Have any of you ever thought about why you write songs?

[keyboardcoach521]

Have any of you ever thought about why you become a songwriter? I have heard alot of songwriters tell me they want to share their stories out there by turning them into a song form, well great, but as i continued to ask more, i found out many of them don't do anything with their songs after they wrote them. In my opinion if you want to share your crafts with the world you need to produce then distribute them, otherwise how else can people hear your stories and your art? Is it because they don't know how to use a DAW, or is it because hiring producers cost too much? 

[Just1L]

Could be a lack of confidence and the unknown of how people will really react to them? It also could be that they're afraid of the DAW but I'd put that lower on the list. Maybe they just don't have the gumption to do it. Also, it's very easy to start something then get distracted by the phone or internet and end up getting nothing done. Millions of people do that every day. By the time they get done checking their phones and starting something and checking then going somewhere and checking their phone, then checking when they get back to the car, they are mentally exhausted without really doing anything productive at all. But the brain's been working overtime with all the checking and the ADD that comes with it.

 

As to the question, I kind of had to. It got to a point back in 09 that I just kept getting song after song in my head and once I realized I could record them on my computer I couldn't not do it.

Edited January 11, 2019 by Just1L

[Lisa Gates]

Like Just1L, the lyrics kept coming to me. So I wrote them down, learned about structure, took a free songwriting course and found Songstuff.

Now I have over 100 lyrics waiting for production. Some I have melodies for. Some I do not. I don't play an instrument (although I sing well) and I'm not great at recording on my computer... And finally the age old excuse of an artist is mine as well: I don't enough money to do what I want.

I have started networking with like minded artists in hopes of collaboration and moving forward.

Thanks for posting this!

Lisa

[Driftwood]

      My grandparents gave us this odd portable keyboard. It had these accordion like buttons for chords along with 3 octaves in keys. It had these song books that you could follow along that had numbers for the keys to play along with the button chords.

I remember playing "Beautiful Dreamer" and thought, this just isnt cutting it.🤣

     So I would start making up my own songs. Yep, at age 6 or 7, I was unofficially writing my own songs. I would further plunk around on church pianos after sunday school and it wasnt your traditional obnoxious finger nails on the chalk board type ramblings. I was figuring out chords and really doing chord blends.

     Granted I would tinker every once in awhile trying to play a cover song like "Imagine" or Paul McCartney's"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five" from the "Band On The Run" album. But yeah, it was original stuff I was coming up with.

   So, the songwriting seeds had been planted early, but didnt come full circle until I got my first guitar just after high school. At that point it just seemed natural to want to write my own songs. I just didnt have an inherent need to be in a cover band or did I care to learn cover songs other than to see how they were constructed.

    So it was kind of a "You know, I can do that too." feeling about writing songs.😏

[MikeRobinson]

I guess I write songs because I just can't stop doing it.  I'm still enticed by the pure magic of it ... especially with the basically-unlimited capability of the technology that we have at our fingertips today.  (I subscribed to [Contemporary] Keyboard magazine, back when all of this computer-stuff was happening before our eyes, and I lusted after $100,000+ keyboards that don't do a fraction of what my Macintosh and 88-key controller does.  And you never could have convinced me that I would own such a computer in my lifetime.)

 

But – it's not just the toys.  It truly is "music, itself."  You can make magic.  And there's always going to be something more to learn.

 

But – maybe it is the toys.  Because today you can move beyond your music lessons.  You have a word processor for music.  You aren't limited to your physical/mental abilities of "live performance."  You're free.  We live in interesting times.

[2 Days After]

I took 3 years to write an album called The Metronome Of Life that detailed some of my fears about allowing life to pass me by without achieving anything significant or becoming too obsessed with what could go wrong along the way. Of course, I personally want to dedicate myself to getting more exposure as well as sharing and performing my songs for anyone willing to listen, but I also keep in mind that at the end of the day when it's just me and my laptop, its most powerful as a form of self therapy, reflection and revelation for myself. I also find that it is most honest for me when I write this way as well. But no method is proven for everyone!

 

If you care to listen, it took a while but it kept me sane!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_fAvNlHUQyXV9pT3tY539LXjx1OVokDt

[Ed Driscoll]

On 1/11/2019 at 2:07 AM, keyboardcoach521 said:

Have any of you ever thought about why you become a songwriter?

* * * * * * * 

Is it because they don't know how to use a DAW, or is it because hiring producers cost too much? 

I started off writing on a cassette four-track in the 1980s, so once I got over the learning curve of how to operate a DAW, I found it increased my songwriting potential astronomically. (But those years from 1999 to 2001 of learning how to operate the bloody GUI was quite a challenge!) To me, it's the process of finding new* riffs, new chord progressions, new melodies and new structures that makes it so fascinating. It's a bit of a search in the dark, but when it all comes together, it's a great feeling.

 

* Well, new to me!

[DaveKell]

I began writing songs about two years ago after joining a weekly jam session heavily populated with octogenarians. I quickly learned their repertoire was mostly ancient country. Even though I’m a classic 70’s rock guy, I grew up hearing the songs they played and had a lot of fun getting into them at the jam. The leader of the jam proposed that someone should try writing some new songs for everyone to learn. I took up the challenge and since then, as far as I can tell, I’ve been possessed by the spirit of a country songwriter from long ago! I introduce my songs as “another one they forgot to write 50 years ago “. I’m amazed and baffled at the same time by how natural this genre feels to me. Even more amazing is the phenomenal response most of my songs get, at the jam, an open mic I regularly attend and from a now retired but formerly very successful Nashville songwriter friend. It’s too late to try and stop... I’m totally obsessed with this and it’s as important to me as breathing. 

[keyboardcoach521]

Nice DaveKell thanks for sharing your story. Have you released any album or singles on iTunes I can hear?

[Mason Dixon]

  I've had to ask myself this question a lot recently. 

  I started playing guitar when I was around 13-14 years old, I wasn't that good but a couple years later my friend got a bass so every since we've always tried to start a band. Recently, I quit the band I was with to focus on getting my priorities straight and that was when I realized I didn't know why I even wanted to make music. 

  I had to comes to terms with that fact that probably the only reason I wanted to start a band as a kid was to be famous. 

  But as I got older, I realized that you can be the greatest musician in the world and never be famous If you don't have the networking skills or opportunity to do so. And me, as a typically anti-social person the idea of trying to make people pay attention to me and like my music sounded nauseating.

  So I turned my focus to writing stuff that I can identify with. But the problem with that was that I thought the key to expressing yourself was to be unique, and you can only be so unique in this world, even with music, there's a limited number or words, notes or chords to play. So then I realized that it's nearly impossible to come up with something that hasn't been done before and this made me very depressed because I felt way below mediocre. 

   But i've come to find that ultimately the easiest way to be happy with the music I create is to tell myself that it's all just to pass the time.

[keyboardcoach521]

On 1/11/2019 at 8:48 AM, Just1L said:

Could be a lack of confidence and the unknown of how people will really react to them? It also could be that they're afraid of the DAW but I'd put that lower on the list. Maybe they just don't have the gumption to do it. Also, it's very easy to start something then get distracted by the phone or internet and end up getting nothing done. Millions of people do that every day. By the time they get done checking their phones and starting something and checking then going somewhere and checking their phone, then checking when they get back to the car, they are mentally exhausted without really doing anything productive at all. But the brain's been working overtime with all the checking and the ADD that comes with it.

 

As to the question, I kind of had to. It got to a point back in 09 that I just kept getting song after song in my head and once I realized I could record them on my computer I couldn't not do it.

 

On 1/11/2019 at 8:48 AM, Just1L said:

Could be a lack of confidence and the unknown of how people will really react to them? It also could be that they're afraid of the DAW but I'd put that lower on the list. Maybe they just don't have the gumption to do it. Also, it's very easy to start something then get distracted by the phone or internet and end up getting nothing done. Millions of people do that every day. By the time they get done checking their phones and starting something and checking then going somewhere and checking their phone, then checking when they get back to the car, they are mentally exhausted without really doing anything productive at all. But the brain's been working overtime with all the checking and the ADD that comes with it.

 

As to the question, I kind of had to. It got to a point back in 09 that I just kept getting song after song in my head and once I realized I could record them on my computer I couldn't not do it.

 

Do you have anything on Soundcloud or iTunes you can share so we can all hear?

[Just1L]

11 hours ago, keyboardcoach521 said:

 

 

Do you have anything on Soundcloud or iTunes you can share so we can all hear?

 

Sure thing. You can listen to demos/works-in-progress here on soundcloud:

 

To hear songs on my new EP, here's a link for Apple music: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/just1l/1404303093

Also on spotify, pandora, amazon, etc.. by searching Just1L or visit www.Just1L.com

 

Thanks for the interest in listening.

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Just1L

[Odanada]

I think I write songs because it lets stuff out and lets stuff in. 

As a kid, I liked things that were clever. I guess I thought "clever" meant "smarter" and smarter seemed like more rarified air.

Turns of phrase; hooks. The joyful dance that turns thoughts into ideas.... into something... clever. Everybody needs a hobby. 

When I pluck out a song  that pleases me and seems clever, it just feels very amusing. If it manages to intersect with something meaningful and/or real, it's even more amusing.

It's developed a bit of craftsmanship over time, and I like that too.

I love my hopeless little ditties, but I don't generally share them.

Is that weird?

 

[Michan]

3 hours ago, VoiceEx said:

This has already been a really long rant and i`m not even sure if anyone actually reads it

 

I was, till the end. It's a very interesting story, and very cool way to reach the point you are in right now. It's such a journey! And I'm glad it's still ongoing!

 

Your music is pretty awesome ... You should share some of your stuff here in the forum, I'm sure a lot of users will enjoy it a lot!

 

I hope you keep coming around and sharing your experience and your work with all of us!

 

 

[Sterix]

When I first started writing songs, I couldn't tell you why. I just did and it was something I enjoyed and thought I was fairly good at (sometimes). It was also a fairly private affair, something for just myself. I was 14 when I wrote my first few songs, though I was 17 when I started writing them consistently.

 

Fast-forward 30 years and I've written thousands of songs (I wrote a thousand of them the first year alone - most pretty terrible but a tenth of them had potential I'd like to think). I also started to dwell on the fact I'm getting on in years and that I'm not really going to live forever. And I thought about my songs, and I thought about how I don't want them to die with me and I'd love to share them with the world. A legacy, so to speak. Something to remember me by when I'm pushing up the daisies.

 

I found a forum and I'm not really sure what my expectations where. Put my lyrics out there? Certainly. Maybe find some way of turning some of them into actual, physical songs? It would be nice (actually, a darn sight more than nice!) but probably a fairy tale. Fame? Um... I'm possibly arrogant enough to want that...

 

And then I discovered "collaboration" - me writing lyrics to other people's tunes that actually had music laid down already. And I discovered I could do that (if I do say so myself). I also discovered the negative side of that - working with "Muppets" is probably the kindest term I'd use - and, even when working with the "good" people, it's not always (or ever) easy...

 

So, where before I was doing it for personal pleasure, now there's more to it. It's ego pure and simple. I know I'm a good lyricist and I want the world out there to know it too. And I think I've got stuff in my head that world should really get to hear.

[ccarnucci]

Occasionally I have something to say that I feel may be worth sharing.  And sometimes that thought rolls around in my head looking for a way out.  Songwriting gives it a path out.  

 

Sometimes I make music that needs lyrics to complete it.  Sometimes those lyrics are the afore mentioned thoughts rolling around in my head, and sometimes they are just creative flights of fancy that fit the music I create.

 

The central theme to both of these is I have a need to create, and songwriting is my outlet.

 

[Bridget Murphy]

On 1/12/2019 at 2:16 AM, Driftwood said:

      My grandparents gave us this odd portable keyboard. It had these accordion like buttons for chords along with 3 octaves in keys. It had these song books that you could follow along that had numbers for the keys to play along with the button chords.

I remember playing "Beautiful Dreamer" and thought, this just isnt cutting it.🤣

     So I would start making up my own songs. Yep, at age 6 or 7, I was unofficially writing my own songs. I would further plunk around on church pianos after sunday school and it wasnt your traditional obnoxious finger nails on the chalk board type ramblings. I was figuring out chords and really doing chord blends.

     Granted I would tinker every once in awhile trying to play a cover song like "Imagine" or Paul McCartney's"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five" from the "Band On The Run" album. But yeah, it was original stuff I was coming up with.

   So, the songwriting seeds had been planted early, but didnt come full circle until I got my first guitar just after high school. At that point it just seemed natural to want to write my own songs. I just didnt have an inherent need to be in a cover band or did I care to learn cover songs other than to see how they were constructed.

    So it was kind of a "You know, I can do that too." feeling about writing songs.😏

What a fantastic journey into the world of music! It's amazing how your early experiences with that odd portable keyboard, complete with accordion-like buttons and numbered song books, sparked your creativity at such a young age. The fact that you were already composing your own songs unofficially at 6 or 7 is truly impressive.

[Reid Gibson]

I suppose almost everyone asks questions of this nature. There's is a part of us that questions things, and maybe that is a part of being creative.  Maybe the hope of creating something, in this case, a song, that might lead to a since of permanency, legend or the like. An artist may be driven like this, not like it benefited Van Gogh much when he was alive.

    I started writing music in the seventies with a buddy in college. We wrote a lot of stuff in the 80's, had a band, played, broke up, moved on, worked day jobs, marriages, kids, etc. I went back to writing in 2017, met another cool musician near by, made a YouTube, got lots of hits, got played on LPFM radio, and now I'm a "songwriting junkie." Lol. Just finished a new song this week which I had been working on for a year maybe on and off,  going to do the rough recording tomorrow, then we're gonna do a video and enter NPR's Tiny Desk Contest again. It's not for money with me, it's "Maslow's Hierarchy of needs." Where's Sig when we need him?

[GregB]

Why does anyone do anything?  Some of us write songs.  It's a creative urge, a journey, a challenge, and a result that is hopefully pleasing (emotionally, artistically and intellectually).

 

Why do we then record/release for strangers to hear? Now THAT's a psychological can of worms!

 

I've just listened to a podcast interviewing comedians and something that caught my attention was an opinion that (and I'm paraphrasing) ...  most comedians seem to come from family backgrounds where there was a lack of attention/love/praise/support.  The laughter is a form of approval.  

 

I vibe with that.  I grew up without a father.  My mother worked and raised us, leaving little to no time (or patience) for emotional support. With my songs, any positive comment, every listen beyond family and friends, is treated like a pat on the back.

 

Greg 😊

 

[john]

Many reasons.

 

I have a drive to create. Art. Music. Food. Dance (When I still could). Engineering (software and hardware). When I can’t create, it’s like a painful inch I can’t scratch. I start creating with whatever comes to hand… or voice.

 

Beyond creating, my primary drives would be connection and being understood. Music allows for the possibility of a deep, meaningful connection. Being understood is part of that connection. I don’t mean people agreeing with me, or judging me. I literally mean being understood. I talk about quite a few subjects close to my heart, my personal experience (along with others that are fiction built upon seeds of fact and experience). Fictional songs are an exploration as much as anything else.

 

Lastly, I write songs because I see something that I think needs said, and/or I have something to say.