General Music Chat

Howdy,

I just wondered how everyone writes songs? Any strange habbits? Any strategies to pass on (that doesn't include getting high, I'm not into that!)?

I tend to have ideas just before I drift to sleep and then have to get up on the piano to remember them at about four in the morning, then the morning after I play them through and re-work them. It's slightly odd but it works for me!

Many posts cover this subject prior to your participation Cognition:
For me tis a simple thing. The lyrics and melody just pop into my head.
Usually at a time of high emotion and or sheer exhastion. Sometimes in a dream. I have on several occasions written lyrics onto a lumber or burger recept off the floor of my jeep. I give these tidbits to my bandmates, and we end up with a song.
I could not just intentionally write a song. Does not work that way for me.

You think that's odd, huh?

I used to daily wrap my entire body in tin-foil to avoid all outside radio frequencies, plug my ears with wax (not ear-wax...the parafin stuff), & do my darnedest to think of a thing - just any old thing - & then I'd apply a sophisticated chord system to the thing based on it's numeric signature & my particular mood of the moment (which I can tell by the color of my mood ring). Then I proceed to my Volume Library, a rather archaic anitique mini-encyclopoedia, wherein I grab random sentences out of the tome by the page number brought about by my numerologic system, & then try to find rhymes for them out of Roget's & Reader's Digest. Eventually, it would hopefully turn itself into a song.

But that never worked for me, no matter how often I tried it. (I think it was the purple metallic thong I wore under the tin-foil.) It was a fun thing to do, though. I highly recommend it, especially if you like freaking out your roommates or your significant other.

So I went the old tried-&-true method of waiting around for the muse to strike, & when it did, I wrote whatever came into my head. The chords come 1st for me. Then there's the ooh-ing & ah-ing over the chording until a melody begins to form. Next, a word or two, or an entire phrase takes shape. Finally, I worked out a song from that phrase. Sometimes the song goes in an entirely different direction than the one I originally intended, & it's great...& sometimes it's not so great.

There have been songs that I wrote that actually stopped me for a long long pause, as I wondered if I could ever really think like that.

That happens when I find myself going into a personality-type, in my mind's eye, to write the thing from someone else's angle. I wrote a song one time about a stalker & decided that it should never ever see the light of day - not because it was a bad song, but because of the content being so twisted that it frightened me that I could think like that. And to think it was originally going to be about a paparazi jerk! But no, there were lines in that song that scared me just thinking about them, & the fact that they came out of my head. I still remember some of them, & yes, they still bother me to think that those thoughts came out of me.

Song-writing is very scary stuff sometimes!

Scary stuff. Kinda like that visual with the purple metalic thong.
Oh man I'm glad I already ate.

BTW, Philby's purple metallic thong is up for bids on E-bay right now...

Phil, all I can say is...unleash that song! I've been told many times that some of my material is creepy or shocking (probably not the majority of stuff I have up right now). That kind of response is such a positive. Scaring the crap out of folks means you got their attention...and if they look at you a little more cautiously, so be it. "Art" is all about the interpretation of the artist's expression.
Besides, deep down, we all know you're a real sicko! (j/k).

Back on topic: The last few years, my writing has been a lot more thematic. I pick a topic or a vague idea, and play word association with it. As soon as a lyrical idea begins to form, I snatch up my guitar and start strumming-meaning that music and words are nearly simultaneous.
This process has been very successful for me (I've written TONS of material since beginning it), and I recommend it.

Nothing special. It's usually after some kinda change in my life, a memory that springs into my mind, or just plain old pissed off.

I always write when I am 420ish.

I end up humming something as I drive home. I get home and then I work furiously to capture the chorus and the bridge. The rest I can make up as soon as I hit the compiler.

Monotonous sounds make me wanna write as well. (The washing machine..lol)

I also have a habit of listening to music I like through 4 rooms. Like I was listening to CIVIL WAR the other day. I moved one room away and closed the doors. I could still hear too much of it to recognize it.

I moved another room away and closed the doors/windows. still too much recognizable noise.

I moved another room away and then finally outside with the front door closed and there I could hear a different bass line, which reminded me of something else. Next thing I know, I has turned off all music and was layering like mad.

It's akin to closing ones eyes and trying to open your third eye. (depth perception is a bitch) lol

I usually have to begin just putting notes together...I never just have ideas in my head. I have to go to the drawing board and just dabble until I like it . Once I can put a phrase together that I like, then I can create from it. I can add chords, counter-melodies and accompaniments, that's when it becomes fun. Most of what I write is instrumental.If I had to rely on what was in my head, I would write nothing.

I have been considering doing something different by writing an ostinato, first , then compose using the ostinato as a backdrop or guide. Ugh, this thread is making me want to go compose something. Since I am already occupied with a different composition project I am not going to deviate from it Regardless, this is inspirational, just what I need.

Andragon beat me to it. I write a lot of songs when I'm pissed off. Or when I feel strongly about something.

I feel a song coming on right now!
(primal scream followed by rebel yell) !!!!!!

It's funny, Cap. I find myself inspired on the rare occasion by having the radio in my wife's car turned down so low I can't really hear it, yet way in the distance, I can often hear the harmonics of the melody, instead of the actual song being played. It's an interesting phenomena, & I wrote one good song that way, by hearing things that weren't really there. Of course as I wrote it, it warped way off from the original idea.

I'm still working on a 5/4 piece, but it's hard to keep at it, for some reason. I've been experimenting on this for years! Very frustrating, it be.

I very rarely write, I tried for years and finally decided I'm just not a songwriter, but now and then something does come through. My first one was when I was about 12, can't remember how I did it but it was a thoroughly 60's tune, very similar to some of the Monkees' stuff.

Usually I sit around doodling on guitar, out of nowhere a chord pattern forms, and if I'm lucky I can figure out where to go with it. Same happens sometimes if I tinker on a keyboard for a bit. Then there's lyrics...if I manage to think up a line or two it might be 3 weeks before I can come up with another line...I suck at lyrics...

Silhouette of A Daydream was a couple of weeks in forming, it was originally just a little ditty I worked out trying to learn to work with open G a little better. I've always tinkered with open G but never really worked on it, finally decided I'd leave my acoustic in that tuning and make myself learn to deal with it a little. Sitting on the front porch watching cars roll by I stumbled onto the first few notes and gradually tinkered with it for a month until it coagulated into a decent song. I have a couple of others in open G I've been doodling with since the same time period, around 4 years ago. One I think has potential, just not sure what to do about other instrumentation.

Last Train was totally different, again doodling on the acoustic I put a capo on and started tinkering with the chord progression, which is nothing fancy, a takeoff on an old standard progression used for years. Then a line (last line of 2nd verse, "dancin with the cobwebs in my head") popped into my head, 30 minutes later I had words and music ready to go and even had ideas for secondary instrumentation. Very unusual for me, but it was done and I played it for some friends a half hour after the first line popped into my head. They loved it so I started refining it.

edit...
Philby:

You posted while I was typing, I doodled around with a 5/4 peice not long ago, never really got it to gel. Now I guess I'll have to try and remember it and work on it a little more...you just had to mention that...hehe

CHop it bitches...

I can not write like one long stream. I lose sight of the forest for the trees.

If you section it out into a chorus, verse, bridge, it is as easy as 1-2-3.

Always write anything in your head, even the smallest piece will clue you in when you try to read it next.

If you write one piece and you find it's moving somewhere else?

Put the piece aside and write whatever came to the top. (it wants to be heard)

Later on you can go back and finish the 1st thought, provided you kept a good track of what and where you were going.

(I sat once to write a simple tune and came out with 3 decent tunes a week later) (Don't force good pieces that do not necessarily match together, you could be cutting off your nose to spite your face)

I'm still working on a 5/4 piece, but it's hard to keep at it, for some reason. I've been experimenting on this for years! Very frustrating, it be.

That sounds exciting...keep at-it