Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

A guy says he gets his best writing ideas? If you can see
what yoour best writing ideas are why don't you hone that,
or shall we say mine that vein? I can't tell what my best writing
ideas are, I like some better than others, I feel like some are
two or even three seperate ideas I've thrown together.
I don't understand writing ideas, but I write daily, and can't
stop.

Am I asking for trouble if I state clearly that I don't understand what you are trying to get at?

Chief Engineer Scott wrote:Am I asking for trouble if I state clearly that I don't understand what you are trying to get at?

. X2

Lynard writing is just a process and everyone has different thoughts on how to do it.

I tend to mess around on guitar and come up with riffs, sadly I dont have a routine where I do this regularly.

I think if you are serious about song writing, its like playing an instrument, if you want to get good at it, you just have to practice, make it a routine, that doesnt mean that everything you come up is good, but just getting in the mind set to capture ideas and retain them. I come up with insteresting things for myself all the time, but I dont record them or play thru them enough to imprint them in my brain, so I lose most of what I come up with.

Lynard Dylan wrote:A guy says he gets his best writing ideas? If you can see
what yoour best writing ideas are why don't you hone that,
or shall we say mine that vein? I can't tell what my best writing
ideas are, I like some better than others, I feel like some are
two or even three seperate ideas I've thrown together.
I don't understand writing ideas, but I write daily, and can't
stop.

Lynard, I believe when you get an idea after working with it a bit and developing or as they say (fleshing out the song) is a good time to record it. If you have a multitrack recorder you would be surprised at the parts that more or less develop themselves thru the multi-tracking process. EVERY song I have recorded started from an idea and after a while the song kind of takes on a life of its own. That is when I believe the music flows thru me and is a way to "mine that vein"!

Good Point Haley, I think you should capture the essence of a song before you have played it so many times that you have lost the initial freshness of the song.

Hope what I said has answered what you were asking.

Hows the gig going with the guy that had all the video hits?

Jeff's right - recording the ideas really gets the process moving. If you don't have multi-tracking capability (recorder or computer), just get one of those $49 Tascams with the built-in mic.
My songs start with lyrics, once I've got a few verses and a chorus or bridge, I start noodling on guitar or piano, and with any luck the song fleshes out pretty quickly. If it doesn't, the lyrics go into a folder for futre retrieval. If I had a few good ideas for chord patterns, I'll just mark them on the paper (C - Am - Eb7 ...)

agree with what jeff said. I've written basic ideas, recorded them, then added tracks, more often than not re-writing and recording the original track that spawned it all.. the songs basically evolve through the recording process and can end up being exactly like the idea or something entirely different. It's really a cool process