Writting songs

Yeah, I can relate. But for me, its the melody that Im having problems with. I have lots of good (at least for me and my girlfriend) lyrics and themes that I cant seem to fit into the actual music. Most of the time Im at work, a riff or melody pops into my head, but before I can even put it into writting, its gone with the wind . We'll make a great pair, dont you think?

I can write lyrics / poetry.....just...my singing sucks so bad!

I also get this strange phenomena known as PMT......(Pre Music Tension)......the ideas sorta build up ...i get frustrated...i can hear music in my "3rd ear" but it just dont manifest into reality......i throw things at people,kick the cat etc......then it sorta just flows out of me over a few days and i seem to acheive a lot in a short space of time.......and all is good with the world again.......any1 else get this or am I........."weird"?

I find that I write using three different methods.

One is the one that is inspired and I'm writing as fast as I can to get the idea down. I'm done in minutes. This happens so rarely.

Another one is written over time. I come up with a beginning, an idea for the lyric or maybe some chord progression but it just doesn't seem right. I keep rewriting and reworking it for hours (days? weeks?) struggling over every word, every note. Sometimes I write several different drafts. Eventually things piece together.

The other way is similar to the second way; I come up with various ideas that seem to go nowhere. I have many notebooks filled with bits and pieces. Eventually something in my head clicks and I combine bits with a similar theme into one finished piece.

If one doesn't work for you, don't sweat it. Try another way. Nobody writes the same way, so there's no way to say "Start with 'A', then 'B', then 'C"... " (etc.)
    
    

Edited by darren - May 05 2006 at 16:13

I'm a Bernie Taupin not an Elton John

study music theory, look at scores from any classical musical piece. This works for great progressive writing. Form and analysis of chord structure and phrasing seems dry at first, but then try applying it.

Bleat wrote: <FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=3>I can write lyrics / poetry.....just...my singing sucks so bad! I also get this strange phenomena known as PMT......(Pre Music Tension)......the ideas sorta build up ...i get frustrated...i can hear music in my "3rd ear" but it just dont manifest into reality......i throw things at people,kick the cat etc......then it sorta just flows out of me over a few days and i seem to acheive a lot in a short space of time.......and all is good with the world again.......any1 else get this or am I........."weird"?

    
Definitely not wierd.

I tend to find the same sort of thing.

Disturbingly, my main creative bursts tend to be around the time of the Full Moon - and particularly around the time of the Equinoxes and Solstices.

For example, at the Spring Equinox this year, we wrote no less than 8 songs - and most nights we manage 1-2 tops (including writing, arranging and rough mixing).

Yeah, I know it sounds like hippy stuff, but it's just what I've observed.
    
    

Edited by Certif1ed - May 07 2006 at 16:15

Alpine Jones wrote: study music theory, look at scores from any classical musical piece. This works for great progressive writing. Form and analysis of chord structure and phrasing seems dry at first, but then try applying it.

I'm fairly convinced that, since the moon has a physical and observable gravitational pull on the oceans, that it must do on other bodies of water (ie us, since we're a very high percentage water), and this will affect us all somehow.

Look on the back of almost any Gong album and notice the mentioning of full moons and other such wierdness.

It all seems very odd to me - I'm not a tree-hugger by any stretch of the imagination, but as far as creativity is concerned, it's pretty much a constant.

It also seems logical that if you're of Celtic stock, then your music will also be. Consider (for example) how many people of Asian origin write music that is distinctly Asian in flavour - it's hardly an accident or pure personal taste!


I would also disagree with the point made by another poster that if you study music theory that it becomes impossible to write simple songs - the tunes I have written most recently are pretty simple (deliberately); yet I have studied theory in some depth, and composed in styles from Elizabethan through Ragtime to specific 20th century composers such as Schoenberg and Messaien.

I just prefer to write simple rock songs

everything good has already been done... almost

High ideals but low energy has always been my problem. But I do like talking about writing songs.