I am revisiting this thread. I am trying again, in between other life things, to get a workflow down to build something musical. I found that the more logical approach I planned on trying works better for lyrics than it does for the music part of writing. That means I am back to looking for a way to build something, anything.
John Mayer said in an interview that the music is the easy part for him, the lyrics are harder and finding lyrics and music that go together is the really hard part. I am finding that I seem to be better at writing lyrics than I am at the music part.
I am adding another question to my original question of how do you get in your creative mind? What is your writing process?
I know I need a melody, supporting chord progression/s (harmony) and lyrics. For an instrumental I need the melody line and supporting chord progression/s (harmony).
What is your writing process for creating these parts and meshing them into a song?
OK, I remember reading this thread in January, and just could not bring myself to type out all the BS in my head! I will refrain from all that swirls in that cesspool, but here are a few things about my process, I hope something helps.
Over the years, I have found that my most inspirational moments
often came when I was on two wheels. Be it bicycle or motorcycle, I almost without fail would come up with a new idea when pulling a balancing act. I decided that it was because it was creating a connection between the left and right brain halves, but who know if that is correct or not, just a theory. Now considering I have not ridden either a bicycle or a motorbike in over a decade now, how do I come up with anything?
Well, although being on two wheels has always been very inspirational to me, life in general is often an inspiration for me regardless of where I am or what I am doing. I can see a road sign and a song pops into my head. Mind you, when I say a song, it is going to be a play on words. As soon as that is in my head, the song starts building itself and I try to find a way to at least get the basic idea into some form I can reference in the future because more have slipped away in my life than have been developed.
When it comes to musical pieces (a very small percentage of my output), those generally happen when I am noodling and something catches my ear. I did have a incident recently where I heard a steam engine making what I thought was a very cool sound and to a cool beat, and immediately said to myself "oh, that is going into a song", but I don't know what it will be yet. I did get a recording of that engine, so I have that to go back to and will use it eventually. But other musical pieces generally are the result of me finding a sound or a phrase or a beat that I like, and running with it from there. Sometimes it is the sound of a plugin or effect that inspires, other times it could be the sound of an animal, etc.
I HATE, with a passion, sitting down with an intention to create or write. If it does not come organically, I generally do not want a part of it. I have done it, and I have been happy with my output when I have done so, but not nearly as happy as when a muse taps me on the shoulder and inspires me to create.
All that said, that is ME, not you or others. The most important factor I would point to (and this goes a bit to your "throwing stuff away" Jason) is to embrace who and what you are and be happy with that. If you want to be better at something specific, you know what you have to do, put the time in to hone that skillset, but don't discount who and what you are naturally, even if it is not at the level you want or expect it to be. For me, I know that I am never going to be a world class producer, I am not going to be the best guitar player on the block, I am not going to be the most amazing songwriter since Dylan, I am simply going to be me. And I am going to write my simple songs, with cowboy chords, throw in a minor or seventh for accents here and there and move on to the next one. Over the past 10 years (released my first song Oct 31, 2014) I have released almost 100 songs. Some of them received radio airplay, most of them received the sound of silence! But I am proud of my work, even the stuff that I look back on with a bit of cringe. I am proud of it all because I took the steps to complete it and set it free from my mind and that to me is more important than spending the rest of my life trying to create a masterpiece.
I am sure some will call me lazy for not taking the time to learn this or that, or develop this or that to a higher degree. I don't care. I have thousands of songs to work on (with more written every month) and I don't have the time to perfect them as I will never reach perfection, there will always be something more I can do to it to make it a little bit better and I am done chasing the masterpiece. I have resigned to the role of making what many would consider bad demo quality releases, but at least I am getting it out there and moving on.
Yeah, this is the short version! But ultimately Jason I would say, stop doubting yourself and expecting your output to be everything that it could be if you had a team of engineers, producers and pro musicians to make it into that masterpiece in your head. Instead, put out what is in you, and the rest of that may very well follow (and even if it does not, you will have accomplished something rather than wondering why you can't get anything out the door or even recorded) ;~))
Yours truly~
Worst Guitar Player On The Forum
I can see how they can assist in getting some people in the zone, but I also think they muddy the waters more often than not. It’s near impossible to completely silence your brain, it’s more about not entertaining the thoughts that are running through your head at the time, like you’re standing in a crowded subway and the thoughts are all the other people moving around you while you stand in one place, you’re not going to engage with any of those people just let them freely move around.
