Do you have a method for songwriting?

Ekancone

Hi, when writing music I find that sometimes it comes from random inspiration, and other times it comes from methodical thinking. Although I would say I don't have a set method or process of songwriting.

Do you guys have a model you work off when writing/composing?

Dark Artist

I just sit at my piano and improvise randomly until I get a nice combination of chords and melody. It takes a while to get into the zone, but once you're in it, it's pretty sweet. I start imagining what the song would sound like fully recorded, with all the instruments, and try to find that on the piano. I never record stuff - I think I have to get around to doing that!

I start off bashing a few chords. It's just fiddling around, that's what I do. It helps if you know what you're doing e.g. which feelings are evoked by which chords and melodies. That helps me to find the sound I'm looking for.

raindog.promo

Finding a technique you can't do, or a bit of theory you want to familiarize yourself with, turn it into an exercise, work into it and gradually turn it into a piece in itself.

You come up with something you've never done before plus added to your technique. Once it keeps you interested.

Sometimes strumming away with your head in the clouds. Sometimes having an idea beforehand and then working it out. Sometimes playing with a few drinks, or whatever you're having yourself.

rossa64

for me, i pick up the guitar, and begin to pick a chord untill i find a nice pattern then i sit and wait while it builds up in my head, then i try to figure it out, and sometimes it works! other time, i keep creating the same song, reverting to the same chords, and patterns, which really pisses me off untill i give up for a few days.
people tell me that you should think of the song first in your head, but im a huge believer in the subconcious, i think if you just jam away, a song reveals itself to you, kinda like your walking down a dark pathway, but you know where its leading, u just gotta keep truckin!

as regards lyrics, i generally, stroll around during the day, with odd sentences that sound well together and have a theme, running through my head, and il play around with them untill i get home and scroll them down, and work from there. but it sometimes ends up with me writing on the spot after iv written down what i had in my head and usually the start isnt bad, but the ending is crap!

Ekancone

Cool, I find that writing music comes easily enough to me, but my lyrics are terrible! Perhaps I should find myself a Morrissey!

frobisher

Every song is probably a bit different. Lyrics often form the initial impetus, usually an opening line, a theme or a phrase arrives in my mind and excites me enough that I want to put music to it. I used to write whole poems that I would then put music too, now I keep things looser so the words and music move along and develop side by side. I find that keeps me more excited.

After I've got my intial lyrical theme or story roughly pointing in the right direction in my head I then work with the chords and melody with 3 simple rules 1/ Melody is king, 2/Meoldy is king & 3/ The odd time melody isn't king

I believe the best melodies are the ones that come naturally, as though they already existed and these are the melodies to seek out. Usually it's a case of singing a phrase of the song out loud with a guitar playing then when I get to the part I'm trying to write I stop playing but keep singing when the melody ends I hit a chord that holds it nicely and stick with it. I find if you write over chords you can often end up sticking with the triad note structure.

Something I've been doing alot lately is playing just one chord, or even just 2 notes and start singing over it. The lack of movement in the chords can really free up your ideas for where the melody wants to go. I reckon some of my best new material has been written this way.

niallon

Dunno about everyone else but for me, it's always lyrics first. The way I see it they're the most important part for me and so having the music written first is useless. Of course this varies from person to person.

As regards the debate between random inspiration and focused thought, I can tell you that I've only ever written 2 songs that came about from me having an idea in my head and methodically elaborating on it and one of those two songs I despise myself (funnily enough the other one is one of my favourites!)

Usually with me, it's an awfully clichéd case of a line popping into my head and I work it from there. Generally speaking the line or idea hits me with such force that I get a binge of what I like to call "lyrical diahorrea" and just plaster the page with lyrics. It is of course horrendously annoying when I don't have a notebook on me! :L