I wrote a song and it's not awful

[bourbonsamurai]

I have never written anything original in my life until the last two days.  I just wasn't capable, and every effort to do it only reinforced this being the case.  I think the last 5 years has conditioned me to accept my own failures better though, because learning a new trade in my 50s left me no other option.  I lived that process and I've the results to show for it now, and have opportunities I never dreamed I'd have access to.  I've been shedding with my metronome since I got the Telecaster in my hands, and really putting in work to make it groove and give life and bounce to my ideas.  The result is not Dino and if you know me that's no surprise, but it is mos def filthy rotten and depraved the way I like it.  I've got lyrics too, and they're sussed out well enough.  I'll never write a Pancho and Lefty or a Wild Horses, but a simple take on a complex matter is within my grasp.  Simple is never easy but all it takes to add dimension is one line that illuminates differently.  I have a method to find that I think, but I'll let it be for the weekend and allow what mayhap to find its way.  Have I mentioned the music is utterly gross and dripping funk?  
 
 

[Dinosaur David B]

I hear this I can't write songs from a lot of you guys. No offense, but that's nonsense. If you've been playing guitar 30+ years, if you can jam, and especially if can play a zillion covers, the ability and musicality to write songs IS definitely within you. You maybe don't realize it because it didn't come easy (or at all), and the results weren't instantly brilliant. Songwriting is like everything else. Hard at first, but in most cases, the more you do it, the better you get at it. 

My first songs were incredibly derivative of what I was listening to in the 80s. A song that sounded like Van Halen. A song that sounded like Dio. They weren't good. I was just listening to what I liked, and trying to decode the formula for how they did it. I was 21 years old, and didn't really have the skill yet, so I just copied ideas and the song form, from other songs and sort of reverse engineered it. You can still do that to get started. And if you've been playing a long time, you'll know if you're biting too hard on the song that inspired you. If so, adjust.

Find a good riff (maybe you inadvertently trip over one) and see if you can come up with a chorus. If you can't, record the riff on your phone and return to it later. Songs don't always happen in the moment.  

The thing that kickstarts my songwriting most is a great drum groove. Give me a great drum groove, and I'll find a guitar riff or part. For me, that's always been easier than pulling a riff out of thin air -- but I have done that, too.

At the end of the day, there's nothing more musically rewarding than making your own music. Conveying your own ideas, emotions, stressors, and pains musically. Shit, the thing that most helped me get over the loss of my father was writing two songs about it. It provided a catharsis that nothing else did. 

Now that you've written one, Cary promise yourself you'll write another one. 

 

[bourbonsamurai]

What's weird about this is it all just appeared from thin air.  Even as it was developing I had the whole track totally conceptualized.  I have a rhythm section already onboard with it and it's a thing that could almost only happen here.  i know a lot of players in New Orleans by now.
 

[mr_crowley]

For me writing songs has always come very easy. Some of my earliest memories is me sitting by my grandmother's piano, at maybe three or four years old. I couldn't play it - AT ALL - but I hammered away and wailed away at stories I found intriguing at the time. Most vividly I remember one song was about The Jungle Book.

When I picked up the guitar I started writing songs right away. I only knew like five chords and could barely play them but I wanted to create and let my imagination run loose. As I got older, and actually learned music and how to play, that developed. Even though I wasn't in a regularly in a band situation between I was 24 och 30 I learned a lot during those years. Maybe not as much as a player as I did as a listener. I figured out a lot about nuances and arranging music that today influences how and what I write very much. As big leaps as I've done after 30 writing wise I probably haven't done since my early 20s where I went from cooking together crappy basement demos to actually writing songs for a signed act. I don't write as hooky and commercially viable music as I did back then but what I write now is much better pieces of music. I have written two songs for my new band that I regard as two of my best works ever. One is very early Maiden-esque with a lot of cool guitar figures and toss and turns. The other one is much more modern and heavy with a lot of cool breaks and different time signatures thrown in.

I also let a lot of things out of my own control these days. Back in the day I used to come in with more or less complete songs where everything was all figured out and I could show my band mates what to play. It helps that I today play with better players and more accomplished and focused musicians but I also encourages them to come up with their own parts. My bass player I just show the chords and he comes up with bitching motifs that just grooves so my thinking is why bother when he does it so much better? With my drummer we work a bit on the arrangement together and throw ideas around until we can agree on something. It is all very rewarding. In my current situation we also have a singer who plays guitar well so I usually show him what I play and if I want some variation or harmonies or whatever I do them myself. He also writes our lyrics. I've always had troubles with doing that confidently so I am happy to "outsource" that as well. I overall think this kind of writing style where I bring in a rough idea into a rehearsal space and we can work on it together is something I thoroughly enjoy. When you find the vibe after throwing around some ideas for a few hours are very nice! And in the end I also think the songs benefit from it. Our singer also writes and we have sort of the same working style there. He brings in an idea and we work on it and try if it fits. If we all like it and can make it work after a few run-thrus into the set it goes.

If I write something just for myself that I don't intend to bring to the band the process of course becomes a little different. But the basic idea is the same just that I have to work four times as hard. Something I've learned is not to settle until it sounds exactly as it is in my head. Before I could sometimes settle for "almost as I imagined it" or "different but just as good". I don't anymore. I have an idea and I work on it until it is there. I also never consider a song done until it is all put down. I write, rewrite and rewrite again until I think all the parts are equally killer.

I also discard songs much more these days. I it ain't killer all the way through it goes back to drawing desk and it we can't salvage it, it's ditched. That can be hard to know right away. We've thrown away songs we've played for over a year becuase it ultimately wasn't the right thing. I think also becuase we are developing right now what we though we were six months ago necessarily ain't what we are right now, it is sort of a moving target trying to find a stylistic solid ground. We are nine months into being a complete group and soon two years as a band so it is still kind of new. Right now we have a set consisting of six songs (we are trying to put a 30 minute set together in order to get some low key gigs going) and I think we have at least as many done songs that we've played for months that we at some point just felt were not as strong as the best of our material and ended up ditching. Now we use them for "spare parts". Ideas that we could implement into other songs if we need another or part or whatever. It also makes the set a bit eclectic and interesting that there are songs written over a four or five year period. The oldest song we have (a two minute instrumental opener) I wrote before we formed with another friend of mine. And the newest addition we tried for the first time last tuesday. It makes it all fresh sounding I believe.

Just wanted to share my two cents. I love songwriting, probably the most fun part of the experience of playing music in my humble opinion. The older I get the more I enjoy it as well. Especially sharing the work and craft with other people.
 
 

[Dinosaur David B]

 
Very interesting take. Your experience has been pretty different from mine. I've found it's a fine line between too many cooks in the writing process, and letting better players come up with their own parts. 

When FEINTS began, Amy was the primary songwriter. We found our sound (where a band finds it's sound is a whole other topic) when I became more of an equal writing partner.  What I didn't know at the time, but is pretty clear in retrospect, is that I was apprenticing as songwriter at that time. Prior to that, I'd come up with riffs or parts, but it took me a while to learn what works and why. 

The one time FEINTS tried to write as a band, it was a disaster. Nothing came of that and I decided that Amy and I would do the writing and just present finished songs to the band. They could then come up with their own bass and drum parts. By the time we were doing our second album, almost every song on it started with a guitar riff idea from me. And I was getting better at connecting the parts as well.  

Of course in Last Chance, it's even more me. Frankie never contributed what I'd call a complete song. He had ideas that he had demoed, but it was on me to take those ideas and turn them into actual songs that work.  Very much in the way I used to tell Amy, I have this riff (and not much else), and she'd carry the ball over the goal line. Now that person is me. On the second album (that I hope to finish before I die), only one song idea came from Frankie. Everything else was on me to come up with. On one hand, it's a nice flex to do that. OTOH, I've found that if 99% of the writing has to be my responsibility -- not just the songs, but the lyrics, and even the vocal melodies too, I might as well make my solo albums rather than be in a band where I have to drag everyone along. And that's what my next project will be. 

The other thing I've noticed is that as much as I love long-form epic, Dino tracks like Stargazer, Xanadu, Achilles Last Stand, Hallowed be Thy Name, I don't write songs like that, and I probably never will. Even when I'm being heavy, I like pop form. Most of my songs average about 4-5 minutes long. Note also, that with all of those songs I mention, the lyrical themes are mythical, historical, or literary. They translate to long form, or free form, far better than the kinds of real-world, human condition themes I write about. Close to the Edge and Stairway aren't about a relationships or self destructive behavior. 

I think I like the same kind of economy in writing that I do in a guitar solo. The song (at least my songs) should make its point quickly with as little excess as possible.  At least when I write them. I respect when great writers can create an epic, four course meal, but I'm serving cheeseburgers. Hopefully really tasty ones. And thus far, that's usually been enough for me.