Composing music

ragingflea002 · Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 6:04 pm Post subject: Composing music

You're a young musician and you have the desire and motivation to write. What do you look to for inspiration, or do you let your thoughts whisk you away into a wonderland of musical possibilities and...well...wonder.
Do you have any rituals or special practices that aid you in your quest for the ideal lyrics, guitar riff, bassline, drum fills, and/or keyboard run?
You gotta share. Some of these are really interesting. For example:
I write lyrics based on dreams or current situations that piss me off. In the case that I want to write lyrics that are based on past occurances, I find everything that reminds me of the occurance and place it in front of me. I then recall everything I liked/hated about that occurance and start jamming on my guitars. After working on a riff that fits the mood of the situation, I start singing whatever comes to mind.
If anything I improvise stands out, I write it down.
The same goes for guitar/bass. I play whatever represents my emotion best, and then repeat it over and over until I memorize it. I then usually add in a few twists. My main love currently is unpredictable time signature changes.
So what aids you in your musical endeavors?

Sephir0th666777 · Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 7:25 pm Post subject:

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PhunkYMunkY · Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 7:55 pm Post subject:

I find it difficult to write anything based on an emotion..

And when I write stories I usually blab on about a single thing for ages and not move onto the next...

Otherwise, yeah just drink/get fucked up on crack and write things.. wierd things that make no sense.

RHCP's songs make fuck all sense but we love em all the same.

ragingflea002 · Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 3:18 pm Post subject:

I understand most of RHCP's songs. My earlier lyric style was really similar to Kiedis's and Brandon Boyd's.
I used to write down random thoughts and then tried to make them symbolize something.

Ogrim_Doomhammer · Oldbie Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2116

I can't write lyrics for shit, but when I want to get a new riff, I think what style I want it to be, so I hear my favorite songs in that style for a while, grab the guitar, set up a couple of EQ settings, connect the cassete recorder next to the amp and jam away. After a while of jamming I rewind the cassete, hear it, and if I find anything I like, I just figure out where I played it and record it many times in a row. After that I can play a couple of chords over it until I get a nice combination that goes well with the riff. And thats about it.... really simple
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theWriter · Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 8:04 pm Post subject:

I haven't really dabbled in the lyrics--what I find is that if I write a poem, I'll eventually read over it so many times that slowly a song begins to form. From then on, I try to push the melody out. Sometimes it works. Othertimes (most of the time):

...Nothing.

For me? Composing music involves sitting down at the piano with my recorder (so that, after I play it I can listen it to it again and remember what I had just thought up), and just playing. No thought process involved. Sometimes there IS emotion in there, but most of the time, there's nothing. My mind works best when it's blank.

[quote] My main love currently is unpredictable time signature changes. [/quote]

Ugh. I HATE changing time sigs. Evil. Almost as bad as changing from C# minor scale to Db Minor...Or any major key change.
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rosecrow13 · Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 12:20 pm Post subject:

I hate key changes too. I find it frustrating when you have this melody in your head and you can't get it out or write it down quickly enough because of having to change back and forth between keys. I find inspiration all around me. Its like adrenalean, a force that makes me want to do something, driving me to it. Of course, thats just me...
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ragingflea002 · Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 4:42 pm Post subject:

Time signature changes don't hinder the music, fortunately. If you time it right, it'll just flow.
Right now, my band has a song that goes like this.
Starts out as 4/4, then goes to verse where the drums are 3/4, but the guitars are 4/4, and my vocals are folloing drums. Chorus and interludes are 4/4, and then a 6/8 break down immediately after a 4/4 solo section which goes into...I think 5/4.
It's crazy how we make it flow, and I'm not even sure that's how it goes. I know my guitarist and drummer play in differing time sigs, and they make it work.

anti_sk8r · Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 6:19 pm Post subject:

I sit down and play string after string and see if I can make something that sounds good to me. I usually start on what would be the Chorus of the song.
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Summersong · Newb Joined: 22 Aug 2005 Posts: 20

I just let inspiration hit me. I'll think of a line or two with a catchy tune and I'll write it down. Then I go through, what I like to call, my "inspiration flow". Just find a place to be alone to play guitar or sing it out by yourself without anyone getting in your way or even thinking of their critism.
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Summersong · Newb Joined: 22 Aug 2005 Posts: 20

(Sorry, this was a double post.)
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Nate06 · Very bored Joined: 05 Jun 2006 Posts: 168 Location: L.A.

Great music isnt just thought up. Its comes from the heart. I just let it flow out of me and catch the rythm. Im a self composer of the keyboard and play by ear myself.
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Nate06 · Very bored Joined: 05 Jun 2006 Posts: 168 Location: L.A.

Great music isnt just thought up. Its comes from the heart. I just let it flow out of me and catch the rythm. Im a self composer of the keyboard and play by ear myself.

Sorry about the double post-(Computer glitch)
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zukate08 · Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:05 am Post subject:

I usually start off with the melody and chords. First, I drop the sixth string of my guitar from E to D (Which can be really annoying when you don't get it right.) because doing so inspires me to continue, and then I play away using broken chords. The lyrics comes next.

I'm not really the type who writes lyrics that are easy to understand, since I don't want anyone to get insulted or something. I tend to write songs that have double meanings and it works alot for me. My lyrics are usually based on my emotion.

And uh... Yeah, great music comes from the heart. ^_^
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