how do you guys write songs in a band?

[Stazinish]

I've been playing with this band for the past few weeks. We've just been doing jammy kind of stuff but now we want to do some original songs. I have some ideas but I've never really written with a band before. I kind of feel like I'm not getting any help and I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and write the songs on my own and bring them to them.

 

What's your process? How do you do it?

[P. Wallace]

Write some riffs that compliment eachother. Then, decide how many times or repetitions of a riff you want to play before you switch to the next riff, repeat.

[claytonjohn18]

I usually come up with a loose song, you know, riffage, progressions, rough timbres, textures etc. Then my drummer and I get together and jam out. We see what works and doesn't work, and he usually plays guitar in lieu of a looper. Then I jam the more succinct ideas with my other guitarist. Then we all come together and I point my bassist in the right direction and let him feel it.

 

[OMTerria]

We have two methods:

A) One person comes in with an idea, and we work with the idea to try to flesh it out and get a more complete song going.

 

B) We get baked and start jamming. If something sounds cool, we stop and write it down and then do what we do in method A

 

Just try to have fun with it. The more fun you have making the song, the more fun it'll be for you to play

[distance21]

I usually come up with the ideas for songs, record them, and then we all fileshare. With members in college, it's hard to rehearse every week.

[who235]

I prefer to write the songs and bring them in. In my last band, it was almost the only way we ever got anything done.

 

Everyone still pretty much writes their own parts for their instrument if I haven't written one already, but I try to bring almost fully formed songs whenever possible.

 

Some people can write collaboratively and some can't. I can't.

[Stazinish]

I prefer to write the songs and bring them in. In my last band, it was almost the only way we ever got anything done. Everyone still pretty much writes their own parts for their instrument if I haven't written one already, but I try to bring almost fully formed songs whenever possible. Some people can write collaboratively and some can't. I can't.

 

 

I feel like you're kind of like me. I'm just not too confident in my songwriting abilities.

[who235]

I feel like you're kind of like me. I'm just not too confident in my songwriting abilities.

 

 

Well, those ablilities only get better and your confidence in them only goes up as you write more songs.

 

If you never get {censored} done and spend every practice dicking around with a riff that never goes anywhere, you will never be confident because you will have nothing but a bunch of half-songs.

 

Bringing in a full song and having good quality rehearsals with some real direction is one sure way to keep the writing train rolling.

[Stazinish]

Well, those ablilities only get better and your confidence in them only goes up as you write more songs. If you never get {censored} done and spend every practice dicking around with a riff that never goes anywhere, you will never be confident because you will have nothing but a bunch of half-songs. Bringing in a full song and having good quality rehearsals with some real direction is one sure way to keep the writing train rolling.

Good advice. Thanks.

[goodhonk]

i come in with all the ideas and everyone poopoos them.

[Gremson]

One of us usually comes in with a couple parts, maybe just a verse and a chorus. Then the rest of the band completely destroys it and makes a new song that hardly sounds anything like what we originally brought in.

 

This usually works pretty well for us.

[macadood]

@ your avatar gremson

[orangesix]

i do it on the fly, keep what works and throw away what doesn't

[christianatl]

With a Sharpie, usually.

[Mitchell?]

[Crxsh]

I love writing in a band setting

[TravvyBear]

I used to come in with the skeleton of the song. Let the other members build the parts they like.

 

Though I usually wrote all the parts minus some drums.

[Thomas Rojo]

its hard.

People (one person) in my band comes up with chords then lyrics, then let the bass player feel for it then the drums gets a hold of it. I find it very hard to find people that we can both put in the same effort on each song, it's like the band's songs are a single person's song rather than a real collaboration.

[80sShred4TheWin]

One of the guitar players in the band comes up with a riff everyone likes and then the other guitarist and me argue for a couple hours about what shold go here and what should go there and by the end of the day we usually have a good skeloton of it. Then we jam out the rest of it letting the drummer and bassist do what they feel is right. Then we put some vocals over it and we have a song.

[nuclear arsenal]

there's always playing.

[theboywho]

We just play something, most of our reherasals are recorded so we listen back and work ideas that sound good into a song, our singer has a sketch of lyrics he makes up then we all work on them from there. All our songs are written from start to finish in one room with all of us there.

My other band though is completly improvised, so we wright all our songs in gigs.

[CicadaSilence]

My band has a couple different methods.

1) The singer will bring a "singer-songwriter" song in; usually just him on acoustic, and the band will add their parts. In this case, I usually rearrange the song quite a bit, add a bridge, try a couple different ways of voicing chords, etc. Our singer isn't much of a guitarist, and tends to rely on the same few chords. I hate it when songs sound too same-y, so I'll try and mix it up.

2) I'll bring in a piece of music I've been beating to death at home, and the singer will come up with lyrics and a vocal melody. Usually, I'll have a couple different sections that work together, and by a process of elimination, we'll find out which ones work best in a band context. The others get jettisoned, or sometimes end up a completely different song.

3) The bassist will play some dirge-y bassline that sounds like Peter Hook on Xanax (Even though he listens predominantly to John Mayer and Coheed & Cambria ) and I'll double the tempo and make him play more rests. Then we'll proceed ala method 2.

We're trying our collective hand at writing a concept album for our next EP; I figure it will be a growing experience for us all, and most of my favorite albums are conceptual. Our graphic arts guy recently wired our singer's basement (rehearsal area) as a ghetto recording studio, so we'll be able to demo our new stuff and try a couple different compositional approaches.

[Mr. Shankly]

In a band: Bring in some skeleton song structures and then jam it out.

Noise solo: Just jam and record everything to mix later.

Scuzz rock duo: Write everything with a drum machine (synth, bass, axe), vox chick writes the lyrics. Still need to get someone on synth for when live action comes up.

[Mind_Riot89]

I usually bring in complete ideas but they're often extended by jamming on them with my drummer and bassist. Sometimes other band members will bring in a section and I'll add to it. They're a great couple of guys to work with and really add to the songs that I write.

[Josh S]

In my band either myself or the singer writes the song beforehand, and then we bring it in and work on it. They are more or less finished songs when they come in, though.