General Music Chat

For the people that actually write their own music:


If you write music in one particular way, you want to stay with your tried and true method. (especially if it's duration short and productive to your tastes)
Do you not? Don't you use the same method every time>?

I.e. I usually write 4-8 bars at a time/ looking for 16 bar. I use a layering technique, 1 layer at a time, etc. until it's done. I try to record it as fast as humanly possible, so as to keep the same feel or continuity during the entire tune.

It f**ks up my creative processes to split any of it over even 2 recording sessions, likewise if I don't use the 4-8 bars at a time method.

I like a live sound and want as little editing as possible. Who really needs all those layers and what will you do when you are asked to play this live?

Is it wrong of me not to want to utilize a method where essentially one is asked to "play the unique music say 4x" and then a "heavy editing" process is utilized?

I feel like writing music is like anything else you do, if you aren't going to do it to the best of your ability, why bother at all?

And heavy editing is a joke..

You have to stay true to your sound, your music and you.
At least this is what I understand thus far..else you don't get it.

I would agree with you that heavy editing is a joke, if by heavy editing you mean tweaking the studio nobs and such forever.
Heavy revision of the ideas and parts isn't necessarily a bad thing IMO.

You have to go with what works for you Scott, and whomever you work with needs to understand your methods and mojo, and work with your strengths.

At the same time... try a new approach once in awhile and see what kind of results you get.

The Farleys use pretty much the same process every time when it comes to writing and recording new music:

1) write the lyrics. Usually Rasta writes the bulk of the words, gives them to me and I refine/edit/add to them, making a chorus or bridge if he didn't write one

2) the meter of the finished lyrics will usually suggest a beat and sometimes a melody, which I use to compose the music

3) I present the song to the band and we learn the basic parts

4) after we've played it a few times we will brainstorm intro/outro/leads

5) in the studio we record the drums, bass, rhythm guitar track and placeholder vocal tracks. If there are any obvious minor flaws we will fix them. Major flaws will trigger a rerecord.

6) after a week of listening, additional guitar tracks are added - doubled rhythms, leads, etc. If Rasta is ready to lay down the official vocals we'll do that as well.

7) after another week of listening we mix, adding any effects and processing required

To me, recording in the studio is an exercise in getting the best version of a piece of music that you can envision. When you play the song live you must present the essential parts of the music, especially when there is only one guitarist in the band.

If you want a "live" or "rough" sounding recording, don't bother with the studio, just record it live.

I dont use a computer , I usually put the parts down as quickly & hopefully acurately as possible .usually record 3 piece gtr, bass & drums . after I get the basic tracs down I may do some layering of rythymn tracks for thickening . I try & play any solos through w.o. ods . But really most of my recording is more like documenation or experimentation & is limited to the time between work & family life ,so I rarely revisited anything. I wish I had more time & talent but it is what it is I usually dont write using the recorder, just acoustic guitar

I have a friend that has a recording studio that is almost all computers , he asked me to come over & play gtr on a project. I played through the song a few times fumbling around & when I thought I was ready he said were done ??? not real gratifying

Wow, interesting to read that the Farley's write lyrics first... I figured most bands wrote music first and lyrics came last.

That's how I've done it.

Everyone's process is going to be different. It think you have to do whatever works best for you.

I flat out refuse to play something a slew of times and have it "heavy edited" into a song.

That's too much "writing the check with your mouth, that your ass can't cash". Anything you record you had better damn well be able to play live.


The "Heavy Editing" feels like loss of creative control(s), imo.

It's not a style of recording I can express myself concisely, only generally thus not an option.

I equate it to using a "black magic marker" instead of a "ball point pen".



I want to write "something expressive", not color a "picture by the numbers".

Scotty agreed , I'm sure I could rehearse & play all the parts but It just feels wrong. the tune is something I'll probably never hear again anyway.I'd much rather play what I play and own up to it. I think I get it

Mr. Scott I don't guess I get it,
it seems yours is more of a recording
question than one of songwriting. I usually
write songs with a guitar occasionally with
th piano. I didn't respond to your notebook
thread, but I've got notebooks everywhere.
I start playing the song on the guitar and
writing the words in a notebook. then for a
week or two I'll practice the song and rewrite
it musically and lyrically till its what I want, I
never know how it's going to turn out. It's rare
for me to write a song an a hour and never make
any changes to it.
Seems like it would be hard to go in and write a
song and perform it in one session. I've never
recorded a CD of original material, so that's what
were going to try to do this winter. We've been auditioning
a lot of players later, trying to put together a large
band, and we always audition players with cover
songs, never originals. It seems you get a better
feel of what type of player they are by the way
they interpret known songs.

I guess you got to write them and playem the way
they come to you. But I rewrite, rewrite rewrite.

I've been using the same method for years and it never fails. Everything I write starts with a guitar riff, then I piece together ideas from my stack of notebooks.

I would be lost without my cassette recorder though. Yes, I still use cassettes.

I guess Im the oddball cause I get inspiration from all sorts of angles, Ive sung guitar riffs and melodys into my phones little recorder, Ive written the complete lyrics and set it to music, Ive just gotten a rythym going or riff and use it as a starting point.

Im kind of a dry well lately cause I just havent had the time to do any writting, so for me it comes and goes, but when things slow down Im sure I will get back into it.

I agree with Jimmy about the recording process, I dont care if I can reproduce something live or not, in the studio I will layer a lot of guitar and vocal tracks together to emphasize parts of songs. In fact my originals for me, I have no intention of every performing them, they are just my little statements about where my head was at at a certain time in my life.

So no Capt, I dont stick to a formula. And i also have no problem with spicing up recordings, I used to think about that live approach, but over time I dont want to listen to somehting i did at somepoint and think why didnt I add a little delay or wah splash in the part to make it more interesting.

Live is a whole other animal for me, anything goes!

I got it. I prefer to do my recording at Soundworks in Blue Springs, Missouri and let ace recording engineer/owner Andy Oxman do his magic. I'm a dumbass when it comes to recording and leave it up to somebody who has it mastered (no pun intended).

Mr. Scott I don't guess I get it,
it seems yours is more of a recording
question than one of songwriting. I usually
write songs with a guitar occasionally with
th piano. I didn't respond to your notebook
thread, but I've got notebooks everywhere.
I start playing the song on the guitar and
writing the words in a notebook. then for a
week or two I'll practice the song and rewrite
it musically and lyrically till its what I want, I
never know how it's going to turn out. It's rare
for me to write a song an a hour and never make
any changes to it.
Seems like it would be hard to go in and write a
song and perform it in one session. I've never
recorded a CD of original material, so that's what
were going to try to do this winter. We've been auditioning
a lot of players later, trying to put together a large
band, and we always audition players with cover
songs, never originals. It seems you get a better
feel of what type of player they are by the way
they interpret known songs.

I guess you got to write them and playem the way
they come to you. But I rewrite, rewrite rewrite.

Everyone has their own method, I say do what you do to produce what you want...but do produce what YOU want, not someone else.

I just scribble out the psychotic sh*t that floats into my head bone.

I let Ray decipher it.

For the people that actually write their own music:


If you write music in one particular way, you want to stay with your tried and true method. (especially if it's duration short and productive to your tastes)
Do you not? Don't you use the same method every time>?

I.e. I usually write 4-8 bars at a time/ looking for 16 bar. I use a layering technique, 1 layer at a time, etc. until it's done. I try to record it as fast as humanly possible, so as to keep the same feel or continuity during the entire tune.

It f**ks up my creative processes to split any of it over even 2 recording sessions, likewise if I don't use the 4-8 bars at a time method.

I like a live sound and want as little editing as possible. Who really needs all those layers and what will you do when you are asked to play this live?

Is it wrong of me not to want to utilize a method where essentially one is asked to "play the unique music say 4x" and then a "heavy editing" process is utilized?

I feel like writing music is like anything else you do, if you aren't going to do it to the best of your ability, why bother at all?

And heavy editing is a joke..

You have to stay true to your sound, your music and you.
At least this is what I understand thus far..else you don't get it.

I Subscribe to the Guerrilla method of song writing. I'll do it any way that makes sense at the time. To me , some songs are an expression that arise, much like one might experience with a surprise fart... They seem top slip out...Fortunately I am still young enough to trust that is what they are...

As for editing, I have a rule called Anti-thermal Runaway... and it really has more to do with layering musical support over the song. What starts out like a soft paced ballad can very easily turn into a running man... if one iis not careful with arrangement of supporting tempos and rythyms.

In a nut shell, For me, as a musical artist (Albeit, unknown) , a song is a crap shoot that comes to me like a hand being dealt to me... Its up to me then, to mold that bitch into something edible for the listener.