Song Writing

[rgraham]

What I do is I write down words that pop into my mind, then I mix them up until I like the order. I figure out how fast or slow I want it, then I start playing my guitar until I have a flow I like. Then, I show it to one of my sisters. Usually, they love them and they give me tips on it, like some words don't fit, or the music should be slower or faster. Writing music is a lot like a puzzle. So just have fun with it.

 

How do you write a song?

How do you write your lyrics? How do you write the music? How do you put them together? Which do you write first? The music or the lyrics?

Just share your ideas; it might help someone out who is having trouble.

[rainsrocks]

Cool topic.  I guess I usually hear a melody first.  I think that's right anyway...  Then I'll start singing and playing (guitar usually) to the melody.  I just sing whatever seems natural.  Hopefully at some point the words take some kind of shape and I get an idea for a song. I'll write something at that point out of what I've been playing around with.  Then I think more about where I want to go with the song and try to shape it into something.  Sometimes this process is fairly quick but sometimes I change my mind a lot along the way.  I've written songs a lot of different ways but I think that's how it usually goes.

 

Danny

[Stephen Quinn]

We all have our own methods of creativity.  Sometimes I come up with music first, or lyrics.  Sometimes 2 separate ideas can be put together effectively, whether its music and lyrics or 2 musical ideas to form a structure.  But its a good idea to write regularly and practice creativity, just like you practice your instrument.

[MikeRobinson]

@Stringbeing – that "cliche hook" is also great because it's a natural contrast against what your song does want to say.  It's a tired old phrase with no creative value, so when "the bank" that "has come to plunder and pillage" says precisely that ... it makes the bank sound even more insensitive, evil, ruthless, cruel.  Perfect!

 

For any kind of writing that I do, I always want to capture "virtually anything that comes," then – later ... – choose from among them to start building-up the song or the story or whatever-it-is.

 

I was first introduced to that idea in a pair of books, The World of 'Star Trek' and The Trouble With Tribbles, both about the original TV show.  Today we take-for-granted that there was a show named "Star Trek" about the "Enterprise," a starship from "The United Federation of Planets" with Captain "Kirk," "Mister Spock," "Sulu," "Chekov," "Bones," "Scotty," and "Uhura," on a mission to find conveniently "Class-M" planets, which just got filled to the brim with "Tribbles."  But, every one of those "quoted" words in the previous sentence was picked from a very long list of words that someone literally banged out on a typewriter just as fast as they could.  Decisions were made and re-made.  (The original name of the Captain, in the first pilot episode, was "Christopher Pike.")  So, "it didn't Just Happen That Way."  Somebody picked it.  Then, using their experience and guidelines as to what would and wouldn't work in the format of a one-hour 1960's TV show, they started consciously shaping those things into concepts and stories.

[omenrama]

"For one thing, I give myself permission to write bad songs."

 

I have a hard time doing this. It's some weird thing I am just now getting over; where I would hate to "waste" a word or an idea on practice.