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What is your songwriting process?

 
    • zepfreak disse...
    • Usuário
    • Mar 19 2009, 19h05

    What is your songwriting process?

    It seems like everyone I've known writes music in vastly different ways, and I'm always curious to find out how other musicians go about the process, so:

    How do you write songs? Do you start with a little riff or progression on a keyboard/guitar/bass/vocals? Do you write alone or with other people? Do you get feedback or do you primarily just go on your own intuition? Do you do everything or only select parts? Do you write quickly and intensively or let an idea progress over time in a more natural fashion? Do you write with a concept in mind and seek to fulfill a purpose (e.g. outro, intro, climax, interlude, etc), or do you just go in with an open mind? Do you write a lot of material and scrap a lot of the bad stuff, or do you limit what you write and make sure that it's of quality?

    Those are a lot of questions, please do not feel like you have to answer them all specifically, but they're there if you want them.

    Anyways.

    I tend to write alone with little input from other people, at least initially, and work on a song for long, long periods of time. I very rarely come in with an initial riff or progression, but I often come in with an idea or concept. When I decide to write a song, I very rarely know what will come out of the effort, or if anything will come out at all. If I try for a half hour or so and nothing sticks, I stop and don't try again for a while. I'm very selective of what I develop into a song, but I try many many many times to write a song. On my computer, I have hundreds of files and folders for songs, but many are empty or have only a track or two. The more I've written, the faster the process seems to go, but I think this is mostly because I've become more obsessed. Whereas before, I would write a song slowly over the course of a week or so, now I'll work on it intensively for a day or two and then make minor tweaks for the next week.

    The only thing that seems consistent is that I can't write songs with people, because my idea of songwriting is much too experimental. Instead of focusing on a riff or a hook, I'll focus on how an instrument sounds, spending minutes and hours pushing buttons and sliding sliders, and this is very much a one person job. I get most ideas just by fiddling around, and it's a very messy and unprofessional way to go about writing, and it's very boring for other people to be a part of. Also, I tend to have a vision of what I want to accomplish, and it's hard to articulate to another person, even if they're behind the same vision, and they usually are not.

    So that's a rambling overview of what I do. Similar to you, at all? Perhaps?

  • I tend to prefer a variety of approaches with the bands I'm involved in (The Abodes and Foilface). I prefer music first and like being involved in songs where things seem to naturally evolve without having to think verse, verse, chorus, verse, verse, chorus - although classic song structures are not to be ignored.

  • I tend to prefer a variety of approaches with the bands I'm involved in (The Abodes and Foilface). I prefer music first and like being involved in songs where things seem to naturally evolve without having to think verse, verse, chorus, verse, verse, chorus - although classic song structures are not to be ignored.

  • I'll normally have something going round my head - a little melody/rhythm/sound/texture - and then I'll probably merge that with another little idea. It's like I have a little library of ideas and I just go with it. So the instrument I start with is my head. And I think a lot of my ideas never actually get formulated into something I want to play, so most of the selection process happens before I've picked up a guitar or written anything.

    The next step would be for me to play with some electronic sounds or play the parts on the guitar and loop them, playing over myself. I'm still hearing bits of the tune in my head though at this stage, I am just trying out some ideas. At this point some of my ideas just don't work out.

    Once I have done some experimentation I will sit down again and think about planning the whole track. Then late in the process I'll probably change and refine what I am doing - so there is some fiddling around in there too.

    James Bonham = my own music
    Editado por jamesfbonham em Ago 13 2009, 20h30
  • I dont have one, i play, delete, play delete, stick with that, play delete, play delete, stick with that. etc etc etc

    • Maxymale disse...
    • Usuário
    • Jun 13 2009, 12h18
    I write song by method of tries and mistakes! i Start like that :
    First i imagine some melody(i always describe is it happy or depressive), then write some lyrics(English or Polish, depends on melody and what i want to say), then i try my melody on instruments, and then with friends i make riffs on paper!

  • I write alone and how I do it tends to vary. Usually I'll try to start with an "anchor," something I can base the rest of the track around. Depending on what type of music it is, it could be a rhythmic pattern or a simple drone or texture or pad type of soundscape.

    Subterrestrial - ambient/drone/experimental
    Blogspot | archive.org | Last.fm | Soundcloud | Youtube | Jamendo | Sonic Squirrel
    • origan21 disse...
    • Usuário
    • Dez 9 2011, 5h55

    [spam]

    [spam]

    Editado por hjbardenhagen em Jan 13 2012, 6h19
  • Launch software, rush through thousands of samples testing them with my midi keyboard. If I find a sound usable, I arrange it with atmospheric sequence of chords adding more layers / FX and constantly rearranging repetitive song structure. Adjustment also take place all the time. Finalization consists of listening to the whole thing many times, improving sound, catching bugs and trying to fix them.

  • Launch software, rush through thousands of samples testing them with my midi keyboard. If I find a sound usable, I arrange it with atmospheric sequence of chords adding more layers / FX and constantly rearranging repetitive song structure. Adjustment also take place all the time. Finalization consists of listening to the whole thing many times, improving sound, catching bugs and trying to fix them.

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