Do you compose forward, backwards or both?

Yeah it can happen any which way. I remember once I was standing out in center field in my slow-pitch league, and this cool riff came into my head. When I got home I found it on the guitar and it became a pretty cool song. Still, I’ve definitely noticed a pattern in the way I tend to work.

The initial idea, for me, is always either a guitar riff (for more rockish songs) or a collection of chords strummed on my acoustic. Either way, I write exclusively on acoustic guitar.

In the first case, if I really like a riff, I usually then hunt for a melody to sing over top (but not if anybody is in earshot—this process has the potential to sound very humorous to an eavesdropper). Some riffs just don’t support melodies well—at least with my modest abilities at finding them—in which case I turn to some related chords to sing over instead, which is usually a lot easier to do. I usually then interleave those chords with the riff so I can have my cake and eat it too.

If the chords come first, 99% of the time the melody comes right along with them—which makes sense because it’s usually the “attractive” melody that makes me like the chords in the first place.

Once I’ve got the first melody “section” the way I like it, I make a decision on whether it sounds more like a verse or a chorus, then I set out to fill in the missing pieces of the traditional song structure—or, in more rare cases, I may throw the cookie-cutter format out the window completely if I feel the existing ideas beg for it.

As some have said, very good stand-alone ideas can stay that way for weeks, months, and even years while you struggle to find good ways to flesh out the song. There’s nothing worse than taking an idea that you totally love, and ruining it by settling for some sub-par or overly-obvious additions simply because you’re in a hurry to finish the song.

Once I’ve determined the arrangement (intros, riffs, verses, choruses, bridges, solos, outros, WTF moments), at that point I know how many lines I need lyrics for, then I compose the lyrics to fit the melodies I’ve hummed up to that point. Harmonies I work out as needed exclusively in the recording realm—if the song ever gets there that is (and unfortunately many don’t). Book ‘em Dan-o!
 
.....Book ‘em Dan-o!

stevemcg.jpg


You mean this guy?:D:D:D:D
 
I think it's best to write songs upside down and certainly on the floor if you want something off the wall. :cool:
 
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