Argh!

[AnneC]

Outline of the last hour or so:

I had a rough evening (I'll spare you the sob story). Went to bed in a futile attempt to sleep and as I started to relax a beautiful line of music came to me, complete with piano accompaniment, just waiting for me to use it as a foundation for a new song. At first I thought "I should just sleep" but that was impossible so I got up to write... and what I "heard" isn't making its way out of my head and into my music notation program. I got the melody line pretty much down with a few changes but not much, but the piano part just isn't coming out right.

So now I have this melody stuck in my head that's all dressed up with nowhere to go. It's nearing 2:30 am and I have to work in 5.5 hours. I'm afraid that if I go to bed I'll lose the thing completely.

Which brings me to a question: When you write, do you pretty much try to do it all in one sitting, or do you come back to it and put it away several times? Maybe you get it pretty much done and then come back to refine it into something usable? Your input please!

[Nightwolf]

That happens to me too Annie, it seems as soon as you are done with everything and finally relax to go to bed your mind starts workin'

To answer your question, I get up and try to lay down enough so i don't lose the whole thing.

Makes it kinda hard to sleep though huh

[john]

Hey

I completely understand. I used to get this a lot. Instead of interrupting my creative flow by using software & PC etc I use a little dictaphone. Lets me nail the melody and rhythm really fast and it's also pretty easy to get chords and structure. I also make verbal notes of ideas.

It also means you get back to sleep faster safe in the knowledge you have captured your idea.

Cheers

John

[thelevellers]

It depends for me, either I make a quick note of the chords and a bit of a rhythm in a tab (only really works for guitar) or I get the meat of it down in Guitar Pro 5 so I can come back and remember it properly in the morning... However, I have learnt from experience to ALWAYS make a note of it in some way or I lose it

So yeah, basically I NEVER or very rarely finish a song in one sitting ,but I do get the neat of it down so Ican come back later and add to it...

How did it go in the end?!

Rohan

[eboria]

Sometimes, and these are really magic times, a song will pop into my head complete. I have in the past turned on my computer and within about an hour have the bare bones of the song tracked, lryics and all. Ok. this has actually only happened twice and both times the song sucked.

Sleep? What's that? I haven't gotten a full night's sleep since I got ProTools and a guitar.

[Steve]

Nope! Just get some sleep. If it's really good, you'll remember it in the morning!

[FinnArild]

First I started out with pencil and paper on the bedside. Now I also always have my Zoom H2 next to the bed to do melodies and stuff. Very strange when I forget all about it and listen to it afterwards ... ....

[Steve]

Sounds like damned good advice to me! Authors do rewrites of novels, why shouldn't lyricists?

[Lazz]

do you pretty much try to do it all in one sitting, or do you come back to it and put it away several times?

I try to complete lyrics in one sitting.

But I always fail - the focus is just too intense..

The energy is exhausting for me and in the end I fall asleep.

Then I come back and wrestle with it some more.

Eventually I win.

My mucial collaborator, on the other hand, has been known to unfold the logic of a complete song in one single attack.

He finds the melodic/harmonic work easier than I do my verbal struggles.

But however you get there - the end result is the prize.

And bugger inspiration - it's only hard work that pays off.

[McnaughtonPark]

Last weekend i was on a trip and couldn't sleep. I'd get to sleep but a ticker tape of words kept going by waking me up. I thought I better get up and write this down but I didn't. Who knows what that song was about.

Not only have I never done it in one sitting, I now use another tool...i post up the lyrics and get an opinion from someone else before i think it's complete. I'm comfortable getting a second opinion. I even rewrite after i think it's finished, it's like the thing is never done. Pull and polish, yank and crunch...then polish again.

[Bitstream]

I like to start with the music first and let others influence the lyrics, then elaborate on the full song in an attempt to astound. Very seldom have I written music to someone elses lyrics, but these sparse occassions have been very fruitfull.

[ramadhaniyanto]

Went to bed in a futile attempt to sleep and as I started to relax a beautiful line of music came to me, complete with piano accompaniment, just waiting for me to use it as a foundation for a new song.

that's not the worse, in my case i dream that i'm making a song or humming a melody, but i also realize that i'm dreaming; so i'm caught in a dilema: if i wake up, i'll lose the melody, but if i don't how do i get it done?

Instead of interrupting my creative flow by using software & PC etc I use a little dictaphone

i also had that idea after letting songs escape from my dreams too often, so the moment i wake up, i grab my digital recorder and hum the melody (or what i can remember of it). but alas, i wake up to find that i can barely make out the melodic structure of my 2 am voice they all sound like "do"s

I would think that trying to get yourself to do it all in one sitting, you might have a tendency to settle, just for the sake of getting it done

true, true, very true, compromise is never good when you're going for quality

"REWRITING, REWRITING & REWRITING"

yes, rewriting is definitely essential to songwriting, since a fresh perspective can develop new insights towards the idea, vocabulary usage, and the development of character of the song, lyrics-wise and music-wise

[AnneC]

Thanks for the replies. I did decide to shelve it for a little while after getting a bit of my idea down and I'll revisit it when I'm feeling more productive. Often I'll try to get songs mostly done at once because I get on a roll (and I work best under pressure), but then I'll come back to them several times and revamp, ask for feedback, and redo.

The digital recorder is a good idea. I sometimes have the beginnings of a new song come to me while I'm at my mind-numbingly dull job and what I've done (as I did on the christmas song I mentioned in another thread) is to use the sound recorder on my mobile phone. I take it into someplace quiet and hum or whistle into it to jot down later. Too bad I can't hum in 5-part harmony.

[Guest KatrinaRainbow]

Dictaphones are indispensible lol!

I own four in total! Two mini cassette ones, and two digitals

When I moved over to digital, I put a blank cassette in one of the cassette ones to keep at the bedside. Make sure you keep a notebook and pencil near the bed too :D

[Mazrocon]

Quite alot of my stuff is completed in one sitting. But you guys have alot more to worry about... guitar, drums, vocals, lyrics. I compose instrumentals and write poems I don't combine the two.

However some of things I do complete in one sitting aren't always the best things i've made.

~TIMOTHY~