Question for composers
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11012
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Topic: Question for composers
Posted By: Reverie
Subject: Question for composers
Date Posted: September 01 2005 at 20:33
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When you start writing a song do you always start off with your instrument of choice? And if you play multiple instruments is there one you usually start off with? I'm curious because, as solely a guitar player, i almost always write the guitar part first, even if the guitar isn't the main feature of what i'm writing. Next year i'm going to a music school where it's a requirement to learn a bit of keyboard since it's a universal medium basically and i'm also probably going to use bass as my secondary instrument (guitar obviusly being my first). I'm very interested to see how this changes the way i write music. I know it will benefit me because i'll have a wider understanding of each instrument and how they all work together in different situations etc. I'm just eager to see the outcome |
Replies:
Posted By: porter
Date Posted: September 02 2005 at 09:45
I'm a guitar player too and I always write on the guitar; I'm forced to do that because at this moment I don't have no piano or keys, nor a bass. But that's not so important, because I tend to create riffs and things in my mind before and I apply them later to an instrument (at least I try to... sometimes the result is crap )------------- "my kingdom for a horse!" (W. Shakespeare, "Richard III") |
Posted By: nousommedusolei
Date Posted: September 03 2005 at 03:38
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I'm a guitarist, and I write for guitar, and then piano. ------------- I don't believe in demons I don't believe in devils I only believe in you |
Posted By: proger
Date Posted: September 03 2005 at 07:25
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i compose my song for and half a year, and i play almost two years
------------- ...live for tomorrow... |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: September 03 2005 at 07:31
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I think that every good song is based upon a strong melody, and it's not important which instrument plays it. I've read that many musicians actually use their voice when trying to find melodies ... they sing or hum the melody and record it. Then they begin to work out chords and accompanyments for the melody, and try to find related/supporting/contrasting other melodies, and eventually a new song is born. But IMO the core of each brilliant song is always a simple melody. ------------- https://awesomeprog.com/users/Mike" rel="nofollow">Recently listened to: 
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Posted By: Reverie
Date Posted: September 04 2005 at 20:31
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Thanks for the replies guys. It makes sense really to start a composition with the instrument you can play. Seems like a kind of silly question now As far as melodies go, i've started to experiment with other instruments playing melodies. In the latest thing i've written i've got an oboe and flute going at it. Even though it's only midi i think it still gives the piece a completely different texture. When (if) it's ever recorded it will make a huge difference i think. |
Posted By: youngpetrucci
Date Posted: September 16 2005 at 04:47
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i'm a guitar player but i don't write on the guitar first , actually
when i'm composing i don't use the guitar , i compose in my head then i
put the ideas on computer , and sometimes i write songs with no guitar
, so i don;t think that every guitar player starts his compositions onm
the guitar ------------- " We Live Thinking We'll Never Die , We Die Thinking We've Never Lived " (Jason Becker) |
Posted By: Lindsay Lohan
Date Posted: September 16 2005 at 04:48
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I just get weird music in my head and try to play it either on keyboard,bass or guitar Either that or i just improvise something...i just love improvising ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Fjuffe/?chartstyle=sideRed - [IMG - http://imagegen.last.fm/sideRed/recenttracks/Fjuffe.gif - |
Posted By: yaksongs
Date Posted: September 16 2005 at 12:36
Likewise, but normally these "ideas" occur when I am out & about or driving & by the time I get to the keyboard the idea has gone or is "different" - SO... I now carry a dictaphone into which ideas can be hummed as & when they occur (awkward in business meetings I admit M
------------- www.yaksongs.com |
maidenrulez wrote:Posted By: arcer
Date Posted: September 18 2005 at 20:40
Mostly I write on guitar but it depends on what's to hand at the time.
I sometimes write on piano but find it much more difficult to then work
everything out for the rest of the instruments as I have no idea what
chords I'm playing on the piano and have no clue how to then frame them
on the guitar. Likewise, half the things I play on guitar I don't know
the names of so I just have to do it all by ear and a process of
elimination - and I've been playing guitar for 20 years!!!! I just
never bothered to learn what was what, just played what sounded good 
However I would agree that most good songs come from a melody and
usually that melody, for me, is suggested by a something I might
be doodling on guitar. It suggests a melody, I'll hum the melody to see
where it naturally goes and then attempt to find the chords to fit. At
other times though, the tune appears fully formed from my hands, it's
as if they seem to know where to go and the melody just flows. Weird
but very satisfying. |
Posted By: lunaticviolist
Date Posted: September 21 2005 at 20:58
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I'm a guitar player, but my primary instrument is viola. I don't play piano, but I usually write songs on the piano or viola, hardly ever on the guitar. But lately I've been writing more on the guitar. ------------- My recent purchases: 
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Posted By: Mnemosyne
Date Posted: September 28 2005 at 12:43
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I love to start songs with a very strange bassline or using everything my hands touch as percussion making an odd-time signature-driven pattern ... I think it's a very lovely way to start, and then i follow my imagination... ------------- I'm a Man-Owl-Fish. Creator-Observer-Muse. |
Posted By: BePinkTheater
Date Posted: September 28 2005 at 18:13
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Most of my composition is orchestral stuff, so i start that wiht the keyboards, can fiddle around with it..sometimes pick up my cello. but as for my rock stuff... It depends..I dont sit down to write, thats how things end up sounding forced and basically crap. So it depends what I'm playing when an idea comes a long ------------- I can strangle a canary in a tin can and it would be really original, but that wouldn't save it from sounding like utter sh*t. -Stone Beard |