How to...

[TabSel]

So many Sounds, so many possibilities, so much choice...
So few playing techniques, so few ideas...

How do you start a New project? Finding
Chords? Finding melody? Seeking a hook? Building a Beat? Writing lyrics? Creating Sounds?

I spend the whole Day, One of my few spare free days, trying to create a Song, an idea at last, and ended with...

Nothing...

I am frustrated!

[wrench45us]

steal from the best

there are plenty of reasons this works
1) you can actually learn something while playing someone else's idea -- about song structure, arrangement and such

2) if your skills are anything like mine, the result may be unrecognizable as the 'original', but still sound better than what you'd come up with 'on your own' (I'm actually getting better so I have to acknowledge the source material, but I take that as a positive as well)

3) it's very likely even while emulating the work and structure of others, your own style will emerge. It's almost a given. It's very rare in my experience that personal touches don't emerge -- even if it's only clever masking of lack of certain performance skills. Do you think minimalism was invented by those with great orchestartion and performance skills? Just the one right note/chord can work.

4) really learn mixing and production. many disappointing results can be shined to a high gloss with sufficient production. It's a great skill to have. Even if your song creations suck, you could be recognized to work with others to polish their pieces. It also trains one to listen carefully and that leads to better choices all around. If you're having a bad day coming up with something spend that day working on improving the mix/sound. It often works to turn things around.

[jobromedia]

Get a taperecorder by the bed. For me music comes during the nights. With a taperecorder I can record a few bars to work with in the days ahead. So when I go to sleep I instruct my subconscious mind to get a few melodies going.

[llatham]

So few playing techniques,

This could be a big part of your frustration.

Steve

[jopy]

so few ideas...

This is probably also a pretty major problem.

[jancivil]

So many Sounds, so many possibilities, so much choice...
So few playing techniques, so few ideas...

The cart won't pull the horse, you say?

How do you start a New project?

I start with an idea. I'll have ideas because I have done some playing in my life to gain technique and music is on my mind constantly. I have techniques because I acquired them thru hard work. If you've devoted your time and energies elsewhere and expect the one little bit of free time you've allowed yourself to be fertile, you have a recipe for frustration.

[warrior545]

you need a simple theory and fast!! haha..

try here to see where you can learn the basics :
http://musicdm.wordpress.com/2011/01/02 ... -we-study/

[ferretleg]

just do it... im a ferret i just did it

[numbskull]

just do it... im a ferret i just did it

I cannot agree more! You'll be surprising yourself soon - art is truly wonderful that way. Also, several of my boring technique drills (picking etc.) have turned into (hopefully less boring) songs. So just do it. I'm guessing you're a "beginner" if not forgive my presumption. So here's what I tell my nephews:

As already noted, steal! Change the rhythm, substitute a chord. My most energetic material seems to always grow from a "stolen" drum loop. For lyrics, it's always okay to steal rhyme schemes and meters, I frequently "filk" to someone else's song and months later after I'm "cleanroomed" I'll write a different song around my filky lyrics.

A "formula" I use for some melodies is I grab some roots and fifths of the chords I'm writing over and write scales to connect them - to shake it up sometimes the scales start out the "wrong" way or "miss" the end note, and have to go back up or down and thus have a "turnaround." Then I knock out some of the notes of the scales and syncopate some of the rest, it gets "catchy" pretty quick.

Don't try to compose music in "piano roll." Find a program or combination of programs that lets you write music using music notation - I use Harmony Assistant when I'm composing. Such programs make it *easy* to insert an eighth rest or dotted note when you want to syncopate, instead of having to grab all the little boxes and mouse them around. Same for transposition, modulation, etc. "Standard" musical notation is an expressive written language and these programs are "music" processors like "word processors" are for writing, whereas piano roll is for 19th-century robot pianos. I write music with a crescendo, and Harmony Assistant handles the velocity number math stuff.

That said, "trackers" seem to be a way many people compose music with piano roll. I don't understand trackers at all, but they probably deserve mention after the screedology of the last paragraph. They might be *exactly* what you need!

[Jafo]

Anybody who says you have to have a methodology is either deluded or trying to inhibit the competition; ignore them. Doesn't matter how the process starts as long as starts, continues, and finishes. Start with a motif, a lyric, a tone color, a technique ("I like minor subdominants"), a riff, just dicking around on your instrument, or whatever gets your juices going.

[ObiWonder]

Sounds like you just need some inspirations. Take a day off and do something. Go on a date, movie, concert, listen to your favorite albums and then go back.

[A.M. Gold]

Improvise, constantly. Practice like a mofo.