wilmot

To be perfectly honest, I'm not really much of a bass player. I'm a hobbyist musician and I bought a couple of basses (one with frets, one without) about a year ago for adding bass lines to my own tracks. Sadly, I've had neither time nor patience enough to practice enough to start getting any good. What little I know, I've just taught myself since getting the instruments. I've only used my own bass on one of my own tracks yet. I've posted that below. My playing is not very good - In part since I'd only had the bass a couple of months when I recorded that. I've since been able to hook up with a great bass player, so that I don't have to play myself. Hopefully I'll get to do some more projects with him. I love a good bass line in a song, but I can't see myself reaching a standard that I'm happy with, so working with others is probably my best option. That said, I recently got to play bass on a friend's track - A very simple, new wave style, line but it was great fun! I'd like too have the time to play more though. I'm a huge Mick Karn fan and it would be great to get to learn to at least a fraction of what he could do - Just for the joy of playing! /Niclas

Finally got the lyrics finished. Thanks for all the help! In the end, I had to let the lesson theme go, but the main thing was that I got unstuck. This is how they turned out: This Hollow Man Verse I spent my life long before I earned it Barely crossed a bridge before I burned it If there was love, I never could discern it I rarely read the page before I turned it Chorus This is how my world ends This is how my world ends This is how my world ends Verse I bared my soul, but nothing much concerned it Some claim I strayed, though no one's yet confirmed it I spent my life long before I earned it Lived on borrowed time, but won't return it Chorus This is how my world ends This is how my world ends This is how my world ends © Niclas Behre 2014 Here's a link to the complete track - Sort of a synth pop thing.

Some really good answers on this - Thanks! The answers also had a lot of wisdom to absorb and tips to think about, which is great stuff. For my own part, I still find the lyrics input thing problematic. It's a very emotional thing - The whole driving force for my writing lyrics at all is to somehow express myself. It's therefore pointless if my text is not honest and true (not factually but emotionally). That it's someone else's words can trip me up because of this. Strangely enough, I have no problems at all with quotes - On the contrary, I really like to use them because I find that they're such a great tool for expanding bringing a completely different context into my text through the reference. Fortunately, the replies I've had to my couple of lyrics posts on songstuff have not only been good, but those of have replied have been really generous about explaining their reasoning. Hopefully, this means that I can absorb their views/input into my lyrics but with my own words. Of course, that means rethinking the lyric, but I should be willing to do that - Otherwise there was no real point to the exercise. /Niclas

Here's a topic - How good are you at taking advice about and receiving input on your songwriting, if you're honest? I'm asking because up until I joined this site (which was very recently, I might add), I was quite convinced that this was a discipline that I absolutely aced - Turns out that this was something of a delusion. With music, I'm fairly good at it and have been challenging myself at it, on SoundCloud and elsewhere. Usually, I've been able to make changes that collaborators have suggested, or incorporate stuff they've done - Even if it has turned my original idea completely upside down. (Within reason, of course!) More often than not, this has turned out well - Precisely because the end result was unexpected! However, when it comes to lyrics… I've posted a couple of lyrics for critique here and have received some decidedly sage advice. But when I try to process this advice and rewrite, I run into trouble. It's not that I find the suggested corrections or additions wanting in any way, it's just that it's not my text - Not my thoughts or feelings. To a surprising extent, this bothers me and seems somehow dishonest. Is there anyone else out there that suffers from this rather absurd malady?

For the long term, I agree with most of what's earlier in this thread. Dehydration is a bitch. I'd like to underline that a humidifier can be the bee's knees. Also, you should take a look at your indoor environment, especially in the bedroom - Don't keep it too warm and, preferably don't use fan type heaters that don't rehumidify the air. In the short term (for recording or performing), some sort of hot beverage can do the trick - But make sure that it's not counter productive, so no coffee and no alcohol (sorry). Milk based is also bad, but for different reasons. Onion soup is a classic - Before I went veggie, I also used a somewhat spicy chinese soup that cleared head and throat even better. /Niclas

I'd really like to learn more about playing the fretless bass. I've found it fairly easy to find tutorials where I can try to learn how this or that song is played. With this instrument, my main musical inspiration (Mick Karn) isn't someone that everyone else has forgotten, so there's some really good stuff to be found. I've also found or got from bass playing friends some good tips on basic techniques for playing and getting a good sound. However, what haven't really found somewhere where someone explains why or how different techniques work - so that I can get a bit more understanding of what I'm doing wrong. On the same theme, when I've tried to follow the advise I've and I still don't get the sound I wan't - How to best trouble shoot. That sort of thing would be very helpful! Skill level? - To call me a beginner would be an insult to beginners everywhere... /Niclas

I think you sound good. If you're truly as inexperienced as you claim, I'd say that you've done really well on this song. It's a bit difficult to tell much from a cover though, especially when you stay so close to the original. Vocals are not just about the voice. To try to explain what I mean, there's a good (if somewhat corny) example in the movie Grease - Where John Travolta apparently had an ok voice, but couldn't really sing, so they had to hire (I think it was) Richard Marx to do the vocals first for Travolta to imitate. I look forward to hearing more of you when started recording some of your own stuff! /Niclas

To me, inspiration is never a problem. As said by others in this thread, anything and everything can inspire. It's what happens in the process between the inspiration and the perspiration that usually trips me up. I can usually squeeze that initial idea (thought, feeling, etc) into an embryo of sorts: Music and/or lyrics - But then building that into something tangible enough to gain the momentum it needs for me to start just doing the work is more often than not a real problem. I can't do that before the thing has some life of its own, or the original spark risks getting lost and the result becomes unintersting (to me at least).

Hmm...you may be on to something there. Perhaps "Each lesson lost before I even learned it"? A bit less tension than in your primary suggestion, but more I think with "even" instead of "ever". You're right of course about the "before" thing, but this particular line was supposed to go before the build up to the first chorus so the extra staccato of "never" was intended as a kind of a feature. Probably I'll have to write the rest of the lyrics before I can chose which way to go (there needs to be at least three or four couplets in all). But now at least I'm no longer stuck - Thanks for the help!

Thanks for the reply! The lyrics critique forum didn't seem like the place for this, since trying to solve a problem rather than get feedback (the lyric isn't nearly finished enough for that). Unfortunately the "it" is part of the rhyme. The only other part that I've committed to paper so far is: I spent my life long before I earned it Barely crossed the bridge before I burned it And there's probably a Rarely read a page before I turned it So you see there's sort of a theme going on. (I usually don't go for "clever" this way in my lyrics, but it sort of fits the song).

I'm struggling with a line. The meaning of the line should be that I was always aware of the lesson to be learned, but always ignored it (thus dooming myself to keep repeating my mistakes). The end of it should be "never learned it", for rhyming reasons. I'd like the beginning to be "always", as a counterpart to "never". To fit with the phrase, it has to be something like "Always ... the lesson, never learned it". I want it to be "always knew the lesson, never learned it", but I worry that it will be interpreted as if it's the lesson itself that's known (making the whole thing a bit nonsensical) rather than what the lesson is about. Thoughts on this? Or perhaps possible alternatives to "knew"? Also, if this is the wrong forum for this type of question I'd much appreciate directions to the right one.

Perhaps not exactly as inspiration, but for comfort when getting stuck when writing lyrics, I often turn to Leonard Cohen's "Bird on the Wire". I've always felt that after having written that first stanza Like a bird on the wire Like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free He cursed himself because it's so perfect, contained and impossible to continue - And he's been struggling with the rest ever since. Though that's probably all in my imagination.

1. Do you sing, play an instrument or instruments? Mostly vocals. I dabble in keyboard, guitar and base a bit as needed for my own songs. Self taught, fairly recently - when I picked up songwriting again after having discovered the wonderful world of the DAW. 2. Are you in a band or bands? Not since I was a "kid", no. 3. Do you write songs? Strictly as a hobby, yes. I like to collaborate, and have done so a bit on SoundCloud for about a year, though perhaps 50% still with people I knew already in real life. 4. Do you record your music? Yes. I use a Mac and Logic. You can find some of my stuff at: https://soundcloud.com/ibehre 5. What other roles do you perform in the music business? None. 6. Are you a tech head? Here too, I dabble... 7. What country do you live in? Sweden 8. What are your ambitions? Peace and happiness for all? 9. Do you draw/paint/write stories/computer art/dance or other creative pursuit? This would take too long to answer properly... 10. What would you like to get out of Songstuff? I'm looking for somewhere to discuss music creation in general, lyrics in particular. Hopefully, this is the place.