the Fly Clone Project

Also do you have certain techniques for coming up with riffs?

I rarely play cover songs…I play a few here and there and I did a little bit when I was younger but I feel like that’s been an advantage to me coming up with original material. Not to say I don’t get inspiration from stuff I hear. I’ve been going through HORRIBLE writers block in the middle of working on an album. I have a good portion of the music already written and I’ve been improving my lead guitar skills as my old lead guitarist has moved onto other projects. I’m trying to add a few more songs and transitions to different parts to have everything ready to record. I have checked out some of VJs compositions on his website and it’s pretty incredible stuff and I recommend checking it out if anyone here hasn’t heard it. Definitely has helped me to open my mind up. He’s a musical genius!

I have a pretty wide variety of the types of music I write. Although the album im working on will be mostly rock/metal..I do write some country and some slower acoustic stuff. My goal is to have all of my Parker’s featured on the album in one way or another. They all sound different in their own way and have their strengths in different areas.

I think my biggest problem at the moment is I’m too hard on myself. I’ll write something that sounds good at the time and scrap it later on.

Of the 28 years I’ve been playing guitar, writing lead guitar parts is not my strongest skill. I can shred fast but when it comes to lead parts, I have to take my time to write and figure things out. I know all good things come in due time, but this is a bit frustrating at times.

It’s a never ending existential crisis, but you’re in good company. I find it just doesn’t get any easier until you dissolve creative hurdles through finding a way to enjoy the whole process. Speaking as someone who has been scrapping and re-recording Fly pickup demos since September of 2021 because I hate how other people demo pickups, “done” is better than “perfect.” Just remember to share some of the music your Parkers have inspired with the rest of us.

I’m (almost) all leads and… figuring out riffs more recently.

As long as the guitar is one of the lead instruments, I’m in (fusion, prog, prog-metal, etc.). I think Buckethead is a genius.

As for coming up with riffs…most memorable riffs came up during warm-up/jamming. It’s important to keep making small changes when you feel you are on to something. Otherwise, there’s the Yngwie school of thought aka rehashing the same musical ideas and riffs for decades. I guess if that works for him.

Lead work is more about translating what’s in your mind onto the instrument. I find riffing to be more physical yet methodical. It can indeed turn into math metal at times.

Have you had a look at Cracking the Code? Lots if insights there. https://m.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&s ... Troy+grady

I play for a living, so I learn whatever my audience wants. So far I play:

Rock and Roll
Disco
Big Band Swing
Jazz
Rhythm and Blues
Country and Western
Mambo
Merengue
Samba
Calypso
Soca
Reggae
Beach Music
Motown Music
Classic Oldies
Doo Wop
New Age
Smooth Jazz
Hip Hop
Dixieland
and one Opera Song

In our current gigs it's a lot of classic to broad appeal contemporary pop/rock, plus a little country, blues, Caribbean, jazz, and Latin. But it all depends on the audience.

We're doing 19 gigs this month for the tourist trade in Florida, mostly aged 40 and up with a few families mixed in.

We have over 650 songs in our book. I do the backing tracks myself (I play drums, bass, guitar, sax, flute, wind synthesizer, keyboard synthesizer and vocals).

Here is our current song list: https://www.nortonmusic.com/cats/songlist.html

Insights and incites by Notes ♫