How do you write and compose with your band?

[DaveBallesteros]

What do you do to make new songs with your bandmates?

 

What instrument do you play and what's your point of view?

[Lee Flier]

Welcome to the forum Dave.

 

I'm the guitarist in a 3 piece band. The bass player and I write most of the songs, though now our drummer has written some too.

 

Usually one of us will write at least part of a song at home alone and work up a very rough demo, with just an acoustic guitar and vocal, enough to put the idea across. Sometimes we do this with the finished song, sometimes we just have a verse or a chorus and want to play that with the band to see where it goes, and that gives the writer an idea where to go from there (or someone else will have an idea).

 

We usually all work together to actually work out the arrangement and song structure. Sometimes we'll get all the way through working it out and then realize "This song needs a bridge" or "there doesn't need to be a break there" or whatever... then if the song needs another part the writer will go back and write one... or perhaps someone else will.

 

We usually don't have trouble agreeing on which arrangement works best. If we do, we defer to the original person who wrote the song.

 

Occasionally we have come up with new songs by "jamming" where I'll come up with a riff or the drummer will start playing a beat and we'll jam over that. But from there it still usually ends up with one person going home and taking "ownership" of the song, taking it upon themselves to come up with real lyrics and melody.

 

So it's usually one person who could be considered the writer of each song, but working it into its final form is a collective process.

[Dessalines]

Welcome.

 

Our band has five of us engaged in song writing, four of working alone initially and I engage in collaboration with my brother in law who also in the band.

 

My own procedure is to come up with the music first. Record that. Play with it for a while. Then I scat vocal lines to it, sometime recording those sometimes not. Then I decide on a subject, which leads to the lyric, which I record as I go. I will add parts to my demo, harmonies, and additional guitar parts. Once all of that is done, I mix it, create a master, and burn demo CD's for the band. I also write up the lyric on a computer and insert the chord changes in the appropriate spots. Print those. CD's and printed lead sheets go to rehearsal. Play the demo through for the band once or twice until they get a feel for it. Hand out the lead sheets and begin working. Some of the others only provide lead sheets while others do as I do. It all works but there has to be something for the band to work from initially. Recording set up at home is a Tascam DP-01/FX/CD, which has been discontinued though there is a newer model now replacing it. It's a fairly simple machine and works well for creating good quality demos.

 

In my collaborative efforts with my brother in law, he records on my machine and then the process for me is the same.

[sabriel9v]

I'm the guitarist in my group. I usually come up with the main riffs and then we jam on them. Afterwards we arrange everything and run it through a couple times. There's plenty of brainstorming and arguing in between.

[newmaxnew]

Some of the best songs that I wrote came from just sort of jamming with the band while warming up. The good stuff just seemed to happen spontaneously.

 

I also write with a guitar and some drum loops but the best stuff just sort of popped out of the air.

 

I have been playing covers for a while now and I really haven't been trying to write anything lately.

 

Max

[BATCAT]

I do guitar/vocals and the rest of the band is a keys/acoustic/backup vocals guy, a drummer, and a bass player.

 

I generally write our songs at home on acoustic guitar. I'll then record a simple demo of vocals and acoustic guitar chords, sometimes supplemented with things like a guitar melody part, or a basic drum machine beat. Ususally the demo establishes the general feel for the song but leaves a lot of room for changes to dynamics, rhythm, arrangements, and tempo.

 

I'll give my band the demos, and then we'll have a go at hashing it out together. Sometimes the songs evolve a lot, and sometimes they don't change much from the demo version besides the additional instrumentation.

[pjrake]

i write most of the riffs on an acoustic guitar, record it, and send to the rest of the band. the singer works out melodies and then at the studio we work out the arrangements.

 

-PJ

[GreenAsJade]

I like that idea Loch Ness!

 

So far our originals are lyrics & chords driven: the singer writes lyrics to one-chord-per-bar and then arrangement/instrumentation & rhythm comes after.

 

I'm not really happy with the resulting music in terms of great riff/rhythmic content. It makes great powerful conceptual music, but it doesn't deliver songs that "rock".

 

GaJ

[J.Paul]

Good thread

 

...with MY band I write,arrange, and record everything. They reproduce it live.

 

....with the band I play guitar with: The singer comes in with a singer/songwriter jambox acoustic guitar demo. We decide on a key and tempo and everyone fleshes out the arrangement. It doesn't matter which instrument you play (I play guitar BTW) and it's pretty obvious to everyone what works (we're not breaking new ground). We make a worktape, play it a few times and if it feels good we move on to another song.

[GreenAsJade]

 

with MY band I write,arrange, and record everything. They reproduce it live.

 

 

This is basically what's happening with us.

 

From the band's perspective, it is basically another cover job, just covering a piece of music no-one has ever heard before.

 

I'm tiring of that, I must say.

 

GaJ

[J.Paul]

Yeah I can see how that could possibly be un fulfilling especially if it's supposed to be a "band" and if you have something creative to offer.

 

BTW~ you might wanna check out my tunes on myspace

 

 

 

This is basically what's happening with us. From the band's perspective, it is basically another cover job, just covering a piece of music no-one has ever heard before. I'm tiring of that, I must say. GaJ

 

[Lee Flier]

I'm the drummer in my band. I mostly write the bands tunes in terms of the rhythm and strength in which I hit the drums. See, if I play for my bandmates something like, uh, for example of a known tune..... bah bum, bah bum, bop bop bop bop bop bop bap, bah bum, bah bum, bop bop bop bop bop bop bap...etc Can you hear it? Thats "whole Lotta Love". Thats how we write songs in my band. We've trained ourselves to strip away melodic instruments altogether....as a sort of starving ourselves of options, in order to focus on the primal essences and come up with something entirely original altogether from what other artists are doing.

 

That's awesome. I'm very rhythm oriented so this approach really inspires me, and we've come up with several song ideas that way (our drummer coming up with a groove and us building on it). I'd love to do that more often.