Chunks of songs lying around...

nimpo46

New member
Hello everyone,

I like to write a lot of music. I usually can't help myself but try out tons of different genre's and with the software these days, you don't have to be able to play every instrument to pull it off!

Anyway, a problem I find a lot with writing music, is I write a 20-30 second part, and then realise I can't do anything with it! I either have no idea where the song should go from there, or I just don't think it sounds good with anything else.

What does work for me, is often I come back to these 'chunks' of songs, and throw them in to another idea I have, and it comes off well.

How many of you write songs in one go, or with the whole piece in mind, and how many of you put different parts of songs together (obviously changing the key, tempo, structure slightly to fit)?
 
I have hundreds of riffs, grooves, unfollowed through songs and abandonded parts. One song I wrote in one sitting and almost erased as soon as I finnished it because it was a crappy, sappy love song. Fortunatly I changed the name to 'Erection' and it became one of my strongest songs. I don't write much new stuff anymore. I mostly recycle the old crap hoping it will come back into style. After all "nothing's new... it's all been done before." (that's a song I wrote) I once dreamed a pal of mine was playing a song (Zombie in a Dream) in a barbershop and woke up and wrote it down. Is it still mine? I wrote an entire album in 8 hrs, new age instrumental- Nude Figure.
 
I absolutely keep the 'chunks' around for re-cycling; even if you have only 3-4 lines of something, the way songs go, you never know when something can suddenly 'fit' elsewhere.

Apart from my last song, where all the verses came to me almost word for word in about 20mins, everything else is a verse here, a snippet there, the 2AM scribbles...just the way it goes.

C.
 
Anyway, a problem I find a lot with writing music, is I write a 20-30 second part, and then realise I can't do anything with it!

There are probably as many answers as there are posters here, but what I try to do is write/develop the chorus first, then create the verse structure. The intro section is usually a shorter variation of the chorus. That just leaves the middle between the first run through the chorus and verse 2, plus the bridge, which is usually a variation of the middle or maybe a completely new section in a different key. That's just my humble, somewhat linear opinion.

There are plenty of true music theorists here, plus guys with decades of experience, who can give you the textbook/expert answers.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Joseph
 
Fortunatly I changed the name to 'Erection' and it became one of my strongest songs.
So, you have a strong Erection?

But, can you use it, perhaps paste it on a website; have people comment on it, to help it reach it's full potential?
 
About the question, it's sooo difficult to complete something. The reason is because, I think, all the parts have to flow from each other. It's pretty hard when you have a great musical verse line to come up with changes, like note/chord changes plus an even greater emphasis for the chorus.
Or visa versa having a great chorus and trying to find musical verses that would suit.
Changing from verse to chorus is hard for me.
Pre-chorus is another hard one. I think that pre-chorus is a vital part of any song. You've gotta change to get to the chorus. I don't want to make a song that goes from idle/1st gear straight to overdrive in the chorus. There's gotta be the shift through the gears.

Then there's the bridge problem .... which is like sitting in park revving the engine before putting your foot down to zoom away at the lights.
 
Thanks for replying, it's interesting to see what people think of the matter.

I wish I could go up to some of my favourite musicians and ask just how some songs were written, as in what part they came up with first, and what made them add this part etc...
 
Whatever you need to do to write a complete song is cool. Bits and pieces or all at once. Everyone is different.

Personally, I find a theme/idea, write the lyrics then add the melody/music. It's almost always a continuous stream of building from start to finish. The slow part is writing the lyrics - I'll write a lot then piece together my favorite lines. Once that's done I find the melody/music comes fairly quick.

So my bits and pieces are mainly the lyrics as they are built....
 
I have had pieces of music hang around for years and years before finding a proper home. Other times a song comes together in fifteen minutes.

I am cool with whatever comes my way.
 
Same here. I might have a fragment that sits around until one day I play it (I write on acoustic guitar) and suddenly other things mesh, and it starts to form. I use notation paper to write down any chords or sequences that I come up with, and these come in handy if I forget things. Most songs end up quite different than how they started--the main chord or sequence might wind up as the bridge, or some random chord that got introduced late may wind up as the main part. Lyrics come last; they may be already written, and I fit them in, or I come up with new stuff. I'm sure some other folks do it like this too, or in dozens of other ways. There's no right way.
 
Same here. I might have a fragment that sits around until one day I play it (I write on acoustic guitar) and suddenly other things mesh, and it starts to form. I use notation paper to write down any chords or sequences that I come up with, and these come in handy if I forget things. Most songs end up quite different than how they started--the main chord or sequence might wind up as the bridge, or some random chord that got introduced late may wind up as the main part. Lyrics come last; they may be already written, and I fit them in, or I come up with new stuff. I'm sure some other folks do it like this too, or in dozens of other ways. There's no right way.

^^^^this is pretty much how I work^^^^
 
I have vast libraries of chunks of songs all just waiting arrangement and lyrics. That is to say if i can recover the harddrive.

I feel your feels.
 
ttttTTTTThread necro!

Seriously though, I usually write as inspiration comes to me. If I'm not inspired to write a full song or I don't have time to finish it right then, I'll write the first part of a song and leave it for often years until I'm motivated to finish.
 
My advice is to push through those ideas reason you'll start seeing different possibilities . Most of what we all write is not 100% but you may find a part of the sing that you pushed through fitting another song. Hope thy helps

Official Tommy Osuna Website
 
For me, lyrics is a key, usually. Sometimes, there are riff or accord driven music, but usually I start with lyrics.
But I am not a seasoned songwriter :)
 
I imagine everybody who writes songs has chunks and fragments laying around that never went anywhere. I've got hundreds. I have to hear a vocal pretty early in the process or I abandon it and move on. Once in a while, some old fragment will be incorporated in a new song, but not often.
 
I just wrote a song the other night out of a chunk I had written years ago. I was just browsing through one of my old notebooks, and I read 2 lines I had written, and a whole song formed around it in one session. I work that way pretty often.
 
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