Trolls in a wood ... dancing.
During a period of mild writers block - wheres the next song going to come from? - was trolling about (pun intended) in the local library and found a book on music theory which suggested restricting yourself to 4 or 5 notes only as a practice exercise in songwriting. Couldn't think of anything better to do so decided to give it a whizz.
Had this guitar riff already in mind: a bluesy pentatonic scale in Am.
And that is how the song got writ. Using only 5 notes to play with whilst trying to keep the thing spartan, just guitar bass and drums, and retaining a slightly ponderous feel. They are trolls after all, great lumbering elephantine beasts.
The main lesson learned was that to write a song using minimal tools you have to try really hard to integrate the instruments. As a guitarist, two things proved extremely useful. First, the bass can carry a melody, it doesn't always have to be the piano or the guitar. Second, it is hard to write a good drum part.
Title: Trolling About
Key: A
Tempo: 112bpm
Length: 3' 15"
Track 1: distortion guitar
Track 2: picked bass
Track 3: drumset
Genre: Pop, Rock
