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brad1

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I wouldn't call myself a prolific songwriter at all. In 12 years I have written 40 or 50 songs.

For some reason it seemed easier to me when I started.

Let me explain.

 

When I used to get an idea for a song; you know, a cool riff, or chord progression, or even a line or two of lyrics, I used to get excited and start working on a song. Within a few minutes I usually knew if it was going to be a finished work or not. And often it was.

 

But it seems nowadays, when I get a good idea, it does not usually make it to fruition. What happens is I begin working on it, excited with a new idea, and then slowly the excitement seems to dissipate. I can't think of the right words, or I can not figure out a bridge or whatever. It actually seems like it is harder than it used to be. And I am not sure why this is. Because I would think it would be easier.

 

Perhaps I am over critical of myself; where in the past I was not so much.

I also have noticed that I often will go from an original idea into something completely different. Sometimes I forget what I started out with. Other times I record the original riff, chord progression, etc. and then decide later it just wasn't as great as I originally thought it was.

 

I'm going on a little long, so I will just end by asking; does anyone hear relate to what I am going through?

Why is it I am having so much trouble writing songs now, when in the past it sometimes felt effortless? [confused]

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I can relate. Particularly as it becomes more solo stuff, as most ppl my age are busy with kids a s o these days...

 

At times, some inspiration carries to fruition, but I have more files (remember riff tapes?) of single verses, choruses a s o these days than I have finished demos, it seems.

 

On the other hand, depends on what's going on in my life. Whereas I used to thrive creatively on strife, these days it doesn't work that way, at least not for the most part.

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I've written a couple hundred Songs. Recorded 4 Albums with different Bands over the past 10 years. NO Hits. Yet!

 

In my early Song writing days it was easier because I didn't know much about Songwriting. I'd get an inspiration & go with it. But as time went on I started learning the importance of Titles, Intro's, Song Construction & Flow variations, Verses & Chorus', Bridges, Solo's, Turn Arounds & Outro's. Then about the simplicity or Complexity of Music, Lyrics & Arrangements. Seems the more I learned the more questions I'd have which would lead to more research & studying techniques of other Songwriters.It seems like an infinite quest.

 

I don't think it ever ends. Because, it has lead me to Performance, Recording, Production, Mixing & Mastering & that is an infinite quest.

 

I believe Inspirations come & it's possible to write a good or even great song in 3 minutes. I also think it takes work to turn it into a finished Composition.

 

I find, during the recording process, the songs get rewritten & rewritten some more until it all sounds & feels right & it all works together. It's a process.

 

Good luck to you,

 

Lars

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I go back and forth on inspiration vs. perspiration, too. It's true that without some discipline, you're not going to see results. At the same time, there are times when new stuff just doesn't flow out for a protracted period of time.

 

Then it's best to just enjoy playing guitar. Maybe your gift will return next week, or never. No point moping. Just enjoy playing guitar.

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Good topic.

I sold all my home recording gear a couple of years back, as I no longer compose anything either.

Turning an idea or riff into a finished product that holds up is sometimes a lot of work.

You also have to know which ideas are worth pursuing and which ones aren't. I'm no lyricist anyway so all my pieces were/are instrumental.

But what you describe is not uncommon as we all get older and youthful energy, confidence and inspiration is not on tap like it used to be!

Just turned 63 and these days I concentrate on improving my playing as best as I can.

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sometimes my biggest problem is over critical thinking, or "sounds oo much like" something I've done in the past..

 

One thing of me is, if an idea doesn't show fruit in about 15/20 minutes, it often never survives to the next day unless I record it somehow.

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If you have written any song or songs, count it a blessing. It must be a God given talent. I have always desired to be able to do that but can't figure out any inspiration or words or know how to put it together. I've tried several times in the past and still come up with O. Just my two cents worth.

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My biggest problem is that once I've written something, I think "Hey, that sounds just like..." and sure enough, I have a tendency to repeat melodies. That said, I take delight in writing satirical songs based on everyday issues. Daylite Saving Time Blues, I've got a F'ing A'hole for a Neighbor, the WalMart song (all original compositions) come to mind LOL. At least I entertain my friends.

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If you have written any song or songs, count it a blessing. It must be a God given talent. I have always desired to be able to do that but can't figure out any inspiration or words or know how to put it together. I've tried several times in the past and still come up with O. Just my two cents worth.

You are absolutely right! I should count myself as blessed to able to write one song.

I totally agree. Thanks for helping me put it into perspective. :)

 

 

 

I end up hating all my songs.

I end up disliking a lot of mine later as well. I pretty much NEVER listen to them after I have recorded them. Oh, I listen a few times, and then I pretty much forget about it. [unsure]

 

 

 

My biggest problem is that once I've written something, I think "Hey, that sounds just like..." and sure enough, I have a tendency to repeat melodies. That said, I take delight in writing satirical songs based on everyday issues. Daylite Saving Time Blues, I've got a F'ing A'hole for a Neighbor, the WalMart song (all original compositions) come to mind LOL. At least I entertain my friends.

I have a few of those myself Dennis.

I have a song called, "I Am a Hippy". It's my take on the modern day hipster folks. :)

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Interesting. Some time last year I figured I needed 10 songs for the band for a 30min set, I was sick of what we had and wanted 10 new ones, so pretty much just got on with banging them out in a matter of weeks and bringing them to the guys to play round with and get ready. Now we played them, I'm over them and don't want to touch them again for a few months (stick 'em in the 'song bank' to dig out when needed) so we'll try a couple of the oldies again, jam some new ideas, steal some lyrics from past songs and hopefully reinvigorate as a result.

 

So it seems my approach is one of a 'periodic scorched earth', replace the lot, then come back later and mine the old songs (or bits of them) that are worth reinventing. Mind you, we do very simple stuff, don't care too much as long as it sounds decent, and try not to embarrass ourselves. So far so good [biggrin]

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Ideas are medium-difficult if I'm trying to generate one from scratch. Usually just let stream of consciousness take over, and that works better. Lyrics aren't especially difficult - taught poetry and creative writing classes long enough to take care of that. Melodies are, however, hard to generate. And if I fool myself into thinking I have an original, it will often come to me later that it's really not. Woody Guthrie embraced that and stole 'em at will, but my conscience nags me too much😨

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I end up hating all my songs.

 

Lol. Now that's funny. Sorry,, my bad. Lol

I don't actually hate stuff I write, I quite enjoy my stuff. Especially when I get friends to add to it.

 

What I figure is this.

The problem with music now is people.

Most people don't want to hear originals.

They want a phukking juke box.

They want a DJ playing recorded crap they know.

 

Nobody cares about original music unless it's some stupid pop mix of crappy goodness (sorry rct, I know you like pop).

I signed up with CLYP to share rehearsal recordings with band mates. Some of the crap posted on there makes me wanna puke.

There's tons of it. They all think it's great.

I don't get it.

I phukking hate it. Techno pop crap.

 

I really don't believe anyone wants original music. There is no where here to play original music what so ever. Not in my town.

It's all covers. A cover band can still sort of make a go off it here but there is no place here to play original music. Nobody cares.

Even jam nights are guys getting up there playing covers. Nothing original.

 

I'm quite enjoying playing in a cover band and it's really helping my playing.

But there is not and never was an audience here for original music.

 

And I know. We had about 30 originals back in the day. Nobody cared then, nobody cares now.

 

That said, it's still fun as hell to write $hit. But don't ever expect anyone to care.

 

 

Just read my post.

Man am I ever a pessimist.

Jeez,,,lol.

But I stand by it. lol

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Almost the opposite here Quap. When I was a teen there were some awesome cover bands round here, now it's mainly originals on multi band nights (though less music overall than back then). Most if the covers bands still play old stuff, and are older musicians, which is fine but the young people prefer originals bands (mainly variations on punk, alternative, and heavy rock). Not that nearly as many young people go to see bands. Seems no one really wants to play anything much from the nineties onwards for some reason, so the covers are mainly 60's-80's (fine by me [smile]) The pubs are doing it tough and generally won't have to pay originals bands so that might be a factor too?

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I wouldn't call myself a prolific songwriter at all. In 12 years I have written 40 or 50 songs.

For some reason it seemed easier to me when I started.

Let me explain.

 

When I used to get an idea for a song; you know, a cool riff, or chord progression, or even a line or two of lyrics, I used to get excited and start working on a song. Within a few minutes I usually knew if it was going to be a finished work or not. And often it was.

 

But it seems nowadays, when I get a good idea, it does not usually make it to fruition. What happens is I begin working on it, excited with a new idea, and then slowly the excitement seems to dissipate. I can't think of the right words, or I can not figure out a bridge or whatever. It actually seems like it is harder than it used to be. And I am not sure why this is. Because I would think it would be easier.

 

Perhaps I am over critical of myself; where in the past I was not so much.

I also have noticed that I often will go from an original idea into something completely different. Sometimes I forget what I started out with. Other times I record the original riff, chord progression, etc. and then decide later it just wasn't as great as I originally thought it was.

 

I'm going on a little long, so I will just end by asking; does anyone hear relate to what I am going through?

Why is it I am having so much trouble writing songs now, when in the past it sometimes felt effortless? [confused]

 

 

I completely relate to what you are saying. I think for me, it is because i would bust out plenty of lyrics but without the music, then I would get on guitar and crank out all kinds of stuff and record it, but then i go to add words and cant think of what this music says to me, I think that i am making progress again now because I am writing the lyrics and music together now. Especially when it comes to having chorus from verse and back. and to add a bridge or pre-chorus when you do them together it seems to be easier than matching words to a pre-recorded format. That and when i was much younger lyrics were no problem probably as you said because if it was cheesy, it didnt matter as much. Now it seems we want something more in depth with our songs than the old ways like them old KISS tunes that are really really cheesy to us now... "pull the trigger of my love gun" (ya know). I believe it is a result of better and better artists making better and better songs that challenge us to create great songs. ALL we had before, was meaningless sex drugs and rocknroll. Now we want meaningful sex drugs and rocknroll hahaha

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The main things that keeps me going when writing songs:

 

Finish it regardless of how you feel about it, even if "it sucks." If you still hate it later you can rip yourself off and use the verse riff for something better, or maybe you just need a better bridge and in a year that will come to you and now that song that sucked is awesome. Finish it!!!! Even if the lyrics are complete rubbish, the main thing is to have a vocal melody so that when the brilliant words come, you know what number of syllables you need per line and all that. If you hear it in a year and hate the whole thing, who cares if you get rid of it? It was an exercise in mixing and using that part of your brain.

 

The second thing is capture. Make it right then or record the basic idea on the phone humming or whatnot so you can go back to it. If you know exactly what you were thinking and hearing when you captured, the idea is good enough to be fully realized.

 

Lastly, they don't all have to have all the parts. They don't all have to have choruses or bridges. Rules are for people cranking hits who are paid to make those predictably catchy patterns.

 

Just my tips.

If what you need is inspiration for words then...break yourself against something. Women usually do the trick for me. One woman can give me ten songs easy. But you gotta let her break your heart. You get three love songs for every seven of heartache. I also sing about hating a horrible job, debt, suicide, cannibalism, homicide. The topics are in there [thumbup]

If you need inspiration for guitar bits, learn a new song in a scale you have never played in or an alternate tuning.

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Song writing? Hmmm...I seem to have trouble putting words to my "original" music. Oh, I can write lyrics, and I can come

up with decent enough chord patterns, riffs, etc. BUT, for some unknown reason, putting the two together, is where I find

the difficulty. A lot of what's been said, already, comes into play, but the main thing (for me) is writing a "song" as

one entity...not just lyrics, or the chord patterns, and/or "hooks." But, the combination! I keep trying! And, it's

(still) fun, even so. [tongue][biggrin]

 

 

CB

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I've always written songs by myself.

But after reading all these well written posts, I think for the first time, I am starting to see the benefit of collaborating with another person.

It would be nice to have someone to give me feedback on stuff I was doing. I never truly thought I would want to write with someone else.

But I think I will actively pursue doing so.......... :) :-k

 

Thanks everyone for the great posts!

It is nice to know there there are other human beings out there that are experiencing what I am.

I guess that's the reason many of us post here.:) I know I often do.

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Some years ago I joined a band that did a high percentage of own written songs. I must say I liked this as the songs were a challenge to play. After a while I followed how it was done and wrote songs myself which were well received but after a while I lost interest and went back to covers.

 

So like everyone else in writing a song I followed someone else. Lennon and McCartney used to do just that. One would say 'did you hear such and such lets do that, so Loving Spoonful's Day Dream become Beatles

'Good Day Sunshine'. Lennon used to say 'If you can't remember the song next morning it's no good. a good one to remember!

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So like everyone else in writing a song I followed someone else. Lennon and McCartney used to do just that. One would say 'did you hear such and such lets do that, so Loving Spoonful's Day Dream become Beatles

'Good Day Sunshine'.

 

Nashville studios have listening rooms where people listen to The Highway and the other Nashville hit stations to hear in real time what others are doing so they can get them on the records being made right now.

 

rct

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There is SO MUCH out there, that I think we all subconsciously "borrow" things, all the time.

I recently came up with a chord pattern, that I "thought" was kinda cool, then I realized it

was very similar to The Who's "Won't Be Fooled Again!" Not exactly, but of the same vein. [tongue]

So, nothing is truly "original," it would seem. [tongue][biggrin]

 

I think that's what happened, in the famous case of "My Sweet Lord" being so similar to "He's

So Fine!" Not sure that George Harrison "intended" to write the same/similar melody. It just

sounded good, to him, and so he wrote lyrics to go with it. Getting sued for doing so, seems

a bit much, since (for example) ALL "Blues" songs, and a LOT of "rock/pop/country" songs tend

to sound alike, when you get right down to it. [tongue] Not many law suits over that.

 

CB

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