How do you CREATE?

What is your standard songwriting trigger?

Are you a lyrics first, music second, or an acoustic and then pass on to the band, are you a solo songwriter, if so what is your process???

I have been challenging my songwriting in the last year, really driving myself in different directions, with some very pleasing results.

I thought it would be helpful to all the writers on the boards if we (as a community of dedicated musicians) to share our writing tips, with the goal of building a stronger, more diverse musical culture.

Doesn't need to be an essay, but if you can seriously contribute to this post with something you feel may benefit other writers.. please share.

Solo songwriter, but nothing gets played/recorded without the band hearing it and liking it.

I find a tune for the lyrics and then write the lyrics first (usually after some angering/depressing event), then I do the actual nuts and bolts of putting the notes in my head onto fretboards. The whole thing takes me three hours per song, but i only end up being inspired to write once every two months. Then I run it past the band and they make modifications, either to make it easier or to make it sound better.

An interesting one I tried....

I wrote three verses.

Three completely different and distinct pieces of music go with each verse.

But, at the end of each sung verse, while still playing that section of music, I sing a chorus.

Each time the chorus is sung exactly the same way, same lyrics, same flow, same pitch... identical.

But each time the chorus is sung over a completely different and distinct piece of music.

That is weird but i'm pretty sure that would sound awesome!

I wake up with an idea for a song, sacrifice a goat and then? Its done.

okay, I kinda took the piss here, but its different for every song.... sometimes I don't sacrifice a goat and I just sacrifice a chicken.

It comes differently each time to me. I also encourage myself to try new ways. I may start off with lyrics written to rhyme every second sentence. The next, rhyme each sentence, then not at all. Music, I just play riffs as they come to me and see if they link up with each other. I'll often sing the notes first and see what feels natural for the melody to do.

I'll reveal two of my methods, the ones I do for every song.... I don't touch an instrument or try singing until I have a really good idea how the song goes in my head -- this can be an hour or two of thinking about it or it can be months with it on the backburner. A lot of time I will have a huge chunk of arrangement visualized before I touch a guitar or piano too... at that point I sacrifice livestock to Baal and pray that my song is easy to arrange and record and that I can find someone to help me with lyrics and hopefully sing it because I hate writing lyrics and I can barely sing, its more of a croak to my ear when I play my voice back....

I actually recommend everyone do their songwriting in some sort of committee fashion whenever possible and especially when starting out (the 1st 10 years). Be it a band, a Motown style team or a words and music team, having a 2nd or 3rd opinion and source of ideas is never a bad thing! I like to send stuff to some of my friends and get feedback when I am writing alone (including Tel_Nobody, the OP).

Song structures.... know the different types of established formats going back to medieval jongleurs and Norwegian skalds. Know whats been done, what people identify with and how you can work within those formats, adapt them, combine them or beak them all to pieces. Listen to EVERYTHING including, NO ESPECIALLY stuff you don't like.

Steal from people.... if its done with reverence and subtlety its called homage ;-) If you borrow an idea from one style to feed another its called innovation!

Another thing I do every song is trust my gut on the hook and build around that in my head. The hook can be anything that's memorable, sometimes a rhythmic device. its usually the best or ONLY part of your initial idea. You should mirror it and expand on it wherever possible in the song.... if you are imagining it as a drum break try putting it to a chord change (syncopate, arpeggiate), if its a vocal try it on guitar.... if its a synth riff sing it with some nonsense words. In fact, don't do that, just imagine doing that. The less you touch an instrument the better I find. The mechanics get in the way and dilute your ideas.

This is a daunting topic.

This is a daunting topic.

It most certainly is!

It is amazing how many people sit within their own heads afraid to bring out ideas, or find themselves repeating their same few riffs because they doubt their abilities or they feel they have reached the end of their creativity.

They have not reached the end, just an end to a creative strand they were following.

The logic behind this post is to help people, not by copying other people's ideas directly, but by giving them a different angle or avenue to explore... to help them find a new strand.

This could be as simple as picking up a different instrument, trying a new sound making object (pedal, capo, cymbal, vst, triller, bow, beater).

A new avenue of sound invites new inspiration and fields to explore.

Another fantastic source of inspiration for me personally, is people.

Watch people wherever you are, when you have a chance. I do not mean this with malicious intent or in an obtrusive or discomforting way... But we have all heard the quote "Dance like no one is watching"...

Observing people when they react to music reveals a lot about the person. But instead of the person... focus on the reaction! What part of the song triggered it?

Are they mumbling a lyric... what was the draw card? a repeated verse? are they air guitaring? tapping a foot or a spoon at a coffee house? What can we (as songwriters) learn from these observations?

The cadence (flow of the song... how it modulates and intonates, it's rhythm and tempo) has dramatic and primal effects on people. While not every person will be your target audience, observing how every person reacts to songs in public places is a great songwriting technique to be able to adopt.

Primal instincts can carry across many different soundscapes. When you begin to identify what it is that people are reacting to... you begin to find different ways to look at creation.

These are obviously just some techniques...

I have written horror themed stuff while sitting and casually playing with a large knife, I have written tributes to people who have passed by flipping through photographs. I have written entire songs in my head and then come home and picked up instruments and played them.. I have set time limits... I have written a song where to play the chorus you reverse the verse because that was a fun play on words...

I would love to collect a share pool of ideas that we can all look through and learn from...

Daunting? Hell yes! but exciting too!

Casually playing with a knife?

Yes. Nothing silly or remotely dangerous... take down your red flag young son! While I was writing, casual play ranged from just holding it, feeling its weight, how it moves when you move, the sound it makes through the air, pressing it against my skin or being aware of resistance against various foods while preparing dinner.

Ask a blind man to tell you about a tree, a dog or a colour and you will only receive a partial explanation because some of the senses have been denied. Yes, Others are enhanced but there will be facets that he could describe and others he could not without having experienced it in such a way.

The song required an intimacy with this particular weapon that I struggled to describe convincingly without experience.

It helped the song... it was a good experiment.

that... actually sounds like a really fun and productive experience. ill be sure to try it.

Casually playing with a knife?

he's Australian, dude

https://youtu.be/_vW54lAtldI

https://youtu.be/mcE0aAhbVFc

I feel you on the later Mason. I have been wanting to do some super writing pow-wows this year, but I was told to wait until after Spring Break. Now that Spring Break is over, I am swamped and stressed the hell out with school.

I was supposed to build a new studio on my last uni break. Instead I had insurance folks in because an air con unit on an adjoining wall flooded the space....

Only had two small recording sessions and they were not the productivity I had planned or promised. Now back to swamped mode...

I ditched my meds and now I feel creative as hell but I can't get it out onto paper.

It is important to commit ideas to some medium on a regular basis. I have a lyrics box, which contains the scribbled on and hastily scrawled or heavily edited dockets, napkins and scraps of paper that will become my next big things, and I have a mic app, well... had... the app company folded! I would forever hum, or strum or sing stuff into it and call on it when I next found myself with guitar on and everything plugged in while I sat playing covers of songs from the radio.

The long and the short: You cant always be creative, so make sure to document when you are... for the times when you aren't and have the time to be.

I ditched my meds and now I feel creative as hell but I can't get it out onto paper.

that's what my wife used to say.... on her meds she was completely uncreative, but off her meds she could never finish anything... I always suggested she finish her stories and revise and edit them back on her meds but a lot of tiems she would go abck off them ebfore she got stable enough on them to do anything productive with her limited creative output from her crazy spells.

It was weird watching the whole thing because my creativity and productivity functions nothing like a bipolar persons. i'm nutty but mostly just from PTSD. I'm creative, but I go about my creative projects like a run of the mill worker ant, not a grasshopper.