Hey songwriters,
So, I've posted a good deal over in the 'critique section' over the years but I've never actually reached out about composing theory and techniques in this section before. Hope to get some good answers on this one!
For those interested here's a brief background of me, the composer - Have been writing songs (lyrics + music) for about 6 years now, and over that period of time I've managed to write somewhere in the range of 150 mostly completed tunes, and roughly 30-40 of those songs I've made some sort of demos for. My songwriting style/genre would very likely fall under the old singer/songwriter category, and most tunes are written on either a piano, guitar or a ukulele. So, there is my 'profile'.
My Songwriting Problem: After writing 150 songs or so over the last 6 years I ended up learning a good bit about music theory, songwriting techniques and just general music related stuff. In the last year, this amount of knowledge I've stored up has created a problem for me. When writing a new song I now tend to go 'FULL BLAST' when coming up with the melody and harmony for said song. In other words, at some point I began going from more simple/common chords (stuff like Major/Minor/7th/Minor7th/sus4/etc) to using really complex harmony that involves lots of 'slash chords', diminished, augmented, Minor6add9, 13 chords, 7thsus4, 7thsus2, and the list goes on to include some harmonic structures that I can't even name of the top of my head.
This process, of using a wider vocabulary of chords when writing, has led me to spending large amounts of time on deciding WHAT chords I want to USE. And I mean A LOT of time! I think it's because I realized how different chords can often be used in a spot where another chord could also be used (due to different types of chords having a very similar but slightly different structure).
So, I end up sitting around on each chord change 'trying out' the different possibilities. This in of itself is fun for me, but my productivity level and actual song output has suffered greatly. What's worse is that I don't feel like I've really explored the possibilities, and finished the song, if I don't engage in this type of writing. Not to mention the fact that actually choosing what chord I'll end up using can take me a long time.
I can just see and tell that this type of writing process is wasteful and often times totally unnecessary. I mean, who really cares if the friggin' chord is a Cmajor, Am7, or C/D when you're in the middle of song section?? (maybe a really careful listener with a solid music background would mind..hmm) And YES, those choices DO matter because the chords create a different feeling, regardless of similar or same notes..but I..........................
^^^ right there, a perfect example of my thought process when writing..
The other big issue, which this thread was titled after, is that I end up with songs that can come off or feel extremely 'bloated' to me. It's like by spending so much time making the entire thing really complex, the result becomes a song that seems a little 'off-putting' due to the amount of complexity. I just know that, in most cases, my songs would be just fine (if not better!) if I would sit back, take a deep breath, and not spend so much time and effort 'wearing them out' as I'm writing them.
Hope this long ramble about my 'songwriting problems' makes sense to you guys. Now, my actual questions
My Songwriting Questions:
*First of all, does anyone here experience this or are able to empathize with the situation?
*Second, what do you guys do when you feel you are getting too complex while writing a song? When you can feel that you might possibly be ruining 'the magic' by running a song it into the ground?
*And lastly, for those of you who have experienced this, do you find that you eventually develop an instinct for your choice of chords (allowing you to ignore the process of trying out every single alternative) while writing?
Time to end this longggggg question-post by saying: Thanks so much to anyone who is able to offer some advice, insight or tips about the topic. Much appreciated!
-tfcrowne