OT: Song Writing

[SonicMayhem42]

How do you guys write your songs?  I used to write all the time but as time has gone it has gotten harder.  I come up with riffs and maybe a chorus but then it goes nowhere.  How do you guys write?  Is there a method you follow?  Or should I just give it up?

[Player99]

Relax, put your heart on you sleeve, write something that means something to you. Don't think about anything from the business side of things.

[Danhedonia]

There are some good thoughts on the songwriting forum and you may wish to read.

I think the first thing you need to do is have a good think about what 'song' means to you.  If that sounds a bit Zen, just think of a few examples:

* Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices can take you through an intro, a verse or two, a chorus or two, and maybe even a bridge in under 2:00.

* U2 tends to take simple riffs, huge choruses, and work them over and over for five minutes through a variety of textures, tempos, etc.

* Roy Montgomery (experimental guitarist) has albums where there are just 10 minute exploratory passages.

Perhaps you prefer one style of composition to another; perhaps you don't.  But it's important to figure that out first, because as you note you are feeling like you can't finish them.  So, define "finished" first.  And perhaps permit yourself to go in some different directions than the past.

Second, you simply must commit to doing it.  That may sound obvious and trite, but it's just true.  Good and productive songwriters have work habits.  They may be quite different, but they do it.  Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields writes great lyrics, but has a hard time finishing them at his home, so he takes himself to bars where he holes up the corner and works on them.

You must do the same.  Get a regimen of writing, and commit to it.  And if it doesn't work, change it.

Finally, listen to lots of others' music.  I used to work with a lot of recording artists, and as the expression goes "you have a lifetime to write your first album, six months to write the second."  No one can simply press a "good idea now, please" button. 

But you can force yourself to listen to others' good ideas, and that, IMO, is the most reliable way to prime your pump. 

Here are some more specific suggestions:

* Riff writing can be enhanced by practicing scales.  Seriously.  Try omitting every other note and messing with the timing of a Mixolydian in the 3rd position .... see what sounds good.  Turning on a drum machine and playing scales over it is an almost-guaranteed riff starter.

* Finish lyrics by running the story of the song like a movie in your mind.  Show, don't "tell."  Paul Westerberg gets a lot more mileage out of singing "How do you say 'I love you' to an answering machine?" than "When you didn't answer I felt insecure and worried you were sleeping with someone else while I'm on tour."  Create the image in your mind, let it go, and write it down.

* Don't try to be profound all the time.  There are great songs about favorite shirts, as well as the meaning of life.

* Move on.  If a song is stuck halfway, this isn't childbirth.  Put it down for a month.  Come back to it.  Or take two half finished songs and see if you can put them together, somehow. 

* Try different tunings.  This will immediately suggest new melodies and harmonies.

There are some common elements here:
- A work space where you can be creative without interruption
- Exposing yourself to others' work, and thinking about that work critically
- Schedule (yes, we will all different versions of this)
- Commitment.  You simply must commit to doing it.

The last point is important.  If you are having a block, it's important to keep hammering at it, even if for a while you get poor results.  You have to get through them to move on to better stuff, and best to do it sooner rather than later.

Finally, I'd suggest keeping a notebook or song diary.  That can be recorded snippets kept in a file folder, or a pen and paper notebook, whatever.  But it's important to track and keep your ideas.

[WWW]

Player99 and Dan's posts, while one is much longer than the other, both contain excellent advice.

I can only add to this by replying to your words:

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I used to write all the time but as time has gone it has gotten harder.

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Try some different strum/picking patterns and scales. I constantly find myself playing the same riffs over and over and it gets boring. Take some of your old stuff and put a different beat to it and it becomes something new and fresh.

I've made it a habit to break out my iphone to record short clips anytime I'm just noodling to capture what sounds good at the time. Break it out a day or two later, or a week or a year later and mold it.

[V]

I have written some of my best songs entirely in my head or by humming. I've heard that Michael Jackson wrote all of his songs by humming and beat boxing and I think there's something to that. If you can hum or sing every part then you know other people can hum your song too.

On the flip side I think the most interesting sounds I've made are not hummable so taking some time to make just plain sounds and marry strong melodies with them often yields good results.

[Danhedonia]

Look at the words and phrases that keep coming up, and you'll see patterns.  "Commitment," "Make a habit ...," "scales," "tunings."  It's dedication to pushing yourself.

I think that a lot of people who are musically creative do the humming-in-the-head thing - because they just naturally 'hear' music in their head.  I know I do, and so do a lot of songwriters I really respect.  One then has the luxury of spending energy on "getting the music out," which to me is a challenge preferable to "I am not hearing music in my head."

OP seems to be at the latter point, kind of "out of ideas," and pump-priming can be done with scales, and various ways of forcing yourself to do things you might not choose if you were just sitting around noodling on the guitar.

Discussing this is enormously pleasurable for me, apologies for the verbosity.  A long time ago, that was pretty much my life, and while I don't miss the crappy parts of the music business, I desperately miss the creative process. 

Being at a recording session where an artist is tracking a song I really like was like witnessing childbirth for me.

[SonicMayhem42]

I love being creative and I still get ideas but some of it is harder to connect them. Some of it is just time. I have a family now plus school full time job. I am still playing daily, but often timesit is just playing covers or something to unwind. I just need some time I think.

[brokenfixed]

Ive found recording your riff to a drum machine beat and then punching in with another part as it comes along in jamming, can help you get pieces strung together. Also just having the drum machine drone on forever and jamming with will let other things come out.

[MyNameIsRyan]

I used to write decent songs.

 

Then when I found out I was a middle class white guy in his 30s, I realized I had nothing to complain about.

 

No one wants to hear about how I'm happy all the time.

[PKTrono]

i hit the buttons and the music comes out

[travisbrowning]

Lately I've been writing on the piano.

[SonicMayhem42]

Maybe I have the same problem Ryan.

[Felix959]

Ryan was making a joke, but damned if it isn't true. I'm a (almost) middle class white guy in his 30s and there are plenty of times when I'm too aware of my privilege to feel in touch with my songwriting.

 

I have no trouble with riffs or chord progressions. But pairing them with suitable lyrics can take months and months.

Danhedonia's suggestions were all spot-on. I will add this: Make a Google document for lyrics. Write down every random phrase that occurs to you during the day. Doesn't even matter if it's a couplet. Record it while it's there and then find a place to plug it in later. Sometimes I get a whole verse. Sometimes it's a single line that's so good I can build a chorus around it.