Does your original idea usualy survive composition?

[Diverdown]

Im also curious about the longevity of your ideas, for instance Ive written a piece and it was a basic acoustic guitar, up tempo, relatively percussive arrangement but found it straying to a smoother piano arpegiated and almost meloncholy song and then back to where i began when i wasnt satisfied with the evolution.

I was kind of pleased that the original version in the long run came back as what I really wanted but spent a suprising amount of time getting there

How about you?

[Nicole_Rose]

most of the time i get almost the whole song out in one or two sittings. but sometimes i get an idea or the music to a song, and it will take months to work out. i have one song i wrote the music for ages ago. like maybe a year. i could never find any melody or lyrics for it. i did find a better arrangement and some better ways to play it. then i let it sit on the back burner. anyway i got some inspiration about a month ago and i found a melody and a verse for my old music. i let it sit again. tonight i altered the music yet again and wrote the second verse. i think the music is finished now. all i have to do is write a chorus and a bridge and it's done. anyway the song is still what it was, but it is so much more now.

some songs i write never make it past the initial groove recording. i record every idea i have. but a lot of them are left alone in the wake of other ideas. the only time they truly survive is when there is a lot to them and when i find lyrics and melody for them. but i have a hundred guitar riffs and ideas recorded and on my computer that i never did anything with.

[Track Rat]

I find that the best songs write themselves. What I mean is, whatever idea you have in the first place, happy accidents, serendipity, whatever intervene and that idea grows into something you hadn't thought of originally. Cross pollination from other musicians I feel is crucial. I've never liked working in a vacuum. Magic can happen when musicians play together. Bottom line is I like to let an idea lead me to its conclusion, not beat it into submission.

[mikeh]

Many times in the past I would write something on piano or on guitar (the basic lyrics/melody/harmony) and then when I try to develop the arrangement - I got more and more away from the fundamental base of the song and suddenly, it wasn't the same song (sometimes, I tend to try to be too clever with my arrangements).

I found the more I worked to make the song groove/feel right - the more I got back to what the song was to start (what the song was meant to be!!!).

These days I try trust my intitial instincts and let the song be what it wants to be - which more often than not means, if the song started as acoustic guitar & vocals - allow the arrangement to support that, rather than replace it.

[Whatmysay]

What do you mean by original idea, the riff, the melody, the lyrical hook, the message or the arrangement of the song? In this forum many have expressed methodologies of work that would infer that an idea drives the work. I am afraid that despite an outstanding education in the creative arts I have no methodology. You ask do you hold on to your original ideas – I ask is it important in the act of creation?

Does my original idea survive composition? If it is a good idea then it will and it will go on to inspire new songs.

[Diverdown]

I would mean the combination of melody, lyric and hook that makes you go Hey! thats not to bad . For me its usualy an acoustic arrangement and as a previous contributer to this thread mentioned I seem to start to overarrange or dress up the composition and then work backward to the first time when the song stuck me in just that right way.

less is more in many ways I guess. Perhaps It depends on whether Im inspired and the song just flows or if Im working at it conciously rearranging the bricks and their patterns as the wall builds higher if you know what I mean