how to make my own tunes on the axe

thenextbigthing

New member
Iv been playing guitar for a while now and i think im pretty good at it, i can play from van halen to pantera to beethoven like nothing, but my biggest problem is trying to write my own stuff on the guitar, when i go to play i just play off the wall stuff some sounds good sometimes and i record it down, but trying to write alot of stuff or just making up stuff i cant do it that well, its like my fingers automatically starts playing riffs from other artists and bands. Can anyone give some tips how to create my own stuff on the guitar and how to break out of this playing other bands stuff.

yours truely,
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sometimes i'll just get my fiance to give me a chord progression at random, just have her call out a few chords, then from there i'll use that chord progression and make something up, its a good way for me to get out of loops of writing around one progression, which i've been known to do often. another thing to try is to play guitar when you're not really thinking about what your playing, like playing guitar while watching tv or something like that, it keeps you from thinking too much about what you want to play and sometimes i tend to come up with fresh ideas like that.
 
Just dont listen to any music for a while and just dont think about it, get it all out of your head and start playing little riffs with an empty head, thats how i do it :)
 
Tifstorey said:
Just dont listen to any music for a while and just dont think about it, get it all out of your head and start playing little riffs with an empty head, thats how i do it :)
I go through life like that.... :o


Seriously, though... Try to do something with the chord progressions you already know. Take that guitar lick from your favorite band and twist it around, maybe combine it with another lick. Pretty soon you will have that one out of your system and you can work on your own stuff.

Tif has the right idea though. I stopped listening to the radio and playing my old cd's for a long time. Pretty soon the stuff pouring out of me into my guitar was all mine.

Try writing a song with the lyrics first, and force yourself to come up with a chord progression to fit it.

Write with your acoustic. I find that when I pick up my electric first, I tend to play things that I've always played. I use natural chords when I write with an acoustic, and later transpose them to power chords and the like that sound good distorted (if that's the tone I am going for).
 
Good... Now learn melody. Learn a monophonic instrument or sing. Knowing how to play a guitar and having a strong understanding of how to use melody and harmony effectively amounts to more than the sum of it's parts.


Then tackle polyrhythms.
 
what to you want to write about? Do you have an object, (a picture for example?) of that thing, person - that you can look at while you have the guitar in your hand? focus on the feeling that you get from it. Now, (and this may be hard for you) try to find some music - a melody, a chord progression, whatever - that expresses what you are feeling.

If that doesn't work - USE ANOTHER INSTRUMENT! - sounds like torture? maybe. But you will be thrown back on your creativity - your mind and your spirit - not on skills your HANDS have memorized.

(try piano. if you don't have a piano - sing. If you don't like your voice, all the better. It will force you to be more creative)
 
The whole point to learing other peoples rifss and scales etc. is so that you can gain a feel for where your fingers should be depending on what key you're playing in etc... the easiest way I have found to break out of the box is to take what I already know and learn it backwards... literally. Take your favorite Van Hager/Halen riff and learn it backwards. then basiclly mess around with the riff over all... play every other note forwards while also playing every other not backwards (ie: original riff goes a-b-c-d-e-f-g, play a-g-c-e-e-c-g-a)

It'll give you s different perspective on how the riff evolved in the first place. From there just keep changing things up. At some point it'll literally "click" and you'll be slamming out stuff of your own.

I don't claim to be a professional, but I've been playing for 22+ years... I know my way around the fretboard... (aperently I still need work on my keyboard as I keep having to correct my spelling :p - )

Anyhoo... just keep doing what you're doing... it'll click...

- Tanlith -
 
Bruv,

Try improvising within your van Halen stuff - so you'll be playing similar sort of scales/notes - but your own tunes - you never know what you'll come out with (tell yourself your better than the arse hole aswell - so your riffs are the daddy riffs not this joker - it may not necesarily be true but at least your being origional)

if you come up with a riff or chord progression (whatever) that sounds a good but is a bit samey then sack it off and start again

Most importantly - spend as much of your spare time as possible playing your geetar - even if your not playing - have it on your mind - can drive you fucking nuts but can be very productive.

Good luck mate
 
Try listening to different music. Definitely try to get some music from cuba, brazil, mexico, india, jamaica, or really anywhere else in the world if you have not listened already. Also listen to old blues like son house and robert johnson, or john lee hooker if you have not already. and def. jazz. if you seriously hate that music obviously it wont help but if anything catches your interest and gets in your head...listening to different music should definitely help. give yourself a break from your normal collection.
 
also I know for myself when I bust into that blues lick (any blues lick) I know that my creativity has run out and to stop. for you it might be that van halen lick.
 
reply

Something i've found to work for myself is to just start messing around with different progressions...try and come up with something you like...then hum along to it while you play it over and over...then once you've sort of "penciled" in a rough melody start to put different vowel and consonant sounds over it....basically this comes out as uninteligable nonsense...but eventually they will form themselves into words...and there you have it...a basic melody to work from. Don't concern yourself too much with the subject matter at first...most artists don't know what the hell they are writing about until long after they've written most of the lyrics. Example. Billy Corgan on the VH1 storytellers show was talking about the Pumpkins tune "Stand inside your love"...he was like..." yeah I had those first couple line worked out "who wouldn't be the one you love...who couldn't stand inside your love...and I had no f-ing clue what it meant" (not exact quote but pretty close). John Mayer said (when he played a clinic at my college, Berklee College of Music Boston) that it's far more important what the words sound like than what they mean. A lot of times I'll write out an entire song...then go back and figure out what I was talking about...most times the jiberish works seamlessly within itself...it's sort of like letting your subconcious take over and spill out onto the page...good luck with your tunes

Mike
 
FALKEN said:
Try listening to different music. Definitely try to get some music from cuba, brazil, mexico, india, jamaica, or really anywhere else in the world if you have not listened already. Also listen to old blues like son house and robert johnson, or john lee hooker if you have not already. and def. jazz. if you seriously hate that music obviously it wont help but if anything catches your interest and gets in your head...listening to different music should definitely help. give yourself a break from your normal collection.


Couldn't agree more - especially about listening to blues. Remember, "The blues had a baby and they called it Rock & Roll". If you're into Rock, then you almost have to step back and look at the roots of where it came from - which is blues.

- Tanlith -
 
I tend to create music when I'm inspired. If I focus on the chords too much, then I think about things too much in a technical manner instead of the harmonic part of it, which of course is what most listeners care about. I live in Florida, sometimes on a weekend I'll just fuel up my car and drive somewhere really far and try to create an experience out of it. And then those experiences flow into emotions, could be positive, complex, relaxing, upset, etc.

Once I'm home I'll create a simple drum pattern running on an infinite loop and start playing guitar or keyboard to that. I keep it simple first just focusing on main solid chords and then i'll throw my pinky into the mix when playing guitar and hit other notes to create extended chords or something, or change my finger picking techniqe. Once it's complex enough I'll record that loop with the drum loop and play this mix in a loop too, and switch to keys/guitar (whichever one i haven't been on yet) and play something, it just magically starts to fill in. Then adjustments are made and parts are laid out and modified.

Sometimes making music is a struggle, but don't give up the fight, stay up, make those fingers sore, get bloodshot eyes, do whatever you gotta do, just don't take off your music gloves and lose, you can win it!
 
Setting up loops can be a really good idea when trying to work with instrumental music but for me...for the most part melodic ideas pop into my head far more easily if I am physically playing the chord progression over and over...if for anything...simply because I am more physically engaged in the music. But hey man...songwriting is totally different for every individual...so don't take our word for it...well maybe at first...but then once you get rolling see what works best for you...develop your own style of writing...RAGE AGAINST THE NORMAL CLICHES! Have fun...that's the most important...nothings better than when you create that first song that you really love..that's a great feeling strive for that.Godspeed. ;)
 
I like to improvise guitar duets. I record a line, just trying to play simple figures with a solid rhythm, no click track. Then I do a second track trying to play ideas that respond or contrast to the first. I always just do just one take of each part to keep it from getting too planned out, then keep it if it sounds OK (maybe one in ten) and edit out sections I don't like. It's just a creative exercise, but I like it. Three of them are here on the right side of the page.

Tim
 
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