"Songwriting"

[queensofthestoneage]

Well, so far it mostly comes from an instant. I'm sitting or laying down with my guitar and play a tune and think "hey that sounds cool" and then It seems to complete itself. But I haven't really "written" more than a few complete songs. But song "starts" or ideas for songs is more around 100, so far only one I have full lyrics for. But I have a few full ideas for albums, and I know what I want them to sound like, but I just don't know how to play it/can't play the instruments required or it requires way more than one man. And names, its so hard to come up with a name! Albums seem to have a name right away, mostly because I seem to already know what the album cover looks like and That helps also writing the music. You know, the music sounds the way the picture looks like to me. And I have no idea what kind of lyrics/singing I could have on them. Ideas for albums so far: -The Eye of the beholder: very 13th floor elevators like stuff, guitar, bass, vocals, drums. -untitled#1: very dreamy like, a little like The Mothers of Invention's The Grand Wazoo but the jammy bits have a different theme. Like a big big jam with similar singing melodies. -selftitled: a little darker kinda, "different" drumming (not really "rational", hard to explain" very loud drum, instrumental tracks and very silent "creepy" songs with vocals, no midground. (i think im gonna use the picture in my avatar for this one) -untitled#3: instrumental, classical album, im sorry but i do not know what type of classical music it is because i am ignorant in this area. I have covers for each one except the last one. I'm sure I forgot some. Just how do you write your music and things like that, any frustration (is it fair to say everybody who writes music gets a little frustrated sometimes) And what kind of music do you write. Your Ideas. Anything. Even if you think no one cares because they listen to different kinda music or whatever. It's known to help if you get the frustration out of your system.

[Vampyre]

I've had that exact thing happen to me several times. The trick is remembering it. And get into synthesizing. With a good music composer on your computer, you can do a lot more than what you can with your guitar. And that way you can a HUGE range of possible genres of music. Generally when I'm writing, I only am because I thought of a tune. I never force out a tune, cuz no matter what, forcing the creation of a song will make it suck. But anyway, I normally have a tune pop into my head, and then I just think on it, picturing it as an actual songs and all the different instruments and what they're playing. Then I try to recreate it and it can turn out really good. As for lyrics, I've only written lyrics once and they were easily written cuz it was just about a bunch of people you'd like to tell off, and then the chorus "Go eat a bag of dinks." If you wanna hear the music I've got go to http://www.geocities.com/vampyre_tunes It's got pretty much all of my songs on it and a big variety of them.

[Salmone]

The thing i'm beginning to realise is that some songs can take minutes to write, and others u can start writing and finish 6 months later.. Everyone has their own approach to writing songs.. a method that works well for one person may not for another. With my songs, i tend to start with the guitar first. I find that strumming through interesting chords / progressions really helps to influence the lyrics and vocal melody Once i got the main song structure and vocals down, i record it and then listen to it over and over... from listening to it i start to hear harmonies / melodies that would work well in certain places etc and i start adding from there.. I definitly agree with Vampyre about forcing a song though. If ur forcing, its not coming from where it should be.

[OpheliaBlue]

I tend to start with a few words or phrase, that means something to me, and then I hear music behind it. Then I go to the piano and work out the melody and some chords. And that ends up being the first verse, or the chorus. Then I just build the song around that. But sometimes I take lyrics from other people, where again, I hear a melody and just work it out on the piano. Rarely do I ever start with music and fill it with lyrics second. As far as those "100 song "starts" or ideas for songs" goes, I know what you mean. Something I like to do with a song that's not germinating yet, or one that's kinda stale, is I get another musician to do an arrangement of it for me. My friend Nikki plays guitar, and I give her all my songs/ideas. When I hear her play and sing them on guitar, I'll get more ideas on how to complete them or make them better. Collaberating with other musicians is invaluable to me, don't know how y'all feel about it. Originally posted by Salmone The thing i'm beginning to realise is that some songs can take minutes to write, and others u can start writing and finish 6 months later.. Amen brother. I love those quick strokes of genius the best.