How do you people write music?

[Rusty the Scoob]

I feel like I'm either too old (31 = far beyond the age of potential rockstardom) or too worn out as a musician to come up with anything interesting, or even anything at all.

I mean, hell, I spend most of my time watching the growth of either my 401k or my beer gut. How am I supposed to break new ground as an artist when I'm so fat and happy?


This wasn't an issue until C had to go buy a digital 8-track recorder... :smack: so far we're just playing around with it recording covers.

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/8/2/1/393821.jpg

On a related note, what's a good budget drum machine?

[oldivor]

Lyrics just come to me, I'll be in the shower, doing yard work etc and boom, I'll get some good lines out of no where. I carry around a little notebook for that. I had to get used to writing before they came to me though. Music, now that I just sit down and write. I might have an idea but I just sit down and pound it out. I can't do that with lyrics yet or never be able it. I normally write the music around the lyrics, unless I have a really good idea musically. Then I just just record one track at a time in Audacity. Maybe not be the best way but it works for me.

[King Kashue]

How do I write music?


Poorly...



Very, very poorly...

[ahpook]

at the moment (and for the last 9 months or so) - with great difficulty...

i don't just get ideas like i used to

i'm waiting out the drought.



but i've always come up with music first and then maybe added lyrics later if something comes to me...which is prolly why i do a lot of instrumental stuff

[conor.meara]

1. have really really good relationships with dedicated band members
2. only do drugs after 6 hours of grueling band practice
3. stop getting laid
4. don't eat the day of a practice or show
5. one person comes in with a vague idea of a vaguely outlined song, work until completion
6. and what i mean by that is you have to have the mindset that you're going to complete it and finish it in a form and be able to play it through from top to bottom without fucking up. it'll never be complete the first night, even if you spend 6 hours on it and think it's great. always go back to it.
7. just do it. honestly. if you spend any more time thinking about how you don't know how to start then you'll get stuck. it's like writing anything, you just have to get the pen moving. try just writingn stream of consciousness for 10 minutes. don't stop your pen. just write and write and write everything that comes into your head. after 10-15 minutes is up or you feel exhausted, reread it and edit it down if you like anything.


that's all i can think of. in terms of lyrics, the most important thing to me is honesty. if you're singing some bullshit lyrics anybody can see right through it and that'll kill the band for me. you could also be singing complete gibberish and fit it soulfully with the music. either way, you've gotta believe what you're singing and believe what you're playing.

yup.

[Low Tone]

3. stop getting laid
4. don't eat the day of a practice or show
I say conor's entire post is invalid on these two points alone.

WTF is the point of being in a rock band if you don't want to get laid? :confused:

And as far as eating goes, food is about the only fun I have left these days.

[conor.meara]

I say conor's entire post is invalid on these two points alone.

WTF is the point of being in a rock band if you don't want to get laid? :confused:

And as far as eating goes, food is about the only fun I have left these days.

no no no, the reason for the no drugs food or sex before a show is because they're three things that make you comfortable. i'm not saying you can never get laid, but do it after the show :D

and during the show/practice if you use that tension you've got i've found you wind up getting a lot more done, play better, and play harder when appropriate :D

i know it sounds weird but it's just something that works really well for the band. the main weird one is the food thing, but usually we practice saturdays around 7 till like 1am and so i mean party friday night, sleep till 3 or 4 on saturday, go to band practice. it makes sense. and that's the only time i'm consciously thinking about the food rule. if it's the day of a show i just can't eat anyways. don't think about it at all. too too focused.

[brake]

I write music a few different ways.


- I play bass all of the time. If you play all day, new things are going to come out, no matter what. It's an inevitability.

- I hear music all of the time, too. When I'm not listening to music or studying music, I hear a song in my head. It's just always there, and I can make it sound like whatever I want. I play drums, guitar, and keys as well, which makes working out my own ideas for those parts much easier.

It probably sounds cliche to say that I hear music in everything, but I do. A telephone pole has a song in it. It's probably a strange sounding song.. really thin (but even and consistent) sounding. It'd have to be a pretty functional song (read: not much added to it in the way of extra instruments).. It'd probably have a pretty hypnotic repetitive groove happening (think "Rock Steady"). Towards the end, the tune will get brighter and brighter and eventually peak. Think White Rabbit.

There - I just wrote a song because I heard it in one of the most basic things you can find - a Telephone pole. Try doing this with something like a cat walking, or a really strange looking person.

- This last one isn't me writing the music, it's me writing a bass part to go with the music. I love working like this - I walk in and I'm handed a song and told to write a bass line... to me that's like a kid in a candy store! I just get to play. Ultimately, I ask myself this question - "Does what you're playing compliment the song? Does it sound better or worse without you?"

[basslord1124]

It just hits me usually at random times...so I make sure a guitar/bass is nearby. In the event it's not, I'll write it down or do my best to remember it. I will say I have a big problem now where I can't seem to finish a song. I have a decent handful of various verses, a few of which may have a chorus if I'm lucky, and that's it. Got 3-4 songs that are just 1/2 to 3/4 finished. Very frustrating. :(

[SpaceGhost]

I write music a few different ways.


- I play bass all of the time. If you play all day, new things are going to come out, no matter what. It's an inevitability.

- I hear music all of the time, too. When I'm not listening to music or studying music, I hear a song in my head. It's just always there, and I can make it sound like whatever I want. I play drums, guitar, and keys as well, which makes working out my own ideas for those parts much easier.
I'm in the same boat as Brake here on these two points.

[Grant Sharkey]

i only write on my own at the piano these days. most of the time with the band now we tend to set a timeframe to write so many songs in - sit down, pull out all the ideas we've had lately - jam stuff, make stuff up on the spot - then let them sit for a few weeks and see which ones stick in our heads - then we tend to talk about them for a bit - discuss what imigary the notes conjure up - or lyrical ideas i've had etc - then slowly piece the together over a week or so - rehearse - record - album.

[ronnie4500]

I write it just like King Kashue.

I can play what other people have written. Acceptably, on a good day. But writing music on my own is something I really can't do. I can only build on other people's ideas, poorly. I used to think I'm only selling myself short thinking like that, but after I worked with some people who just had ideas flowing, I realized it's not the case.

[MBIYF]

On a related note, what's a good budget drum machine?

You can have my drummachine. It's not very sophisticated... but it's for free!!

The only maintanace is a beer or a smoke every 15 minutes. :neutral:

[cdb]

Often songs come to me in dreams-- no-- not often, maybe once every 3 monyhs or so-- and then I try to capture them, and mostly they suck. But I have had a few keepers, and, shit, I wrote many many songs in my 20's... and now everything seems hackneyed somehow. Which is why I do old-style shit-- bluegrass and blues-- that seems to be the fount -- the source.

[NotFSI]

innuendo

[lug]

How do I write music?


Poorly...



Very, very poorly...

Get thee behind me. The difference is I'll post 'em, hundreds at a time!

[Les Izzmor]

Get thee behind me. The difference is I'll post 'em, hundreds at a time!

I just had to see what lug had to offer in a song-writing thread.

:D

[lug]

I just had to see what lug had to offer in a song-writing thread.

:D

most boring yet!

http://www.box.net/shared/static/ipz26zu3vx.mp3
(new SX Jazz bass)

[bnyswonger]

It's work. I might get a little snippet of an idea - a part of a chorus or a little chord thing I like and the job is to spin that out into a whole tune. I need to devote a lot of time to it. I've only banged out a few quick tunes in my life - most take weeks, months, years.

[lug]

It's work. I might get a little snippet of an idea - a part of a chorus or a little chord thing I like and the job is to spin that out into a whole tune. I need to devote a lot of time to it. I've only banged out a few quick tunes in my life - most take weeks, months, years.


I've never spent more that 2.7 minutes writing a complete song.


...crosses arms in smug manner

[JustDave]

"How do you people write music"

The old fashioned way...


I steal it. :D

[lug]

"How do you people write music?"


I think of a song.....and then I remove reason and accountability.

[Zamfir]

it'll never be complete the first night, even if you spend 6 hours on it and think it's great. always go back to it.
7. just do it. honestly. if you spend any more time thinking about how you don't know how to start then you'll get stuck. it's like writing anything, you just have to get the pen moving. try just writingn stream of consciousness for 10 minutes. don't stop your pen. just write and write and write everything that comes into your head. after 10-15 minutes is up or you feel exhausted, reread it and edit it down if you like anything.


+1. This is wise. :thumbsup:


It's work. I might get a little snippet of an idea - a part of a chorus or a little chord thing I like and the job is to spin that out into a whole tune. I need to devote a lot of time to it. I've only banged out a few quick tunes in my life - most take weeks, months, years.

Another +1. You get tunes out of me like blood from stone. But that's because I don't put in the time like Conor mentioned. Hope to change that soon.

Meanwhile, the difference is that a) Bob practices regularly and b) succeeds in making some money off what he writes. Bastid! :mad:

:D

[Croissant Seven]

I write basslines. Anything else is someone else's job because frankly, I'm terrible at it. Especially lyrics.
C7

[ModmanQ6]

I saw an interview with Mick Jagger and he says that they've never taken more than an hour to write any of their songs from scratch... You can hear it in some of the songs recordings...where they kind of fudge through a part and it becomes a famous riff that was brilliant...(otherwise known as learning a fuck up in the replaying of it...)

[spezzy]

3. stop getting laid

no no, you can get laid. all the time. just make sure it's with a girl who you really like and she rips your heart out, throws it on the ground, and does the mexican jumping dancy all aver it.

instant lyrics!

[bill]

no no, you can get laid. all the time. just make sure it's with a girl who you really like and she rips your heart out, throws it on the ground, and does the mexican jumping dancy all aver it.

instant lyrics!



*Joey voice*
How you doing?

[Jugghaid]

Actually, a lot of the stuff I write just pops in my head. The trick is to sit down and move it from my head to the fretboard/keyboard. I can't count how many times I've gotten up out of bed and went into my home studio and knocked out scratch tracks right away.

The other good way I have written is with a writing partner. (usually my guitar player) as they will come up with something completely different as an accompaniment to what I'm doing than what I thought of. Many many times, I like their idea better. Collaboration can make the process much easier and much more interesting IMO. Ideas just start bouncing around for the song and off it goes, taking on a life of its own.

[takeout]

By doing it. Period, full stop.

Even if, as you start to play or write it, you're already saying to yourself "this sucks" - keep going until you're done. A crap idea can magically turn into a good one with a misplaced note, or starting the phrase on the two rather than the one, etc. (this is where being able to cut and paste in the computer has really revolutionized songwriting) - and the difference between a dumb lyric and a brilliant one is many times only one of context.

[basshunter]

I've only banged out a few quick tunes in my life - most take weeks, months, years.

Yep.

Usually, I come up with lyrics first. Lyrics come pretty easily for me, and the best songs I've written, the lyrics pretty well come out finished from the start. I may later change them slightly to make them easier to sing or to fit better with the arrangement, but for the most part, the words just spill out.

The music part is something else entirely. I find that most of the time, they come off best when I give them to somebody else and see what they come up with, and then develop them collectively. Sometimes its a few weeks, sometimes longer. Most of the rest I keep for myself, and they will go through various permutations for months or years, or they will sit in my lyrics folder indefinitely until one day I come up with something musicaly that accidentally fits the lyrics.

I have one song I wrote the lyrics to about 8 or 9 years ago that I've performed live 3 times, 2 of them solo, never remotely the same arrangement, and never been happy with it. Then Saturday night I was fooling around on the upright and actually came up with something I might be happy with. I could play it as a solo bass and vocal piece, and the tone of the upright just seems to set nicely against the tone of the lyrics.


So, um, yeah...how do I write music? By shit luck, I guess. :shrug:

[Jugghaid]

Edit to my post.....I don't write lyrics. I suck at it. I leave that to the guy or gal singing them. I'll stick with the music part, thanks you.

[NotFSI]

no no, you can get laid. all the time. just make sure it's with a girl who you really like and she rips your heart out, throws it on the ground, and does the mexican jumping dancy all aver it.

instant lyrics!

Why, is that what works for you?

[spezzy]

Why, is that what works for you?

no but that's what most of the songs out there are about :)

[bassmama]

I feel like I'm either too old (31 = far beyond the age of potential rockstardom) or too worn out as a musician to come up with anything interesting, or even anything at all.

I mean, hell, I spend most of my time watching the growth of either my 401k or my beer gut. How am I supposed to break new ground as an artist when I'm so fat and happy?


This wasn't an issue until C had to go buy a digital 8-track recorder... :smack: so far we're just playing around with it recording covers.

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/8/2/1/393821.jpg

On a related note, what's a good budget drum machine?
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
I am also 31 and I also just got a digital 8track!
I gotta learn how to use the thing...:(

[Rusty the Scoob]

Which one did you get? The Korg is really, really easy, at least to get started. We recorded a song the night we got it...

So far the best playing I've done was on a cover of Empty Pages, where she was done with it, and just had me put the bass under it after the fact. I'm finding it hard to play with nothing to listen to but a drum machine or something.... the best method I have so far is to record a reference track on bass, keys (well, that'd be her playing, not me!) or guitar, and then build the other tracks around it, then re-record the reference track. When there's nothing to listen to I feel forced to try to do something interesting on whatever I'm holding...


As a side-benefit, after listening to my horrible playing, I'm back on my favorite time-fixer... a book on snare-drum rudiments, a practice pad, sticks, and a metronome...:smack:

[bassmama]

Which one did you get? The Korg is really, really easy, at least to get started. We recorded a song the night we got it...

So far the best playing I've done was on a cover of Empty Pages, where she was done with it, and just had me put the bass under it after the fact. I'm finding it hard to play with nothing to listen to but a drum machine or something.... the best method I have so far is to record a reference track on bass, keys (well, that'd be her playing, not me!) or guitar, and then build the other tracks around it, then re-record the reference track. When there's nothing to listen to I feel forced to try to do something interesting on whatever I'm holding...


It's a Tascam 788 Digital Portastudio. It seems pretty complicated to me but I get easily overwhelmed with electronics and I JUST got it a couple days ago. I'm really excited though - I think I can do A LOT with this. All I've ever had before is a 4-track cassette recorder...
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j43/rayraysamps/3027463-front-medium.jpg
...and as for your recording methods... I think that is basically how a lot of people do it - using reference or "scratch" tracks and then re-doing them later. :D