writing...

[gcom007]

let's talk about writing...how do you do it? do you just fidget until something sounds good and go? do you write without even knowing it? what do you do? personally, I don't know what I do...I guess stuff just comes to me. Sometimes I try really hard to write and find stuff that works, but other times I just can't and it's a bummer. I've written so much stuff that I've forgotten and it bugs me. Then there's the lyrics problem...once I get the music down, what about lyrics??? oh, it's a pain...

[gravedigger]

it is a pain, and I get discouraged easily trying to write my own stuff. I've forgotten a bunch of stuff too. Just recently, I thought I was gonna actually finish a song - I left it for a few days and now I've lost interest and kinda forgot about it. I always think - does it sound too much like Dave? this has probably been done before. And yeah, the lyrics - hopeless. I think of a few good lines but I get writers block and can't think of anything else. It takes time, I guess.

[gcom007]

it is a pain, and I get discouraged easily trying to write my own stuff. I've forgotten a bunch of stuff too. Just recently, I thought I was gonna actually finish a song - I left it for a few days and now I've lost interest and kinda forgot about it. I always think - does it sound too much like Dave? this has probably been done before. And yeah, the lyrics - hopeless. I think of a few good lines but I get writers block and can't think of anything else. It takes time, I guess.

I'm wondering what the trick is...lately my writing feels so constipated...the stuff I come up with is just hard to play...just not natural...it seems so forced...I don't know how to describe it...it's just weird...nothing is flowing...I'm very discouraged right now

[gravedigger]

I think if you stick with it, things will fall into place. it seems weird to 'practice' your own songs but you must in order to improve on them - just like you practice any other song. try to stick with it and see where you get.

[gcom007]

I think if you stick with it, things will fall into place. it seems weird to 'practice' your own songs but you must in order to improve on them - just like you practice any other song. try to stick with it and see where you get.

yeah, it just gets old at times...thinking about it now literally makes me sink down and slouch like crazy...it feels so strained right now...there are periods where it's not like that...I actually came off a good strip of writing, but write now I feel like I'm carrying a gigantic weight on my back...I need to write something zesty and poppy that just is easy and natural and I just can't!

[Xoosh]

i tend to write at my best... during my most down times... or most emotional (good and bad). My band has a science that we've broken song writing down into... This is what works for us... it may not work for you.

There are 2 ways that we do this.

1. one of us allready has a riff / jam / guitar line / whatever that we wrote just randomly that we really like.

2. We come up with a title and idea for a song... then write the lyrics... then the guitar lines will come from the emotion of the lyrics. I like coming up with a random paradoxial title and going from there.. ie: Stormy Tuesdays... (most people think of mondays, fridays, and saturdays as popular song days etc...). We recently wrote a song called "Chubby Hubby" which sounds sort of fun ... but as we started to sit down and write the lyrics it became a much more serious and somber attitude song about a husband who ignores his wife (and we got sort of metaphorical and philosophical about god... etc).

If you want to hear some stuff that i've written solo (guitar work) I will link you.

http://delvedesigns.com/jon/anna.mp3 - Anna
http://delvedesigns.com/jon/anna_jam3.mp3 - Jam version of Anna
http://delvedesigns.com/jon/missingyou.mp3 - Missing You
http://delvedesigns.com/jon/seeingyou.mp3 - Seeing You

If you want more i can put more up... that's my pre-demo recordings... the stuff i wrote at the moment i was inspired to write it.

Regards...

if you have any questions you can Instant Message me. my screen name is Aguitarguy02

/X

[gcom007]

i tend to write at my best... during my most down times... or most emotional (good and bad). My band has a science that we've broken song writing down into... This is what works for us... it may not work for you.

There are 2 ways that we do this.

1. one of us allready has a riff / jam / guitar line / whatever that we wrote just randomly that we really like.

2. We come up with a title and idea for a song... then write the lyrics... then the guitar lines will come from the emotion of the lyrics. I like coming up with a random paradoxial title and going from there.. ie: Stormy Tuesdays... (most people think of mondays, fridays, and saturdays as popular song days etc...). We recently wrote a song called "Chubby Hubby" which sounds sort of fun ... but as we started to sit down and write the lyrics it became a much more serious and somber attitude song about a husband who ignores his wife (and we got sort of metaphorical and philosophical about god... etc).

If you want to hear some stuff that i've written solo (guitar work) I will link you.

http://delvedesigns.com/jon/anna.mp3 - Anna
http://delvedesigns.com/jon/anna_jam3.mp3 - Jam version of Anna
http://delvedesigns.com/jon/missingyou.mp3 - Missing You
http://delvedesigns.com/jon/seeingyou.mp3 - Seeing You

If you want more i can put more up... that's my pre-demo recordings... the stuff i wrote at the moment i was inspired to write it.

Regards...

if you have any questions you can Instant Message me. my screen name is Aguitarguy02

/X

I'm listening to this stuff now...it's pretty cool, I may be shooting you an IM in a few...

[gcom007]

ok, so does anyone want to share stuff now, if you do, post your IM and I'll send some of the crap I have recorded at this point...it's pretty rough, but oh well...

[ticohans]

I can share some of my stuff. drop me an email at halarson@davidson.edu or shoot me an im at ticohans83

I'll go into the writing process when I have time later tonight. I'm in the middle of writing a paper right now. Yuck.

[waffle_house_jam]

writing riffs for me comes easiest when im with a few other good guitarists, and completely buzzed on caffeine about 2 in the morning. i think its much easier to just sit down and jam until something cool comes out than actually sitting down to write riffs. i know nothing about music theory, so its always fiddling around for me. as for lyrics, i dont even try. even if you do write well, chances are you'll hate it and throw it away, and nobody will ever know. i also have the problem of getting burned out on songs. ill get a rhythm down and start writing lead, get well into it and think, whats the point? i play it so much i hate it, then never bother. i guess the trick is to go slow.

[gcom007]

writing riffs for me comes easiest when im with a few other good guitarists, and completely buzzed on caffeine about 2 in the morning. i think its much easier to just sit down and jam until something cool comes out than actually sitting down to write riffs. i know nothing about music theory, so its always fiddling around for me. as for lyrics, i dont even try. even if you do write well, chances are you'll hate it and throw it away, and nobody will ever know. i also have the problem of getting burned out on songs. ill get a rhythm down and start writing lead, get well into it and think, whats the point? i play it so much i hate it, then never bother. i guess the trick is to go slow.

I have that problem...I've ripped up a ton of stuff and I overplay like crazy...it's not fun...I'm working on lyrics to a song right now...

[gcom007]

I'm getting on my public IM account...

IM me at gcom007 and we can chat about music, we should make a chat room and jsut constantly have it going...call it dmbtabs...you can just invite yourself when you want to

[ticohans]

I personally do the singer/songwriter thing, so for me the lyrics are just as important as the music. Songs come to me in a million different ways, and as they come in a new way, it changes my approach to writing. I used to believe that all songs should just be inspired. You should just sit down, start playing away, and let something happen. Or you should be waiting in line for lunch and a beautiful melody or lyric pops into your head. As soon as you get the chance, you put a little music to that melody or lyric, and let it flow. If it doesn't flow, don't push it. Try again the next day, the next week, the next month, whatever. That worked ok for a while, and I wrote a few decent songs. But there was this one song that I had simmering inside me for forever. For a year and a half I had this guitar part that I LOVED, a few beautiful chorus lines, and snips and pieces of melodies here and there, but it just wasn't coming together. At that point, I said, screw it, I'm going to work this thing out. I sat down with it, analyzed it and considered what worked and what didn't and went from there. I started by hammering out the lyrics as I feel more comfortable working those hard first. Then I hammered out a guitar part that fit the lyrics and a melody came from that. After a few revisions and a few cool down times where I let the song sit untouched for a couple weeks, it was finished, and I was pleased with the results. And my ideas about song writing changed, to where I then thought that song writing is much more than just inspiration: it's work and sweat and revision. And my song writing improved with this new idea, as I worked more on what came to me. Then recently as I was walking down a particularly beautiful path here at Davidson, this great lyric and melody popped into my head. It stuck there and worked it's way around. After thinking about it for a few moments, I realized that the song that was brewing had nothing to do with anything I was going through or thinking. It described a situation that was totally foreign to me at that moment. But I said, hey, let's work at it and see what happens. And I worked and the song came out good. There was an experience I had four years ago that is somewhat similar to the song, and that could have been the source material, but there was more to it than that. So now I think that one can write a good song, provided the proper inspiration and sensitivity, about something that has nothing to do with where you are mentally or emotionally.

Sometimes it takes me more than a year to write a song. Sometimes it takes me 15 minutes, and those 15 minute songs usually aren't that good. Sometimes I'll get the guitar first. Sometimes the melody. Sometimes the lyrics. I've even had a song where I wrote some lyrics, then a month and a half later, having totally forgotten about the lyrics, wrote a guitar part. Then another two months after that, I ran across them in my notes at the same time and realized that they were perfect for each other.

Wow that got long.