Iron Maybe [with Tabs] - Maiden instrumental tribute with little bits of shred

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#1

Hey All, “unofficial Tommo” here :slight_smile:

For “fun”, I gave myself the challenge of writing a Maiden-Style song/etude with gallop riffs, the classic Em-C-D chords, some harmonized melodies and a solo along the lines of “blues-rock on steroids”.

EDIT: better mix with some resonances taken care of :slight_smile:

I also tried to play some gallopy bass on this (with a pick). Bass is definitely not my instrument but I feel like I got some good timing / groove practice in the process.

I ended up recording the parts riff by riff to try and keep the double tracked guitars as tight as possible. Still not perfect but I think I’d have a hard time doing better without starting to edit/quantize my performances (which I don’t want to do).

I hope you’ll like it and I’m including tabs in case some of you want to learn some of the riffs and runs. Tempo is 165bpm, which for me is a kind of sweet spot where everything feels relatively “easy” but still sounds kinda fast and exciting:

PS: Please let me know if anyone is interested in the tabs for the 2nd guitars and bass, I could write those too :slight_smile:

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Space Pirates! "Intermediate" shred tune at 162bpm [Tabs included]
#2

Why not? It’s been standard practice in the industry to some extent at least since way before digital made it easy. At least now you don’t have to cut tape.

#3

Haha yes you have a point. I guess it depends on the endgoal. For the best possible recording quality to sell to millions, it may be the way to go.

For sharing on this website or my YT channel (or with my friends and acquaintances) I prefer to maintain some kind of realism. I.e. “this is what I sound like” (on a good take on a good day).

Especially here on CTC where I have a sort of “teacher” role, I don’t want to post stuff that is edited to perfection otherwise others might start having unreasonable standards for themselves.

EDIT: and I would probably be a little unhappy that “edited me” sounds better than “me” :laughing:

I’m happy for you all to hear all the imperfections of my playing :smiley:

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#4

Nice! I’m having fun playing along in Soundslice!

Nerd question, now that you know what you know about escapes, do you intentionally write phrases (like the main fast melody you play at bar 40 et al) to work out as perfect DSX? Looking back on the stuff I used to write, it was challenging because I just wrote what I heard in my head and some stuff was hard to play because the fingering I chose mixed USX and DSX. Not knowing this I’d brute force it with whatever my default motion was back then. I should go back and try refingering some of my stuff so that it’s one-way escape.

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#5

Great job! Now all you need is your best Bruce Dickinson impression :sunglasses:

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#6

If you ever want to outsource someone for metal bass…

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#7

Yes and no :smiley:

I tried several ways of writing riffs and runs: sometimes I say OK this has to be USX, DSX etc. Other times I think, ok I like this line but the string changes are all over the place, can I find something similar that is more DSX? And so on!

For fast stuff the individual notes don’t matter in my opinion, it’s all about the contour of the line and a few target tones. So you can get away with single-escape mechanics a lot of the time :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#8

Great job as usual tommo. I like that PG style pull-off lick. I was just practicing that lick the other day.

This is a step in the right direction… You’ll be doing original technical death metal songs by this time next year

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#9

I thoroughly enjoyed that instrumental. Well done!

1 Like
#10

@tommo It does kind of sound like newer 3 guitarist Iron Maiden in the beginning, like brave new world to present, but when you start playing the head and the melody lines over it, it doesn’t really anymore and sounds kind of like an old shrapnel Tony macalpine/Joey Tafolla kind of thing. Or at least the melody.

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#11

Can definitely live with that :grinning:

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#12

Awesome tommo! Sounds Maiden to me. I am a massive Adrian Smith fan and think you nailed the solo at 1.31 - great solo! Musical and has all the elements that make up a really good lead for me.

Thanks for sharing!

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#13

The classic Em C D progression never fails in getting me pumped :joy::love_you_gesture:

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#14

Thank you the combination of these 2 statements means a lot :slight_smile:

Funnily enough, the solo was the easiest part to write, I had a pretty clear idea of what to do (some bluesy bends, some blues scale, the “Free Bird lick” and some longer vibrato notes following the chords). I think I got lucky and stumbled upon some ideas that worked in maybe half hour or so.

In contrast, putting the song together took me more than one month :scream:

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#15

Our resident galloping Italian stud, well done man! I just loved it. The doubled harmony bit up the neck sounded great. I think you can double the midneck riff too, but that’s just me wanting more :slight_smile:

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#16

Hehe I’ve been thinking about that too :slight_smile:

Of course I have 200 versions of this on my hard disk, including all possible combinations of harmonies :smiley:

I think I’ll do a longer version for bandcamp where the lower melody comes back harmonised after the solo :slight_smile:

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#17

This is such a thing :slight_smile:

Looking forward to updates.
:beers:

1 Like