Power Chords Bonus Song Disk Tip Sheet 
 
This tip sheet is an accompaniment to the Power Chords Bonus Song Disk. On the disk you will 
find a number of original compositions. Besides enjoying playing these songs, you can pick up 
on some powerful tips and hints to help you make the most of Power Chords. 
 
Note: Many of the songs contain Control parts which set the reverb and chorus rates for Roland 
GS instruments. If you do not have a GS sound source and do not want these control changes 
sent, turn them off in the Song Options dialog box. Or you can remove them from the song itself. 
 
All the original songs provided on the Bonus Song Disk are copyrighted and are for personal 
non-commercial use only. 

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We want to hear from you! We are desperately looking for songs for the bonus disk. If you have any songs to submit, please mail them to us, upload them to our CompuServe ID: 71333,2166, or upload them to our CompuServe forum (GO MIDICVEN or GO HOWLING, area 5).

Electronic Support Forums:

Check out our new CompuServe Forum. To get there, GO MIDICVEN or GO HOWLING, and join area 5. There's a message area for you to communicate with us, and other Power Chords users, and a library where the latest songs and demos of Howilng Dog Systems programs will be available. Send e-mail to our CompuServe ID 71333,2166.

A Power Chords Support Forum is now available on MUSO BBS. Dial (818) 884-6799 and check it out - area 21 of Discussions.
 
We also have our own forum on MIDINET, an international network of MIDI BBS's. 

The Pro release of Power Chords is now being planned: Please write, call, fax, or E-Mail us 
with your suggestions, complaints, or things you would like to see in future releases of Power 
Chords. 


BUILD.POW - by Ray Zara

Ray posted this file originally on MUSO BBS in the Power Chords support forum with the following information on doing drum parts. Thanks, Ray.

The drum kit it your basic Roland kit, with three additions:

Note #61 is a cowbell pitched lower than the regular cowbell, and more "hollow".
Notes #76 and 77 are lower-pitched "Hipitch Toms" than their corresponding toms at 79 and 81.

(I'm basing all this on the drum map for a Roland U-20. Do what you can to simulate.)

This is an example of an easy bulletproof way to build a percussion intro. The trick is to work backwards. First, make yourself as complex a one-measure pattern as you feel up to (in the example, this would be the pattern called "basic") Store this pattern in the drum rhythm pallette. Now pick a drum line, or part of one, and eliminate it. Now store THAT pattern. (Basic 1) Keep doing this, tearing your pattern down piece by little piece, until you're left with one drum line. 

Now pull up the song editor, and start placing your patterns, (two measures of each seems to work pretty well) putting the last ones up first, until you have built back up to where you started from. Pull up your "basic" pattern in the rhythm editor again, then cut most everything out of the last quarter of the measure (assuming your in 4/4 time like the example) put four snare shots there instead. Store the pattern. Pull up the Basic pattern again, and this time don't take anything out, but add a cymbal crash to beat one. Tack these two on to your song, and voila! Instant intro!

A more developed version of this file is BUILT.POW.
 
BOOGIE.POW - "Basement Boogie" 
 
This is a standard blues boogie with lots of rhythm and solo guitar work, a bass solo, and a bit of 
a wild ending. 
 
Rhythm Guitar: Listen to bars 13 through 24 and note how much variation can be created by 
using chords that contain hammer ons and chord rhythms that complement them. 
 
Guitar Solos: The various solos use different patches to give lots of motion and change. The 
solos with pitch bends were recorded from a Roland PC-200 keyboard into the Power Chords 
Rhythm Editor. (Power Chords sets the pitch bend range to a 5th up and down. Some sound 
cards do not support the setting of pitch bend range. If this is the case with your sound source, 
the solos may not sound quite right. We apologize for any sour notes this may cause.) 
 
Drum Realism: To make the snare parts more realistic when doing fills and triplets, the notes 
were created using eighth note triplet resolution and then some of them were moved slightly 
ahead of the beat. This helps to keep the drum part from sounding mechanical. Check this out in 
"Triplet Fill crsh" in bar 4 and in "Twelfth:3" in bar 12. To see the moved snare notes, drag the 
pattern into the Rhythm Editor, and scroll the resolution down to its 2nd or 3rd finest setting. 
Check out beats 3 and 4. 
 
Cymbal Crashes on Beat 1 of Bar After End of Drum Fill: Quite often you will want to do a 
drum fill lasting for a bar or two which ends with a cymbal crash or other percussion hit on beat 1 
of the following bar. This might raise a problem. One might think that you would have to create a 
special version of the drum part that normally follows the fill and add a cymbal crash to it on beat 
1. 
 
A great solution to this problem is to put the cymbal crash on the last 96th of the last beat of the 
fill rhythm. To do this, use the resolution scrollbar in the Rhythm Editor to take the resolution 
down to show 96ths of a beat. Scroll over to show the last beat, and enter the cymbal crash. You 
can see an example of this in the "Triplet Fill crsh" pattern in bar 4. This is a very convenient 
way of setting up a drum fill rhythm, as the cymbal crash at the end stays with the rhythm if you 
move or copy it, instead of being stuck in the following rhythm. 
 
Ending: Note how the chord rhythm pattern is used to emulate wild strumming. Careful planning 
was needed for all parts to work together. 
 
 
CATAMARA.POW - "Catamaran" 
 
This tune is composed of a few simple melodies, bass parts, and drum parts, and minor 
variations of same. There are only one or two chord rhythms used in the entire piece, and very 
few chord changes. 
 
Notice how the accents in the maracca part make the drum rhythms interesting. To do the part,  I 
simply created a row of 16th notes right across the length of the rhythm for the maracca. Then I 
increased the volume of selected notes by clicking on them with the right mouse button and 
dragging upward. Different notes in different copies of the drum rhythms are accented to add 
contrast between the parts. Also, various devices such as hi-hat hits, snare rolls and hits, and 
triangle tings are used for spice. 
 
CHINAONE.POW - "China One" by Jim Lynch

Thanks Jim for an interesting tune, based on variations on a standard 'chinese theme'. Notice how the drums echo the melody.

COWTUNES.POW - "Good to be a Cowboy" 
 
This is a straightforward country swing lament that makes use of lots of patch changes. Note how 
pitch bend is used to get a steel guitar sound. 
 
Chord Rhythm Variations: Judicious use of variations in the chord rhythms and drum rhythms 
keep this song from getting too repetitive. 
 
FLYLOW.POW - "Fly Low" by Eric Lloyd

This song was sent to us by Eric Lloyd. It's a jet type movie theme. The first melody makes use of the Roland GS Jet Engine sound. If you have a GS module, make sure you turn GS sounds on on the MIDI Options dialog. Otherwise you'll get a helicopter sound. 

If you don't have a GS module, you may have to change the patch for this sound to something jet-like.

FUNROAD.POW - "I've been making silly sounds on the Railroad" 
 
Lots of different patches and the use of GS sound effects make this song fun. Note the funky 
banjo rhythms used in the chord part. 
 
GREYRAIN.POW - "Grey Rain" by Ken Lombardi

Ken said "It was raining". This is how his inspiration ended up sounding.

JEROME.POW - "Calling for Jerome" 
 
This is another experimental/new age type tune. Although it is written in 3/4 time the initial chord 
rhythms indicate a 4 based meter. The drum parts are used to confuse this and finally half way 
through the song the confusion is resolved as 3/4 time is clearly indicated. 
 
Hammer-Ons:  Hammer ons are used to  get a cool shimmering kind of sound in the chord part. 
 
Fade Out: Many copies of the various parts were made to create a fade out. The ability to adjust 
the overall volume of the part in the Rhythm Editor made this easy. Its important not to fade too 
quickly. 
 
KBDMAR93.POW - "Funk Drum Programming" by Norman Weinberg

The terrific funk drum patterns in this .POW file were written by Norman Weinberg and appeared in his column in the March 1993 issue of Keyboard Magazine. They are reproduced with the kind permission of the author.

There are a whole bunch of individual funk drum patterns in the drum palette. As well, the song uses each pattern twice, with a simple bass and chord pattern in the background, to illustrate how they sound in a musical setting.

Check out Norman's column in Keyboard Magazine for the text that goes with these examples.

KENSFRST.POW - "Ken's First" by Ken Lombardi

This little rockola number was Ken's first Power Chords song. 

MELODI.POW - "Melodi" by Jacqui Kinnie

This beautiful piano piece was entered into Power Chords completely using the Rhythm Editor. Jacquie has treated each beat of a melody pattern as an entire bar, and quartered the tempo down to 37 accordingly. Treating the tempo in this way allowed Jacqui to work with a small number of melodies. As well, the parts are spread out over a small number of bars. 

A second part was added towards the end by using the Bass part as a separate 'track'.

MOREWATR.POW - "More Water" by Ken Lombardi

Ken said "It was still raining."

ONETWO.POW - "One Two" by Jim Lynch

One Two shows some interesting uses of the Power of Power Chords to create different effects in the chord part. Note how it complements the melody in the arpeggiation section.

ROCKBOSS.POW - "Rock Bossa Nova" by Ben Tubb 
 
Thanks to Ben Tubb, one of our first customers, for this tune. 
 
SOCA.POW - "Soca del Sol" 
 
Break out the little drink umbrellas! It was necessary to give lots of musical space at various 
times by having some of the parts lay back because of the constantly moving rhythm track eg. 
during solos the chord part is quieted. 
 
Marimba Realism: To get the marimba 'rolls' sounding human, notes were created that 
randomly alternate between two different lengths. This can be heard at the end of the solo. 
 
Trumpet Falloff: Check out this standard device that occurs just before the conga solo. This 
was programmed in the Rhythm Editor. 
 
Conga Solo: A full musical break is given to the conga solo. You may want to study the 
individual parts making up this solo to see how its realism was achieved. If you have a Roland 
GS sound module note how the reverb is cranked up during the conga solo to give a dramatic 
change in sound, and then restored when it is over. 
 
Note how the solo instruments have a brief reprise at the end to provide a quick summary of 
what has happened during the song as they 'say goodbye'. A snappy guitar run provides a fitting 
end to the piece. 
 
THEPOINT.POW - "Love at the Point" 
 
This was composed as an example of a typical radio ballad. However, various instruments are 
used to carry the melody instead of voices. 
 
Hammer-Ons: Note the use of hammer-ons in the chorus (starting bar 18). To play the chords in 
these bars, click on them with the right mouse button. To start playing at the particular bar 
double click on it. To play one bar, click with the right mouse button on an empty part of the bar 
(not on a chord or rhythm). 
 
Split Tuning: In an interesting technique, the instrument is split into two halves, with the left 6 
strings playing an electric piano sound on one MIDI channel, and the right six strings reserved for 
a violin sound using a different MIDI channel. The violins are brought in as sweetener in the 
verse starting at bar 26. This technique can help you get a lot more out of Power Chords. In fact, 
there is no reason why you couldn't split the instrument up into 3 or even 4 separate instrument 
chord groups. Programming the chord rhythms becomes more difficult as more splits are added, 
however. 
 
Drum Flams: Notice the drum flams (short hits just before the main hit) on the snare drum in the 
parts starting at bar 42. This emulates the effect of two drumsticks hitting the drum, one just after 
the other. Inspect the part in the Rhythm Editor to see the extra hits on the beat, with the second 
hit just after it to give the flam sound. This technique is also used in the drum break in bar 40. 
 
TONEPIEC.POW - "Tone Piece" 
 
This is an experimental piece. It was composed by creating a number of chords and then 
arranging them in an interesting manner in the song window. Then some percussion parts and a 
few incidental trumpet melodies were added. 
 
Alternate Tuning: The instrument is set up with 4 strings in this example, and a violin type 
patch is used for their sound. 
 
Drum Rolls: Note how certain drum beats in the rolls were moved slightly off the beat to achieve 
realism. 
 
WESTSPY.POW - "Western Spy Theme" 
 
A very basic repeating drum part and bass part are used to give forward motion to this dark and 
stormy spy show type piece. The variations in the parts add interest. Then a section is given to 
bass and guitar along where a lot of accents are used to really drive the rhythm along. 
 
Additional Percussion: Various drum pattern variations were created that contained individual 
splash cymbal or guiro hits to spice up the music at various points. 
 
