How do "you" write "your" music?

[Jwar]

Hey all! So this could totally go into a different section but I want traffic. :O)

I'm assuming we have a lot of musicians out there. JK, I've listened to a lot of all of your music. Tons of awesome stuff being put out. I finally finished a second song. Finally being the key word here. It took me months. I have the guitar, bass, vocals all done. Now to drums, my Achilles heal.

Anywho, I'm wondering, what does your process look like? How long do you take if you write all sections of the music?

I have a very simplistic approach to my actual playing. I say that because I'm not really playing a ton of chords, I'm not overplaying to the point of showing off or doing anything like that. I'm using almost always the same notes (in each song) and varying their timing and/or attack plus maybe adding an extra couple of notes. Anyway, I'd probably have to show you to truly explain what I'm talking about. My brother watched me (he's classically trained) and said "interesting, I've never thought to play like that". I make the same shit sound different. Whole song is almost all the same notes. lol.


It takes me up to 6 months to write. The lyrics take me time. Singing and playing at the same time, takes me the most time. I can do it though now. With few mistakes too. I'm working on doing it with my eyes closed. My point is I take a long time to make music and when talking my cousin, who plays guitar, I was told that I take enormously too long. My brother, who does rap, said the same thing. I asked my buddy Matt, who is a classically trained pianist, haha pianist, and he said 6 months is normal for a musician.

I'm just curious here. I feel like I take for fucking ever but I put a lot of my soul into it even if it's simplistic in sound. You can hear me and feel what I'm saying.

Share you process! I'm curious. I know this has probably been talked about but I'm starting a new thread anyway.

[Lurker13]

I want traffic. :O)

#inb4chankwithtraffic

[Achtane]

I usually set up a few different tracks and then delete it all in disgust.

Or keep a little snippet of it for future use as a sample or something.

[JonnyAngle]

i recordmyself playing guitar on my phone to remember the riff. THen once I get all the riffs I record a scratch track on guitar with a click track in the background.

THe first of the final tracks is the drums. I can't play guitar with a click track and get the feel. I'll play the drums with either a click or the guitar scratch track. Then I record guitar and bass.

If I did vocals, I'd do them last

[friendship]

I feel like every song I've ever written happened by accident. I didn't know what I was doing when I started, and I I still don't.

After making virtually nothing in 2018 and 2019, I've decided to record some music again. I've come to suspect that committing to a core idea and structure is my biggest obstacle in finishing work. Once I have an idea down, fleshing the idea out with overdubs and decorating comes pretty easily. So my strategy in 2020 is to get as many core ideas down as I can manage before doing anything else: I fuck around on acoustic guitar while watching Cheers or Bob's Burgers or some shit until I have a chord progression or riff or part of some kind. Then I try to develop it a little so that I have at least two sections. Then I practice it to a metronome while simultaneously trying variations and stuff to see if I can squeeze anything else from the core idea. When I'm bored of doing that I finally record the parts to a click into my my recorder, which I have permanently set up so that I can just flip it on and start recording quickly. Once I have a couple decent takes or at least enough attempts to edit together into something decent, I start over.

When I feel like I have enough of these ideas (which will be decided most likely by when I get bored of doing this) I'll revisit the ideas one by one, and start adding other instruments.

I used to be really precious about needing to have the song completely written--melody, lyrics, and accompaniment--before recording it, and also making sure I have as many uninterrupted, perfectly complete takes as possible. I've given up on this puritanical method because I finish approximately 1 song a year with it (if I'm lucky), and I realized that I only did it to chase some lofty ideal of what a great songwriter/performer should do. Turns out it's hard to be great if the pursuit of greatness stops you from getting anything done. I think I'd rather be a mediocre musician who actually completes work.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I'm using almost always the same notes (in each song) and varying their timing and/or attack plus maybe adding an extra couple of notes. Anyway, I'd probably have to show you to truly explain what I'm talking about. My brother watched me (he's classically trained) and said "interesting, I've never thought to play like that". I make the same shit sound different. Whole song is almost all the same notes. lol.

I do this fairly often on simple parts.

My writing is totally different depending what band I'm playing in!

For my solo things it's very improvisation based: come up with sound idea on [INSERT INSTRUMENT] and record it. Loop this a few times, think of some variations or another part, then start layering. Sometimes the path of the song only comes together when I'm recording the tenth guitar idea and that takes it in a totally different direction. Once I'm fairly happy with the structure from some cut+paste improv tracks I'll go back and record instruments better (unless it's something like modular which is too hard to replicate, but this is why initially recording at high quality into my DAW is key). Then I'll add vocals near the end by writing some stuff and singing a few takes till I improv something good, then re-recording that.

For my bands it's more about writing a chord progression or a riff, playing that until I know what I'm doing, recording some rough drafts and gradually add extra parts, then take it to the band for comments.

With one band we've written most (all?) of our songs by improvising then in some cases cutting and pasting things together.


I used to write in what I'd call a more "traditional" way. Coming up with guitar parts, writing them down, developing a sequence of a song and vocal melodies along with the guitar, and only committing to recording when it's done. This is really slow and I hate it and it doesn't work for me AT ALL. But a lot of people enjoy that, I gather.

i recordmyself playing guitar on my phone to remember the riff. THen once I get all the riffs I record a scratch track on guitar with a click track in the background.

THe first of the final tracks is the drums. I can't play guitar with a click track and get the feel. I'll play the drums with either a click or the guitar scratch track. Then I record guitar and bass.

If I did vocals, I'd do them last

Yeah this is quite often my process for solo stuff. Come up with guitar idea and record it. Put some drums on to get a better feel and redo, then continue.




And to your point about timing, because typically I'm working with other people none of whom do this full time, or working up 4-5 songs to release on my own, things are generally months - years before being finished (this isn't constant work but still)!!! Though not exclusively. Some things come together quickly.

[Olin]

If you struggle with always wanting to use the same notes and chord progressions, new tunings can be really great at blasting you out of that thought process. Even non-deliberate tunings, just pick some strings and set up a couple steps up or down and see what happens. You might end up playing the same chords with different positionings or you might end up finding chords which are new to you and valuable for songwriting.

I don't personally think there's any shame in stealing some things from other songs though, song dynamic/instrumentation/structure etc. I think it was Andy Cohen from Silkworm that encouraged people to do their best to flatout steal songs completely, because by the time you're done trying to figure it out and add your own little bits, it's a completely different song, bit of a ship of Theseus kind of thing. Anyway I don't quite want to say go that far, but taking influence from "yeah, this song has a sound I like, I could use something like that" and figuring out what it is that you do like and separating them for your own music. I think a less cynical person just calls that "influence" rather than stealing

Writers block is the biggest hurdle for me, and I have a firm approach of "leave it alone" if I'm blocked. If it's at a state where I'm not enjoying it and nothing is sounding good to me, just take a break for as long as it takes because as soon as writing music starts to feel like an obligation, the chances of enjoying it are going to rapidly diminish; ploughing through and forcing yourself into a song doesn't often end with a good song. However you could be completely different and really gain something from breaking through the writers block rather than waiting for it to pass. For what it's worth, the median duration for me to write a song completely is also a few months, but there are anomalies where you find a slapping chord progression on an instrument you like and can bust out a song in a day, or you have a song in your dream that you actually kind of remember when you wake up and can write down effectively. On the other end, I've had songs I was sure were 100% complete but then 9 months after recording them, decided "What was I thinking, this part is dogshit awful!" and deleted whole chunks. Wouldn't feel bad about it taking time at all, but the biggest thing I struggle with is committing to things. The ability to say "yeah this sounds good" and just record it, get it down and leave it alone, that's a struggle that I am not often on the winning side of. I've been working on my next album for nearly four years now because of this and once you get stuck it sets you in a loop of "it's not ready" where it becomes extremely hard to make peace with it not still having things you can improve if you keep it in the "WIP" phase.

Anyway, my process is often the same: the vast majority of the time I'll write everything down in Guitar Pro after finding a chord or chord progression that I like, so that the entire song can be remembered accurately, also with tempo's and playing styles. Those of you with good enough ears to just record a riff and remember how you played it have my envy! Sometimes it will all be in recording though, usually when it's a guitarless song, and will be brave and just record things and leave a note for key, scale and intention (IE: Guy Clark's funeral dirge). Anyway, I like Guitar Pro because it's easy to make big changes to everything and try out other instruments quickly without recording anything or loading up your DAW to try it with a vsti. I try to have a theme for the song, a clear and identifiable (to me) cause for it that I can refer to when I'm working on it so that I can say "yes, that makes sense in context" or the opposite. Also knowing and working around that songs place in a release helps me a lot, if I know it'll be towards the beginning of the album that changes how I'll approach it quite substantially, which makes it useful for being consistent, and consistency sure does seem to be important.

[coldbrightsunlight]

If you struggle with always wanting to use the same notes and chord progressions, new tunings can be really great at blasting you out of that thought process. Even non-deliberate tunings, just pick some strings and set up a couple steps up or down and see what happens. You might end up playing the same chords with different positionings or you might end up finding chords which are new to you and valuable for songwriting.

I don't personally think there's any shame in stealing some things from other songs though, song dynamic/instrumentation/structure etc. I think it was Andy Cohen from Silkworm that encouraged people to do their best to flatout steal songs completely, because by the time you're done trying to figure it out and add your own little bits, it's a completely different song, bit of a ship of Theseus kind of thing. Anyway I don't quite want to say go that far, but taking influence from "yeah, this song has a sound I like, I could use something like that" and figuring out what it is that you do like and separating them for your own music. I think a less cynical person just calls that "influence" rather than stealing

Writers block is the biggest hurdle for me, and I have a firm approach of "leave it alone" if I'm blocked. If it's at a state where I'm not enjoying it and nothing is sounding good to me, just take a break for as long as it takes because as soon as writing music starts to feel like an obligation, the chances of enjoying it are going to rapidly diminish; ploughing through and forcing yourself into a song doesn't often end with a good song. However you could be completely different and really gain something from breaking through the writers block rather than waiting for it to pass. For what it's worth, the median duration for me to write a song completely is also a few months, but there are anomalies where you find a slapping chord progression on an instrument you like and can bust out a song in a day, or you have a song in your dream that you actually kind of remember when you wake up and can write down effectively. On the other end, I've had songs I was sure were 100% complete but then 9 months after recording them, decided "What was I thinking, this part is dogshit awful!" and deleted whole chunks. Wouldn't feel bad about it taking time at all, but the biggest thing I struggle with is committing to things. The ability to say "yeah this sounds good" and just record it, get it down and leave it alone, that's a struggle that I am not often on the winning side of. I've been working on my next album for nearly four years now because of this and once you get stuck it sets you in a loop of "it's not ready" where it becomes extremely hard to make peace with it not still having things you can improve if you keep it in the "WIP" phase.

I agree so much with all of this.

[friendship]

I used to write in what I'd call a more "traditional" way. Coming up with guitar parts, writing them down, developing a sequence of a song and vocal melodies along with the guitar, and only committing to recording when it's done. This is really slow and I hate it and it doesn't work for me AT ALL. But a lot of people enjoy that, I gather.

I'm glad it's not just me!

[Blackened Soul]

There is no right way. And no surefire way to instruct someone to create... anything... you could take songwriting classes your whole life and get nothing if you don't have it inside of you in the end..

How do I meaning me write? different ways. Some things take me a lot of time to write and arrange and rearrange... that seem to go on for years.. other times I hit record and something comes out of nowhere and I find myself asking how did I even play that? What matters is do you like what you are doing? Do you like your music?

[chromandre]

If you struggle with always wanting to use the same notes and chord progressions, new tunings can be really great at blasting you out of that thought process. Even non-deliberate tunings, just pick some strings and set up a couple steps up or down and see what happens. You might end up playing the same chords with different positionings or you might end up finding chords which are new to you and valuable for songwriting.

Yea tunings are underrated. I think with medium/heavy strings and medium/raised action you can get away with tuning any string down 5 or up 1 semitone, so you have 7 possible notes per string. 7 ^ 6 = 117649 ... there’s a lot of redundant configurations but basically you’ll always have another tuning option your entire life.

[D.o.S.]

I think a lot has already been covered, but especially for non-standard instrument stuff, I'm more or less always trying to translate ideas & experiences that aren't musically based. And failing. And trying again. And getting sick of it, and putting something out. There are so many records that come out all the time that the odds are strongly in favour of life going on the same as it was before and after the thing is done, so why not finish it?

[sears]

When I had a section, loop. prechorus, whatever I used to think -- what goes next? -- and write the song that way. But what I have learned is sometimes to think, what goes before this, what leads into it?

[Jwar]

Hah. I like all the input here! I was meaning specifically how do "you" write your own music. I should have clarified that in the title. What's your process. I dig it! Some really good ideas here!

[Lurker13]

When I was writing music my process was to jam on lead guitar until I thought I had something that sounded good. Then I would try to formalize it a little, set the drum track to the right tempo, and record them both. Then I would layer a rhythm guitar track, and finally try to fake a rudimentary bass line.

Eventually I started recording everything I played, but that didn't work too well. Almost every night I thought I had come up with some riff that was music of the gods and would listen to it over and over for an hour or more, all the while patting myself on the back for being a musical genius. Then when I listened to it the next day it would inevitable sound pedestrian.