Everyone's Writing Process

[Vanncad]

The feedback and inspiration I get on this site have helped me produce more music the  last 4 months than I did the last 10 years and inspiration is a major part whatever method I use writing songs !!!

Well said Geir! As a new member on this site, I agree with this statement 100%. I have played my guitar more in the last couple weeks than in the last 2 years. I am looking forward to contributing a song to the Woodstock Fest and hopefully colloborating with some of you in the future.

The music and information on this board is very inspiring, especially when you see what people can do with minimal equipment (but maximum talent). Unfortunately, the opposite usually applies to commercial music.

- Vann

[Glenn Mitchell]

1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

[AndyR]

1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

That's me as well

I've got loads to say on this topic - a very cool topic... but I'm just about to leave work and struggle home... so I won't start.

Hopefully I'll remember to come back to this one

[Bluesberry]

1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

That's me as well

I've got loads to say on this topic - a very cool topic... but I'm just about to leave work and struggle home... so I won't start.

Hopefully I'll remember to come back to this one

I hope you don't forget Andy, I would really like to hear your take on this magical art of songwriting.

[Oldrottenhead]

1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

i think i might be the reverse of that, if i find im struggling on a song i usually bin it, cos the ones that come quickly are usually the best. that said hooper's made me sweat hard on a few songs, but at heart im just a lazy sod.

[OsCKilO]

New one for me that I found out the other day....

ORH's "stream of thought" stuff really works for lyrics for me..........

With the MBR, you can just record/speak your thoughts onto a track and then sing them onto another without stopping to write anything down....

It Keeps the feeling flowing really well....

 

[henwrench]

I don't write the songs, they visit me and if I'm lucky they'll let me write them down.

                                                    henwrench

[flyon90]

I try to start out with a basic idea and just add on to it, like come up with a drum line and build the song up around it.  Improv is a big part of it.

[Oldrottenhead]

I don't write the songs, they visit me and if I'm lucky they'll let me write them down.

                                                    henwrench

that sums it up for me

[Nelson]

What a great topic. Maybe the greatest of all time.
Now it's been 15 minutes since I wrote that last line and so much has gone through my mind and haven't written down a thing. lol
Well first I always thought I would make such a great writer of songs but I never was able to write a song. Then after meeting other wanna be song writers I realize we all had something in common. We were confusing the two phrases" It comes naturally to me" with "It comes easily for me". (This is all just my opinion) But I think that writing coming naturally for someone only means that they have the aptitude to do it and not that it is always easy for them to do. Just think of your favorite athlete, the best Football player, Baseball player, Boxer or golfer in the world. You can make the argument that their particular sport, came naturally to them but to be that good at it, there's nothing natural or easy about. Hey you can be an athlete but to be a good athlete takes hard work and commitment.  I feel just that way about song writing. Look a lot of folks are gifted with the ability to link words that rhymes. Be it poems or songs. And most of us start out that way but when you get down to it, I believe there is something more important to the song or poem, than its words. It is its Soul or its Emotional content. I remember when I first started trying to write songs and lets say I just finished a verse but something just wasn't right about it. It was like pulling teeth to get myself to erase a line that took me so long to come up with. Now I call it falling in love with my own words. Just because it rhymes and fits the space and it really doesn't take away from the piece. When the question should be, what does it bring to the piece.
I still struggle with this all the time. But I strongly believe that if you create your songs or poems with strong emotional foundation then you can take out , what you consider to be the best verse in the song and replace it and the song will be just as strong. Because it's not about the words it's about the feeling. For instance say the songs about on a great night out and there's a verse about two buddies working in dead end jobs that they hate. But come Fridays they fill their cooler with ice and beer, jump in the pick up, grab a couple of girls head on down to the lake, light a fire and party like haven't a care in the world. Or replace that verse with, a trucker makes it back home after a back braking week on the road with barely enough money to pay the bills. He sees his loving wife who has been waring herself ragged keeping the home fires burning and he decides that she deserves a night out. So they get all dressed up and he takes her out on the most expensive and romantic night of dining and dancing of their lives, as if they haven't a care in the world.
See it really doesn't matter which words you keep or throw out because the song was created with a strong emotional foundation which remains intact even if some words are removed. After some work you'll find other words to replace them but it will be up to you to decide whether they are filling space and not really taking away from the piece or if they actually bring something to the piece(song).
Now guys I'm not making any claims to be a great song writer, by any means. Nor am I claiming to successfully adhere to these principles all the time. But these are some beliefs that I have formed doing my brief journey, as a fledgling songwriter. This is the first time I actually took the time to articulate my view on the subject. Sorry about the length guys but it felt so good to get it out.
After this I'm not sure if anyone is even interested in my actual writing process. But to make it brief, I always starts with the music.
This is how it happens when I start completely from scratch(no ideas)
1st- I find a chord progression that I feels goods.
2nd-Play it over and over using figure picking
3rd -Record a rough arrangement and listen some more
Here is where I get a little loony.
4th-I listen until I can almost here a faint vocal track-right under the rhythm of the figure picking- It's usually part of whats to become the chorus which almost always includes to title.
Another loony thing.
Just before this happens I begin to get a sense of the emotion tone of the song or its emotional foundation. Then it's like the smoke begins to clear and the stories slowly begin to reveal themselves.
5th- Once the song reveals its Emotional tone and the Chorus to me, I create the verses.
And then I must decide whether the verses merely hold the song together or if they propel the story forward. But if I just listen to the music and not fall in love with my own words, I can usually feel what works and what doesn't.

Thanks for the opportunity,guys.

-Nelson