Where I Babble About Songwriting

[glitch hiker]

If one good thing has come out of this pandemic it's that I finally got my arse into gear and started properly writing music (IOW, I spent loads of dole money on software, fuck you Boris).

I find that I can get ideas out pretty quickly. Sketch a few ideas with a simple soft synth (TAL's juno emulation is fantastic). The weird thing is that, when I add more, I find the energy of the idea is sapped and the concept gets bogged down or obfuscated. I like complexity in music, and often feel I should add it. But then the problem.

Somgwriting is a very revealing process. You should try it

I've learned quite a lot about synths over the last 6 months.

PS, though it's off topic, I got a lot of stuff 'second hand' through legit license transfers. Others that might be interested in the same should check this site out. My experience has been totally fine and legit. If nothing else the name they chose for the site is entertaining.

 

[Steel Icarus]

I've been writing songs since I was 16. Between then and about aged 30 I wrote a lot; I could tell when one was on the way as the process was always the same.

I'd get the foundation, either a vocal tune/first line, or a chord sequence. If it was good I'd then feel a sense of need, of anxious anticipation. I'd get the rest of the tune to the song, be it verse, chorus, pre chorus or middle eight depending then see what basic chords fitted, then mess about with alternative chords or even transposing the whole thing if it wasn't in my range. I might add a guitar line or solo, or keyboard bit. Lyrics would usually be last.

Only if the whole thing at every stage excited me would I keep it. I wouldn't often cannibalise bits of discarded songs for new ones. Until the song was complete I'd pace, be on edge, feel sick almost, until a song was done. Often I'd keep at it to the exclusion of all else including food and sleep.

It gradually changed over time though so more and more songs didn't get finished, and as I got better at guitar I'd just write riffs and do nothing with them. Stopped writing lyrics too, I've got songs I've had completely written bar the words (except a chorus maybe) for a couple of decades.

Would love one day to record the songs I'm most proud of but I'm not sure how to or if I have the impetus.


(Actually get good musicians to record them)

 

[Steel Icarus]

Re: over arranging - Polly Harvey said something interesting about songwriting - if you're struggling with a song, take out the thing you like best. If it still works then it's probably worth pursuing. I think that was it.

 

[rutabowa]

This video is will worth a watch


I can only do it with other people personally so I don't know.

 

[Steel Icarus]

In the best band I was in we wrote together, which is totally different thing. Lots of compromise but stuff you might not have considered alone. I tended to come up with choruses. Vocals, guitar and drums swapped instruments a lot between songs, the bass player rarely, the keyboard player was always on keyboards so came up with most of the musical ideas to begin with then the rest of us would jam until we had something like a song, and whoever was on vocals tended to write the words (but sometimes everyone put in their two pennorth)

 

[glitch hiker]

I've been writing songs since I was 16. Between then and about aged 30 I wrote a lot; I could tell when one was on the way as the process was always the same.

I'd get the foundation, either a vocal tune/first line, or a chord sequence. If it was good I'd then feel a sense of need, of anxious anticipation. I'd get the rest of the tune to the song, be it verse, chorus, pre chorus or middle eight depending then see what basic chords fitted, then mess about with alternative chords or even transposing the whole thing if it wasn't in my range. I might add a guitar line or solo, or keyboard bit. Lyrics would usually be last.

Only if the whole thing at every stage excited me would I keep it. I wouldn't often cannibalise bits of discarded songs for new ones. Until the song was complete I'd pace, be on edge, feel sick almost, until a song was done. Often I'd keep at it to the exclusion of all else including food and sleep.

It gradually changed over time though so more and more songs didn't get finished, and as I got better at guitar I'd just write riffs and do nothing with them. Stopped writing lyrics too, I've got songs I've had completely written bar the words (except a chorus maybe) for a couple of decades.

Would love one day to record the songs I'm most proud of but I'm not sure how to or if I have the impetus.


(Actually get good musicians to record them)

I agree. A good song should kick you in the nuts. In a good, and frankly less gender-specific, way.

I am starting to think I add too much which will make mixing a nightmare when I get round to it.

I was just working on a piece that I really liked. I've more or less finished the composition, just needs a little tweaking on one melody. I think it's good, but it's not as good as the original skwtch I came up when getting the ideas down. Perhaps it's the mechanical process of arranging that takes you out of the space of just laying down and expressing a pure idea.

Maybe I just need more arpeggiators.

 

[ska invita]

Re: over arranging - Polly Harvey said something interesting about songwriting - if you're struggling with a song, take out the thing you like best. If it still works then it's probably worth pursuing. I think that was it.

The best dance music should still roll along as powerful as ever with just the baseline and drums, everything else stripped back. Even if that doesn't precisely translate to songwriting the logic is the same . Power through simplicity is such a hard thing to crack

 

[klang]

Would love one day to record the songs I'm most proud of but I'm not sure how to or if I have the impetus.


(Actually get good musicians to record them)

worth considering to work with a producer.

 

[glitch hiker]

I'm listening to Kraftwerk at the moment, which is interesting coming from a non-dance/techno standpoint. Their music is, harmonically, very simple. It's not Keither Emerson keyboard soloing (thank the gods), but the music I generally listen to is much more bombastic and complicated. Plus they sing songs about, variously, robots, europe (take that Nigel!), international banking, online dating, phone sex (probably not intentionally), cycling, and macronutrients.

There is a real art to simplifying compositions so that a) they speak to the listener and b) are interesting and c) not derivative.

Tangerine Dream on the other hand use a lot more complex electronics to texture their music. Comparisons are completely un productive but I like both bands. Early 80's TD is superb, their sound design is peerless.

I've been messing with the Fairlight (emulation by Arturia) which has been inspired by reading about Brad Fiedels incredible soundtrack for Terminator 2. This amusing soundscape is the result. Yes I'm going to use thsi thread to air my thoughts about composition and learning to make hopefully good music as well as show off, sue me.

Weirdest of all, I've been playing bass (not professionally, fwiw) for 30 years. I have no real desire to write songs using it at this time.