Your Song Writing Process
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ParsonsMatt
Alas, Tyranny
It all starts with one really good idea, be it lyrical, guitar riff, vocal rhythm, orchestra melody, atmospheric idea, etc... then I build the rest of the song around it.
TravisW
Member
My method isn't too different from what most have posted in here. I generally get a riff idea and record it, then try to immediately follow it up with things that seem like they should come next. I always try to get three things in a row, even if I wind up replacing a riff. When I get my various parts sorted out, then I take it to the band and we work it up in rehearsal. From there, I record the rehearsal and we listen back to it a few times and do any reworking of the arrangement that might work out well. We get a few different versions going and basically decide on the best. Then the lyrics get written.
I don't even bother really trying to write anything anymore unless I have some means to record it.
I don't even bother really trying to write anything anymore unless I have some means to record it.
RemoWilliams
¯\(°_o)/¯ How meet Devil?
- Nov 13, 2005
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-J-
Member
- May 7, 2007
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rats, you caught it before I deleted it, hehe! sounded too bitter/trollish. best if I don't post when I'm kinda sick and have holiday stress. but good point man.
aberration
Black/Doom/Crust/Hardcore
Step 1: compose intro riff
Step 2: pair with second riff
Step 3: get stumped, give up
Step 4: start over
Step 2: pair with second riff
Step 3: get stumped, give up
Step 4: start over
plague_rider
Coffee
ChrisTanakaCanwell
Member
Harry Hughes
âââ¬â¬
- Apr 25, 2009
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Tends to almost always start from the guitar with me.
Whether it's the bass guitar or guitar, I'll be sitting there to a metronome click, constantly playing different ideas until I hear something that just seems to click.
Whether it's the bass guitar or guitar, I'll be sitting there to a metronome click, constantly playing different ideas until I hear something that just seems to click.
Seizure.
Member
If i don't have atleast the 3 riffs i'm gonna use in the song within the first 5/8 minutes i useally throw them away asap and start over or stop.
Well that's crap. Plenty of great songs were born without being written in 5-8 minutes. WTF?
P-E
Munchkin
Hey man, relax. Everybody's got their way of doing it.
Another example : one of my best friends that plays acoustic guitar music (kinda like pop folk, whatever) writes most of his songs in one day and they're pretty complete, original, and everything.
in my band one we'll all bring in riffs/rhythms and we'll jam the ones we all like. It gets ditched if one of us isn't feeling it 100%. We spend a lot of time progressing one riff or rhythm too - that's the basis of our sound really. It has to groove, has to have a great vibe. Needs meaning, needs to make the hairs on your aarms stand up. You have to have a whole band in a room IMHO. Hippie. Its hard to get over the musician's ego thing and understand that 4 people with a common goal will write better than one dude who can write a huge chorus and some catchy lead lines. Its so much more satisfying too.
From there, we'll piece together certain ideas that feel good together and then work on getting the transitions perfect. I have this very hippie way of describing it: "as though riff A is the only riff that could ever come in again after riff B" - that's what we aim for really.
When we first started jamming we'd write loosely around verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle 8, verse, chorus, chorus kind of structure but now we just go where the music wants to go.
From there, we'll piece together certain ideas that feel good together and then work on getting the transitions perfect. I have this very hippie way of describing it: "as though riff A is the only riff that could ever come in again after riff B" - that's what we aim for really.
When we first started jamming we'd write loosely around verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle 8, verse, chorus, chorus kind of structure but now we just go where the music wants to go.
Hey man, relax. Everybody's got their way of doing it.
Another example : one of my best friends that plays acoustic guitar music (kinda like pop folk, whatever) writes most of his songs in one day and they're pretty complete, original, and everything.
I wouldn't exactly call throwing away anything that doesn't happen in 5 mins a way of "doing it." Unless you just got incredibly lucky, what are the chances that you'll have that many riffs that are perfect together in 5 mins?That's fine if someone wants to do that but I'd think you'd really be screwing yourself.
Seizure.
Member
I play in a grindcore band man
its not like i'm writing Dream theater songs this way But i have the same thing with my Doom stuff though..
I spend a shitload of time on checking how i could play certain parts throughout the song and overdubs/extras.. but if i don't have the skeleton within the first 10 minutes its not gonna work.. it allways went this way...
Check the songs Essential and The Keys to My heart on the drdoom page.. all 5/10 minutes of working on the songwriting and main riffs...
Seizure.
Member
I tend to go with pretty "poppy" structures aswell... ABABDA haha something like that. My intro and outro are most of the time the same or variations on the same idea haha
