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writing songs

TelemasterTelemaster Posts: 17
edited December 2003 in Musicians and Gearheads
alrighty, everyone out there...i need suggestions on how to get starting writing songs. I've heard that you should pick subjects of a song then pick a title, then do lyrics, then do instruments, can anyone attest to this working, and give any suggestions? any good topics to write songs about?
My mind is not for rent,
To any god or government.
Post edited by Unknown User on

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    goto_lgoto_l Posts: 1,189
    I write music 1st. Some do it the other way, just depends on you. Don't always try to come up with a topic, just let things flow. Edit it to a topic after you have something. Also never think you've finished a song, always tweak it & play with it. Nothing is set in stone.
    You men eat your dinner
    Eat your pork and beans
    I eat more chicken
    Than any man ever seen




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    given to jamgiven to jam Posts: 57
    i think the worst thing you could do is pick a title first. the title comes after you write the song, so it can be something in the song or that the song is about. in fact, i'd do everything backwards from what you said. i'll usually come up with some riffs or chord progressions first, and if i'm doing lyrics, i actually kind of write the lyrics at the same time as the music. but they come from the music, not music from lyrics.
    knowledge is a tree
    it's growing up just like me.
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    psycosmicpsycosmic Posts: 504
    there's no recipe...
    there's no right and wrong...

    if you have some lyrics... fine... try to write some music...
    and a title first might be a good idea if you don't know what to write about...
    but i have to say that most of the time i just have a few riffs and mess around on the guitar and then i just try to fit some words or a melody... most of the words are just improvised... but it's a good way to find a melody...
    did you know that the original lyrics for "yesterday" by the beatles were "scrambled eggs"?
    well, most of the time there's at least one sentence of my improvised lyrics that i really like and i start off from there...
    my best advice is to write what feels natural...
    most of the time my lyrics aren't great but they just feel right for this particular song...
    i always have a hard time to find music for the poems i write...
    so, for me it works better the other way round... music first, then lyrics...

    just one more piece of advice...
    keep it simple (you can always add other things later)... the greatest songs in the world work perfectly with just one acoustic guitar...
    oh, and try to avoid the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus scheme...
    ~~~
    Some days you wake up and sit on a park bench next to an eighty year old Russian architect, and some days you don't. I think this is my new life philosophy.

    http://epplehausradio.blogspot.com/

    pearl jam @ the astoria, london, 20/04/06
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    porchdwellerporchdweller Posts: 228
    eat some shrooms, after a couple of hours close your eyes and just record what comes out of your mouth. you'll come up with some abstract shit.
    "That's part of the curse: If you're gonna play the song, you better play it. I've tried to phone in "Jeremy" a few times, and it's tough. It doesn't work."

    EV
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    low_lightlow_light Posts: 251
    it takes time. the music tells a story through you is what i have discovered. i know that sounds cheesy but for me it really is true. i start singing and it just all flows out of me. and later i look back and wonder how the hell i wrote a song sometimes...

    just play and see what comes out. dont think too much about it.. itll never come easy that way

    -d
    www.myspace.com/eotoband
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    GouletGoulet Posts: 918
    some of my songs take 3 minutes to write
    and some take 3 weeks
    its all really up to the muses and how bitchy they are going to be that day
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    pariahpariah Posts: 596
    I always write music first... kinda the only option 'cause I have never written a lyric I still liked the next day... :(
    "Until you realize the importance of the banana king, you will know absolutely nothing about the human-interest things of the world."
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    exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    i've only written two in the last 18 months or so. kinda depressing.

    i tended to have scraps of lyrics around that i scribble down when they come to me. then, as i was messing around with chord progressions etc, i found stuff that fit. usually, that lead was enough to build a song from.
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