song writing techniques

freshead16 · Unread post by **freshead16** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 10:09 pm

hey kids, was wondering how u guys go about writing originals. i have a few written decent ones in my opinion but ive been stumped for a while on trying to write solid ones. I can write bad ones easily but good ones are more tough. I throw half of them away. If u could share how u personally go about writing them it would be appreciated.
peace

GSR · Unread post by **GSR** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 10:50 pm

i've heard/read somewhere that you should make up the guitar part.... then hum along to it...then replace the humming with words.

DustyDave · Unread post by **DustyDave** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 11:00 pm

GSRLessard14 wrote:i've heard/read somewhere that you should make up the guitar part.... then hum along to it...then replace the humming with words.

Good advice

What i do is work out the guitar part first , then sometimes i just sit down and write up a bunch of words like " Love " " God " " Life " you get the picture , and then i start adding lines to that until i have a sentence with atleast out of maybe 30 keywords , and then i check it if it would go well with the tune , singing and playing , if it doesn't , then a few things will just be rearranged a little and thats it

fatjack · Unread post by **fatjack** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 11:03 pm

DustyDave wrote:
GSRLessard14 wrote:i've heard/read somewhere that you should make up the guitar part.... then hum along to it...then replace the humming with words.
Good advice

What i do is work out the guitar part first , then sometimes i just sit down and write up a bunch of words like " Love " " God " " Life " you get the picture , and then i start adding lines to that until i have a sentence with atleast out of maybe 30 keywords , and then i check it if it would go well with the tune , singing and playing , if it doesn't , then a few things will just be rearranged a little and thats it

if i ever write lyrics i will try my best to stay away from such "keywords"

DustyDave · Unread post by **DustyDave** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 11:54 pm

fatjack wrote:if i ever write lyrics i will try my best to stay away from such "keywords"

Personal opinion , some people write about love , others about life , some about God , some about the devil .... Songs are what you make them to be , so if you didn't like any of my keywords , then thats your preference , but what kinda words would you use ?

Ranting Thespian · Unread post by **Ranting Thespian** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:12 am

For me, I normaly anm just fiddling, and I find something, and I just try things with it, what looks good for playing. I also think of other songs and such if they come to mind, I look at their fromation and such, and see if I can intergrate that in. Also, if I find a good riff or chord progression, and just don't have anything else, I record it or tab it and put it aside, and when I feel the song again, I pull it out and finish it. For me, it's all what floats in my head at the moment and my place in the world at that time. Then for writing lyrics, I just need that first few lines, and then it just all flows out in an improv splurge, and sometimes I write the lyrics and find the notes in the vocals later wh4en I am playing it. I actualy typicaly for a minimum I write at least one complete song in a month, and I have gone as high as 6.

w0odman · Unread post by **w0odman** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 6:44 am

I write lyrics and guitar parts seperate. and then I try to mash them together.

Dancing Ants · Unread post by **Dancing Ants** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 8:10 am

I write guitar parts...i just dont get around to writing lyrics for them...besides, they're all undevoloped verses..

grock · Unread post by **grock** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 11:02 am

i have maybe 50 riffs floating around at anyone time, other than what i've already used in my songs. and i try to mesh them into different parts of a song. this tends to make for pretty cool transitions and stuff. then once i get that i start in just singing whatever comes to mind and recording it. then i go back and listen and see if i said anything cool. i keep the cool stuff and throw out the mumbling.

even once i get a song written i might make up a riff and think, "holy moly that should be part of this song" and so my songs tend to get longer and have a couple different parts.

then again a lot can be said for a simple 4 chord progression played for 5 minutes, with some simple lines of truth...

freshead16 · Unread post by **freshead16** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 1:44 pm

thanks guys. ive heard that some people find their meledys first and some write the guitar parts first. what u guys think about that? i usually write the guitar part first and than try to sing a meledy i like over that and than get words but im looking for any new techniques. thansk kids
peace

grock · Unread post by **grock** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:33 pm

freshead16 wrote:thanks guys. ive heard that some people find their meledys first and some write the guitar parts first. what u guys think about that? i usually write the guitar part first and than try to sing a meledy i like over that and than get words but im looking for any new techniques. thansk kids
peace

i often find myself with a line in my head. maybe it has a melody too. and a couple of songs i have written were based around a single line that got me started.

most though, start with guitar and then i do trial and error to find words.

MWR · Unread post by **MWR** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:48 pm

fatjack wrote:
DustyDave wrote:
GSRLessard14 wrote:i've heard/read somewhere that you should make up the guitar part.... then hum along to it...then replace the humming with words.
Good advice

What i do is work out the guitar part first , then sometimes i just sit down and write up a bunch of words like " Love " " God " " Life " you get the picture , and then i start adding lines to that until i have a sentence with atleast out of maybe 30 keywords , and then i check it if it would go well with the tune , singing and playing , if it doesn't , then a few things will just be rearranged a little and thats it
if i ever write lyrics i will try my best to stay away from such "keywords"

Can't agree with you more. Cliche's should be avoided like the plague imo.
I think Dave uses cliche's a little more often than he should. He likes to use the "Rain on me/my head" line a lot. Sting said it better with "it's a big enough umbrella but it's always me who ends up getting wet". Lyrics are subjective so I'm sure many of you will disagree. BTW I think Dave has a lot of songs with fantastic lyrics but he is no stranger to cliches.

fatjack · Unread post by **fatjack** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 5:06 pm

DustyDave wrote:
fatjack wrote:if i ever write lyrics i will try my best to stay away from such "keywords"
Personal opinion , some people write about love , others about life , some about God , some about the devil .... Songs are what you make them to be , so if you didn't like any of my keywords , then thats your preference , but what kinda words would you use ?

this is why i refuse to write lyrics at this point, everything ends up being similar to something else. and the truth is, i dont have any real life experience to write about. i'm not audacious enough to think that i know what im talking about in reference to love, God, or Life.

and im no good at short creative writing like peotry. im better at longer forms of creative writing, so i never end up writing anything with short phrases to fit into lyrics

gravedigger · Unread post by **gravedigger** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 5:23 pm

writing lyrics is the toughest part for me for sure. It's hard enough to write cool lines but then to try to make it flow with a good melody to fit your chord progression. It's definately a challenge but its coming. oh yeah, and then there's the singing, being able to sing well helps A LOT. I find myself writing a lot these past few months. I can't wait till I finally finish a song.

DustyDave · Unread post by **DustyDave** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 7:11 pm

fatjack wrote:this is why i refuse to write lyrics at this point, everything ends up being similar to something else. and the truth is, i dont have any real life experience to write about. i'm not audacious enough to think that i know what im talking about in reference to love, God, or Life.

and im no good at short creative writing like peotry. im better at longer forms of creative writing, so i never end up writing anything with short phrases to fit into lyrics

I can respect that , but i was only making a few keywords there , and telling how i put things together , it can be 1 out of a 1000 different keywords that comes to mind , then i write it down for futher reference , then you can make up a line that goes with that keyword , that doesn't make it a cliché , and basically i don't think its possible to write something that haven't already been written about , it will always referre to the same point of someone yelling " Cliché " why ? Because even if you write about a pair of shoes it has already been done ....

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song writing techniques

song writing techniques

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