Hey guy, email me your GP tab, I will help you writing the drum track 
It's will be not great or perfect but not bad
badbadbad2707@gmail.com
It's will be not great or perfect but not bad
badbadbad2707@gmail.com
Writing full songs
- Thread starter Fugdup
- Start date
Practice is key just as it is with most other skills. I'm quite sure many of the songwriting greats of the world have written a shitty half ass song or thirty on their day. Mike Akerfeldt is always talking about throwing away stuff, 80% of the stuff he makes up gets trashed (but I'll bet it's better than the new album lol).
Try programming drums in a tab-editor like Guitar Pro or Tuxguitar. I can't for the life of me understand how people can be assed to do it in their DAW.
I shudder at the thought of programming in my drums like that! MIDI controller keyboard and SSD for the rough rhythmic outline and then in to the MIDI editor for tweaks and fills ;p
However in relation to the thread, using Guitar Pro or other notation software is a great tool for me, to aid writing in general.
It does take time transcribing the guitars and you have to be clued up on rhythmic notation to transcribe fast and efficiently, but everything else that's MIDI is already there for you ie. basic drums and keys (if you also use synths).
Once you have a general template even if it's just a riff, you may find that having this basis is all it takes to spark the next idea, or elaborating with orchestration over the initial riff, or changing it slightly etc... by simply using the editor in Guitar Pro.
Sometimes it's good when you're stuck to try using another instrument or your computer to come up with new ideas and when it comes to programming in notes, every now and then you'll have a happy accident which works really well which you may never have thought of. I have written an entire song in bed on my laptop just inputting notes in to Guitar Pro and it's one of my fave songs I've written.
I also suck at finishing songs, over 150 half finished songs to date on my hard drive! For me it's usually down to guitar sounds or never being perfectly happy with the guitar solo. This for me is when I use Guitar Pro most, being able to slow down the track to 50% and really hear how each lead guitar note works over the backing and being able to point out any clashes. I've also written quite a few solos by inputting this way and then learned them on guitar! It never hurts to have your own song fully transcribed anyway in case you forget how to play it down the line...
I'd say also that sticking with one idea and working at that is much better than starting a new project and coming up with another lonely riff that goes nowhere. Keep trying new ideas after the riff rhythmically and melodically, play it back later, if it still doesn't sound like it flows, then it doesn't and try again... You'll find something eventually I'm sure.
Didn't read the posts above maybe someone has already said this but I think you should listen to new stuff (new for you) and varied kind of music. I mean very varied. And you'll see that inspiration will come. Also a bit of theory could help to write interesting drum parts for example. It worked well for me so I guess it will for someone else.
Edit: writing riffs is cool but the important thing is the melody(ies) and what you feel when you listen to them. If nothing happens in your ear/head when you play or listen to the riff, you gotta change something or simply let it aside and work on other ideas. Again my experience only. Hope it helps.
Edit: writing riffs is cool but the important thing is the melody(ies) and what you feel when you listen to them. If nothing happens in your ear/head when you play or listen to the riff, you gotta change something or simply let it aside and work on other ideas. Again my experience only. Hope it helps.
When it comes to coming up with crazy original rhythms, I sometimes use spoken phrases in my head. It sounds kinda mental but you can get some truly mind blowing results when you sit down and figure out how to split it in to time signatures, for example...
The words Chicken Tikka. If you take the syllables "Chi-cken-Ti-kka-Chi-cken-Ti-kka-Chi-cken-Ti-kka-Chi-cken-Ti-kka" and repeat over an over you have a steady 4/4 rhythm (or 8/8 or 16/16 and so on depending on the speed you're saying it) Now add on "Rice" after every other Chicken Tikka and you've got a 9/8 rhythm going... One load of 4/4 (8/8) and one 5/4 (5/8) = 9/8.
Yes I've just had a curry by the way
These kinds of phrases work well for a basis to a crazy time signature and the possibilities and resources for inspiration are endless as there's no reason why a whole sentence can't be used to create a long complex rhythm. One thing to note though, using it this way usually always comes out in straight beats, in most instances you're just generally counting up to a certain number in either quarter, eighth or sixteenth note divisions... Once you have a a general feel for it though, you can then get experimental and add rests of varying lengths and indeed changing some of the rhythmic notes too. For example...Chi-cken-Ti-kka-Chi-cken-Ti-kka-Rice-Chi-cken-Ti-kka-Chi-cken-Tikka-Cu-rry
4/4 - 5/4 - 4/4 - 6/4 then just remove some of the syllables and replace with rests to give a less formulaic feel.
Hope that made sense!
Ericlingus
Prettiest Hair Around
- Oct 31, 2006
- 1,375
- 2
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I have difficulty finishing songs. I find the most productive thing for me to do is just work on a few songs at a time instead just one. I just slowly work on them until they are done. It takes me forever though. I just hate having anything that feels half assed in a song. I start with writing riffs and figure out what part of the song it most fits. Once I come up with several I see if any of them can be used in the same song. Once that happens I try to make a variation of a riff and build from there. I either just mindlessly jam until a find a riff I like or I get inspired by a band and try to come up with something in a similar style.
I've been having problems writing full songs for years, and lately, even coming up with riffs that inspire me is difficult. So, this past week I've started forcing myself to sit down and right one decent riff every day, then record it to some programmed drums and 2-4 track the guitars to get it sounding like a proper song. I save the session with the BPM in the title, and after awhile, I plan on going through these riffs and trying to piece together riffs that have similar BPM and energy.
