Writing punk/grunge rock

[Stingray]

Hey i wa wonderin what type of scales modes arpeggios and chords i should be paying attention to in order to right music of this genre. but i would also like help with basic song writing tips too. i am looking to write origanal songs and not boring repetitive stuff like blink-182 more like the Offspring where almost every song has a different feel to it. any thing you could do to help would be nice. thanks a bunch

[nickis thebest]

i normally stick to the guitar chords and work from there with fills kinda along the line of the major scale of the particular chord

[Lovebown]

Originally posted by Stingray
Hey i wa wonderin what type of scales modes arpeggios and chords i should be paying attention to in order to right music of this genre. but i would also like help with basic song writing tips too. i am looking to write origanal songs and not boring repetitive stuff like blink-182 more like the Offspring where almost every song has a different feel to it. any thing you could do to help would be nice. thanks a bunch

You should at least be able to play the major and natural minor scale up and down on all tones, that goes for all types of music.

Another thing you could check out is common chord progressions ... playing the stuff you like to listen to would be a good idea I suppose.

good luck
/lovebown

[SLiGhTLy_STooPiD]

what i usually do for a "generic" punk song is follow the guitarist's chords and play chord progressions from those chords. (351, 3241, etc.) but that's just generic.

i have NO idea how freeman does what he does.

[LimpChunk9]

The Bouncing Souls CD entitled Maniacal Laughter is very cool. I can play almost the whole thing and there bass player is good. Some songs might be repeative but some go from string to string to string.

Try playing...

The Freaks, The Nerds, and The Romantics

or

Argyle

or to a lesser extent

Lamar Vannoy

[Stingray]

But what type of the stuff i mentioned above should i use if i want to right this type of music on my own. as a bassist i dont like going of the guitarist because there supposed to play off of what me and the drummer are doing.

[Zjarrett]

I know where you're comin from but the question is a little blurry...in my limited experience i've found that while there are certain staples you can base your career on (flea-minor pents.) songs are a case by case basis so saying to use the B# major scale, etc is pretty pointless.
As vague as it sounds you gotta do this by ear, pentatonics have always been friendly to me because its hard to play bad stuff with them, modes are good but for punk i think it'd sound a little too folkish if they sound at all what they sound like when i play them. Yea this is a lotta harder then it seems to explain...find something small and easy you like such as a little 4 note lick then expand on that by sitting down with other people and just messing around eventually itll come together....damn i suck at explanations
*edit*
I just notcied the comment you made about not liking to play what the guitarist is playing. To that I gotta say be more flexible, to have music mesh and be beautiful there has to be a cooperation between sounds so if the guitar player is doing D, use that as a starting point and play with notes around triads, scales, chords of D to create your own little groove. If the guitar player is so aggressive that you feel you have no room to create tell him to step back a bit and change his part so that its more compatible