A man named Ted exists.

Love that this channel focuses so much on song writing. Nobody else is doing this. Trey knows his shit

I'm way more interested in Elizabeth than Ted. I get it, he exists. What's Elizabeth's deal?

I think Scenes from a Memory (and Dream Theater in general) have great examples of this. There are so many musical references to Metropolis pt 1 that go straight over your head on your first listen because something important has changed. Like how the pre-verse Metropolis riff is basically the chorus riff in Home, but tuned lower in a drop D song. Or how the Regression melody is repeated towards the end in The Spirit Carries On, just in a higher octave with the full band. Any time you can repeat something, change it up at least a little!

I'm not a musician (I _try_ to sing, but that's about it), but I really appreciate these insights into songwriting that we get from Trey, not only because I love music - and knowing more about songwriting helps me understand _why_ I like certain songs, and makes me appreciate them even more - but also because songwriting is basically a very extreme form of storytelling, and some of the insights I've gotten watching these videos (and the songwriting contest ones, too) have been *incredibly* helpful in increasing the versatility of my writing. There's just enough overlap between writing stories and writing songs that almost any good advice for one can apply to the other, but just enough of a difference that some of that advice is going to make you think about the endeavour in ways you'd likely never consider otherwise.

So good. You have a great way of explaining things that people, like me, overthink.

You're a gem! This same principle is true in every aspect of our lives. I'd love to see this topic coming up in your podcast. Maybe drawing a parallel between consistency, psychology and creativity? With a guest like Julian Peterson, being a musician and the son of an immensely potent psychologist e.g? 😉 you two gon hit it off! Thank you Trey! You're the motivation that pushes me to get my butt, where my heart has always been at! 🙏

"Thanks for coming to my Ted talk." Trey, if he knew how the internet worked

Repetition legitimizes indeed. Trey's Video Structure: Intro: A man named Ted exists. Verse 1: Lesson/Talking Points Pre-Chorus: Bogren Digital plugins are amazing. Chorus: A man named Ted exists. Things are happening to Ted. Verse 2: Lesson/Talking Points Pre-Chorus: Bogren Digital plugins are amazing (expanded) Chorus: A man named Ted exists. His story continues. Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus again, and so on. Well done Trey! You took us on a journey and held my attention for 15+ minutes.

It feels like wading through all your submissions made you find your calling in this topic. And not only that but you did great justice to the video essay format and I love it.

Excellent execution of the topic, man, well done!

Super well-communicated and clean. Gems on gems. Keep it up ❤️

"It never happens again throughout the rest of the song" Sometimes I love this. When done well I'll listen to the song over and over again.

Nice and to the point. Thank you!

Thank you very much for this.. this changes alot when i Look at my writing now!

Really good topic, and all the stuff that everyone needs to hear.

Devil Wears Prada's most recent album Color Decay exemplifies this topic perfectly. So many good riffs that are repeated an adequate number of times on that album.

Always felt like in most metal music the best parts are intro, outro and especially middle-8 sections... 9 out of 10 times if the rest of the song was cut (just keep intro, middle-8, outro) it'd be an absolute BANGER!!!

This is an extremely underrated (new) video! I love how well you explained how i play with riffs in a way that allows me to actually articulate it better and understand myself better.

Everything about this channel is amazing. From the editing to the thoughtful and methodological approach to music composition, as well as the way it's explained in a digestible manner.

Oh man, I so needed to see this video. I'm guilty of repeating riffs, so development is definitely where I'm lacking. Looks like I have some work to do. Thanks for the tips, Trey!

Trey, I admire your excellence in songwriting and especially your vocal abilities and layering! Awesome!

Great content Trey. Love your shit, super useful and inspiring

This is such a good video. Wow. Very well explained and illustrated.

Trey, this was freaking beautiful. This was a work of scholarship. Meshuggah has songs where the polyrhythm throughout resolves into a straight-four drive at the end; e.g. Discordant System at the 8min mark. And it is just heavy as hell. Thanks for teaching a master class today. And please, give Ted my best wishes.

That was a really creative, well thought out, well taught lesson. Thanks Trey I hope to one day make a good song

This was fantastic! I don't think I've seen any video on songwriting topic explained in more clear terms than in this video. Bravo Trey!

One of your best vids.... You are a good educator Trey.

I was given this tip when I submitted my ‘song sketch’. It’s a big help.

Trey you are awesome...you teach in such a great way...and that helps me to realize, I have way more work to do, to write better songs lol

Really good break down on this episode good job Trey

1:24 literally just bought Sonic Frontiers the other day. Great video again, like this delivery a lot. Keep it up.

I feel this is a follow up to your video about If Darkness Had A Son.

Good stuff Trey! You seriously nailed something that modern tunes do and it’s why so many new tunes suck balls! Making music unique makes it real!

3:33 sicccc maaaaateeeeeee

¡Gracias!

Great video! The story of Ted almost had me tearing up there for a moment! Brovo

@Trey Xavier please do the video on writing lyrics ❤

I WANNA CRY FOR TED! D: No, but really, that was amazing. Well done.

I think this is a first time comment. This got me thinking for a bit, and here's my thoughts. This right here is one of the reasons why I really appreciate Conor Oberst's songwriting. While it's not the case in every song, the songs that I always go back to happen to feature chorus repetition (lyrically) that is always slightly different but has the same feeling or pattern. It makes you want to keep listening to the song to see what else the chorus has to say. A lot of songs put me off immediately because I know that they're just going to repeat the same chorus two or three times with no change, even when the verse and/or bridge have changed the setting dramatically. A chorus example from Four Winds off of Cassadaga by Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst), featuring three choruses, the latter wrapping up the two former: "But when great Satan's gone The Whore of Babylon She just can't sustain The pressure where it's placed She caves" "And it's the son of man Slouching towards Bethlehem A heart just can't contain All of that empty space It breaks, it breaks, it breaks" "But when great Satan's gone The whore of Babylon But, she just can't remain With all that outer space She breaks, she breaks, she caves, she caves" Anyway, long comment, but I always get drawn into songs that can creatively flex choruses out while remaining somewhat repetetive. A song is like watching someone grow up in front of you in a few minutes. A song grows. If there aren't additional details, or changed aspects, then the song never grew, it just stayed the same. Like you're cousin who never left home and works at the same gas station they did when they were 16.

Kinda want the full song of Repetition Legitimises lol

I dont even care if you like his music or not, Trey dropping straight facts and such helpful knowledge.

Man, I love the finish on that guitar. Theodore exists.

I would have never clicked on the vid but that Ted hook really intrigued me, so now I’m here hoping to be impressed. I think that I should point out real fast that I’ve noticed a lot of very long songs are extremely well structured. Two examples of songs that are adored by the respective band’s fan base: Porcupine Tree’s 12 minute epic Arriving Somewhere But Not Here is almost completely defined by a verse-chorus structure (long verses and choruses, but verse-chorus nonetheless). In contrast, The Cure’s 8-minute classic Pictures of You doesn’t have anything remotely resembling a verse or chorus, but instead relies on a four-bar loop that everything else in the song builds on and provides variation on.

In an attempt to satisfy a friend (who *does* legitimately have attention span issues), I once wrote a song that had the same vocal melodies in the verses and choruses, but different lyrics and musical arrangements each time. It turned out... not great... but was definitely an interesting challenge. 😁

It's so special when someone articulates concepts that you previously only understood from instinct. Even though I try to write songs keeping all of this in mind, I would never have had the ability to communicate this in such a crystal clear way with such powerful examples. Fuckin A, Trey

Totally agree and thanks for the insights. But isnt it Kinda scary in the same time how many Mainstreams music just copy pastes parts with commercial success? I think the Problem is that Superb production can kinda charm minds to listen to crappy written songs.

Your content is gold. P.s. Ted exists and plays the great plugins that I already purchased!

A fun example of repetition in writing is the song Hate to Say I Told You by The Hives. theres an interview I saw with the band about it where they said 'if you repeat a riff 4 times its boring, repeat it 100x times and everyone goes crazy'. Theres a kind of underlying joke of the song in that the only point it stops looping the riff is a brief build up where they just hang out on the subdominant so it sounds like they *might* start playing something else - but then they undercut that and just go right back to looping it. Its wilfully dumb. (subdominant > dominant > then back would be the cliche route, 1>4>5>1, but they skip the 5 completely for a complete gap, undercutting it further)

Legitition repeatemizes

12:06 The riff in Combat Mosh by Lych King. You know the one. You KNOW the one. :(

Ted was really the friends we made along the way

Now I’m starting to wonder if I exist or I’m just a repetition

my man dropped the BLEGH. Always quality content

Repetition is a powerful tool when it's spelled right. Har har! Good tips man!

1:54 nice

"I can't stand losing, I can't, I can't, I can't stand losing, I can't, I can't, I can't stand losing, ......."

Trey,,,,,,,,,You are a Masterpiece , great information. Bomb Daddy boom good Tube videos. Heck an Old dog can learn new tricks ,hanging out with ya. Thanks man,

An example of just enough repetition would be Icon of Sin's Virtual Empire. An example of too much repetition would be a lot of Iron Maiden songs over the past 25 years as well as Seventh Son of A Seventh Son or Metallica's If Darkness Had A Son.

Not sure if 0:38 was on purpose or not but, it definitely got my attention lol

035, got it!

FYI - I didn't notice your typo at the beginning. Outside of that this video is really fucking great.

Another gem of a tutorial and really well demonstrated. Thanks Trey and Hoobs again for sharing this one. And I definitely agree that repetition if used wrong is terrible. Terrible terrible terrible. 😀😉

You really raised the bar with this video. Well done!

best example of repetition in a song right is chocolate rain by Tay Zonday

The ammount of times we've been slammed for being poppy by "legit" metal bands because we have actual choruses and melody (with developing repetition). Love this content!! It kinda goes to show that people don't really watch before entering song contests because if they DID watch, then we wouldn't get riffsalad bland ass metal chonk.

1:52 "Knobs".

I'm looking forward to dropping a new tune on your feedback tomorrow...

F in the chat for my guy Ted.

Well, that's pretty damn informative!! Too bad I knew this, all too well, when I was a teenager, but lost grasp on it as I grew older...

*sees the end of the video* OH MY GOD! WHAT DID YOU DO TO TED, YOU MONSTER?!?!?!?!

Question! can EXTENDED repetition be useful!? so a number of dance tracks hit repeat beats/vibes for BARS AND BARS! so you accept it... but it suddenly changes.... you notice!?

Wow wow

Poor Elizabeth 😢

0:38 Reptetition

Is Ted played by Richard Patrick from Filter? Hmmm....🤔

This video reminds me of Enter Sandman main riff NB : Sorry, I wrote that around thye very begining of the video NB2 : Poor Ted

The micro/macro section made me think Gojira Gojira Gojira Gojira Gojira. Riff + development = Gojira song.

Damn can't believe Ted is really gone... gunna miss that guy

Can’t wait for the new Natalie’s review

I want to write a Doom metal song about Ted's story for my submission to the song challenge

I see you started filming this video at 6:57 and stopped at 10:37. Nice apple watch bro

trey i love you

72 Seasons dropped an hour ago. New Metallica!? Let's Fucking Go! Bust off a review post haste!!

Hey Trey, '72 Seasons' by Metallica please!!

A Man Named Ted Approves.

I am a Ted, I am a banker, Trey you better not have seen my future!

I know where teds wife is , Elizabeth is hanging out with Steel Panther. 🤘🏼

Most riffs by Saxon, right? Doesn't mean that they're not fun, but still.

Great advice, but music has no rules Trey 🤘🏻

I tried the knobs and they sound so shit on my part. What may be the problem??? Wtf

The only Ted I've ever known is Ted from Bill and Ted"

Awwww Ted :'(

RIP Ted

Woah office spoiler alert

another great video, and poor ted.

Where is the new metallicapop's song reaction?

Some of my favorite songs are just the same riff over and over again for like 4mins.

I really appreciate this video, and it helped alot. BUT! TED WHYYYYYYYYYYY! ted plzzz!!!!!!

"Rep-t-etition" 😬