Writing Method??

[**Jester**]

Dan...or anyone for that matter, when you write music do you write the riff or the melody first.

I always used to try and write a good melody, but now I write riff first and melody afterwards. Mainly because I prefer getting an interesting rhythm and then the melody comes a bit more naturally. Also it avoids the temptation of when you have a melody of just thinking "ahhhh will just hold that chord and then so and so chord under that melody".

 

[Dan Swanö]

There is really no pattern here. I think the most normal way for me to write is to start with a riff that I believe will hold up on it´s own, like "Shadowman", "Sun of the night" or "Better safe than sorry" but soon I find a melody to go on top of the riff, and put the riff "in the shadow" but once you listen to the riff you will hear it is a killerriff in its own right but it sounded even better with a melody on top...Just like chokladpudding tastes even better with vaniljsås on top...and sometimes even with a dammsugare squeezed in the cup!!!
My only criteria when I write is - If I don´t remember the riff or the melody without recording it, it´s not good enough...and with my lousy memory that means only a few riffs a month will be good enough to stick...and in that tempo...not many albums a year but once the song is completed...it kicks!!

 

[BreathingShadow]

haha... i like you dan

 

[MasterofDesaster]

...and with my lousy memory that means only a few riffs a month will be good enough to stick...and in that tempo...not many albums a year but once the song is completed...it kicks!!

so that's why we always have to wait so long for a new album to be released

 

[burton]

Hahahahahah.

 

[jimbob]

Well I don´t agree with you guys, cause time between the release of the Nightingale albums is similar to many other albums of popular groups in general. That´s what I think. It takes time to produce an album that will *survive* and that people will love. It´s obvious that Dan himself always has had much to do with many different projects in music through his years so I´m impressed of his work and of course all of the Nightingale members

//Jimmy

 

[Fifth_Horseman]

My only criteria when I write is - If I don´t remember the riff or the melody without recording it, it´s not good enough...

That's about it for me too.

I just collect ideas, and when I can't remember them the next day it won't have been that great a loss.

 

[Aaron A.]

Haha... very nice, Dan.

 

[Gurgelguff]

That's about it for me too.

I just collect ideas, and when I can't remember them the next day it won't have been that great a loss.

If i used that rule i would´t have written a singel song i my life

 

[Fifth_Horseman]

If i used that rule i would´t have written a singel song i my life

Yeah, but I grew up composing on the piano, and for the last fifteen years just didn't have the possibility to record anything (until three months ago, now I got a great digital piano and can record to my comp).
So I'm pretty used to remember everything I come up with, I just play it a few times and hope it sticks... well most of the time it does.

 

[Kenneth R.]

i'm much the same Dan, but i start with the melody and then the riff!