Just...Play

[Anderton]

Every time I finish an album, I never know where the songs came from. So when I start my next project I'm always apprehensive about lightning striking again.

 

Last night, I needed to do a demo file to go along with a book. I just played...I didn't think about songwriting, I just needed to provide an example.

 

And then I liked what I played, and son of a gun...I saw the next project laid out for me, like a road map, based on that song.

 

And I realized why I never know where the songs come from: they just happen. I really can't take credit, but I don't give credit to some mysterious force, either. It just seems that music wants to be played. And if you play, something happens. You don't have to think, you don't have to be self-conscious, you don't have to be insecure...the ONLY thing you have to do is remember to hit the record button

[KuruPrionz]

I may know how an idea 'infected" me, causing me to write a song but I never know when that will happen or what the song will end up being. I was sitting with a friend at a bar and a lovely lady walked by. He looked at me and said "I wanna get some of hers on mine." Decades later, that is now a story song with a Bo Diddley beat. Who knew?

 

The cover of LIfe or Look with Dolly The Sheep on it - the first cloned mammal - led me to quickly write a song about a guy who clones himself in his workshop in the basement and trains his clone to take over his miserable life as a husband and a father so he can move to another country. At the time, it somehow turned into tribute song in the style of The Who. That was a long time ago.

 

When I started an all original band up here, we started playing it again after decades. When 2 members of that band were always traveling, I quit and the leader of the band I joined asked me to play that song even though we were primarily a cover band. He had a great harmony part for it already. One night we were a duo and a table of 7 friends were sitting in front. One of them wanted Pinhead Boy so we played it. I watched as 5 of the 7 were singing along, including an 80 year old friend of ours, she was drumming out a beat on the table as she mouthed the words.

 

Needless to say, I was gobsmacked. I'm working on that one, I probably just need to take our drummer out for dinner and get a basic track done with him. Some tempo changes as it builds intensity. I've definitely set my own recording bar too high, I want my record to sound great but that as you know - is a LOT of work - especially for an Army of One.

 

Sometimes something just comes and I can't stop myself from writing all or most of it in one go.

 

And I'll never forget the monthly songwriter's circle / challenge a friend of mine used to host. He would engage 3 other local songwriters for a Round Robin with 4. Then he would close his eyes, pull a book at random off of a large bookshelf, open the book, set his finger down and whatever it said there was the "theme" and we all had a week to write a song to that theme.

 

I hated that idea. I stumbled into "World of Wounds" which was one of the themes I got stuck with. It annoyed me so I wrote a sarcastic and scathing little ditty about the end of the human race. Last line was "Six billion tombstones on a big green lawn." Some of the audience were aghast, this was a "nicey nice" place. Others were laughing. I doubt I'll ever play it again.

 

Inspiration exists, it's happened often enough that I have some faith in it. At the same time, it can be elusive, distant, seemingly unobtainable. Yet if I ignore it, it won't go away. Rather the opposite.

[KenElevenShadows]

Just play. That works.

 

I also like creating from some sort of unifying concept, preferably one that is evocative.

 

But otherwise, it's good not to overthink anything and just create things and shape 'em.

[MAJUSCULE]

It's what I tell my rock band students all the time. Just play, let the ideas flow out of you, then shape it and mold it to your heart's content afterwards. But if you don't crack open the door, you'll never get to the floodgates.

[Anderton]

I also like creating from some sort of unifying concept, preferably one that is evocative.

 

I'm very much with you on that, which I guess is why I still do albums. I also find that coming up with titles also tends to bring out the music, because it has an excuse to come out from hiding

[KuruPrionz]

It took me a LONG time to learn something simple, it has been very helpful for my songwriting.

 

When we are children, we allow ourselves to try things. Sometimes we allow ourselves to do something dangerous and suffer for it (if we survive).

 

Eventually, we learn to not allow ourselves to do things. In many cases, this is good. It is best not to allow yourself to jump off a building or throw rocks at other people's windows.

So it's not all bad by any means.

 

Where it can impede us is in our creativity, our instinct for "safety" can be misdirected towards a harmless behavior. I would agree that not all creativity is harmless, some of it can offend or hurt others.

That said, there is no harm in allowing one's self to create anything and everything, where we may want to exercise caution is in allowing others to be exposed to our raw creativity.

 

I've learned to allow ideas to flow, good, bad or indifferent - let them come out into the world. My common sense for the most part tells me that much of what has come out is not going to make anybody happy, including myself.

Maybe there is a happy medium, where I can allow only what is good to be created but it has been my experience for many years that it simply causes a "shut-down" and I can get nothing created.

 

Given the options in my own case, I've chosen to allow myself to create and I deal with it later. It's worth a try if you are feeling "blocked."

 

Oddly, it's not something that's affected my guitar playing much at all. Yes, when playing the bride's song at the wedding one must simply offer what is desired.

But jamming with friends? I've always been one to unleash all demons and angels and let the strings tell the story.

 

Us human types, we are pretty complicated...

[Random Guy]

Good advice.

 

I'm of the opinion that songs, in a kind of hazy form, are floating around in the aether, and songwriters have (for want of a better word) antenna which can pick up these songs and make sense of them.

[Anderton]

I've learned to allow ideas to flow, good, bad or indifferent - let them come out into the world. My common sense for the most part tells me that much of what has come out is not going to make anybody happy, including myself.

 

But does it have to make you "happy"? It might generate a learning experience that bears fruit further down the line.

 

For whatever reason, I'm not one of those people who writes 40 songs a day, and picks the best one. But come to think of it, lately I've been hitting a really high ratio of keep-to-reject ratio. Almost everything that starts off as the germ of an idea gets developed. I think maybe that's because I'm more into the "just play" mentality. It's probably the songs that get "forced" that are most likely to be jettisoned.

[Notes_Norton]

I do a lot of improvising on the gig. I leave room for that in most of our arrangements because for me that's a lot of fun. It's done without thinking, and it seems like the music is flowing through me instead of from me.

 

Of course I know better.

 

This is where all the practice bears fruition.

 

IMO Some of the best music is born when people aren't 'thinking'.

[KuruPrionz]

I've learned to allow ideas to flow, good, bad or indifferent - let them come out into the world. My common sense for the most part tells me that much of what has come out is not going to make anybody happy, including myself.

 

But does it have to make you "happy"? It might generate a learning experience that bears fruit further down the line.

 

For whatever reason, I'm not one of those people who writes 40 songs a day, and picks the best one. But come to think of it, lately I've been hitting a really high ratio of keep-to-reject ratio. Almost everything that starts off as the germ of an idea gets developed. I think maybe that's because I'm more into the "just play" mentality. It's probably the songs that get "forced" that are most likely to be jettisoned.

 

No, I do not consider my personal happiness when writing, I gave an example above of writing something BECAUSE it annoyed me. In my mind, I turned that back onto my "Afflicter", and yes, he was taken somewhat aback by the song I wrote. Which is good.

 

You posted a recent thread about songs that bring you to tears. Some of my favorite songs do that to me. I haven't had one like that come to me yet but I can hope.

I don't make myself write songs, I allow myself. I used to edit as I wrote, that is really inhibiting for me and it did impede progress. I've learned to write now, edit later. I also never rush things or pressure myself, example below.

 

I may have the sequence incorrect but long ago Blondie came out with "One Way Or Another", which is a stalker song. Then my girlfriend got a Pat Benetar Album, it has a hit or two on it that I've forgotten but on the B side in the middle was a song that started out "I'm Gonna Follow You" and it was truly creepy. I loved it, will have to hunt it down and listen again since it's been a long time. And of course, the Police with "Every Breath You Take" which I knew was a stalker song from the get-go. The seed was planted, one day I wrote two verses and the music - including a bridge - about Death, the Ultimate Stalker. I cut a demo on 4 track cassette and a band I was in played it.

 

I always felt like the bridge needed lyrics but nothing came. About 4 years ago, I started playing around with it and the lyrics for the bridge came. I managed to include a clue as to who the singer is in the bridge It's not a happy song but it made me happy to feel like I was done writing it. Until... I heard something now that I might never have heard back then and changed one chord from a minor to a major chord with dominant 7th. That fit perfectly, well over 30 years after starting I finished a song with a grim and depressing subject matter. And it made me happy. Go figure...

 

When my next paycheck comes I will be able to copyright a pile of material, at least a couple of batches of 10 (the limit for compilations). Then I won't feel so inhibited about sharing things, I look forward to that.

[GovernorSilver]

One of my inspirations of late is Drew Medin on the Chase Bliss and Empress Zoia FB groups.

 

I swear this guy posts a video every day. He always says found some cool setting of whatever on some pedal. But it's never aimless noodling on a guitar like so many other pedal demo videos. It's ALWAYS something musical - like a piece of a song he's working on.

 

I don't know how he's able to generate new musical ideas like that, every damn day. I commented about that one time and he just kind of laughed it off, saying he gets involved in album-a-month challenges and that sort of thing.

 

I don't think he spends a lot of time writing out the songs. I think he just plays.

[Anderton]

I don't know how he's able to generate new musical ideas like that, every damn day.

 

I think you answered your own question

 

I don't think he spends a lot of time writing out the songs. I think he just plays.

[GovernorSilver]

My weak attempt at semi-humorous rhetorical questioning.

 

It's both inspiring and frustrating to see people like that. Inspiring in that they put out so much quality music in a short amount of time. Frustrating in that I can't be as productive, in the creative sense.

 

He doesn't just create a bunch of ok sounding songs. He create songs that actually good - to my ears anyway.