I am pretty sure all of us either are or have been original songwriters, either musically, lyrically or both. While a lot our tastes tend to overlap, I think it is pretty awesome that all of use create rather unique tunes. I mean, we run the gambit from indie-pop to poopslamz metal.

So what is your process for songwriting?

Personally, it usually starts when I am fucking around on an instrument. I tend to just play random ideas and melodies that have run through my head, and try to work off of those. This usually means starting with a basic rhythm guitar part (that gets scrapped later) to map out chord progressions and key changes etc. Then, I work on the major melody of the song, this usually takes the form of a piano, guitar or vocal part. Once I have that down, I program my drums based on the basic rhythm track I recorded earlier.

After the drums are done, I re-record the rhythm guitar part to suit the song (sometimes meaning I axe it completely) and rewrite/record the lead part again. Then I add bass and get a simple mix (this is where I am at on my current song) to use to track vocals. Then I go back and listen to see if I should rerecord anything again to help it fit in. Hopefully I am happy with it, and can start the mix down.

Sometimes I write lyrics, then write the music to match. Other times I write instrumentals and write lyrics based on the mood.

Then I play the song for friends like yous guize, then rework the song based on feedback.





Right now I am actually trying to get four songs together for a "demo" of sorts. Essentially I am just tired of writing random songs and dropping them, so this would give me a solid product to work towards and whore out on the internet. I think the four songs I am going to write/record with real effort are: the hipster song (it will get a proper name when it has lyrics), Strings, Let Me Go (the one I am currently working on) and another song I don't even have a descriptive title for. They all are in the same general genre of rock, and could be put together to make a decent EP.

I just hear shit in my head, whether its guitar stuff, or lyrical melodies. It flows from there, either smoothly , or us thinking about one part of a song for a couple of days or more. We dont really have a specific process. We just write what we feel.

Or we sacrifice a bunch of living creatures, and listen to their screams for melody ideas.

I 'write' a few different ways. The one thing that runs through all of them, is that i like to retain an element of straight up improvisation (but in a strange way) and i don't like to know too well what the final result is "supposed" to be. I like to build stuff in the moment, and then be surprised(or not) by what it turns into. Because it is just me doing it in the end, i come across interestingly similar results fairly often, BUT, i hardly ever use the same paths to get to them.

1. Probably most common, is i just sit around fucking with a guitar. I stumble across an interesting chord shape or combo, and then i basically hit record and see what comes out. Usually with a mic on the guitar and a mic on my voice. Then i listen back and see what i have. I don't always hear something in it until i listen the next day. Sometimes things from the day before that i liked then, i decide are shitty, and random things that i have titled "nothing" or "kind of shit" wind up being interesting sounds.

Almost everything i write has voices that run through it. I generally never post things with the voices because i have been in a hardcore wordslump. But yeah, a lot of stuff i write has really super basic repetitive structures, but with voices that change what it does from one end to the other.

90% of everything i record does not go beyond the guitar+voice stage. I just leave it, save it, store it. Wait for words i guess. I think they will eventually return. When they do, i will have about ten albums worth of songs to do.

2. Also starts out fucking with a guitar, usually along the lines of playing things that i find rhythmically interesting to play, usually with some element of interesting notes that i like to hear. This, i generally try to get as solid as possible, as consistent. Basically i record it as a scratch track, even if it is just a bunch of not-very-connected riffs. The purpose of this sort of thing, is to give me something to figure out on the drums. Basically it is mathrock that comes together really slowly. Though a lot of the time, it winds up being in 4/4, that generally isn't the point anyhow. I like playing things against eachother and putting them together. Like sonic legos.

3. The third main way i write shit is just to have an idea of something i want to do in a more general sense. Then i literally go right to the drums. And i record whatever in whatever style or approach i want to write in. The point of this being to take whatever is useful, and either use it whole, or cut and paste it into song structures. Then generally, once structured, i will try to play along with the guitar then the bass or keyboard and see what i find in it. Whatever works, i will record, and then build off that to make things fit together.

Mainly, i just try to keep productive, and i try to keep thinking, and i try to keep open to reinterpreting things. I do feel that my work habits have made me quite a bit more unfocused with what i want to do, but a big part of that is also just where i am in life in general right now. Lots of unconnected ideas and confusing constructions with few goals in mind, and no clear futures, are perhaps largely just a reflection of everything else around here right now.

That is rather Bohemian of you.

I don't think any of my tracks have gotten to the point where I put vocals on them :sad:

I too just end up leaving them unfinished and unpolished. That is my goal for this EP, to create four songs that are "finished" at least to my liking. That way when people ask what kind of music I play I can play the EP without having to give the disclaimer, "Well I haven't mixed it, and I want to re-record this part and I haven't put that part in yet."

I have the problem that I quit on the idea that I have before it really materializes...

I got 2/3s of the way through the lyrics for Let Me Go, then hit a wall.


YEAH!

I noodle on an instrument then something strikes me. If I find I can put it away then come back later that day or in another day or so, and have not forgotten it it must have some appeal. From there, then I complete the song in writing hooks, verses etc. I seem to find this works for me, although I usually co-write with a partner. If for some reason I can't remember something I was working on, I then think that it wasn't meant to be, if I can't remember it, how is someone else supposed to. This has more to do with the style that I write as well, I think I tend to be moar "pop" writing than most of this board, and I haven't posted my most pop type tunes. I don't think.

That's true I always remember my best material.

drugs.

I just noodle around until I come up with something I like... then noodle around some more, etc.


I don't base anything off of anything else, either. I come up with what I think are cool riffs, and then I come up with some more. If they don't fit, I keep them and use them somewhere else. I don't really have any trouble with forgetting riffs.

I just stumble onto things by fucking around with melody patterns within a scale for most melodic ideas, from there they get fucked with rhythmically and I figure out the phrasing and schtuff.
It works like that about 90% of the time, I don't often first hear melodies in my head and figure them out on the fretboard.
Sometimes I do if I hear a basic riff, chord progression or melody I particularly like and then bastardize it for my own ill intending purposes.
Most of the time I figure out a spot on the neck within the key I'm playing in that I like the voicing of and just noodle and fuck around.

For chord progressions I am a little bit less methodical..
Whatever root notes presented by the melodies pretty much decide the chords.


I wish I would be a little bit more creative in that aspect but I haven't grown bored enough yet with what tools I have to go there yet..
Droning on the low D with different chord shapes integrated in rhythmically can give you a lot of different options, and I think it's a pretty huge, ambient sound and I like that.
But I need to learn other types of music..
About 80% of what I know is metal, so everything I do has that seeping into it.
I need to sit down and learn simple, catchy pop songs with good structure and chord progressions.

Oi, can someone explain to me the application of key changes in songwriting?
I don't know how I would actually go about doing that writing a song..
I don't know if you have to return to the root or some other interval in the scale before you could change keys or whatever.
Minor to major deviation is nothing new to me, but changing to a completely different key makes no sense to me.

You do them when you ... want ... the ... key to change?


I guess the most common application is the chorus key change, where you sing the chorus, then repeat it in a different key usually one step higher. But really, you just use them when you need a song to go in a different direction. You can return to the root, or use an interval to get there, or just never return to the root.

No, I know WHY you apply them, but HOW?

I should rephrase that;
How do I change keys within a song with it sounding natural and pleasing to the ear and not like a fucking trainwreck.
Of course you can change the key whenever you want, but it wouldn't necessarily be good for the song.

usually key changes aren't super drastic...

like start in E Mayor and go to E minor or D mayor (E is second, Dorian right?)

or you just borrow chords from neighboring keys,

nothing in song writting is set in stone so

That is up to you man.

I kind of like them to increase energy or tension in a mix. They also work well in build up situations. They are not difficult to implement. The Ramones did it at 1:10

Rush also used a bunch of key changes:

I get a few riffs together and then we get fucked up at rehearsal and a song is born assuming we remember what we did.
Out last song was started in late october and I think we've only just got it nailed this last week.