Anyway, I cut out the sections and render little mp3s, which I then put into my Transcribe! software and loop. That lets me slow things down if I want to work on something I can’t quite do, or if the backing is too quick to let me figure out something complex to tempo.

Transcribe! f’n ROCKS — I really must post a full review soon.

However, I think chord pattern for solo section is different from the verses and chorus, so any changes would have only been there.

And yes, I am constantly coming up with stuff in my head that I can’t actually play. It’s frustrating. What I do in that case is to either practice until I can do it, or give up and try something else. It depends on how far out of my skill range it is.

The only time I’ve ever come up with something that I can’t remember is when melodies or song ideas have come to me when I’ve not had a way to record them. Like when I’m out exercising or driving. That’s why I try to remember to take my digital voice recorder with me wherever I go — even jogging.

In the case of “Haunted”,that chord happens to be an F# leadin to B minor.
One of the E chord is “majored” in the progression on which Marcela is signing.It’s being emphazed by the descending bass line that has a chromatic “moment” between A and G.

BTW,my most favorite amongst all of those great solos is the one in “Calliopeia”.

A very easy explanation (at least for theory) would be that if the E minor would have been a dominant chord in a minor progression (like Em Am) to change it to a dominant chord (E7, wihtout the 7) to emphasize the dominant character (there’s a tritone between third and seventh that wants to be resolved). So you get more of a tension and release movement.
And the cliche wants you to play A harmonic minor over the E major, which sounds very Yngwie

But that’s just a shot in the dark.

Christian

I think I even asked to change one of the E minor chords to major to be able to add more movement.

Very interesting, given the difference in feel between a minor and a major chord – especially the E minor since that’s a favourite chord of people playing tuned in E. The E minor is a lot darker, which is why I find it interesting that you would actually change it to a major. I’ll have to relisten the solo there again!

Also, did they change the chord for the whole song or just the part where you would do your solo?

1) Solo over the backing enough times to get a feel for where the most inspiring section is. Maybe it takes a certain number of bars for the backing’s potential to “blossom”, or maybe it only blossoms at the beginning or near the end. Call that section your “Current Favorite Section” (CFS).

2) Loop your Current Favorite Section until you come up with a catchy phrase, and don’t worry if it’s short. In fact, good phrases seem to tend to fall in the 4-8 bar range, and if they’re much longer than that it could be a sign that the phrase is starting to turn into a wank.

3) Advance to your next Current Favorite Section and repeat until done.
The reason this works is because you’re starting small with the most inspiring section at a time when you have little musical leverage. But later on, as more of the “holes” get filled in, the less inspiring sections become easier to write for because you can see more of the big picture.

At the end, it’s probably a good idea to perform a “polish pass” over your creation and relearn it from scratch, judging it for continuity and flow. Chances are, you’re probably very close to correct already, and your final result just needs a few tweaks.

-djh