Songwriting

Maybe you should google songwriting and see what information comes up, you might find answers to your questions. Or, take a course in songwriting.


Bustramp

 

nice :tongue:




i'm weird, i'll write lyrics for songs i don't come up with music for

and then i'll go and come up with some music to a completely different song i haven't even written

 

its a tough thing to sit down with the intent of writing a song, I find its a more inspired event - the kind of thing that comes to you when you arent expecting it.

Lots of folks say to keep a pen and paper by the bed in case you wake with a tune in your head.

I find that its just jamming that inspires songs the most, but then they get hammered out from a loose concept to a more constructed melody. The creative urges happen in waves for me, with a batch all at once and then none for a while.

As for what you write and how it sounds, bounce it off a few friends and get their opinion, sometimes its hard to be objective about your own work.

hope I helped a little, good luck!

 

man, i don't write often, but when i do, it tends to flow out of me several songs at a time......

it's as though lyrics or music keep going round in my head until i feel driven to put them to paper or audio.....and for me, being primarily a singer, it starts as lyrics that a melody emerges from

hard for me to force songs to come, but if someone's playing a riff, i can hear words or phrasings that go with it, then images form in my mind and the song is created from there

 

I write them but I don't really write them. It seems like they come out of my hands when I play the piano. I don't know where they come from. I usually like to feel a rhythm first and then let a chord progression flow. Then the melody and lyrics. I'm best when I'm in the most relaxed state and when I'm thinking about something that matters to me a lot. Having another person to compose with can help sometimes.

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When I write my own for guitar or piano, it seems that I am best at creating during the late night/early morning hours. Like shaggie says, for me during those peak hours the music seems to just flow out naturally, while during the day especially after I get home from work, the music seems forced out of me and doesnt go over well. I seem to have a Bach like, baroque style on my classical guitar

 

i write songs a lot, but its hard to explain how to do it. most of the time i usually mess around with my guitar for a little while and get a few chords that sound good together... there's the chord sequence. and maybe alter it around after that and make it fancier or experiment with the chords themselves to get a different sound, then maybe solo over those chords a little for a lead part in whatever key it ends up being in.

to come up with the rest i just get my bass and start playing, and then the same with the drums or any other instrument that i have in the song. you can usually almost feel how the bass and drum parts would be when you hear the main guitar parts. it just kind of feels like it would go with the song.

that was probably really confusing, cause im terrible at explaining things, and no, i dont necessarily follow that strictly... but i just thought about what i usually end up doing and thats what i came up with lol.
i hope this helped :\

 

My best music is improvised... you never know when inspiration is gonna come. It's different for everybody I guess.

 

I don't even think of songwriting as writing music. Songwriting to me is writing lyrics. Once I have the lyrics, the music just comes. No big deal.

 

Everybody who is intresting about songwriting...
With these hints you can't fail... (actually you can) This is not the best way to do it and it's not the best way to create yourself...

1) Take some time to learn some music theory...
2) Then take few weird chords.
3) Think what kind of scale is good for them...
4) Then just do something wird and great!!!!

 

Try getting away from the instrument, not that just dicking around won't produce some cool stuff, I've written a lot like that. But, if you feel like writing, instead of going straight to your instrument or notebook, try just sitting or laying down somewhere, and compose in your head. Think about what kind of song you want to write, the style mood, rythym etc. Then just hear it. This usually works very well for me and I tend too like the stuff that I just let flow out of my subconcious much better than the stuff I try to conciously create. This method can be difficult at first since your liable to forget many of the things you hear, or have a hard time transfering it onto an instrument unless your one of those lucky folks with perfect pitch who can just transfer your thoughts onto sheet music (so envious). But the trial and error method the rest of us have to use will work fine after a little practice with this technique. Of course this is just one of many many different methods, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

As much as I've been writing songs, I've never actually tried this kind of thing out as far as I can remember. Just hear it... Hmmm. Being stuck the way I've been recently it sure sounds worth giving a try! So thanks in advance

 

Heres a few things i guess

1)Nothing better than life expericence for writing, so live life man, go out and live.
a night of drinking or smoking can do wonders.

2) watch and read some classics one of my best songs is about One flew over the cuckoos nest

3) Titles can say it all! so look through newspapers

4) listen to Jazz and classical/ music with no words

 

I think AFC hit it on the head! Just hear it is a great way. It's like improvising in your head w/ the benefit that you can hear guitars/bass/drums etc better than you might be able to perform yourself. Its like when your thinking of a chorus and hum it out with your band, but liken that to reading to yourself and NOT reading aloud. Thus you're 'hearing' it. Try starting by pretending you turned on a radio station when your going to sleep tonight and make up a song that comes on the radio that you never heard before.. Works for me.. but i'm also cursed with how to transcribe the instrumentation w/o perfect pitch and memory ;(

 

haha when i got problems writing, I tend to listen to some good hip hop. cuz they always got somethin good to say if you actually listen to the words!!

 

lyrics first.

unless it's an instrumental.

 

i just get a fragment of tune and lyrics, it might even be in the middlle of he song once its done. then build on it from there

 

I usually write the best when I have thought out ahead of time what I want the song to sound like and what I want it to be like lyrically. Of course, there is the odd just-stumble-on-a-guitar-riff, but for the most part it's taking the time to flesh out song ideas. For me anyway.

If you're lacking inspiration, I recently read this little trick in a songwriting book. Basically, just close your eyes and imagine that you walk into a room, and in the center of the room is a table with a box and a record player. When you look inside the box, you see a brand new record--your record. Imagine what the cover looks like, the back, etc. Now put it in the record player and listen. How does this "perfect" record start? What happens next? What is the singer singing about? etc.

 

I write the best late at night, pen and notebook paper, and usually when I'm having a really good day or really bad day.

If I'm not feeling much of anything, I just fool around with my guitar.

 

Put on a tape recorder grab a guitar and start singing nonsence then listen to it later.

Try recording a series of improvised songs instead of just one.