What is your process?

imalrightjack

For me, I will latch onto a riff that I’ve played but it has to have something about it that resonates, or I won’t pursue it. I then work out its bpm, drop it into Logic. I’ll tend then to add a beat from EZDrummer, tweaked as required, and see where it leads. 

I’ll often, if stuck, audition random beats until one sounds like it will work and then play changes until something fits. I know pretty instinctively whether a part is a verse, chorus, whether it needs a pre-chorus.

Next I will find any old lyrics of a song I don’t know to give me a rhythm and sing along, until something works, or just improvise words, then write around them. Once I have a verse and chorus I am content with, I’ll decide on middle section/solo or otherwise. 

The riffs and parts and are ALL copy and paste jobs. It’s the easiest way for me to write. It saves a lot of time. I then will do a finished lyric. Solos tend to be as few takes as I can. Vocals likewise.

I had writers’ block for many, many years. Having written and released a solo album and always played in bands writing, it was a long fallow period (around a decade). Since May, I’ve finished thirteen demos. They’re writing demos, far from finished products, that I intend to refine in 2022. 

If you’re at all curious, here they are:

https://soundcloud.com/redfordissent

There’s a definite evolution in performance and writing as time passed over the last six months or so - especially vocals. In that list, the most recently written appear first, although the first six or so aren’t in chronological order. 

Any comments are welcome but bear in mind that they’re intended as only rough demos for band mates to learn from.

ThePrettyDamned

Thanks @imalrightjack - maybe I ought to put stuff together and upload, maybe getting it torn to bits by others will help.

I've got some time off over the break so I'm looking forward to some time working on guitar. 

poopot

Rocker said:

Fair dues to you guys, @poopot, @Bezzer, @IMC1980.  ;;

https://dirtysnakemouth.bandcamp.com/music 

Here you go @Rocker can download flac files from there

imalrightjack

ThePrettyDamned said:

Thanks @imalrightjack - maybe I ought to put stuff together and upload, maybe getting it torn to bits by others will help.

I've got some time off over the break so I'm looking forward to some time working on guitar. 

I don't imagine anybody would tear it to bits but productive feedback is good!

Good luck with it!

barryd

Interesting thread. (Note to self, must visit here more often).  I dont really have a set method.  I generally write some lyrics first. Words come easy to me, music not so much. I was away for four months over the summer in a motorhome and only had a crappy old acoustic guitar with me and wrote half a dozen songs and bashed something out on the guitar and recorded it on my phone. When I got home I got stuck in with guitars, drums and keys and nothing ended up the same as it did on the acoustic.    

Im just a home musician who plays and records for fun though nothing serious. I think I approach it different every time. Might start with a bass line or just banging out a few made up riffs or chord progressions. 

The biggest obstacle I seem to have is Drums. Im just in the process of going from Pro Tools First to Reaper so maybe ill find a better way of doing drums I dunno.  Most of what I do is generally fueled by booze anyway so its amazing anything comes out at all.

ThePrettyDamned

Well, I'm learning some jazzy chord melody arrangements of Christmas tunes at the moment in an effort to clean up some of my playing and learn some different chords.

Turns out a lot of it is surprisingly straightforward - instead of using thirds, there are a lot of stacked 4ths and 5ths. Instead of just playing chords, you play a chord stacked with 4ths with a melody note on top (which is often the note that gives the more bizarre chord names...). No, it's not "proper" jazz as such, but it is helping me to think about how I can play things a bit differently.

Also, chromatics in jazz are about the same as in any genre. It is usually just a stepping stone to the next chord, rather than an important note in and of itself.

Fun stuff. Weird shapes, my hands are sore for the first time in a while and I'm only playing we wish you a merry Christmas... 

I think I'll be recording a lot more. It won't hurt. It really highlights bad playing as well. 

Shrews

It's good to read this thread as I thought I might write a Christmas song for next year. A bit soppy I know, but it will be about finding love in Belarus, with a Christmas theme.

That's because since I've been coming to Belarus over the last 18 months (5 times now) I hear no English language songs played in shops, taxis, TV etc.  But at Christmas I hear our English language classics all the time, including, Slade, Wizard etc.  Then I read somewhere that Noddy and the boys get about half a million in royalties every year. Wow!

So, even though I can only play some basic chords, on Christmas night after far too much alcohol I made something up off the top of my head, talking about Christmas and then ended up with both of us in fits of giggles, singing about her breasts!

Thing is, when I sobered up a bit, I think I subconsciously reproduced the basic melodies of Hero by Enrique Englesias and Dignity by Deacon Blue.  So, I guess this is an issue; how do you know you're not just subconsciously playing somebody else's tunes?

The other question I would ask would be how much does it cost to get professionally recorded?  

What I would do then is see if I could get it on the radio over here (next year obviously!).  Just for a bit of a 2022 goal if nothing else.