I wouldn't normally ask for advice on this but I really do need/want it.
Basically, those who pay attention to the drivel I post will know that I have become a huge fan of 90s power pop band Jellyfish in the last seven or eight months, and while I normally get a bit bored of albums after having them on heavy rotation for a few weeks, I keep coming back to Jellyfish all the time - particularly their second album, Spilt Milk, which is a lot more complex arrangements-wise but also has better songs - sounds like a perfect halfway point between Cheap Trick and the Beach Boys.
The advice I need is this - how the hell would I go about writing something along these lines? I can't put my finger on what it is that eludes me about this style of songwriting. I'd love to write a track or two in this style but I just don't know where to start.
Here is some Jellyfish:
You'll note - lots and lots of parts (layered vocals, piano, keyboards, guitars etc etc) which may be difficult - I'm not a very good keyboard player. I can do some basic stuff here and there but not really enough to be able to write a song with it. So I'd be looking to write on guitar and add what keyboard parts I can later on. It's also full of hooks and catchy chord progressions, and I'm not totally sure of how to go about that either... I'm just totally unused to writing like this. If I had to sum up the style, I'd call it "complex pop rock".
This is probably a totally ridiculous question but any help would be appreciated.
- "I'm going to write a very stiff letter. A VERY stiff letter. On cardboard."
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Football is rubbish.
This has got "10cc all over it to me...then Supertramp....The Feeling... they are all in there.
How do they do it?..well I guess songs like these come from hundreds of ideas slowly moulded together, Springsteen does the same with lyrics, you may have seen his documentry, hes has a book with hundreds of lines in , he just strings them together as & when required.
All in all , a bit of a joint effort maybe? I know a guy who has great lyrics but an awful singer !
I have tons of guitar riffs...but cant make a single complete song..'-(
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Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Football is rubbish.
Oblique Strategies came to mind. Although according to Wiki Coldplay have used them, so clearly no guarantee that it will produce good music.
With any other element of music we learn to accept than there is a learning process involved. We start by looking an instrument as a foreign entity and work at getting better by doing the same exercises over and over. Song writing (regardless of style) still more often than not gets looked at as having some secret formula or a case that you can either do it or not. It really requires practice like any other skill. So some people will pick it up more naturally but that happens with anything.
Write a song, don't worry if it sounds crap. Just get your brain used to the discipline of writing. Then write another and so on focusing on eradicating those things you don't like about what you write and strengthening those things you do. Exactly as with playing, the creative or emotional part that is you and your individuality can't be taught, but you are arming yourself with techniques to allow your creation to flow. Just as learning scales aids your ability to express yourself in a solo, for example.
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
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