Frustration about writing

[newbiewriter]

Hey guys
Its been a while since I last posted anything here but now I'm back
Anyway, I have been very frustrated lately. I desperately feel the need to write songs and get depressed when I haven't done it for a while, however, when I try to compose I get other peoples songs stuck in my head. I might try to humn or sing some lyrics I have written but then my mind imediately starts to fit my lyris to a song I just heard on my vinyl. This is really freaking me out so I just wanted to hear if any of you have experienced anything like this.

It makes me rather depressed and it makes me doubt my talent as a composer-songwriter.

Any feedback would be great

thanks

 

[gregsk777]

Maybe do a cover first and that will get the creative juices flowing for your own stuff?

 

[themdla]

.02

Hey guys
Its been a while since I last posted anything here but now I'm back
Anyway, I have been very frustrated lately. I desperately feel the need to write songs and get depressed when I haven't done it for a while, however, when I try to compose I get other peoples songs stuck in my head. I might try to humn or sing some lyrics I have written but then my mind imediately starts to fit my lyris to a song I just heard on my vinyl. This is really freaking me out so I just wanted to hear if any of you have experienced anything like this.

It makes me rather depressed and it makes me doubt my talent as a composer-songwriter.

Any feedback would be great

thanks

yeah i hear other people's music all the time man lol.

it sucks especially when you get a shitty, catchy, pop song stuck in there that you don't like...

whenever i peer into my head for music it's typically someone else's...

normally i try to escape this by getting one of my own songs stuck in my head haha , sometimes it's really difficult.

as a new songwriter but long time musician i often get too caught up in the instrument i'm playing and over-do/over-think my individual parts at the behest of the entire track.

one of the guys i've been working with lately, a prolific songwriter and amazing multi-instrumentalist, has taught me this..

1) focus on hearing the "complete" song in your head, put down your instruments and just try to hear what all the parts sound like, how they interact, what emotions they convey, what tones they have, etc... the more complete your idea is in your head leads to better recordings, mixes, performances, and better songs.... (this is the big picture approach)

2) nail down the main chord progression and lyric/melody first. too many times i have recorded a cool GTR part, added drums, bass, second gtrs, synths, etc... only to find that while a cool instumental there wasn't much room for a vocal to shine or that i could only write a verse but couldn't figure out where to take after... the vox and lyrics/melody are the most important parts of 90% of western music... that being said it's makes sense that everything else should support or embelish that feature, or whatever the "feature" is of your song.

3) be genuine. i can try to write hip hop songs till i am blue in the face but will never get the same results as a guy who has grown up listening to and loving hip hop. i'm just not that familar with that type of stuff because typically i don't like it. when i have tried to write something for a specific purpose.. "hit single" or whatever it usually comes out sounding forced or fake. be true to yourself and only write that which you truly love...people will respect you for it and be more responsive to your music because of it.

2 pennys...ymmv

 

[Xdrummer]

I think it is common that a writer may drift into a progession, melody, etc that sounds like something we've heard ........ let's face it, there are only so many notes, chords, ryhthms and words ...... and they've all been used many, many times.

Unless you are real sure your material will be published, placed, recorded and marketed ......... it really doesn't matter if it sounds somewhat like another song.

Candidly, that is where the benefit of doing re-writes comes in. Once you've writen the general progression/melody ....... you can then start one or more re-writes to change and improve the song ........ during that process ....... it will become your song.

 

[Greg_L]

Unless you are real sure your material will be published, placed, recorded and marketed ......... it really doesn't matter if it sounds somewhat like another song.
.

This is key advice. It's very unlikely you'll go anywhere with music, so just do whatever.

 

[Armistice]

You could try not listening to other music for a while... go on a diet, so to speak...

There are also useful CBT techniques to tell your hyperactive brain to STF up and go and stand in the corner while I write this song... may be of use in breaking the cycle - they're certainly of use in not getting depressed about it..

As for this "there are only 12 notes" conversation - true, but there are infinite ways of arranging them in pleasing patterns, trouble is lots of people never get beyond fairly basic arrangements - and that's why their music sounds like everyone else's.

Try something different. If you're a guitarist, retune to a different tuning an muck around there for a while.

Or write a song about being depressed about not being able to write songs. Set yourself a songwriting task, no matter how trite it seems, and execute it. This helps you move on as well..

Good luck.

 

[up-fiddler]

You could try not listening to other music for a while... go on a diet, so to speak...

There are also useful CBT techniques to tell your hyperactive brain to STF up and go and stand in the corner while I write this song... may be of use in breaking the cycle - they're certainly of use in not getting depressed about it..

As for this "there are only 12 notes" conversation - true, but there are infinite ways of arranging them in pleasing patterns, trouble is lots of people never get beyond fairly basic arrangements - and that's why their music sounds like everyone else's.

Try something different. If you're a guitarist, retune to a different tuning an muck around there for a while.

Or write a song about being depressed about not being able to write songs. Set yourself a songwriting task, no matter how trite it seems, and execute it. This helps you move on as well..

Good luck.

This is good advice. Most importantly, keep writing. Even if you turn out trite and drivel for a while it will "keep you in the game" until you find your writing voice again. Best of luck and put down whatever comes to mind. The best written songs are usually rewritten songs. The good news is that fact allows you the freedom to write stuff that you aren't pleased with and fix it later. Even months later. Keep a file and go back a look at your collection of ideas in there. You never know what will spur you on to something new in the future. Best wishes and don't give up. Dave

 

[grimtraveller]

Subconscious plagiarism ?

You could try not listening to other music for a while... go on a diet, so to speak...

The weirdest thing happened to me today which is why I don't think this makes a difference.
A couple of months back, I wrote this fragment of a song. Then while I was out with my kids, came up with this wicked riff. In fact, as I was humming the riff over and over, they came up with an alternative that fits with that riff and is now part of the song, which I put together with that earlier fragment to make one song. I've been tracking it bit by bit, with bass, guitars, organ, double bass, sax, drums and I even worked out a melody to go with that riff in the heavy part where the bass and guitars punch out the riff.
Anyway, today as I was driving about, I was listening to the Osmonds' "Crazy Horses" album and there's a song on it called "Hold her tight". Always loved that song, right from the 70s but I haven't listened to it in ages, years really. I certainly haven't thought about it in a decade. And there's a part after the second chorus where this great riff plays three times. And that 'wunderriff' that I'd come up with is soooo close to their riff {ironically, they consciously nicked the opening riff of their song from Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant song" but that's a whole other story} that it sounds like I designed mine on it. And I didn't, not in the slightest particular. It's not a copy of the riff, but they could be first cousins. That have never met !
Like Xdrummer points out, there are only 12 notes. While I agree that there really are endless combinations, and while I also agree that many writers don't stray beyond a basic few and may get samish after 10 years, I also think that hearing other peoples' songs in your head is inevitable. It is part of being human. You can no more dislodge the thousands of songs wobbling about in your subconscious than you can dislodge the things you were taught as a child. You may hate them, you may disagree with them, you might no longer accept and therefore live by them ~ but they're there in your subconscious. And the thoughts of them can crop up at the most inopportune moments. When you least expect them.
So newbiewriter, like the rest of us, you're doomed !

Mind you, it seems that you are aware of the fact that you hear other peoples' songs and which songs. So when you hear it in your writing, stop and move on to a bit you don't recognize. Or cleverly disguise it.
I'm still trying to work out how the Sex Pistols' classic contribution to Western civilisation, "Pretty Vacant" is the rip of Abba's "Dancing Queen" that Glen Matlock says it is.

 

[Armistice]

I'm still trying to work out how the Sex Pistols' classic contribution to Western civilisation, "Pretty Vacant" is the rip of Abba's "Dancing Queen" that Glen Matlock says it is.

Well, they both contain chords... he was a Sex Pistol... that may be as far as his understanding went...

 

[grimtraveller]

Well, they both contain chords... he was a Sex Pistol... that may be as far as his understanding went...

Yeah, but he was the musical one, which was partly why he was kicked out.....

 

[Racherik]

This is what I do, I program my Motif ES6 to make a riff/hook loop and then I loop it while I type out the lyrics on a Laptop. Then I write testing for rhyme, flow and meter.

For example I looped a progression that if I remember right went F -> G -> Am -> B that looped for 8 bars.

Snippet of Words cam out as follows:

1st Verse:

I met an old man who could really play, he said "Come her boy. Don't go astray."
He gave me a Fender and a beat up Amp. (break) Go home and Master that!



Another trick I have is be on the lookout for what I call catchy "power" phrases and have a note book handy. This gives you the words first then move on to invent/discover the melody 2nd.

Racherik