JoeJackson
Member
happens to me too, what I do normally is grab my phone and record a voice with me singing the melody/riff I have in mind.
+ 1!
happens to me too, what I do normally is grab my phone and record a voice with me singing the melody/riff I have in mind.
How do you guys keep things fresh? Don't you give yourselves shit because your songs are too normal or weird or un-interesting. Do you ever think about "what am I bringing to the genre"?
How do you guys keep things fresh? Don't you give yourselves shit because your songs are too normal or weird or un-interesting. Do you ever think about "what am I bringing to the genre"?
IMHO, these are some ingredients of good song writing:
Inspiration/Motivation:
- Without any inspiration or motivation, you might end up producing meaningless elevator music. Nobody (including yourself) will find this very catching. If you're into highly technical shredding only, you can skip this and proceed to "Theoretical Background".
- Where do you find inspiration/motivation? I start my search in things that have an emotional impact on myself. This can be anything, but for me the stuff that really annoys me works best (everything from politics to people to economics to workplace will work).
- Another source for inspiration can be songs of other bands. Play along or listen to them to get fresh ideas. This is sometimes called "stealing", but who cares... everybody does it. Just add your own stuff to it. This also helps getting out of your usual rut (I tend to do the same stuff over and over again). It also helps me when I get stuck in composing amnesia.
- As already said, give your idea/song a name! That will help focus yourself and prevents noodling around. If you don't even find a name, you will most likely not find a nice chord either.
Theoretical Background:
- Some basic music theory (mainly chords, scales and modulation) is like having a road map to find your way better. You might reach your destination without a map, but the way will probably be longer and you even might get lost.
- A theoretical background helps getting your idea done quickly, coz' you know which scales sound "evil" and which sound "nice" etc. It frees your mind for creative stuff, because you don't have to care about theory so much. Satriani once said: "Learn all the theory and then forget about it" (meaning you just apply theory without much thinking about it).
- Take lessons, surf the web (there's too much stuff for my taste around to get around) or analyse songs that you like.
Stick to yourself:
- Get inspired by others but don't get too much influenced. Find out which kind of music comes from your heart (the stuff that comes automatically) and which comes from your head (the stuff that you want to play). The music that comes from my heart or stomach is not neccessarily the same that I like to listen to, BTW.
P.S.: Most records really sound like they where composed and recorded in just 30 days...
Learn all the theory and then forget about it. Learn it with all your heart, and don't use them. Afterwards, when you compose without theory it's still gonna be guiding you without you even noticing. It happens subconsciously. You just get 'used to it', if you get my point.
Learn all the theory and then forget about it. Learn it with all your heart, and don't use them. Afterwards, when you compose without theory it's still gonna be guiding you without you even noticing. It happens subconsciously. You just get 'used to it', if you get my point.
poetic and nice. and sooo true