wrote: jesus christ guys, relax. I think you're all espection these lessons to be quick and straghtforward like kristopher Dahl's, but thats not how songwiriting works. All kris has to do is play the lick, explain the technique, and post the tab on the screen. Kole is trying to get us to CREATE something of our own, which requires alot more patience and alot more thought. he's trying to teach creativity, which is alot harder to teach than technique.

its not really that hard to teach. i go to an arts school and i take a songwriting class and my teacher tought us alot more efficiently than this dude

looks like im a little late to this comment board, but i just started watching the videos, i have a nice tuning you all might find very different and find new sounds just by fooling around for five minutes or so. its E B D# G# B F#.

RandyVanhalen13 wrote: its not really that hard to teach. i go to an arts school and i take a songwriting class and my teacher tought us alot more efficiently than this dude

its free dude