General Music Chat

10 songs a week, huh? About how many chords/song?

The inspiration and ideas come and go at random for me at least two of mine I can think of right now came to me on my way to or way home from work. Pulled over the side of the road and wrote them out on an old recept off the floorboard. Due to the colaborative nature of our songs they are in a state of constant evolution.

Hey jimmydanger man you got me banging my head with Into The Void and Medium Rare, ROCKIN Twice caught myself doin the Gene Simmons tongue thing listenin to those tunes. Love that left right speaker split thing you did with the lead (howed he do that?)

10 songs a week, huh? About how many chords/song?

It varied then. I usually had verses and choruses. There were 2 - 4 chords each. I wrote very simply then. A lot of my songs were melody based as opposed to chord progression based.

The inspiration and ideas come and go at random for me at least two of mine I can think of right now came to me on my way to or way home from work. Pulled over the side of the road and wrote them out on an old recept off the floorboard.

That's me right there. Writing on envelopes, burger king bags, or receipts. A lot of the time I just call my own cell phone and leave a message of a verse or a chorus or a vocal version of a bass line. I've also been at somebody's house playing their piano and I will write something and call my cell phone to record an idea. I then use skype to call my phone and then audacity to record it. I have a folder on my computer with hundreds of ideas in that format.

If I try NOT to come up with any new songs, I am doing about 1 for every 10 days or so.
If an idea comes into my head, I won't disregrad it - I'll record the idea, undeveloped.
If I don't record it within 1/2 hour, it morphs into something else, which may or may not be something I like as much as the original idea.
I am trying NOT to do new songs, because I have so many new ones that I'm already working on.
I do mostly instrumentals - all my newer stuff is on a difficulty level similar to "Jaunty Boy,' or "The 4th Emotion."
I like the kinds of stuff Leo Kottke does.

Hey jimmydanger man you got me banging my head with Into The Void and Medium Rare, ROCKIN Twice caught myself doin the Gene Simmons tongue thing listenin to those tunes. Love that left right speaker split thing you did with the lead (howed he do that?)

Thanks man! I just recorded new vocals for ITV Monday night, much better result but we drank too many Newcastles and botched the mix. As soon as I get it remixed I'll repost it. Cheers!

Better 5 great pieces over 5 years than a thousand lousy ones, ne?

Better 5 great pieces over 5 years than a thousand lousy ones, ne?

Agreed, but if you crap out a thousand you are bound to get more than 5 great pieces.

Never thought about the cell phone idea Duh. I don't know ifn I can hold my thought train that long, seems most of my stuff comes to me when I'm dead tired, Less external distraction I can hear the voices in my head better. Hee Hee Hee Heeee

I'm w/ Irminsul. I can write 30 '5-chord' songs in 15 minutes, but almost all of the songs I'm currently working on require more intricate work. I haven't bothered with a 4 - 5 chord song in years; hell most of my bridges or chorus's are at least 4 - 5 chords or better . . . then, when I add the sus-4ths and all, the grace notes, and the 'grace-chords' . . . it'll take more than a night to learn one of my songs and play it real good - not to mention the 999 note bass-pattern that goes with it . . .
Try playing "Yesterday," "Blackbird," "With a Little Help from My Friends,"
"Roundabout," etc, with only 4 chords . . . oops - showing my age.

Anyway, I'll leave the 4 - 5 chord songs to others to do.
It's mostly just a matter of style, I guess; I like more of a challenge.
.
That being said - 'more chords' is not necessarily better - sometimes it can be worse, but if written right, and played well - it's sweet.
But, if not planned out correctly, and/or not played well, then the old axiom 'simpler is better' can be very true, eh?
THAT being said - there are a real lot of 4-5 chord songs I really do like a lot, depending upong the rhythm. . . . usually good rocking songs. I like a lot of John Fogerty's stuff, for example . . .
And, I always though "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" (Elton John, circa 1200 B.C.) was a simple song, until the first time I tried to play along with it . . .
And I have to agree - write 1000 songs and your are certain to have some really good songs.
Hmmm - I'll let you know - I have about another 925 songs or so to go!

^ that's it right there. Some simple songs are great (I wanna be sedated - the ramones) and they take way less time to write. Some of the best songs (in my opinion) are simple. However, if I had the lofty goal of writing Leo Kotke caliber of songs it would take 6 months a piece. I write simple music thus I am able to crank 'em out. It's just a matter of how complex your songs are. I don't like the complex songs. I appreciate and am even in awe of the players like Kotke, but I don't want to write like that. I prefer John Denver and the pixies. I like pop, country, and rock. An example of an exception would be Jim Croce. I'm in awe and I love his songs. It would take years for me to get there.

Yeah, I like the people you listed . . . actually I like MOST music, in general.
As to Leo Kottke - when I first heard his music (about 30 years ago, when I'd only been playing for a few years), he was way, way beyond me . . .
. . . and, damn, - he played better 30 years ago than I play now.
And now, he's another 30 years of experience better even than that. . .

Paul I guess I never really bought that. We called it the "art by the pound" concept.

I can only lend personal experience to this. The best material seems to come when it decides to. I can go for months producing what I think are mediocre works, and then bam, a rash of really good ones happen.

It's no hard science, nor one given the probability.

The best material seems to come when it decides to. I can go for months producing what I think are mediocre works, and then bam, a rash of really good ones happen.

That's how it works for me as well. I am talented enough to sit down and write something decent whenever I need to. But the ones I feel are truly inspired, just seem to come out of nowhere, and in those times, it feels as if I could just write and write. Then other times, I feel like I really want to sit down and create, and something doesn't cooperate. Nothing worthwhile comes.

Without trying to freak anyone out, sometimes I believe that at our most creative, we really are tapping into some kind of unconscious source. That we are sometimes in tune with it, and a vehicle for it, and other times not.

On the other hand, it could just be some undocumented ratio between carbs and protein in our diet that does the trick, or whether we had our morning coffee that day or not. LOL