From playing by ear to figuring out chord changes and song structures

[Whousedtoplay]

(the Virus track sounds particularly weird)

It's only my personal amateur opinion.

1.) TIMBRE COMPOSES a PHRASE - and old expression used in my younger years.
Numerous times I've repeated that motto here at the TB forum without any noticing by my TB colleagues.
2.) Chord quality tells us about the mood, character of the track.

Part A of that Virus track/song has the riff based foundation of
the chord of A major/minor (plus additives) and through Bb back to the chord of Fmajor/minor (plus additives).

The scale of that Part A is SYNTHETIC - it's my personal amateur opinion.

Notes of that SYNTHETIC MODE in Part A of the song, "Virus on Fentanyl" (it's my interpretation):
(Ascending)

F - Gb - Ab - Anatural - Bb - Bnatural - C - Db - Dnatural - Eb - E natural - F.
It's almost a chromatic scale but...

DON'T use G!

The major/minor kind of chords of F, A, Bb, B with additives allow that "psychedelic" Virus composition to use chromatics without any questioning from the Harmony teachers.
And it creates MOOD.
But...
Once again, the harmonic foundation is highly structured:
F through B to A
A through Bb to F.

It's not a pop song, but I like that psychedelic VOODOO mood of being in Trance.

N.B. I'm a teetotaler and don't use ANY KIND OF RECREATIONAL DRUGS!
I hope my TB members won't interpret my post as promoting drug use.
No, no, and NO!

 

[Trilobita]

It's only my personal amateur opinion.

1.) TIMBRE COMPOSES a PHRASE - and old expression used in my younger years.
Numerous times I've repeated that motto here at the TB forum without any noticing by my TB colleagues.
2.) Chord quality tells us about the mood, character of the track.

Part A of that Virus track/song has the riff based foundation of
the chord of A major/minor (plus additives) and through Bb back to the chord of Fmajor/minor (plus additives).

The scale of that Part A is SYNTHETIC - it's my personal amateur opinion.

Notes of that SYNTHETIC MODE in Part A of the song, "Virus on Fentanyl" (it's my interpretation):
(Ascending)

F - Gb - Ab - Anatural - Bb - Bnatural - C - Db - Dnatural - Eb - E natural - F.
It's almost a chromatic scale but...

DON'T use G!

The major/minor kind of chords of F, A, Bb, B with additives allow that "psychedelic" Virus composition to use chromatics without any questioning from the Harmony teachers.
And it creates MOOD.
But...
Once again, the harmonic foundation is highly structured:
F through B to A
A through Bb to F.

It's not a pop song, but I like that psychedelic VOODOO mood of being in Trance.

N.B. I'm a teetotaler and don't use ANY KIND OF RECREATIONAL DRUGS!
I hope my TB members won't interpret my post as promoting drug use.
No, no, and NO!

Thank you very much for this analysis - I will definitely try to wrap my head around with a guitar in my hand. If you find this sort of weird-sounding, walking chromatic approach interesting, definitely give this a listen:



The bass work in this album is amazing throughout, but I find the last track ("The Cocktail Party to End Them All") particularly interesting. Here the guitar also keeps letting dissonant, strange-sounding chords ring while the bass leads the melody with the same sort of groovy but otherworldly and disorienting lines.