Cliché time! Or a little theory to spice up your life?

You decide, but this month Bluetone would like you to include a "Line Cliché" in your composition.

Simply put (in 8 seconds) it's "a single line moving through a otherwise static harmony'

Bluetone's advice on the topic:

I think the only thing that needs distinction is that it's not just a walking bassline, because that would be over all chords. At some point in the song, challenge entrants will need to play a chord for a few beats while one of the notes in the chord shifts downward or upward (while the rest of the notes making up the chord remain static) progressively.

Actually, a very simple example (other than Stairway to Heaven) is Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer. That's a line cliche down and up again through a static chord.

Bluetone was inspired by this Paul Davids video on Stairway To Heaven - Interesting watch if you like Stairway, Rick Beato &/or Adam Neely - they get together and have a chat around the topic.

Otherwise, any genre and any recording devices. Make it happy, make it sad, make it funny, make it djent, make it bluesy. Whatever it is, make it an entry!

Entries Close: Sunday, 6th June 2021, 23:59PM

Rules: Entries to be up to three (3) minutes in length.

No genre restrictions or recording equipment restrictions. Use the interface, use the cellphone - it's all good.

P.s. Collaborations are encouraged!

How To Enter: Record your entry, sign up or log in to SoundCloud, post it there. Then grab the SoundCloud link and reply here with the link pasted in your reply. **If possible, make your track public - that way I can make a playlist up.

**If you are doing a cover (yes, allowed!) and are concerned with copyright issues Or if you just prefer not to use soundcloud, @Norio has setup mp3 uploads, read more here

Prizes: No prize this month....but the the fame and glory of winning a GuitarTalk Challenge remains! Plus the ever increasingly dubious distinction of selecting the next challenge topic. If you ask for more, welllll...

Anyone can enter this competition. You just need a guitar and a phone. But any other recording equipment is fine too. Collaborations with fellow members or anyone you can recruit is encouraged!

Good luck and enjoy!

Hope to enter this one. Think I can fathom a cliche that is fit for purpose

RCVN Sure - as long as the rest of what defines that chord stays in the vamp/what's held, whichever note starts moving is fine with me...

Interesting indeed,

Interesting topic, guess I can contribute something again (if I get ready in time xD).

Btw, has anyone else trouble with the website? Or is it the distance from SA to Germany?

Meticus Btw, has anyone else trouble with the website? Or is it the distance from SA to Germany?

Not recently - I had no issues posting challenges n stuff for a couple months now. Whatever Norio did worked for me!

What specific issues have you had (Or it is similar to what we were having a few months back?)

Quick question here from someone light on theory. Does a line cliche have to be chromatic or can it be any ascending/descending line?

Yeti I think semitone or full-tone steps or combinations are totally fine.

I've managed to remember what i played, been working on variations, but gonna have to settle on something soon - need time to start re-arranging the reaper project - that isn't gonna be fun.

Probably easier to start from scratch in Ableton, but I wanna try and preserve most of the original stems, tehy had some cool weirdness going on.

manual quote (V8): "What specific issues have you had"

I cannot quote :-D
I also cannot link users with @ or make smileys. There appears no drop down menu when pressing @ or : like before.
And I can neither like posts nor see any likes (or was the like feature removed?)
And once there was a menu on the left of the start page where I could chose topics such as competitions, videos, other instruments and so on. Now there is only a "Start Discusstion" button and the single item "All Discussions" to select.
While writing I see that the post preview is empty and stays empty no matter how often I click on the eye button (at least I still have that button). And when I remember correctly there once were buttons to make text fat or italic. I can't find that anymore.

Since I seem to be the only one with those issues, is there a "simple mode" I accidentally activated for my account? :-D

Back to topic: I fear I won't get ready in time, I started something but will hardly finish it till Sunday. There's much to do at work at the moment, last weekend I was on a bagpipers event and tomorrow I go visit my family for 4 days.
But since I already started I'm going to finish it anyway when I find the time and share it after the competition fyi.

I've been working on something too but haven't had time to record guitar or write lyrics yet. I'll have something to enter but I don't know how complete it will be.

Had a bit of time this afternoon so I recorded a little guitar and penned some lyrics. If all goes according to plan I'll record vocals this evening and do a little fine tuning on Sunday.

Here's my entry. I'm not sure that it truly counts as a line cliche or if it is just an ascending melody...
Anyway, my goal was to write an upbeat pop song, complete with 4 chord loop, super tonic pre-chorus and cheesy, pseudo-uplifting lyrics. Between my tendency towards minor melodies and my more classical voice I'm not sure that I quite pulled it off, but I had fun.

Small attempt played live into my cellphone.

V8 What specific issues have you had

Update: I downloaded Chrome and all works fine here
All my issues only occur in Firefox. Good to know xD