How much writing do you do in your head?

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RAMI

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Just wondering about this. I recently realized that I do probably 80-90% of my writing in my head, without an instrument in my hands. It didn't really occur to me until I realized that I come up with more parts, songs,riffs, beats, chord progressions, melodies, etc....when I'm in my car, in the shower, or working out. I'll usually pick up a guitar to work out the parts I thought of, and then do more "head-writing" as a song progresses.

I often have completely arranged, finished songs in my head, I can even hear what kind of delay I'll have on the vocals (for example), and how big or small the whole thing will sound.

Obviously, some songs write and record themselves easier than others. But, in general, I find myself being more creative away from my instruments.

I often have trouble carrying on a conversation with someone because I have this riff running around in my head and I can't focus on anything else. :eek:
 
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Holy Chirst! There are 52 "guests" in this thread. Must be a bot convention or something. :eek:
 
I write loads in my head. I have the luxury of hearing chord progressions, melodies, words and being able to write a song in my head without touching an instrument. I struggle with drums, not being a drummer, but I have a basic beat I require. Drum fills etc are beyond me and I fumble my way through them when recording.

I'm not great guitarist either, solo wise, but I have a very good friend who is and can get my ideas into tone really well. Which is a great help. Rhythm I have no problem with. Bass is very natural to me.

I usually write songs while taking a walk, doing housework, D.I.Y, sitting on the loo. I keep a notebook with me all the time. Have done for the last 15 years. I have piles of them full of ideas, songs, random phrases, full lyrics. I also have a very good memory and I never forgot a song or melody.

Sometimes I'll have an idea that'll fester away for years and just be a tune I hum before it becomes a song. One of my last posts in the mp3 forum, Walking In The Rain was a guitar tune I had 10 odd years ago. I wrote the lyrics last year sometime and recorded it at the beginning of the year. Some songs come easier than others and write themselves, others wonder around my brain until the magic falls down on it.

I also don't have a style. I never have had a style. Most people write songs all in the same vein. Mine are random, mishmash songs. The difference between a songwriter and an artist I suppose. I'm no artist. I do perform solo and exhibit my stuff but the next song is a complete different style from the last. I've tried to find my niche, but I've always struggled to fit in with other artists around my way.

Apologies. Essay over :thumbs up:
 
RAMI said:
Just wondering about this. I recently realized that I do probably 80-90% of my writing in my head, without an instrument in my hands. It didn't really occur to me until I realized that I come up with more parts, songs,riffs, beats, chord progressions, melodies, etc....when I'm in my car, in the shower, or working out. I'll usually pick up a guitar to work out the parts I thought of, and then do more "head-writing" as a song progresses.

I often have completely arranged, finished songs in my head, I can even hear what kind of delay I'll have on the vocals (for example), and how big or small the whole thing will sound.

Obviously, some songs write and record themselves easier than others. But, in general, I find myself being more creative away from my instruments.

I often have trouble carrying on a conversation with someone because I have this riff running around in my head and I can't focus on anything else. :eek:
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Same here 100%
 
For me I get a chord progression by fiddling with guitar or bass.
That's where my songs come from.
I write lyrics based on an air head idea almost as a "stream of consciousness" thing but I do WRITE them into the computer on onto paper as they come becasue I have a very poor shotr term memory, (I'm almost at the notepad in the top pocket stage).
Arrangements are in my head.
Melody - well, for me it just doesn't happen, so I don't do it.
I'd expect RAMI & Greg to do it al fresco becasue they are multi instrumentalist singer songwriters.
I envy you fellow - not just your ability to write in your scone but your abilities.
 
I do a lot of fishing, and when you do a lot of fishing you have a lot of time just sitting. I've written entire songs just sitting there on the beach waiting for a fish to bite. By the time I get home, it's like doing a cover song. I already know everything about it.
 
I’ve had days where I get moments of clarity and can imagine a complete song in my head.

The fun part is over. Once the creative process has run its course the rest is just grunt work.
 
About 20% of my writing starts in my head - mostly lyrics and melodies. I may hear a basic arrangement - but I have to get an instrument in my hands to start to figure out the specific chords.

If a song does start in my head, there is a good chance it will either happen when I've driving or in the shower. On two occasions I've had to pull off the expressway to write songs (the entire song, verse, chorus etc. came to me very quickly - clearly I drove through a muse area). And I've been late to work a few times when I had to jump out of the shower and quickly start to write lyrics that came to me.

I now always carry a little didgital voice recorder with me (not into the shower but within 10' of the shower).

I know a couple of people who can hear whole songs in their head - I do not have that gift!

About 80% of my re-writes start in my had - I'll be thinking about the song and suddenly think of a better lyrical phrase or a better arrangement idea.

By far, most of my writing starts from doodling with a guitar or at the piano - playing vearious chord progressions/riffs until a theme develops.
 
The murderess Patricia Krenwinkle was questioned in court and the prosecutor poured much doubt on the story she was giving of how the murders she was involved in went down and she said "well, it was just a thought ~ and the thought came to be......".
That really describes so many of the songs I've written.
My songwriting has definitely come in two very identifiable types ~ those that came on an instrument and those that came in my head. When I first started learning bass, that ran parallel with my first attempts at writing. So for the first 25+ years, I wrote as I practiced. Instead of doing scales I wrote songs. Same with guitar. I did practice chords but that kind of thing has always been boring to me. So I'd write songs. Much better way for me to learn about chords and bass notes. Either that or songs came during jams with my mate on drums. Right from day 1 I used to tape them so I'd listen back and always find parts that I'd turn into songs. I still have the tapes. When Paul McCartney stated that you couldn't write songs on a bass guitar, I really couldn't disagree more. I've written tons of songs on bass. The only songs I wrote for the first 8 years were on bass. I still do it once in a while.
When I actually started recording, songs existed as complete entities but only on guitar or bass and drums or percussion. They'd be filled as time went by. I'd listen to the tapes as I drove and various melodies and instrument lines and harmonies would come. I'd hum them into a dictaphone.
I always used to think that I was shitty at melodies or writing from scratch without an instrument but in the last 7 years, bit by bit my songwriting has changed. Now the majority of it is written in my head. I try not to because I just have so many and I'm struggling to record them but I can't 'not'. And it strikes me everywhere, in the van, in the bath or shower, having a crap, picking up the kids from school, watching telly, in the clinches with my wife.......
I still have a dictaphone to hand, but unlike the old days, I don't listen to the basics I've already recorded for clues. The last 120 or so have come purely from the memory of what's been recorded which represents a substantial change in how I write. Yet the songs are no less melodic. I've lost count of the number of times I've been humming a melody or instrument line while someone is talking to me and I'm trying to remember the line and what the person is saying !
 
The other thing is that very rarely will I discard an idea. So very few subjects are off limits for me. Sometimes, I'll think 'this is so rubbish' but I know if I chuck it I'll regret it. And by the time it's actually recorded it sounds better than it ever did in my head. I remember George Martin commenting on John Lennon and how reality was always a disappointment to him and how the songs he heard in his head were so much better than how they turned out in real life. While that has happened to me once or twice, in general I'm the very opposite. In my head, the songs are like uncooked lamb but once they're down as a tangible piece, they're like a tasty good meal. They rarely sound better in my head, which is why, I guess, I have to work the idea into something bigger and better than a 'mere' thought.
 
I haven't written anything in a while but my recording studio ( I'm using the term loosely) is almost done and I'm going to start writing again.....or actually laying down what I have already written in my head. Every song I have written has been created in my head. At least the basic riff and chorus lyric and groove. If I pick up a guitar and try to write something .... Forget it man. I'll strum chords, noodle, and maybe play "things going' on" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
It's like writing a song and playing the guitar are on opposite sides of my brain or something.
 
When I first started writing, I always did it by sitting down with an instrument and a notebook and intentionally writing.
Now, I usually only do that for fleshing out the song. Generally, the first verse and chorus I'll write in my head while wandering around. (Then I'll rush to a recorder or notebook to get that down and come back later to finish it.)
 
No one knows what you hear in your head, nor which note is terrorizing you until it gets solved.
I can stare at my conversation partner, but at the same time I will be shifting notes up and down.
I can't help it. No need for a help. I like it and I'm thankful.
 
I'd say better than 90% of what I write is in my head. I'll usually compose at a keyboard, but I find I come up with most of the music when I'm taking a break and smoking a cigarette. It's a waste of cigarettes, because I have to stub the cigarette out and immediately run back to the keyboard and get it down before I forget it. :) I also hear complete orchestration in my head. Sometimes, when my writing partner's lyrics are spot-on, I'll have the complete song written in my head as soon as I've read her lyrics and long before I'm within miles of a keyboard.
 
grimtraveller said:
I remember George Martin commenting on John Lennon and how reality was always a disappointment to him and how the songs he heard in his head were so much better than how they turned out in real life.
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I seem to remember reading somewhere that John Lennon said he was only every satisfied with two songs he'd written. I'm pretty sure that one was Help, but I can't recall the other. That's some pretty high standard that he holds himself to...

Interesting thread, I'm always interested in the process of how people actually write songs and it's a subject that doesn't get touched on that often. The music press are more interested in tour bus stories and guitar/bass magazines etc. are more interested in gear arrangements.

About 25% of my songs are written in my head before I've touched an instrument. I'll have either a melody or a few lines of lyrics that will come to me when I'm at work or out running or something and then I'll play it all round in my head everywhere for the next few weeks trying to work out where to take it. Then once it's done, I'll have a pretty good mental image of it and try to flesh it out into a proper song.

The other 75% come out of a guitar/keyboard/bass figure that I'll record, loop and then try to figure out where to take next or what to layer on top of. I've generally got no idea of the song in my head at this point. Once the arrangement works to some degree, I'll try and work out a melody and sing gibberish words to it. Then I'll write down the gibberish to get the structure and carry it around in my head/notebook for a while to re-write it into something I want to say.

I find that the two methods generally produce pretty different outcomes - the former is quicker and the results tend to be more conventional songs, whereas the latter can take much longer and the tunes tend to be a little more amorphous.
 
robgreen said:
I'll have either a melody or a few lines of lyrics that will come to me when I'm at work or out running or something and then I'll play it all round in my head everywhere for the next few weeks trying to work out where to take it.
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I'm curious if this is true for other people: every so often, my writing partner will give me a couple of lines of lyrics that are such a powerful hook, with such a strong internal rhythm, that I can produce the music, practically complete, immediately upon reading them. It doesn't happen often (my writing partner is good, but not THAT good :)), but it does happen. We both love when it does, as the rest of the lyrics just flow and we can complete the song in almost no time at all.
 
Not me!!! I'll get a notion of how I want a song to go, but I have to sit down in front of the computer with guitar in hand and pound through it until I get what I think I wanted. It might morph through many iterations. Some songs are better defined than others before I sit down to write, but to have a whole complete song thought out?? Nope, can't do it.
 
robgreen said:
I seem to remember reading somewhere that John Lennon said he was only every satisfied with two songs he'd written. I'm pretty sure that one was Help, but I can't recall the other. That's some pretty high standard that he holds himself to...
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The other was "Strawberry field forever". But I tend to take Lennonesque pronouncements with a pinch of salt because his acid befuddled mind combined with his desperation to be an iconoclast produced more contradictions than I can recall from anyone in history, at any point and I don't say that lightly.
That said, his descriptions of the genesis of some of his songs in the Playboy interviews with David Sheff are a goldmine.
 
The initial spark usually comes when I'm working or walking in the woods or something. How comprehensive that spark is varies from song to song. Sometimes with an incomplete idea, I'll just start recording it. Then I listen 100 times or so in the car and the next steps just become obvious.

When I was a kid, my folks bought me children's records here and there. I was always a little bummed cuz I wanted "grown-up records" like theirs. But my workaround was to drop the needle on the record, turn the volume down, and watch the tonearm skate from track to track while I imagined my own songs filling in those spaces. I still do some variation of that. I'm always thinking "What would the most awesome album ever made sound like?" and trying to imagine it.
 
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