Is It Musical?

[Jkendrick]

I had a teacher way back when who said to always try to write something using concepts you're trying to learn or practice. I do this often and most of it is shit. Every once in a while I come up with something I think is pretty good. This is an arpeggio exercise I was doing where I was trying to do some call and response and also some canon (in-the-round) stuff. It's one chord progression played four times through. The first two call and response; the second two canon. My question for you: is this musical enough to put in a song? (please ignore the out of tune guitar)

https://soundcloud.com/jim-kendrick/arp-thing

[Heady Jam Fan]

I like it, I think there is definitely potential there to a sort of YEM type thing.

[Jkendrick]

ah that's the problem with these sorts of things these days. Everyone assumes you're ripping off Phish when in fact I've been ripping off Zappa since long before I heard of Phish.   I've got a whole song charted out around this (sans lyrics, the story of my life); I'm just trying to decide if it's worth the effort to flesh out. Thanks for listening.

[Heady Jam Fan]

ah that's the problem with these sorts of things these days. Everyone assumes you're ripping off Phish when in fact I've been ripping off Zappa since long before I heard of Phish.   I've got a whole song charted out around this (sans lyrics, the story of my life); I'm just trying to decide if it's worth the effort to flesh out. Thanks for listening.

Lol, I didn't mean "ripping off" by any means - that certainly has more connotations than "influenced by" or "bears similarities to..."

I meant it as a compliment and that it could function similarly in a song - as an intro or even a bridge like the Fugue/Counterpoint in Guelah Papyrus.

[Jkendrick]

I know you didn't mean anything by it. And if I remember correctly, Phish was called "a poor man's Zappa" on more than one ocassion when they were starting out. I might sub a piano for the second guitar; the second section or canon part seems a little messy and could be cleaned up with a more distinct voice I think.

[Jkendrick]

Yeah this is better I think, even with a crappy piano sound.

https://soundcloud.com/jim-kendrick/arp-thing-w-keys