I dont "compose", Im a rocker, I'm all about the groove, I know I've said that before but thats it with me. If something comes out that makes me smile I go with it. Sometimes it might be two months later before I get more ideas, they also come by working the groove, I dont force anything. Then I've had things that sat for years, not knowing what to do with them. I had one little didy that I came up with in 75 that wasnt anything by itself, then in 92 it slid right into a musical passage we were putting in the middle of a song like it was made for it. Other times I have jammed things right out the night they happened. HOWEVER, the best thing for me was "writing", or better said... creating with a partner. But that is a special relationship, a meeting of the minds, rare but I found it once, my deceased bass player/vocalist. Recently my drummer was great help, I had this pile of flowing riffs, he dug through my lyrics and said "its this song", I thought about it and sure enough... there it was, just needing one more part as a bridge, after I put the melody to the obvious parts, he heard the remaining vocal melody and told me what kind of riff he heard behind it, the song was a done deal within 3 weeks (three practices) from when I came up with the riffs. So now the two of us are beginning to click with applying vocals and melodies to otherwise full songs that have been mostly complete... in some cases for years. I've only written two songs in their entirety by myself... there awesome
. Then YES, there is all the unfinished stuff, great in concept, groove, drive, inspiration... but still... just cant find/feel the finished product. My boy Todd would have had these finished long ago, we would have fought, quarled, sighed, moaned and in the end they would have been songs... and we would smile