Under The Influence: Dave Mustaine (Megadeth)

My oldest sister's name is Michelle, so I was curious about [the song Michelle]. And as soon as they started singing in French I was hooked. Plus the arrangement of the french horn part at the end is so passionate. 

But what I learned from the Beatles was how to move the root a half or full step while keeping the rest of the chord suspended, which is really cool. We do that quite a lot. They also used a lot of 7th chords, whether they were major, minor or augmented, and I found that fascinating. 

Listen to the White Album, songs like Cry Baby Cry, Rocky Raccoon and Dear Prudence, and you'll hear them hold the chord while moving the root.

Dave Mustaine suffers from French Horn based hallucinations while compiling his ideal mix tape in Guitar World Dec 1997.

Ticket 4: Recycle Your 'Os'

Create your 'os' - intros/outros/solos - by adapting and mutating the main parts of the song 

This will make those parts seem familiar even before your listeners have heard them.

Please Please Me, She Loves You, From Me To You, The Long And Winding Road, Julia - intro verse, Martha My Dear - solo, P.S. I Love You - intro, Here Comes The Sun - outro, Blackbird - links, Can’t Buy Me Love, Help, I'm A Loser

and also

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Solo (Nirvana), Jekyll - intro and outro (Plastic Inevitables)

Ticket 3: Make Everything A Hook

Little guitar riffs, 'lead drumming', swordmandels, anything can provide a hook. How do you know when you've got one? Easy. You want to break off from singing the melody to sing the guitar riff/drum fill or whatever.

Please Please Me, Here Comes The Sun, Get Back, Julia, Long Long Long, Martha My Dear, Strawberry Fields Forever,

Ticket 2: Put Your Song On A Diet

Try cutting away all the excess – ask of each section/repeat “is this part really necessary?” Get rid of intros if you can.

Remember, to paraphrase Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The song is not finished when there is nothing left to add, 
but when there is nothing left to take away".

Please Please Me, From Me To You, Oh! Darling, I'm So Tired, The Long And Winding Road, Golden Slumbers, Maxwell's Silver Hammer,

also

Great Balls Of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis), Short Songs (Plastic Inevitables)

Ticket 1: The Flat 6 Chord

Good News! I'm working on a very special series of posts covering one of the Tickets To Write!
Bad News! It's taking a Loooong time. I hope it will be worth the wait.

In the meantime I'm going to start posting the rest of the tickets as individual posts. Like everything else on this site, don't hold your breath for me to finish! 

When you're in a major key try throwing in the flat 6 chord. This works particularly well when you're expecting the root. For example, rather than landing on the I or 'root' chord (e.g. D major) at the end of a section delay the resolution by substituting the bVI (Bb) instead, before finally resolving to the I.

P.S. I Love You, With A Little Help from My Friends, I Saw Her Standing There, Polythene Pam, Oh! Darling, It Won't Be Long, Lady Madonna, Dune Buggy - coda (Presidents Of The United States Of America), If You Want Love - coda (k.s. Rhoads), Suffragette City - verse (David Bowie), Curl - prechorus (Jonathan Coulton) 

Cole Tyler's Got A Ticket To Write

Welcome to another guest post where a working musician spills the beans on how they've used the Tickets To Write. Next up - Cole Tyler

Hello this is Cole Tyler of The Forz!

You're blog has definitely helped me through some writing slumps and inspired some more Beatles-styled songs to go along with the ones we've got. 



This song Sleep Deprived uses Ticket 5: Make sections contrast and Ticket 18: Finish with a single ringing chord

It starts with a slower, blues rock shuffle and then switches to a faster blues rock riff like Dizzy Miss Lizzy. It also ends with an A6 chord which is a very Beatley way to end a song (She Loves You, Help! and a million more)

We've used a lot of your "Tickets" in our songs including The Lennon Edit (T37) , Let Two Become One (T55) and Don't Start The Melody on The First Beat (T39)

Thank you so much for your blog and keep up the great work!

Cole Tyler

Cole Tyler handles vocals guitar, keyboards in The Forz, a 1960's inspired rock and roll/blues band from Boston, MA. You can connect with the band via Facebook and Soundcloud and get their debut album Something New from Bandcamp

More guest posts here

Have you used any of the Tickets To Write? Drop me a line!

Under The Influence: Björn Ulvaeus (Abba)

[The Beatles were] absolutely by far the most influential and most important band [for myself and Benny Andersson]. It was the idea that two people in a group could write their own songs and we thought, if they can do it, why can't we? That changed everything for us. Before the Beatles, songwriters were very anonymous people and nobody paid any attention to them.

The Metro

We tried to emulate what The Beatles had done, which was to develop from album to album… to take another step and be more daring

Indie London

And here's a bizarre reworking of Martha My Dear by a 'pre-Abba' Benny Andersson