Song writing thread? Anybody in?

Come up with a cool title or line, expand it to a verse or chorus, get stuck, and leave it at that.

What I need is a guy who can flesh out my original idea, but maybe has trouble coming up with ideas of his own.

If that makes any sense at all.

My ideas mostly come from experiences. My inspiration comes from many things- a newly discovered band or artist, nature, love, heartache.

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Jumping the Shark

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said it perfect- music is and should be personal. The best compliment you can receive is when someone tells you that they can “feel” your music. If you’re an artist, the hardest thing may be to find “your” voice and “your” sound. Keep writing and it will eventually start to show up and come alive. The best songs truly do write themselves and come out of nowhere. Nothing like being in that zone where they just seem to pour out of you and you can’t seem to get em down quick enough.

Makes perfect sense. My cousin and I were really close and shared the same enjoyment from writing.

We had different experiences but were able to feed off of each other's music and lyric ideas because we knew where the other was coming from. Probably the most fun I had with music.

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When you get hit by the good ones,

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EVERY interview I've ever seen with a songwriter, they say some songs just come in a flash, and all you have to do is write it down.

And some you have to grind on for weeks or months.

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Why does that sound like the past,or over?

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I moved 500 miles away from home. Before moving, we allowed some outside influences to negatively affect the relationship.

We reconnected recently and have talked about starting to write again.

1. I clear my head while I noodle to relax
2. Once relaxed, I let go and allow whatever my fingers want to play come out with very little interference from my conscious mind while just listening and enjoying the pure expression
3. When I hear something I like, I repeat it a bunch of times and record it on my phone
4. Then, I try to think musically about what should go next
5. I typically need at least 3/4 sections so I can have verse, chorus, bridge, and maybe an intro/outro or a pre/chorus riff (my biggest struggle is riffs for verses that don’t follow a simple 1/5/7 or 4chord progression. I feel like an unoriginal hack if I don’t branch out of that mold, but that is what tends to come to me naturally)
6. Once the chord and song structure is more or less set from a rhythm guitar perspective, i start humming along with the tune to see what sounds good, coming up with melodies and counter melodies. I record that.
7. Once I have a melody, I start mumbling to find what words seem to naturally fit the song’s sound and emotional theme.
8. I take those jumping off points to write the rest of the lyrics and fit them into a coherent rhyme and syllable scheme, build some imagery, and create a more or less final product that would at least work by itself for a solo guitar/vocals set up.
9. Take it to the band and have them listen to it once and then play along what they feel fits.
10. Listen to how each member of the band reacts to it to see what kinds of tonal changes they make and get input.
11. Other band members finalize their parts with input from the full group.
12. Re-analyze lyrics to make sure they still fit with the final version of the song and revise if necessary
13. Practice until song is tight enough to perform

I find the melodies/chords first approach works best for me because when i go lyrics first, I rarely seem to be able to figure out how to play it.

Topics are typically very personal. I try to avoid politics since it’s a topic that doesn’t age well unless done perfectly, and even then can sound hokey, canned, and overly partisan if not done subtly and artistically. I usually stick to love, loss, jealousy, restlessness, dispair, etc and put as much true emotion into it as possible. Occasionally, I will role play a little bit, but mostly just to construct a story or parable that conveys the kinds of feelings, suspicions, fears, etc I feel in real life.

I would be more than happy to collaborate with anyone here. I’d love to help flesh out lyrics or string riffs together. I have more than a few homeless hooks and riffs that are still looking for a song to call home.

I have been writing music constantly for the last ten years, so that process developed over time into what it is now by trial and error.

It usually ranges from bluesy Allman Brothers sounding stuff, to psychodelic prog rock type stuff, to pop/punk, to jam band sounding stuff, jack white sounding riffs, singer/songwriter ballads, grunge, just whatever I’m feeling at the time. My guitar chops are fairly limited, so it is nearly impossible for me to play everything I feel when it sounds like metal in my head (but I’m getting better).

The one ep my band recorded has been posted here a few times, but I write a lot of music well outside of that style in many directions.