joey2000
New member
Curious how others approach this, generally.....
BroKen_H
Re-member
Oh, my! If you saw my "media" folder, you'd probably freak. There are clips of sound; documents with verses or choruses, some times both; whole songs without lyric; whole lyrics without sound...just a mass mess of about 2000 ideas of one sort or another. Sometimes I go through and look at some. Sometimes I'll delete one. Sometimes I'll find a couple I can use together and combine them.
Did a bit of that this afternoon. Found a whole song that has no lyric and found a verse/chorus bridge that's unfinished. Modified the lyric a bit to fit the structure of the song...now it'll probably sit for another period of time waiting for me to come up with the rest of the lyric.
MOSTLY, that's my system.
SOMETIMES, I get a complete idea.
SOMETIMES, I sit down and write an entire lyric.
SOMETIMES, I see a poem and write a song to go with it.
RARELY, I get a complete song in my head with vocal and arrangement already driving me to write/record...well, twice so far.
Did a bit of that this afternoon. Found a whole song that has no lyric and found a verse/chorus bridge that's unfinished. Modified the lyric a bit to fit the structure of the song...now it'll probably sit for another period of time waiting for me to come up with the rest of the lyric.
MOSTLY, that's my system.
SOMETIMES, I get a complete idea.
SOMETIMES, I sit down and write an entire lyric.
SOMETIMES, I see a poem and write a song to go with it.
RARELY, I get a complete song in my head with vocal and arrangement already driving me to write/record...well, twice so far.
R
RFR
Well-known member
For me, most of the skelton comes out in a flash. Lightning fast! Fleshing it out, now that's where the work comes in.
Often times however, what seems to come together fast is usually just different ideas that have been brewing for sometimes years suddenly coming together.
That being said, I read an article by Diane Warren, who's written tons of hits, and she gave good advice.
She said that if your just spent one day observing people and life intsead of being stuck in your own head, you'd have enough inspiration to last you a lifetime.
I read this interview in a restaurant while having lunch and immediately put it into practice.
I watched a waitress, and wrote a song about the plight of the minimum wage worker. That song took me about an hour from concept to demo.
I watched a busboy who moved real slow like a tired old black man, but was actually quite young. His name was Alvin. Within a half hour after getting home, I wrote and recorded a slow blues shuffle instrumental piece, just based on how slow he moved.
Moral of the story; Two songs written and demoed in one day, because onf applying the advice of a pro songwriter.
Often times however, what seems to come together fast is usually just different ideas that have been brewing for sometimes years suddenly coming together.
That being said, I read an article by Diane Warren, who's written tons of hits, and she gave good advice.
She said that if your just spent one day observing people and life intsead of being stuck in your own head, you'd have enough inspiration to last you a lifetime.
I read this interview in a restaurant while having lunch and immediately put it into practice.
I watched a waitress, and wrote a song about the plight of the minimum wage worker. That song took me about an hour from concept to demo.
I watched a busboy who moved real slow like a tired old black man, but was actually quite young. His name was Alvin. Within a half hour after getting home, I wrote and recorded a slow blues shuffle instrumental piece, just based on how slow he moved.
Moral of the story; Two songs written and demoed in one day, because onf applying the advice of a pro songwriter.
joey2000
New member
On the contrary, our approaches sound quite similar.
Although I have little songs w/o lyrics (intentionally or otherwise), it's lyrics w/o music. I find the music much harder to write.
VomitHatSteve
Hat STYLE. Not contents.
I tend to write two ways these days: whilst traveling (biking, walking, etc.), I'll have an inspiration and write the first verse and chorus in my head. Then record it and flesh it out later.
Or I'll be struck with an idea for a song topic, jot down a note in my phone, and write it wholesale later with an instrument.
Or I'll be struck with an idea for a song topic, jot down a note in my phone, and write it wholesale later with an instrument.
BroKen_H
Re-member
On the contrary, our approaches sound quite similar.
I always have a problem making them fit together...the sound of the song doesn't fit the lyric's idea, or the structure is completely wrong or the meter is off...but most of my stuff comes from powering through these obstacles and making something that sounded good sound better...to my ears at least. I listen to my songs every day. I love most of them.
Interesting notion. But I'm not a "people person" so not sure how much of that I could/will do
Highly functioning introverts we be! I don't like going to public places (like restaurants and ESPECIALLY movie theaters.) Now that I live in the south, parks are out of the question about 10 1/2 months out of the year. But strangely enough, I work for Walmart in the south...there should be some funny songs in there somewhere !!!
joey2000
New member
I'm not an introvert, more like just anti-social
I have a low tolerance for jerky/stupid people and I swear they're breeding like cockroaches.I almost never go to either myself, though again it might be for diff reasons....
lol no doubt!
BroKen_H
Re-member
I'm not an introvert, more like just anti-social
Concur. Like I said, I work for Walmart in the south...I'm sure there are better sectors of society to observe.
I've always considered myself an observer of the human condition...
joey2000
New member
That's a good way for a songwriter to be! It's just not me.
VomitHatSteve
Hat STYLE. Not contents.
Off the top of my head... https://homerecording.com/bbs/gener...al-mart-midnight-greg_l-original-crap-310580/
(Or if you prefer something that isn't a 6-year-old thread linking to a suspended mp3 account: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wal-Mart-At-Midnight-Explicit/dp/B00B529FOE)
G
Greg_L
Banned
Lol. What a great song!
Armistice
Son of Yoda
I have lyrical ideas and I have musical ideas and I just try to hammer the fuckers together without hitting myself on the thumb.
When I was in an acoustic band I'd just start with an acoustic guitar and both things came together pretty easily. These days I'm doing electric rock stuff and I write and record entire songs of music without clue one as to what the lyrics or melody will be and then deal with that at the end.
I do take notes of things that sound nifty that other people say, that I can change or paraphrase or morph into a lyric, but I've noticed when people comment on my lyrics in the Clinic it's usually for a line I've made up myself, so perhaps I'm smarter than I think I am.
Plus, I have a direct line to god, obviously.
When I was in an acoustic band I'd just start with an acoustic guitar and both things came together pretty easily. These days I'm doing electric rock stuff and I write and record entire songs of music without clue one as to what the lyrics or melody will be and then deal with that at the end.
I do take notes of things that sound nifty that other people say, that I can change or paraphrase or morph into a lyric, but I've noticed when people comment on my lyrics in the Clinic it's usually for a line I've made up myself, so perhaps I'm smarter than I think I am.
Plus, I have a direct line to god, obviously.
Bubba po
Tiny Stonehenge Moment
Except you never write anything else but devotional music. Much of human experience lies outside that framework. And if it lies within that framework then it's often stifled and the cause of great personal anguish.
R
Robus
Well-known member
Always starts by jamming out a guitar riff or bass line, usually to a drum loop. Then if it began with guitar, I'll add bass. If bass, I'll add guitar. Maybe add a keyboard part. Somewhere along the line I'll have written out the chord progression. Then I'll loop the whole thing and play it back repeatedly while trying out vocal melody ideas, singing inspired things like "oooh, oooh, oooh," or "yadda, yadda, yaah!" In short, making a total fool of myself. So I do it late at night when I'm the only one awake. If I'm liking the melody, I'll keep going with it. If not, it joins a million never-to-be finished song fragments on my hard drive. If I keep going, I'll decide whether this part is a verse, chorus, bridge, etc., and try to create other parts that go with it by the same process.
Somewhere along the line, those "oooh, oooh, ooohs" will have become words and phrases, which will trigger associations in my mind leading to other words phrases. If not, I'll abandon it and come back later--maybe months later. Or maybe never. As I begin to work on lyrics seriously, I'll spend some time asking myself what this song is actually going to be about--who is speaking, to whom, about what? I'm really not sure how or why the lyrics come, when they come. Lyrics are by far the hardest part of the process.
One thing I have forced myself to stop doing is layering on more and more instrumental tracks, tracking and retracking, on a song that lacks vocal melody and lyrics. I used to waste a lot of time that way. I'll draw a line and tell myself: "I'm not doing another damn thing with this until I have a vocal." If I'm making progress on melody and lyrics, it's potentially a song. I'll keep working on it. Otherwise, it's an unproductive waste of my time. I'll move on to something else.
From start to finish, a new song tends to take me two or three weeks, but sometimes much longer. I'm usually working on three or four new songs at any given time. I'll rotate between them depending on what is exciting me at the moment. When I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel on one of them, it will get my undivided attention until it is finished.
I need to set aside a few hours every week to jam and record the results in order to keep the queue of potential song ideas full. That's my process.
Somewhere along the line, those "oooh, oooh, ooohs" will have become words and phrases, which will trigger associations in my mind leading to other words phrases. If not, I'll abandon it and come back later--maybe months later. Or maybe never. As I begin to work on lyrics seriously, I'll spend some time asking myself what this song is actually going to be about--who is speaking, to whom, about what? I'm really not sure how or why the lyrics come, when they come. Lyrics are by far the hardest part of the process.
One thing I have forced myself to stop doing is layering on more and more instrumental tracks, tracking and retracking, on a song that lacks vocal melody and lyrics. I used to waste a lot of time that way. I'll draw a line and tell myself: "I'm not doing another damn thing with this until I have a vocal." If I'm making progress on melody and lyrics, it's potentially a song. I'll keep working on it. Otherwise, it's an unproductive waste of my time. I'll move on to something else.
From start to finish, a new song tends to take me two or three weeks, but sometimes much longer. I'm usually working on three or four new songs at any given time. I'll rotate between them depending on what is exciting me at the moment. When I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel on one of them, it will get my undivided attention until it is finished.
I need to set aside a few hours every week to jam and record the results in order to keep the queue of potential song ideas full. That's my process.
joey2000
New member
Funny, I'm just the opposite. Maybe if we hooked up we'd have a ton of albums.
joey2000
New member
easlern
Boredom artist
It usually starts as a short melody with a few words for me, and if I can imagine the other parts of the song (chorus/bridge/verse) I try to play it on acoustic. Once the words and chord changes are down the rest is gravy in comparison. It's that melody and progression that are the hardest to nail down.
M
MANnequin X
New member
I write the lyrics only after I write the melody. Not just any word can go anywhere in any melody. I sing gibberish lyrics to my melody then later I write in words if they would sound cool. For the melody, I imagine one then play it on piano to my instrumental track. Or else I just go to my piano to play it then co e up with a melody completely there. If it sou D's cool, I will sing it with gibberish, then later add words after I listen to it for a while. Then I practice my melody a lot then record it several times until the pitches are mostly correct, Then I autotune it a bit then practice singing the autotuned melody then re-record. In verses, I try to avoid dining the tonic note, but I use the tonic note at the ends of melodies in my choruses. Listen to my song and then tell me what you learn.
BroKen_H
Re-member
^^^^ This. Once the initial lines are drawn, everything else just kind of falls in place. I get surprised sometimes by a hook or a bridge that I didn't expect to pop out of a song I write this way. Bonus.