learning to control your ideas...

[pablo]

I don't know if you suffer the same thing, I can't write all the time, I suddenlly get this urge to take a paper and pencil and start writting, but in this moment there are too much things and it's so hard for me to organize it in the song that I end up losing my inspiration and not writting the song...
do any of you have a solution for this?

 

[teknomike]

Yep, happens to me too.
I find if I can't organize it into something coherent, I just write down the ideas as they come. Little phrases, sentences, or even words that rhyme, just so I don't forget them.
I've got hundreds of these things sitting in a folder, and occassionally I go through them when I need inspiration, and often get complete ideas from those little snippets.
Works for me, anyway.
mike

 

[PaulB]

Pablo,

I think this is a typical problem. IF I get a line, I'll write it down but any more, I want to map out my song first. I equate that to entering "Best Buy"(big box electronics store for those not in the U.S.) looking for the car radio section. Normally, I know where I'm going in that store so I just start walking. But I didn't this time, so I just stood inside the front door, glancing at the signs overhead until I saw "car audio".

That's the way I like to write now, first getting the big idea first. Then, I like to map out the idea such as verse 1, girl finds out boyfriend is cheating on him and decides not to take it anymore, verse 2 she decides to put his testicles in a vice(ouch!!!!!!) while he's asleep, in the bridge she also decides to brand the word "cheater" on his butt.

Okay, stupid examples but that's the way I like to do it. I find I generally(at least hopefully) know what I want to say in the chorus so its the verses and bridge where I need to map the song out.

Also, before writing, I like to brainstorm, my favorite technique is either writing down any idea that comes to mind or "clustering" which is a form of brainstorming. I equate it to gassing up the car before I start driving on a long trip. I can always do more research later. Hope this helps.

PaulB

 

[theron]

In moments of frantic inspiration, capture all you can. I've gone as far a letting it interupt work or an intimate conversation. Inspiration and ideas are precious fleeting nuggets of intangibility. Cage them however you can. Or at least get a "photograf"
I write any words that come to mind, repeat melodies till they're burnt into my thick and convoluted grey matter, and parenthisis all arrangment and effectual ideas next to the words they apply to.

Theron.

 

[GUNS]

yepp///

I have the problem all the time. It seems I try to think of what i want the song to sound like in my head, and then when I want to write the lyrics I see myself being held back to the structure of the progression...or the other way areound. I think it's best to write first...so ultimately one can express one's thoughts first and then build the music around it first...But by this time, it seems I get frustrated, and then I lose all motivation. I don't know the cure for it...I would sure like to know...Can anyone else help with this????

GUNS

 

[Buffalo Bob]

"I don't know the cure for it...I would sure like to know..."

The cure for "it" is simple. Discipline.
Remember when you were back in school? Teacher says "I want a composition on this topic, five pages, double-spaced, by tomorrow". Somehow you managed to dredge five pages out of the boring subject. How? You had already learned over the years that you could knock out a composition under a deadline.
Songwriting is no different. Inspiration is for prophets and teenaged girls. The more one writes the easier it becomes, and you must write every day. Getting "stuck" on the verse? Work on the chorus. Stuck on the chorus? Re-write the bridge. The main thing to learn is that writing is a discipline, and takes a long time to master. Hope this helps.

Bob

 

[Tucci]

the work

Inspiration exists but the more you work the easier it is to be inspired. That's what I think. The more you write, the more tools you have at your command and the more chances you've got to hit on something good.

The work in songwriting for me consists of patience. Methodically trying out different ideas until I find a good one. Once I've found a good starting idea the rest is relatively easy.

In the past I would sit down and say, "I going to write a great, moving song." That never worked. Now I sit down and say, "I'm going to fiddle until I get an idea I like."

Tucci

 

[beaverbiscuit]

Buffalo Bob's on the money with "discipline," IMHO. One way to develop that discipline is to write, and write, and write. It's a good habit to write every day (if possible), even if not every day's writing is phenomenal. It's a habit that pays off in the long run.

In addition, taking those frenetic moments and running with them is something worth doing, too. Like teknomike said, jot down those random pieces. For example, I had a title idea that I wanted to use, but I didn't necessarily have a direction yet. I started by thinking about the phrase and what it means in day-to-day terms (literal definition), and I began examining how else the phrase could be interpreted. I also came up with as many uses of the phrase (or the key word) as I could. I may eliminate most of them when I begin actual work on the song, but several of the things I came up with I wouldn't have gotten had I not gone through this process.

So have fun with the process; see where it leads you, and be persistent in the gruntwork part of writing. Good luck, dude!