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Post subject: Songwriting Strategies
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 9:44 am
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I just thought I'd make a post about the processes we go through to write a song. Maybe we could introduce each other to methods which we'd never thought of before, or help some amateurs such as myself to find a method which suits us.

Personally when I write a song, it usually begins with an idea, maybe a simple lyric or two. Typically it happens when I'm driving. Then when I'm fiddling around on my guitar, going through random chords or finding new sounds, if I play something I really like I'll attempt to attach the lyrics to the music I'm playing and advance from there. So for me, it just kind of happens. I find it very difficult to sit down and force myself to write a song on the spot.

I'm curious as to the methods which some of you employ, which I'm sure can be helpful to myself or other members of the forum. Looking forward to responses.

-Jake

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Post subject: Re: Songwriting Strategies
Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2014 8:44 pm
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Always found life experiences to set-up the theme or story. The music would be subservient to the theme and lyric structure. Usually write out the entire story line in long hand. Digest it for some time and decide what's really important. Decide on a timing,4/4 or 3/4. Then, I break down the story into relevant sections. Then syllable counts, and finally rhyme. The piece's structure essentially reflects how one wants to present the entire idea(story). What gets into the chorus and what is in the lyric sections is up to the writer. JMHO, Art

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Post subject: Re: Songwriting Strategies
Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 1:44 pm
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Great subject with no right or wrong answers. For me, I usually get hit by some inspiration when doing something really zen, like mowing my lawn. Usually it's just a random snippet, and sometimes I can actually hear it as a melodically sung lyric, complete with a chord progression underneath.

If it doesn't leave my head, I'll usually try to find or recreate that chord progression and sing the snippet to it. In other words, I find myself "learning" the song that does not yet exist, other than in my head.

From there it just takes time. I nurture the idea by playing with lyrics and composing parts to chain together. Sometimes it takes weeks or months. Sometimes it happens more quickly.

I don't use lyrics to tell stories. I tend to write things that sound good and are suitable to my singing style. Sometimes I feel really profound, after the fact. But... usually I write things that just fit the song.

I've gotten some validation on this approach. For example, Tom Petty sang "even a loser gets lucky sometimes" totally spontaneously and off-the-cuff. There was no meaning at the time, but it turned out awesome.


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Post subject: Re: Songwriting Strategies
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 2:18 am
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I don't use one method to write songs, because I find it would be restrictive and it would prevent spontaneity.

Sometimes it begins with a title, and at other times with a tune in my head.

The song may come to me while I'm dozing, driving, watching or reading or listening. If it's just okay, I'll try to remember it for later notation.

If it really impresses me I will get up from a snooze (not often, I assure you), stop driving at the most convenient moment, or find some other way to write the words, dictate the words, hum or play the melody.

I find the memo section of my cellphone saves time and is always handy and convenient for this purpose.

Sometimes, another's music will inspire me. The other day I thought to play a song backwards on my keyboard and surpringly that lead to something altogether different and acceptable. I didn't have time to add lyrics or to further develop it, so I simply recorded my sample on the iPhone using the phone's mic and a simple one track mono memo.

As for lyrics, I sometimes use a theme for a song, but using a theme for an album could also be conceptual. You could, for example, compose several songs with the same theme, but different in some fashion, and choose to keep them as a unit or separate or keep just your fave. This may boost the creative juices on a theme or song.

I often start with a title, but I also might start with beginning lyrics and end lyrics filling in the blanks.

You can make music for yourself, for others, or for both. This can result in different song styles and approaches. It's your choice, but I find the most fun is to write for others and one self. Which adds another source for ideas. Your song could be about your experiences, others' experience, or both, etc.

However you make that song . . . Enjoy.

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Post subject: Re: Songwriting Strategies
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 12:47 pm
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To think of this from an advice perspective, the best thing I would suggest to people is to go with one's inspiration and DON'T try to force it. The best original material I've ever written...meaning the songs that -I- enjoy listening to at least...are the tunes that came easily for me. To give you an example, one of my favorite tunes (that I've written) is called "Tomorrow Will Never Die". One evening I was down in the studio stoned out of my mind, reading Don Quixote while I had Heart's Dog & Butterfly album playing in the background...I ended up firing off the lyrics for Tomorrow Will Never Die in all of about 5 minutes and had the whole arrangement finished about 15 minutes later. To this day I still think it's some of my best writing. On the other hand, I've had a couple of tunes where I've spent hours, if not days trying to write...and those always end up being the worse.

I think the stuff I don't think about too much seems to work better than when I try to be to "insightful" or "introspective" or anything like that. Whenever I've sat down to try and "really express my feelings" by writing a song...wow...it's just awful! We're talking SERIOUS stink bomb, LOL!!! Every single love song I ever tried to write when I was younger always ended up being soooo sugary-sappy that it would have given Barry Manilow cavities! My best work has always been the material that really doesn't have too much meaning at all. There's quite a few versus in a few songs where the ONLY reason I wrote them like that is because...wow...it rhymed, LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(and yes, for anyone getting into writing lyrics, I highly recommend having both Rhymezone and a thesaurus available!)

I do find it considerably easier to write music than I do to write lyrics...which is rather ironic given how much I talk and write in a non-musical sense, LOL!!! Some times I will get a line or phrase of words that will get stuck in my head that seems clever that I'll write down and try and work it into something later (like "Coffee strong enough to sterilize your soul"...still need to use that one some day, LOL!). Sometimes I'll just sit down in the studio and "jam" with the record button pressed and if sounds decent, I'll come back later and (try to) add words to it. In one case I had written a song with lyrics that I had intended for my wife to sing, however she was going thru cancer at the time and didn't feel like singing, let alone recording, so I later went back and just finished the song as an instrumental instead (and for better or worse, the lyrics have been long since lost). I don't think there's really any right or wrong way to do it.

I think the most challenging work I've ever done has been working with my wife. While she's an incredible vocalist, an insightful lyricist and even knows a good deal of theory as a flute player, bass player and even as a percussionist, she doesn't really understand the concept of "chords", so sometimes it's hard for me to get inside her head to figure out what she had in mind beyond basic generalizations. When her and I are working together, it seems to be A LOT easier for her to write lyrics for the music I've put together than it is for me to write music to lyrics she's written, if she already has the music in her head. One tune we did together, a song titled "Rowan", was actually easy...the band we were in at the time was basically just jamming. Actually, the drummer, bass player and the other guitar player were jamming on a Grateful Dead tune...I had never heard of the tune...didn't even know it WAS a tune at the time...but it had a pretty good groove so I just started tearing up a lead over it, LOL! My wife had listened to the recording of the practice afterwards (also not knowing it was a Grateful Dead tune) and just fired off some lyrics in nothing flat. When her and I sat down to do a demo tape of it, it really ended up taking on a life of it's own...by the time we were thru, no one knew we had ripped off the Grateful Dead, LOL! In fact, most people who've listened to that tune say it reminds them more of "California Dreaming" than anything (it's kind of got that call back/echo thing going on).


Anyways, I guess for myself at least, it's all about following the inspiration when it strikes. Over the years I've learned to NOT argue with my muse...she's usually right...so I just let her take me wherever I need to go.



8)


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Post subject: Re: Songwriting Strategies
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 4:14 pm
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You might try working in the cotton fields. That's where Percy Sledge is said to have made "When A Man Loves A Woman". Percy died today at 74.

On that note, it's said that you can't truly sing the blues until you've experienced it, and that might hold true for writing it.

Thanks, for your great classic song, Percy. Rest in peace.

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Post subject: Re: Songwriting Strategies
Posted: Fri May 08, 2015 10:37 am
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Fender Strat Brat wrote:

Sometimes, another's music will inspire me. The other day I thought to play a song backwards on my keyboard and surpringly that lead to something altogether different and acceptable.
...
However you make that song . . . Enjoy.


My approach is similar. Certain elements of songs will inspire me to try to learn.
In the learning, I'll come up with my own original material.
Add some random noodling and a few happy accidents, there ya go.

My stuff doesn't have lyrics, as I like for the listener to bring something to the experience.
But I can't imagine how difficult it must be to fuse music and poetry, and I have a great respect for that.


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