BIG JANGLE - IMPLIED MOTION AND ITS MYRIAD USES

by Mike Keneally

Guitar Player, December 1994

A few years ago, I wrote a pop song called "Rosemary Girl" (audible on my CD hat, natch), and I knew I wanted some kind of descending guitar figure to accompany the climactic chorus line. The figure ended up being Ex.1. On another, drabber day, I might have taken the linear route to this destination and played the tab as written.

But this day was to be a fateful one. Deciding the figure needed a dollop of jangle in order to approach pop heaven's gates, I looked for chors with open strings, which when used properly would imply the motion in Ex.1 without being so darned insistent about it. After a few minute, I found Ex.2. The open strings add a pungency that Ex.1's little two-note descending figure can't hope to achieve, and executing the new approach requires much less grace. In the heat of the moment you could whang repeated downstrokes on all six strings and the point would be made. You got a devilish sense of accomplishment, as though so much music shouldn't be possible with so little effort.

As for the other myriad uses of implied motion, that's your job. Write some simple moving melodies and see if you can weave them into chord structures - jangly or otherwise. This should lead you to interesting places. If it doesn't, sue the magazine.

A featured member of the Zappa Brothers' band Z, the irreverent and beautifully twisted Mike Keneally has two solo releases on Immune: hat and Boil That Dust Speck.

©1994 Guitar Player Magazine