Behind the Music - Moment of Thought

Photo by Alexandru Goman on Unsplash

Moment of Thought is a song that came together really quickly. It was one of those rare times that you didn't have to think about what chords or scales will work or how things should be structured within a song. The song just came together.

I recorded this song in one take. Something I almost never do, but it seems to capture the essence of the title better than if I spliced takes together. It's not really a "moment of thought" when it becomes a collection of moments.

The first part of the song came about because I would use the chord and the picking pattern as a sort of meditation. If I was worked up emotionally or my thoughts were racing, I could use this as a tool to bring me down and get into a headspace that was conducive to accomplishing something musical.

Now that Moment of Thought released as an actual song, I can't do that as much. It's interesting how your relationship to a lick or a song changes over time. The expectations associated with it changes well. I think that's the reason for why I can't use it for meditating anymore. There are too many times where I can think back to when I've played it in the reactions to it. Moment is still one of my favorite songs, though, both the play and listen to.

Song Writing Elements of Moment of Thought

Unsurprisingly, as it was a song used for meditation, Moment of Thought, is a simple song. If it was too chaotic or busy it wouldn't work to bring things into focus and calm somebody down. Nor would have the reflective quality that the song has at its core.

This is one of the reasons why the chords aren't very complex. There isn't a lot of movement within the sections and the picking pattern is largely unchanged, except for the middle section, throughout the song.

The song structure of Moment of Thought is: A B A B C A. It's sort of a Rondo form, but then again a lot of music is. You could also say that it follows one of the tried-and-true pop song formulas (V-Ch-V-CH-B-V-Ch) without the final chorus. I like using song forms like this, especially in some of the more “artsy" songs. When a song structure, like the pop song formula, is used it lends a bit of familiarity to the listener while pushing them in different ways. I'm definitely a believer that if you choose to write a difficult song, it doesn't have to be difficult for people to listen to or experience.

Section A, or "The Verse"

The first part of Moment of Thought starts with an F# power cord that slowly builds to a F#m7 with a low D string in the base. Moment of Thought is in drop D tuning, and while I prefer to think of it as an F#m7/D, could be argued that it's a DMA9. To that point, the song itself, doesn’t really stay within a given key, but is is loosely based on a D major/B minor harmonic structure.

Either way the song starts out simply going back and forth between two notes and slowly builds to where the simple defending melody comes out from the top strings ringing out against the rest of the strings.

Sections B & C, or "The Chorus and Bridge"

I lump these sections together, because ultimately they play off of one another. They also serve as transitions to and from each other and the verse sections.

Section B, or “the chorus,” continues the alternate picking pattern of the first section, as well as the ninth chord sound. It’s comprised of three add9 chords that cycle between each other. Really what’s going on is that there’s a return to the simple power chord sound, but I add the ninth on the top instead of the octave. The chords in the section are B5add9, A5add9, and G5add9.

This technique of adding something on top of power chords is something that not only sounds cool and different, but is easily facilitated with the drop D tuning. You can do it in standard tuning, but it isn’t as easy to pull off. I was introduced to the technique through two of my favorite metal bands: Opeth and DevilDriver. Progressive players like John Petrucci use this a lot as well.

Section C, or “the bridge,” provides a break from the constant eighth notes that the picking pattern provides through the majority of the song. Without a break from this, going back to the verse wouldn’t have the same impact or effect that it does.

The section is comprised of two parts. The first being the other ways of playing the power chords plus a tone and then playing the same chords in the chorus section, but in a different way to lead nicely back into Section A to close out the song.

The chords used in the third section are: Am7 (no 3rd), G5add9, G5, Em7, B5add9, G5add9, and A5add9.

A note about the lone G5 chord listed above: This chord, because of the melody in this section, has one of the things I love about playing a stringed instrument. It has a unison of the D, but because the two D’s are played on two strings they sound differently even though they are the same pitch. It makes for a much fuller sound than a single pitch and can only be played on a stringed instrument like the guitar.

Like I said, this is one of my favorite songs that I’ve written and that I get to play live. Hopefully you've been able to use it to kick back and relax or reflect on the world around you. No matter how the song hits you, or how you use it, thanks for listening.

As always, leave a question or comment in the box below. Or click the iTunes player at the top of this post to buy the song if you don’t already have it.