What's your typical songwriting process?

[bill5]

I thought there was a thread about this but didn't see any.

 

Some people like to "practice" songwriting on a regular basis. I can't do that, or won't. For me this is art so very much a stream of consciousness thing. When it hits me, it hits me. Often things came to me when driving back and forth to work...I had about a 40 min drive and much of it was lightly-traveled back roads, so it was a good way and time to do it. Then covid hit and that was that but just as well as I have plenty of backlog to work on. 

 

Then there's the less fun part, trying to hack it out on the keyboard as I'm much more of a lyricist than a performer...but the lyrics almost always come first. 

[nursers]

Mine too is very ad-hoc and dependent on context. I find I'll go months and not create anything at all, then knock out 4 songs over a couple of weeks

[KuruPrionz]

I have lots of "starts" or small parts of songs. 

Sometimes a song comes to me and I write the entire song in a few minutes. 

Other times, I will have everything done but there will be one word or one line that I feel could be better. 

 

I am not consistent but I am consistently inconsistent.  I would have to say that I don't have a typical songwriting process. 

[bill5]

You both summed it up for me very well   

 

On a few rare occasions, a song came to me and I wrote the entire song in a quick flurry. To me that was such a gift! I question if it will ever happen again but glad it did at least happen a few times. 

 

As for there will be one word or one line that I feel could be better, that describes every song I ever wrote lol - I am a hopeless critic/tinkerer

[KuruPrionz]

On 5/18/2023 at 6:29 PM, bill5 said:

You both summed it up for me very well   

 

On a few rare occasions, a song came to me and I wrote the entire song in a quick flurry. To me that was such a gift! I question if it will ever happen again but glad it did at least happen a few times. 

 

As for there will be one word or one line that I feel could be better, that describes every song I ever wrote lol - I am a hopeless critic/tinkerer

I recently took a song that I wrote in the 1970's and changed the opening line from "Every time you look around" to "Take a look around" and I finally feel like the song is completed. I'm in the middle of recording it now. Many changes are happening, I allow that. I have other versions that are more true to my initial concept but I feel like it needs to be different. Just not sure what that entails yet. 

[bill5]

Wow that could be a record!

[KuruPrionz]

I plan on sharing as I go with friends who are not musicians but listen to music. 

I'm interested in their opinions. Musicians hear songs differently, at least I do and the ones I know do. We think about them in different terms. 

[Bill Heins]

I turn the DAW on and reach for my guitar while it boots up...messing around during startup can really lead to some good ideas! The other thing I do is to load the DAW and decide on an instrument to noodle with...piano, synth, ochestral, etc.

 

Bill

[bill5]

It's weird. I had a time where I wrote about 12 songs a year for several years (lyrics at least, sometimes more). i.e. these are songs I consider "done" (again at least in terms of lyrics), so not counting drafts of songs or half-written songs that I'm not sure I'll ever finish or see the light of day. Then I wrote about half that for two years. Now I've written just two songs in the last two years. Again that's probably just as well as I have plenty of backlog, but I fear the ship has sailed. But again my musicianship may doom many of them, so I might just publish them as lyrics only and those I don't have at least a melody for, let someone else take a shot at it. The problem is I'm such a protective mother  I fear that I would probably not like what someone comes up with because it wasn't me doing it. 

[KuruPrionz]

I'm currently working on songs I wrote in the 70's and 80's. 

A couple of them got a word or line changed over the years but mostly they are what I wrote then and played in a band. 

We had no budget to go into the one really good studio in town and record things properly, just a couple of mics into a cassette deck. So everything I have up to now sounds like crap. 

 

I'm hugely grateful for the great computer recording revolution and it's taken a while to get everything set up and settled in (including my own abilities as an engineer, tech, producer and multi-instrumentalist). I went solo a couple of years ago and it's done wonders for my vocals. I'm not a great singer by any means but I've definitely improved. 

It's just a matter of jumping in and doing it now. I don't obsess over getting every take perfect but I do spend time finding tempos. The new challenge is tempo transition, songs can have intentional tempo variances that are part of how the story is told. Some songs are fine if you flat-line them but many of mine need to "breathe". Short of having a well-rehearsed band record live, it's a lot of work to get things right. Sometimes I feel like I should just do an acoustic guitar and vocal and call it good. Having played these in bands, I want more than that for most of them. Maybe AI can follow the tempos and do all the backing tracks? Pretty sure I'd hate that, human music may not be perfect but it speaks to me. 

[Old No7]

Arriving late to this posting...

 

On 9/20/2023 at 9:59 PM, KuruPrionz said:

I'm currently working on songs I wrote in the 70's and 80's. 

A couple of them got a word or line changed over the years but mostly they are what I wrote then and played in a band. 

 

Same for me as well, and in a couple I've changed some chords to make it more interesting or dynamic.  Or maybe my musicality has evolved?

 

On 9/16/2023 at 7:06 PM, Bill Heins said:

I turn the DAW on and reach for my guitar while it boots up...messing around during startup can really lead to some good ideas!

 

My approach is very similar to Bill's -- only I use a Tascam DP-24SD pre-loaded on a "new song" -- oh, and keyboards.

 

While there'a variety of approaches in the postings above, I find more success not limiting myself to just one.  When it happens, it happens.

 

Old No7

[bill5]

2 hours ago, Old No7 said:

When it happens, it happens.

 

That basically sums up my process.

[Bill Heins]

Songwriting is easy....now song finishing is another story!

 

Bill

[bill5]

lol - truth

 

Although I would say GOOD songwriting, most of the time, is not easy.

[KuruPrionz]

9 hours ago, Old No7 said:

Same for me as well, and in a couple I've changed some chords to make it more interesting or dynamic.  Or maybe my musicality has evolved?

 

While there'a variety of approaches in the postings above, I find more success not limiting myself to just one.  When it happens, it happens.

 

Old No7

Definitely musicality evolves! For one thing, I've got a much better grasp on the concept of silence and how important that is in music. My older recordings are often pretty cluttered. 

 

One of my mainstays is always having some paper and a pencil or pen handy no matter where I am. Song ideas just appear and they can be fleeting if I don't jot something down. 

[Old No7]

5 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

Definitely musicality evolves! For one thing, I've got a much better grasp on the concept of silence and how important that is in music.

 

Interesting you say that... I recall that Rick Wakeman commented on that too, saying how important it was for him to NOT play keyboards all the time in Yes's songs.  And the semi-pro bass player at the School of Rock nearby always says to "Play all the rests!" to add to the dynamics and/or tension of the song.

 

Old No7 

[KuruPrionz]

4 hours ago, Old No7 said:

 

Interesting you say that... I recall that Rick Wakeman commented on that too, saying how important it was for him to NOT play keyboards all the time in Yes's songs.  And the semi-pro bass player at the School of Rock nearby always says to "Play all the rests!" to add to the dynamics and/or tension of the song.

 

Old No7 

When I listen to artists who have climbed the charts over the decades, I "hear" how vital silence is, I've learned to employ it even when I am performing solo with acoustic guitar. I've also learned that with multiple tracks, a little goes a long way. Maybe you only want to have just a touch of Nashville tuned guitar on the last 2 lines of the chorus and not very loud - panned off to the side. Little bits and dabs bring more life to a song, flatlining all the way through kill it. It's easy for me to describe but it was slow in the coming as well. I still may play an entire track of something but I edit out most of it now.