Members Cavedog Posted November 1, 2002 Members Share Posted November 1, 2002 Hey, This may seem like an incredibly weird/stupid/smelly question, but i'm just interested in how your band goes about writing songs. I know it varies, but basically what usually happens (e.g. does the guitarist come up with a riff, or the bassist or is a drum beat laid out first? Maybe lyrics are made first?) Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KingAnimal Posted November 1, 2002 Members Share Posted November 1, 2002 Im just a guitarist ,Im not in a band so I get no bass lines or drum beats ,but my writing process is lyrics or riffs first.Just depends what I think of first.Then chourus,then maybe a bridge if I feel it goes with a song then a solo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IndyGuitarist Posted November 4, 2002 Members Share Posted November 4, 2002 usually one of us guitarists form a riff or basic rythym, and a rough melody. Then we will all sort of hash out the lyrics together, and add dynamics as needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wastegate Posted November 4, 2002 Members Share Posted November 4, 2002 Sometimes one of us will bring a rough idea to the table, other times the song is complete except minor changes, still other times we jam off of a riff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheMalchick Posted November 5, 2002 Members Share Posted November 5, 2002 I know that everytime my band writes a song it starts with one guy. If my guitar player wrote something the other day, he starts to play it, and we just jump in. If I wrote some lyrics, I sing them and they try to figure out what would work. And so on and so forth. It's really a group effort, although sometimes one of us has a good solid idea of how they want a song to sound and if they stick to their guns long enough, it will sink in with the rest of us. At least thats what we do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chirpy_72 Posted November 6, 2002 Members Share Posted November 6, 2002 Usually, I present the band with the basic sog completed ( or close to completed ). This includes all the chord changes and a good deal of the lyrics. Most riffs are also there at that point. I present it to the rest of the guys and the bass and drum parts along with maybe a break down is added as we work on it together. Sometimes the singer presents us with a song of his in much the same manner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike_Hawk Posted November 10, 2002 Members Share Posted November 10, 2002 My band:1 singer1 guitarist (me)1 bassist1 drummer I normally bring 2-3 riffs in, with an idea in mind of what order they should be in, and which is the verse, or chorus, or whatever. But our singer always seems to have a knack for singing where I do NOT want him to, and to swap the verse riff for th chorus, etc. Anyway.... from that, me and the drummer jam on it for a few, get a feel for it. We try to get it on a 4 track, and pass that off to the singer, so he can write lyrics to it (if he doesn't already have lyrics written).... the next practice our drummer normally changes a few parts, whether we change the tempo, make it off time ,etc, - he normally adds something to it. Bass player does minimal most of the time, but he's got some cool stuff too. Thats how we work. (For the most part) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WattsUrizen Posted November 10, 2002 Members Share Posted November 10, 2002 Umm... I write all our material myself. Am I a music Nazi? I suppose so. The other guys don't mind though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jkat Posted November 10, 2002 Members Share Posted November 10, 2002 It sometimes starts off with a riff, a good chord progression, with keyboard/guitar/bass, good vocal line, an intro, a few lines of lyrics, somethin you heard somewhere (radio, tv, conversation, argument, observation etc) never ever be put off by someone saying this is crap! look for constructive critisism, its all a matter of taste anyhow (subjective). thanks jkat:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Flat Fifth Fury Posted November 11, 2002 Members Share Posted November 11, 2002 Every band is different in the way that they write. My band is a prog metal outfit and we get pretty complex and technical - not exactly the easiest stuff to jam on to get ideas going. The other guitarist and I tend to work on ideas on our own to get a strong feel for them. We chart out what we are doing and what we think are good starting points for the rest of the band. At rehearsal we bring the charts and play the ideas for the band to listen to while going over the charts and hearing our thoughts on the piece. Then we play as per the chart and on the second of third time through everyone starts making suggestions to flesh it out. As we go along, we make changes to the chart and write in new ideas that come from our initial work. Then we make a rough recording of the piece to send it to our vocalist/lyricist along with the charts for her to refference. She comes to most rehersals to hear what we are working on but does most of her work on her own using our CD's and charts, comming by every other rehearsal to try out what she is working on. After that we all go home and practice the new material, make a finished copy of the chart and start the proceedure over at the next rehearsal. Considering that the other guitarist and I play so many harmony and counter melody parts it would be nearly impossible to do this kind of stuff if we didn't have charts. We have just finished a slower piece, kind of a 5 minute jazz ballad that goes through 4 keys, 6 time signatures and 18 chords - how are you going to easily remember all that from a jam? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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