how does everyone go about song writing?

[Pwnsauce]

do you hear the idea in your head and then figure it out on guitar and build of that or do you just noodle around until you find a cool riff.

the later hasn't been working for me :emot-fail

[BZM]

the only really constructive way that i've found to do it... isn't fun. It's hard for an ADD guy like me to stick to this, but it's the only thing I've found that has gotten songs finished for me.

you have to write it on guitar, and then WRITE IT DOWN - i personally use tabit because i find it the easiest for getting my ideas down FAST (powertab and guitarpro take too long, they're best for transcribing already-written pieces, but for writing it's ALL about tabit... marlon will be sure to disagree with me, since he's the GP master). If you can't transcribe your own material, that's some musical growth that needs to happen - go to musictheory.net and start learning about rhythmic notation if you're not up on it, and then put your ears to work - they're the most important part of being a musician and it's surprising how many people forget that.

So yes, the best bet is to noodle around until you find a cool riff, unless one magically comes to you, then you get on your tabbing program and try to get it as close to or perfect to the idea you created. Sometimes in doing this you'll come across happy mistakes that end up sounding better than your original idea. The other benefit of writing in a tab program as you go is that it will make creating a click track a BREEZE later on when it comes to actually record the material, and if you're practicing your own material as well with the built-in metronome on then you'll most likely be tight and ready to record once you enter the studio.

Once you get good enough with your program of choice, you won't even need a guitar in hand to write... just start punching in numbers and shape it like clay until it's what you want to hear :) and write some drums while you're at it...

[Pwnsauce]

Yeah I've been using tabbing programs pretty much the whole time I've played guitar and it really helps a ton (used to be big on powertab but then i start using guitar pro and i find it much easier) It's good to be able to hear what you have so far without needing to pick up your guitar and it allows you to make minor tweaks easily.

I think my main problem is that I try too hard to write something and everything is forced. I need to just let ideas flow and not put too much though into it.

I wrote some pretty sick shit a few hours after posting this so that's encouraging.

[ChAAPY]

I'm slowly learning that transitions are a very important key to great songwriting. Coming up with a riff or an idea is relatively simple, it's making those ideas flow together and actually sound like a "song" that's the hard part. Write a bunch of transitions and try to apply them to your main "themes" or riffs. Knowing some theory helps speed up the process a shitload as well.

[Infected]

awesome riffs come to me in dreams, then i wake up and have no idea how it went :(

[MadMike666]

I don't play guitar and I don't write the riffs usually, but from experience being around guitar players, you just gotta play....alot. Most of what comes out won't be that great, so you just play every day and when that gem happens, you write it down like was stated before. You can't really expect to sit down and say "I'm gonna write some cool riffs now" cause you will be forcing it. Just play and play, and some days nothing good might happen, other days it will.

[Subjugate]

sometimes ill get a riff idea in my head, or a certain type of progression and ill try to put that out through my guitar. Sometimes im pretty spot on, other times its different from what I imagined but it still sounds good. Other times Ill just play whatever comes to my head. Once i get a little start of a few notes or like a phrase of notes, then ill think about what would sound good with that or after it, and from there create something. For me its more than just playing, I have to think about what to play and how to make the individual riff flow after the first initial steps. Other than that, sometimes i have an idea, or pattern than i want the riff to encompass, and therefore aim to shape it around that.

[GrindYourMind]

I have fretboard patterns in my head all the time, I have to have a guitar in my hand to think rhythmically though.

Tab programs work really well for me, I tend to forget riffs if I don't play them for a week, the problem I have is that I have to chop up some rhythmically complex parts into 2 bars instead of one. Example being this, I wrote a riff in 45/16 and had to make it be a bar of 21/16 and a bar of 6/4 because GP tops out at 32 beats.

[Tom K]

For me, it is a gut reaction...Most of the riffs I have ever wrote just kind of happened at practice...if everyone else liked it, they would jump in...

Then we'll try piecing stuff together and defining a drum beat...

So far, it hasn't failed me yet...

[fivestars]

Write down the things in my mind immediately.

[floodypoops]

The way I go about it, first, I hear some ridiculous riff or melody in my head(usually when I'm trying to sleep and have work at 7:30AM). I grab my guitar and channel that shit. Then I go straight to my recording software (a relatively cheap Line 6 Toneport) and record it immediately. That way, you won't forget small rhythmic nuances and what not. And then it's just waiting for you next time you have a chance to sit and write.
Other than that, I usually write like a string of a few riffs and then take it to my band and we rip it apart and write transitions and jam out the next parts. It works pretty well for us, but, we share songwriting duties, so it might not work for everyone, especially if you aren't willing to alter your riffs to suit the song.

[ruonitb]

mostly I have every single instrument in my head, then write it down, then play it.

train your ears, whores.

[ChaZM]

I try to have as much as possible in one song, so you have to listen to it a couple of times to get it, that way you wont find it boring as quickly as other simple songs. And formulas sucks i hate it when people follow a formula to build a song.

[Orkestra]

Generally, in Aghast it used to be the case that I write everything guitar wise for a song, id sit watching films and fucking around, when I found some ideas that flowed I would record them with some basic drums then Nick and I would meet up and jam it out and make sure it was tight, then we would add the vocals etc and complete the song.

But when we re-did all our old stuff with the new line up it sounded stale, so we jammed out and found that in most cases the songs would write themselves, musically.

These days we have a riff, a hook, lick or vocal line we think is awesome and we'll work on that, we try not to force it. Some times shit doesn't work and it goes on the back burner until one day someone will say 'hey, check this out' and we'll have been looking for that missing slice that makes the whole song bake.

The best songs we've written have been totally organic and unplanned. For instance, we went to practice, all arrived late and pissed off. Nick was set up and was arranging his bass drum pedals and Ryan starts this riff up, nick drums along and as they look at each other and stop I come in with something i've been fucking around with which I thought would fit and the whole song went like that, with all of us deciding on repeats etc. We wrote it* in under an hour and it's one of our strongest songs.


These days Ryan, Nick and I (occasionally James and Dan but they have to be up alot earlier than we do) and get some cold ones, some whiskey and various other substances and work on the more intricate changes but because we write so differently we'll find that one idea of his completely contrasts with mine and we'll find a middle ground or a change over that is really fucking slamming and that will just spur everything on.


So in other words, everything; but I always let the guys know whats up and that is the best way to write the song... they'll be the first people to tell you if it sucks

[ten_second_infinity]

But when we re-did all our old stuff with the new line up it sounded stale, so we jammed out and found that in most cases the songs would write themselves, musically.

Yeah, jamming can be a good way to write songs, if they're relatively simple (structure wise) and are more straight-forward. For Abhorrent, for example, coming up with the songs we have now would've either been impossible, or taken a LOT longer than if I had done what I did, which is play the riffs, write them in GP, (or a fuckin' notepad whatever you use) and then bring the "structure" to the jam room. Most of the fine tuning is done on the computer, nowadays for me. But, for Misogyny, my other project, it's possible to just jam that shit since it's more straightforward groovy death metal.

[Infected]

if i get a decent idea the rest writes itself usually.

[Pwnsauce]

man, I can write proggy/instrumental rock guitar shit (Dream Theater, etc) all day but trying to write tech death is incredibly discouraging. I want to get a project going but it's so hard when it doesn't come easy to you.

[DEVASTATION]

I usually write my best material right before i go to bed for some reason. I'll make up a riff and literally play it over and over again, after a while i get a feel of where it's going, and then try to build on that. Then I tab it in guitarpro, and then email it to the other guitarist and members of the band for input. Works well, and it takes the stress from me having to write the whole song, and with different people in the band making parts the song has variety.

Of course when i have a certain sound and feel im going for, I'll usually write most parts and then bring it to the table.

[underrealm]

For us, it usually all starts with a single riff...

One of us will present a riff to the other guys, and if the idea is worth a shit, then it will instantly inspire everyone else to contribute a like-minded idea. If it doesn't inspire the rest of the band, then it's likely that we'll never enjoy playing it live as a band, so it will get scratched pretty quickly.

Once we get some ideas going back and forth, one or two of us will jam guitar parts over some beats and just take it from there.

I guess we really don't have a formula. We just want to make sure that it's all cohesive, and that we leave room for our vocalist to tell the story.

[ResetInput]

If you have the gear, you can just record. Thats how i make music nowadays, no more Guitarpro. I made myself a sampled drumkit in Reason. I use Guitar Rig 3 for the guitars as its the fastest way to record. Lets say i have 2 riffs that fit together, i ll "paint" some drums in Cubase then i ll just record whatever comes to mind. Its great because you can see how its actually gonna sound in the mix. You also get a feeling of what you can do with the riffs-,...build up its character and make a simple structure in your head. Heres an example of some riffs i recorded a while ago by starting with two riffs and building from there: LINK (http://rapidshare.com/files/114971745/krneki1-05.mp3.html) -Ofcourse its not gonna sound perfect the first time as you are just messing around with fresh, non-rehearsed riffs. Thats how i do it. Buy an interface and start recording hehe.

[Martins]

I think it was Brian Wilson who said "Writing a song is like catching rainbow." Sound's gay as hell but it's really true. Sometimes the nastiest riff just pops up in my head and I write it down. Other times I try to force it and it doesn't come out as well. It's all about luck and some people are luckier than others.

[ruonitb]

@resetinput:

any chance that you upload your guitarrig patches?

[egdeltar]

Just play a lot. I'll stumble on some pattern/progression then start jamming with it. End up making tons of riffs but only keeping a few. Once I have a few main ideas or themes I'll start to piece it together. morph riffs together, make them fuck and have riff babies. I usually find myself working on 2-3 songs at once. You just end up with so many riffs and variations and ideas that go well together they kinda start to right them selves. Shit takes a while.

I never tab shit out. If its that tasty of a lick for a my million dollar song I should be able to remember it.


*** forgot... I've started to record new ideas on my computer, but thats mainly just for figuring out harmonies and counterpoint shit.

[stark17]

In my band I give ideas, but as the bass player, my job is just to be heavy. When doing melodic solos I like to find nice chord progressions, often looking through The "Real" Jazz book and stuff for inspiration. I try and use things I havent done before, then decide if it works or not.

[ResetInput]

@resetinput:

any chance that you upload your guitarrig patches?

Its just a ultrasonic head with citrus cabinet. treble, presence at around 7o clock, bass at minimum, nothing special hehe