How do you guys get over a writers block...everything that i write (I think) sounds like crap lyrically and it sounds like other songs ive already written..lyrically...this is only recently...all of the other stuff ive written in the past i believe is decent but the lyrics recently are horrible..ive tried not listening to any music...listening to alot of music all diverse in style and not writing for awhile and trying to write alot but nothings working...any suggesstions?
Thanks
Dave
For all the song writers...
about 3 months ago i wrote 3 or 4 songs in a week that were in different time signatures and different keys and just really different and really funky. i was impressed with myself. and now as i've tried to write lyrics to them, i always sing the same melody. it is so annoying. i love my music but the words just come all wrong.
a good suggestion is to write lyrics with no song in mind. ok so i am guessing most of you will pick up on the fact that that just means poetry but nonethless.
read poetry too. i think poetry is a lot deaper and easier to digest sometimes and if you haven't checked it out for inspiration then that is where you need to go.
a good suggestion is to write lyrics with no song in mind. ok so i am guessing most of you will pick up on the fact that that just means poetry but nonethless.
read poetry too. i think poetry is a lot deaper and easier to digest sometimes and if you haven't checked it out for inspiration then that is where you need to go.
i would just pick a phrase. maybe a possible hook that sounds cool or maybe something you know nothing about. write it down and leave it for a day or so and go fishing 8) . when you come back to it just write whatever comes down. then get out hte red pen and just leave what sounds salvageable and try to weave it all together. come back to THAT after a bit and see what you have left. i do this kinda crap when i dont really have stuff to write about at the time. im STILL finding out everytime that the songs im working on cannot be written in one night (i still try everytime though!) and that they need some good honest time put into them. sucks.
went off on a tangent kinda. i also take writers block time to really practice on guitar stuff that i usually dont "practice"
went off on a tangent kinda. i also take writers block time to really practice on guitar stuff that i usually dont "practice"
-Ryan-
Listen to your friend Billy Zane....
Listen to your friend Billy Zane....
sweet avaitar...katie holmes rocks...
My number 1 suggestion(didnt read ur guys stuff), is to always have a note pad with you. I can't tell you how many times im sitting somewhere random, or in a lecture and bam something amazing hits me. More of my notes have lyrics on them then notes for that class. I find this extreamly helpfull. Dont try to force stuff, just relax think about your life and how you feel, your outakes on stuff. I think this should help
if not, good luck anyways
Mike
My number 1 suggestion(didnt read ur guys stuff), is to always have a note pad with you. I can't tell you how many times im sitting somewhere random, or in a lecture and bam something amazing hits me. More of my notes have lyrics on them then notes for that class. I find this extreamly helpfull. Dont try to force stuff, just relax think about your life and how you feel, your outakes on stuff. I think this should help
if not, good luck anyways
Mike
-
firedancer86
- DMBTabs.com Authority
- Posts: 3183
- Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2002 4:30 pm
- Contact:
lyrics - one thing might be to write a melody and some lyrics before picking up your guitar...a melody makes a song if it isn't an instrumental...
music - for my personal benefit, I try to write every song out of the normal...make it sound (or be played) like no other song...there are endless combinations on the fretboard...if you listen to Tim Reynolds for instance, every song has it's own entity (no pun intended for any Tim fans - lol)...I mean look at your music...do it stand apart from others? that is what gets attention for songwriting...
anywho, I hope this makes sense and maybe even helps
music - for my personal benefit, I try to write every song out of the normal...make it sound (or be played) like no other song...there are endless combinations on the fretboard...if you listen to Tim Reynolds for instance, every song has it's own entity (no pun intended for any Tim fans - lol)...I mean look at your music...do it stand apart from others? that is what gets attention for songwriting...
anywho, I hope this makes sense and maybe even helps
"serinity now...insanity later"
http://www.myspace.com/philiplucas
http://www.myspace.com/philiplucas
-
Jonny B Good
- Posts: 73
- Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2002 12:09 am
- Contact:
How bout an herbal remedy???
In all seriousness though...there's times when I'm lit and I can't play for shit, and there's other times when I just sit by myself and go off on a tangent for an hour or so...sometimes can come up with some nice stuff...
...the only problem is remembering the damn things the next day
In all seriousness though...there's times when I'm lit and I can't play for shit, and there's other times when I just sit by myself and go off on a tangent for an hour or so...sometimes can come up with some nice stuff...
...the only problem is remembering the damn things the next day
My "gitter" was my best investment
-
dwtreflip03
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2003 3:42 pm
personally, I and most of my friends like the stuff that I sing as improv more than the stuff that I write, so now I have come to writing something on guitar, start humming a melody over it, press play on a little handheld tape recorder and just sing, listen back and see what came out... if its good then I keep it, if its bad then I wait a day or so and try again. Its worked fairly well lately, the 4 songs that I have done that way came out sounding quite different and the lyrics were better than things I write when I actually sit down and try to write something, in my opinion. Just an idea of something that works for me.
Dave
I was just wondering if you'd come along, hold up my head when my head won't hold on, and Ill do the same, if the sames what you want.
Dave
I was just wondering if you'd come along, hold up my head when my head won't hold on, and Ill do the same, if the sames what you want.
during sophemore year in the dorms a couple of buddies and myself made a band and started just playing. we had just a couple of rules for song writing.
1) It should take no more than five minutes to write a song. and less is better.
2) you aren't allowed to write down lyrics but you can think them up ahead of time.
3) we usually just used the first take on any song we would record. otherwise we say what take it is at the beginning of the song.
needless to say it was hard but we cam up with a bunch of good stuff and our singer was pretty creative to come up with some of his stuff. and once that stopwatch started and i felt the pressure to write a song i came up with a bunch of pretty cool progressions and riffs. i have about 5 more songs but just never got around to putting them up on the web. here is a link to that band website. be warned that there are secret links in the band bio page and the lyrics page. have fun finding them.
i did the same thing last year with some guys from my engineering classes. we named ourselves after one of our professors and wrote about 20 songs dedicated to him and the happenings of his class. it was a creative outlet for all that time spent in the libraries. here is a link to some of those songs. and note that the singing is much worse. i mean i was with only engineering guys, unmusical engineering guys i might add. most of the music is just me on guitar and other guys singing. Check out "message to thunder" for some of that lovely vocals, which is about our CHME case race and how we drunk dialed our professor like 10 times that night. oh yeah and the lyrics page doesn't work.
hope you guys are amused by this
1) It should take no more than five minutes to write a song. and less is better.
2) you aren't allowed to write down lyrics but you can think them up ahead of time.
3) we usually just used the first take on any song we would record. otherwise we say what take it is at the beginning of the song.
needless to say it was hard but we cam up with a bunch of good stuff and our singer was pretty creative to come up with some of his stuff. and once that stopwatch started and i felt the pressure to write a song i came up with a bunch of pretty cool progressions and riffs. i have about 5 more songs but just never got around to putting them up on the web. here is a link to that band website. be warned that there are secret links in the band bio page and the lyrics page. have fun finding them.
i did the same thing last year with some guys from my engineering classes. we named ourselves after one of our professors and wrote about 20 songs dedicated to him and the happenings of his class. it was a creative outlet for all that time spent in the libraries. here is a link to some of those songs. and note that the singing is much worse. i mean i was with only engineering guys, unmusical engineering guys i might add. most of the music is just me on guitar and other guys singing. Check out "message to thunder" for some of that lovely vocals, which is about our CHME case race and how we drunk dialed our professor like 10 times that night. oh yeah and the lyrics page doesn't work.
hope you guys are amused by this
Return to “Dave's Guitar Discussion”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 172 guests