Difficulty in Songwriting

Don1

I just wanted to know was I the only one who either can't write a song or does and forgets em instantly.

Gordon

It depends really, I can write so many songs just like in the charts as anyone can and I would forget them instantly but if it is a song or a phrase or an idea that I am very passionate about I won't forget it completely. I will usually be able to piece a half forgotten tune back to life in time if I do forget it.

I'm currently archiving my old old music and finding some really cool ideas when I was younger, I'll get them back to life soon.

If I was you I would get a small tape recorder with you wherever you are. Maybe a dictaphone. A large problem I have is when I am in a dream state and hear music and almost cry from the beauty I am hearing or the passion created by it - I wake up and forget it quickly. That is very annoying so I have tried to get myself to turn on the computer and open up my music program (reason) before I forget it at 5 in the morning bleary eyed!

I say get a tape recorder and try and find music that really moves your heart.

Kell

And then sometimes you try too hard and come out with absolute f*cking rubbish. That one gets me the most. On the other hand there were the two crackers I wrote last year that sadly are with the old band. Oh well.

Don1

That's the frickin problem. Soon as take out the tape recorder it turns to muck (the song not the tape recorder!!) oh well, I'll just keep on pluggin away and maybe like a fine wine it will improve with age, or something like that!!

Giblet

Jamming with a band helps.

Don1

i had just started to do that then our drummer decided he's headin off to the States for 6 months!!

imp

Do people here find it easier to write lyrics once they have music to work with or vice versa?

I can't say I've really ever had a chance to put lyrics to original music, but I'm pretty dire at coming up with them on their own.

}:>

seamus

Originally posted by imp
Do people here find it easier to write lyrics once they have music to work with or vice versa?

Yeah, that's a big one for me. Lyrics on their own are relatively easy to write (like a poem), but can be quite difficult incorporate to music, or especially the right music.

If I try to do both together, ie sit with a guitar, play a few chords, and add words to them, either I give up after 5 mins, or I come up with some repetitive, simple, oasis-style crap. Only once or twice have I come up with something that's like "Yeah, this could be good".

But I find it easiest, and most enjoyable when singing along to an original piece of music, probably because you don't have to think about the music, it's just playing, and you can be freer in what you're doing, you're not constantly thinking, "Is this music any good, can I put words to it".


(Forgive the hippie undertones, I'm a little toasted )

Sterile Fish

I find it easier to just write lyrics, just sit somewhere, where you have nothing else to do, and write, just write what comes to mind, dont even worry about the actual music at the time, and make sure its wrote down, and you keep it, it usually goes through alot of changes before you are happy with it, and its good to keep your drafts. Then someday, (i play guitar) just start improvising a riff, and what usually happens me, is that I take out the lyrics, and then i tweak the riff, and tweak the lyrics to match each other, and thats the beginning of the formation of a song, ive wrote dozens using the exact same method, and often its weeks or months after writing the lyrics, before i take them out again and try to match them with my riffs. im constantly improvising riffs, and im constantly writing lyrics, just that they often dont even try to match up for a long time, im maybe not making any sense, but its my way of doing it, hope i help a bit!

--EDIT: you would help if it wasn't written like a text message

Specky

I've never been much of a lyricist but I do tend to find that there's a specific idea in my head when I start to write a piece of music and that idea tends to stick with the piece of music.

So if it gets lyrics then they'll be based around the idea...or if it doesn't get lyrics then it'll get a title based around the same idea.

I think that's how I'm able to remember the stuff I write too, I remember the idea and the music is sort of "attached".

I don't write as much as I used to, and like one of the previous posters mentioned, I look at stuff I wrote ages ago sometimes and wonder how on earth I did it!! Anything I do write I tend to obsess over for a week or two anyway, so even if my head forgets it my fingers will remember it once I start playing.

But as I said at the top, I'm not really a lyricist. I find a lot of my own lyrics corny.
:rolleyes:

Tyrrial

no problem, just listen to the music and let the beat bring on the words