How do you put together songs?
surferdude
Posts: 2,057
How do you put together songs? Because maybe I'm going about it all wrong and am frustrating myself whne there may be an easier way.
My approach is to let small pieces of music come whenever they come. Usually riifs or chords progressions lasting between 5 and 20 seconds.
Then I try to get a whole bunch down on tape, Making each soundbite about 2 minutes long.
I hand then out to the drummer and bassist. I ask them for suggestions, what to leave in, take out, changes.
I ask them to come up with what they'd like to play to each part.
We get together and then try to hammer out what we have still as 2 minute soundbites on tape.
Then go away again and seeing what we'd like to see pieced together to make a whole song.
Get together again, start pieicing stuff together, work on tempo and tempo changes then try to add a vocal pattern or chorus. And get it on tape.
Go away again and try to come up with lyrics.
Bring it all together one final time and try to nail each song down.
I don't play bass or drums so I am very dependent on their input. Does this seem like a sane way to do it? From what I have pieced together via bootlegs this seems to be the approach that Led Zeppelin took.
My approach is to let small pieces of music come whenever they come. Usually riifs or chords progressions lasting between 5 and 20 seconds.
Then I try to get a whole bunch down on tape, Making each soundbite about 2 minutes long.
I hand then out to the drummer and bassist. I ask them for suggestions, what to leave in, take out, changes.
I ask them to come up with what they'd like to play to each part.
We get together and then try to hammer out what we have still as 2 minute soundbites on tape.
Then go away again and seeing what we'd like to see pieced together to make a whole song.
Get together again, start pieicing stuff together, work on tempo and tempo changes then try to add a vocal pattern or chorus. And get it on tape.
Go away again and try to come up with lyrics.
Bring it all together one final time and try to nail each song down.
I don't play bass or drums so I am very dependent on their input. Does this seem like a sane way to do it? From what I have pieced together via bootlegs this seems to be the approach that Led Zeppelin took.
“One good thing about music,
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
I agree.
Sometimes musicians get writers block too, though. I find that if you get a couple of good riffs, and then lose your creative steam, leave the song for a while. I have like a million half finished songs, and sometimes, I'll be totally out of ideas, and then I'll realize that the one I'm stuck on works perfectly with 2 that I wrote a month before.
Don't get frustrated or discouraged. Song writing is supposed to be a long process... the more energy you put into it, the more it will show when you're all finished.