Does anyone write songs...?

[nononsensetype]

Has anyone mastered the art of writing songs without actually writing the songs?(ancient producer secret) I have heard that some people do not actually write their songs down on paper but keep them in their head. Do you even believe that this is possible? (that is for good songs, of course)

[db51]

I never write anything down...I record my ideas on minidisc!

Searching for a pen and paper and the writing itself would definitely kill the creative process for me. I just keep my MD recorder ready to go...

[Gidge]

I've heard it said that if it isn't good enough to remember without writing it down, then its just not good enough.....I think that's a load of horsecrap......you may be writing one day and some words come up that just dont spark with you...but if you recorded it and listen back a few weeks, months, maybe years later youll find it pure genius.....

[George Parler]

Don't write it down?

Man, if my name wasn't typed on my drivers license I wouldn't remember how to sign off on this reply. I have pages of song ideas, one liners, a verse, a chorus, complete songs. I go back to them constantly. What dosen't gel so well today may come together like the last piece of a puzzle tomorrow.

A songwriter writes songs. Hence the word song.....writer. If I don't write it down I guess that would make me a songthinker or a songmeditator.

I don't know, maybe I'm just getting old. You know they say there are three ways to tell if you're getting old: ONE) Your hair line makes a be-line for your behind. TWO) Your teeth fall out. So you go down to the back room of the funeral home and go thru that glass gallon jar and find a pair of used ones that fit. THREE) Ah....hmm...uh....I forget what the third one was. Oh well,.....What was I saying?........Was I finished?... Dagnabbit, I forgot to write it down!

<><
George

[Henri Devill]

I agree with Gidge on the part about horsecrap...I always write it down. Sometimes I can only get part of the idea...and I'll need to get back to it later.And if you are working on multipule ideas you gotta keep them organised!For me I need to see the words ,it helps me "visualise" because to me they are like little movies....It works for me but everyone is different!

Don

[tdukex]

Only a genius or an idiot would not have cause to write down (or record) song ideas or completed material.

[Cyrokk]

I can't really say I 'mastered' the art of writing songs solely in my head, but I have done it before. In fact almost all of my last recording project consisted of songs that I wrote and stored in memory.. It came from just sitting down a couple hours a day and playing around on guitar. Stuff would pop up after jamming and I enjoyed it so much that I would play it constantly. Then it became part of my daily playing routine, and this process would repeat and build until I noticed that certain pieces would fit together and then finally a song would arise, all from memory. And at night I would play those songs in my head until I fell asleep, working out drum patterns and bass lines..

I've been dancing with this muse for almost 20 years now, and as a result music never stops playing in my head. Sometimes it's from my favorite bands, but more often it comes from the fact that a part of me hates having a good unfinished song laying around and my mind is always working hard to try and complete it.

I will admit, though, that over the last few years I have used a tape recorder to help write. But if I didn't have such a busy life outside of music I would (for better or worse) rely less on tape or paper. Much of it is still in my head though, as I proved to myself this weekend when I picked up my acoustic and forced out a song I had wrote three years ago: I have yet to record it on tape or write it down.

I'm neither an idiot or genius. Perhaps a little crazy or neurotic is closer to the truth.

[kanistr]

Went to a get-together a few months back & on the long drive home, I got some really cool lyrical ideas. Almost all the way home, I was working out chord progressions, drum patterns - the whole thing in my head!
I stopped at a gas station before returning home to hit record. When I walked in there, the radio was playing a BeeGee's song or some piece of crap. Got back in the car, only to find said piece of crap was stuck in my head, and MY song was gone! D'oh!!

[jacobdetoth]

I dunno, Im not a successful recording artist by any means, but I rarely write songs down at first.

First, like Cyrokk was saying, I just pick up my guitar, and if I come up with something I love, I'll remember it the next time a pick it up. It becomes a part of my temporary repetoire; if it's not that great I usually dont remember it--maybe later Ill rediscover it though. But there are nice little songs Ive came up recently that Ive actually remember from the nite before.

Such as, I take a lot of sleeping aids, and it still takes me a while to get to sleep. Sometimes I start hearing music you know, and a I noodle with words with music Im hearing. I usually forget it, and for some reason it seems impossible to get up and play the songs-Im probably half asleep and dazed. But actually just a few nites ago I was albe to remember one, probably becus the nite before I decided to figure out how to play it mentally; yknow just a simple chord progression, bass line, the vocal line was catchy so I even remembered the basic words.-- Maybe this method sounds crazy, but I like it best. Though I wish I could remember them all!

I never finish words until it's time to record the song. And as Im usually guilty of doing, I dont listen to music in my car, I practice my repetoire. Mapping out lyrics, vocal style, etc.
I write lyrics down before a record, under the perhaps false belief of 'if I created it once, I can recreate it easily'. I usually give myself a few days to reconjure the lyrics, they're not so great so I really don't mind!

Though I havent recorded lately(my exband is dead), Im trying to find the inspiration to start the dubious task for my current set of songs.

That's my opinion, I could be wrong

[nononsensetype]

It is my personal belief that I might be able to reconjure up the lyrics later but I believe that my writing is most effective when everything is mapped out already. This would also be more effective if you are going to a studio so that you don't waste your precious time on lyrics.

[postalblue]

i used to but now i never write nor record anything before it's finished. whenever i have something i like i just keep playing it or playing with it until it sticks. i may forget some lines, but i can usually remember most of them. sometimes i have up to 8 songs in mind that i'm working on constantly. everyday i sit down with an acoustic guitar and play around with melodies and chord progressions, maybe some guitar arrangements. as for lyrics, i try to get some lines actually written as soon as possible, but it is usually when i'm about to record. i never rewrite lyrics though, even though i know i should. i developed this approach after selling my multitrack, and not being able to put together another recording setup for about 2 years. now that i'm putting together a new studio, i guess i'll go back to recording stuff whenever the muse pleases.

adriano
postal blue <http://www.indiepages.com/postalblue>

[faithmonster]

Originally posted by George Parler
Don't write it down?

Man, if my name wasn't typed on my drivers license I wouldn't remember how to sign off on this reply.
A songwriter writes songs. Hence the word song.....writer. If I don't write it down I guess that would make me a songthinker or a songmeditator.

I don't know, maybe I'm just getting old. You know they say there are three ways to tell if you're getting old: ONE) Your hair line makes a be-line for your behind. TWO) Your teeth fall out. So you go down to the back room of the funeral home and go thru that glass gallon jar and find a pair of used ones that fit. THREE) Ah....hmm...uh....I forget what the third one was. Oh well,.....What was I saying?........Was I finished?... Dagnabbit, I forgot to write it down!

<><
George

I'm there too, friend! Right down to the teeth!

Faithmonster

[Prophet_81]

I'd have to say that in general, my stuff is eventually written down, even though I really don't rely on having the material recorded or written.

Actually, music is remembered and lyrics are written... I almost never write the music down. I started playing in a band when I was fourteen. I was lead! Yay! That setting developed me as a color player but, not as a writer. So, these days, it's hard to come up with something that I truly feel is my own but, my parts that I arrange over is what catches me. The music is always in my mind.

The lyrics I write down right away. I'm really edgy about my lyrics. Are they saying what I want them to say? Is it *original*? Although I don't let that cloud my courage as much as I use to.

I eventually type my lyrics for a different reason than documentation. There's just something cool to me about having a lyric sheet(tee hee). And sometimes putting them in different fonts helps me see "fluff" and stupid lines.

[jacobdetoth]

Prophet_81,
im with you with typing them, you're right on with the reasoning. and they're so much easier to read when you record!

Hi,

I ALWAYS write it down! I carry a pocket notebook in the car, keep one in the guitar case, keep another on the piano, and one next to the bed. Inspiration, whether lyrical or musical, seems to come at the strangest times, and usually when I don't have the time to really work on the idea. I just write down the particular song idea, lyric, or chord progression and come back to it later.

Cheers,
Ron

[cwh]

If I didn't write it down, it didn't happen...

Actually, I go both ways. Usually it starts with a hook, and usually it's someplace inconvenient for writing, like while driving. If I can't remember THAT by the time I get to pencil and paper (or keyboard), it prob'ly wasn't worth it.

But then I have to spend hours or days developing the whole song around the hook, which means hours spent staring at an incomplete verse, or line, or....

Thank God for word processors - I can't read my own writing.

Bill

[RSMITH123]

I do most of my writing in the car. I always carry with me a pocket sized digital recorder. I store ideas for months and play them back when I have time to think. I then play it back and write it down for the band, once I have something finished.

[jacobdetoth]

Yeah, in my car is where get a lot done, I should get a van, then record in it
Hmm, that's not too bad an idea...

::Though here in two weeks I get my liscense suspended too many speeding tickets::

Ill just record and live "in a van down by the river"

[RSMITH123]

Chris Farley was hilarious.

[hubb_99]

personally i'll do a little of both. a lot of times it comes as spontaneous and it's great other times i will write something down and then find out later that it will go with a piece of music that i have. Sometimes i will be working things out in my head and I won't be able to write it out becuase i don't know exactly what it is just yet, it's there but not just yet. I try not to think about it too much because then I find that distracting.