SeanL

Hey guys... so I go through these phases, right? Every few weeks I switch from songwriting, to learning classical stuff, to learning cover songs, to focusing on lyrics, etc., etc. After just finishing (more or less) a song recently, I've been listening to alot of classical stuff again. I kinda want to try my hand at composing a simple instrumental song on my guitar; this is where my inspiration is going right now. I wanted to ask you guys your experience trying to write purely instrumental songs. I've tried before but have a hard time getting past the first few bars cause I have so many ideas from improvising or whats in my head. It's hard to organize it all. Currently though this is what I'm working on so I figured I'd see what ya'll thought. What are your thoughts about writing, structures, melodies, harmonies, etc.. when it comes to this?

Oh man I was thinking about this earlier today. I think the key to lyrics like these is that they contain "drama", but not be overly "dramatic". Does that make sense? Like there is a big difference between saying some thing like: "My life is all darkness I just want to cry" And something like: "Shadows cast around My eyes burn and blur" The first is blatantly whiny or whatever. The second one says the same thing, but creates visual pictures with drama, action, adjectives and verbs. I don't think you should ever be afraid to go way down into the depths though. If thats where the lyrics begin taking you, go there. Don't hold back because it's too whiny or whatever. Get it out of your system, then if it creates some good ideas, keep them, refine them- then scrap the weak ones, or use them if you get stuck. But yeah. Create drama in a song like this, but don't be overly dramatic. Create pictures with action. Almost seeing the scene like a movie in your head and you are the director. Focus on this. Zoom out on that. Hope it helps.