Everyone's Writing Process

[TPB]

I used to loose a lot of songs I go both ways sometime a riff and build off that and other time lyrics. I keep a log on my comouter now and in the studio and will write down ideals lyrics when they hit me sometimes the lyrics maybe only the chorus or part of the verse and there they sit until one day I am noodling or thinking of a song base and there it is might have been sitting the write file for years. Seem to work out better for me this way
Tim

[phantasm777]

i've already spoken on this, but i so far, am finding it easiest r=to write the vocals and melody after the song is done or mostly done. this way i dont have to write around the lyric which might take away from where the song might be going. and in this way i can compliment the song, by adding the words and melody to it, rather than writing around it. which is ok, but not a preference.

[T.C. Elliott]

FM - A few songwriting friends that are almost exclusively lyric first say the exact same thing. Only they change the places of music and lyric. They say the song (music) should support the lyric/vocals. That doesn't mean the melody comes first, but the lyric should be good/finished so that the instrumentation and arrangement all support the lyric.

Personally I do music first because it feels right. But I have to admit, sometimes I get a lyric that is the opposite of what the music sounds like. Often a very sad or disturbing lyric on a nice happy melody. Which is fun, and I like it, but sometimes puts ppl off.

[Farrell Jackson]

Personally I do music first because it feels right. But I have to admit, sometimes I get a lyric that is the opposite of what the music sounds like. Often a very sad or disturbing lyric on a nice happy melody. Which is fun, and I like it, but sometimes puts ppl off.

Yeah T.C. I end up there myself on occasion. A sad song with light hearted words or just the opposite.....but I think that's quite fine because it can make for an interesting listen......maybe that's why I don't have any major successes, lol.

Farrell

[T.C. Elliott]

They call it quirky. 
I just realized that over the winter I wrote several songs lyric first. A nice person in the U.K. posted several lyric pages and I put some of them to music. I was pretty darn happy with them, too.

[Hook]

There's no formula....ok wait I guess there is a formula... and perhaps a couple....but the key is, in my humble, worthless opinion is to forget everything anyone says and do what feels right. We are writing and the idea is to be creative, nothing helps creativity like changing things up. If you always write a certain way, switch it up, who knows what you might get! Or don't, who cares! Be honest, explore your heart, play with passion and good things will come!
Rock on!

[Oldrottenhead]

saw a spider looking at this thread and had a read through it again. the thing that seems to be consistent with my songwriting of late,not collaborations where i might provide a lyric but my own complete songs/sketchs. is i have a lot of different approaches and try to mix things up. the approach is usually dependent on
1. time available
2. location
3. instruments at hand.

in some cases i may pick up an acoustic guitar or my ukele and strum out some chords and warble over the top till something comes. in such cases i either come up with nothing or a song appears very quickly out of nowhere.

sometimes a song or idea for a song can form in my head, then the difficult part is getting that down. either writing the lyrics or grabbing whatever instrument i have to hand and trying to get an approximation of what is in my head.

when i have some time on my hands, i will spend time building a rhythm track either from scratch using midi in cubase. or using drum loops and building them up on another daw, i cant recall its name but came preinstalled on my new pc. or building drum tracks on my micro br, my juno di or drum machine. once i have a drum track and a bit of time, i will mess about with different instruments to see if it sparks any inspiration. of late i have dug out my bass guitar, having rarely used it, its like having a new colour to paint with.

learning a few new chords or messing with different effects can also provide the inspiration for a bundle of new songs too.

the downside for me is if i find a new way of doing things i can get into a routine and then it get's a bit like flogging a dead horse and songs start sounding the same, uno sticking to one formula.

so mix up your approaches and hopefully add some freshness to things. as i said of late ive been getting out my bass guitar, and getting a lot of inspiration from it, but already i am worried that pretty soon, that things will start getting formulaic with that too. so i think i need some new colours for my palette, maybe a mandolin or a wee electronic sampler thingy i got my eyes on. bloody gas.

[Hilary]

Oooo I can't believe I haven't commented on this thread before (must be a first!). I find my best songs tend to be the ones that are in my head, 90% formed (mostly lyrics but sometimes lyrics and melody) and then I rush to get them down on paper/recorded as quickly as possible and see if I can actually play them. I then always leave them for a day and come back to them to finish off the melody and usually add a chorus (the subconscious is a wonderful thing). I like to think about my songs a lot. Those that are performed are constantly revised, I'm completely ruthless and it's normal to change something on the night to fit in with the venue/audience.

Sometimes I have to write to a theme and or deadline (which is horrible and very rarely successful - I had to write 20 mins of new material in a week once, which is basically 4 songs - never again!) and my 'inspiration' is the initial spark of an idea or notion.

If I'm struggling with a song for more than 2 days, I'll walk away and usually pinch one or two ideas from it for something else.

I'm not sure how useful this is to anyone else but my advice would be to always keep a notebook and pen handy (I like the physicality of actually writing it out) or a recording device to capture ideas whenever they might occur.

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter how you do it, it's the fact that you're actually doing it that counts.

[Johnny Robbo]

Here's my approach...

Begin by thinking "What kind of piece do I want to write?" I may be after a classic rock vibe, or blues, country, jazz... whatever. I may even have a specific track in mind & be thinking "If only I'd written THAT..."

Next, I write down a list of attributes I want the tune to have... what sort of BPM; should it be happy or melancholy; how much light & shade etc.

Finally, when I have a general plan sorted I'll write three contrasting chord progressions: Verse, Chorus & Middle Section. This is where I love to play with key changes & shifts in tonality - a verse in Am going to a chorus in Eb major for example. I then tend to arrange the component parts into something like this format:

Verse 1 - Verse 2 - Chorus 1 - Verse 3 - Chorus 2 - Chorus 3 - Middle Section - Verse 4 - Chorus 4 - Chorus 5

Then it's a case of coming up with a melody - this is the easiest part for me. It's just a case of tying strong chord notes together with whatever scale is appropriate for the underlying chord progression. I'll then spend days learning to play that melody in every position on the neck, getting ultra-comfortable & familiar with it until I can improvise around it & phrase the notes differently (bends/slides/hammer-ons etc.) without thinking too much about it.

The very last stage is to come up with an intro & ending, as well as doing the more "free-form" solo part. Intros will usually be a chunk of the chorus - getting the hook in right at the outset of the song is a nifty little ploy to get the listener interested from the very 1st second - or just turning over the 1st chord of the verse, or some riff based on it. As for the ending... you can't beat a solo over the chorus part with an ascending key change or two as the whole thing builds to a climax or fades out.

It might sound a bit cold & clinical (or even formulaic) to write music this way, but I can usually craft something along these lines & at some point the inspiration will kick in and I'm off & running 

[Hilary]

I wanted to write a song about standing strong together, you know the sum is greater than the parts and didn't have anytime. So I set the BR on record and got on with stuff I needed to do and this is what came out - it's the first part of just over 3 mins and is unedited. It's very faint as I didn't check the levels. I really like just seeing what turns up . . .

(I'm bending down on the last you which is why there's no control!)

Take my hand

Take my hand and know I love you
Take my hand and know I'm true
Take my hand and hold me in your heart
And know that I will always love you

So take my hand, we'll walk together
And chase all the blues away
And take my hand and hold me
Hold me, forever and a day

Take my hand along our journey
Take my hand and hold it true
Take my hand and know I love you
Take me with you in everything you do

And stay close by my side
In everything we do
And know down deep in your very heart
I love you