question about composing

[trimph1]

you can't escape yourself. You repeat what works for you and shed what doesn't.

I try not to repeat myself. I have done things I never imagined I was going to do or even if I could do, letting the sound take me to a place and just desiring an effect bad enough to git it. I seek to escape myself as much as I can. There is a lot to learn and sticking to what I know is not gwyne take me to the new place.

My favorite way is to take my sax into the driveshed and start blowing gentle riffs through it..once I got that lung thing going I am almost one with that sax...

I'm usually starting out with an internal melody in my head, then my hands find it in whatever I'm playing...seems to work for me....

[Shabdahbriah]

I haven't read ALL of this thread yet, but did skim some other posts that are excellent also, but reading this first - just had to say I thought it VERY insightful, useful, and well laid out.

If you are working on a chord progression and rhythm then you are working out of your head.


I used to soley start with the progression and strum along till something came out. It's to the point now where if I'm playing chords I can't stop myself from singing or humming a melody. I used to think that playing other peoples melodies would be a distraction from writing my own. The truth is the more you experience melody the more you gain a sense of perspective over timing and meter. A melody is a rhythm that can be sung but it's not a lockstep rhythm. Listen to how people speak (not sing) will give you a sense of thier rhythm. Humans speak with pulses of their own all of them not just gaelic limbric's or iambic pentameter

While it is important to learn scale patterns, rhythm patterns licks and more. It's also important to learn metre and phrasing. Since guitarists are predisposed to using both hands to play a rhythm then they need to feel comfortable singing along. It doesn't have to be a great lyric (words help over humming although mumbling along works find as well) I learned in the pre internet days. Back then we had no drum machines, all the drummers I knew were already in bands. If I wanted a rhythm I recorded it to a tape deck.

Having a drum machine(even a virtual one) is a godsend. Find a usable generic rhythm and keep it going at moderate tempo even when your not playing your instrument. Always play with a beat behind you especially in your earlier years. You'll generally find yourself unbusying your mind from holding down the rhythm (though you should maintain the beat) and giving space for the sound to grow. Then sing your arse off even if you hate singing. You could actually sing my entire post. The more you sing the more you'll recognize patterns in your phrases developing (and the fact it's important to breath.
Vocal patterns aren't just rhythmic they have melodic/harmonic attributes as well. They idea behind melody is that lyrics repeat and vary much like motific development.

[ttw]

I try various things depending on what I wish to write. Sometimes I'll start with a chord progression like one of the old Renaissance dance progressions (Folia or Passamezzo Antico or Passamezzo Moderno or the descending bass harmonization used by Pachelbel) or a blues progression or the like. Then I'll fit some type of melody over the progression, maybe modifying a chord here or there. Sometimes, I'll vary the harmonic rhythm, changing chords every two bars instead of every bar (this has the advantage of letting one modify one of the chords in the two-bar pattern.) Then I'll work out a suitable bass.

Other times,(and I prefer this procedure because I get more varied chord progressions), I'll start with a melody. Usually I hear the melody in my head or I'll noodle on the piano untile something works. There are some little tricks here like using combinations of broken chords or scales of varying lengths and rhythms to produce a motif varying from a few notes to several measures. Then I find a bass line (with some pre-conceived dance rhythm, of late waltz, rumba, or tango, or maybe just a simple bass like that works against the melody.

Whatever gets me started then gets re-written a few dozen (or more) times. Patterns are stretched or shrunk or have notes inserted or harmonized differently. With luck, a small percentage of these sound good enough to continue on with.

[AndroidMIDI]

I would suggest listening to some classical music, which have very distinct melodic themes and progressions. Works from the Baroque era, especially, are good due to their simplicity, more or less. Bach or Handel, perhaps...

[tapper mike]

Just as a heads up. Starting songs is easy, finishing songs can be more of a challenge. Sometimes we need structure to pull things together and keep us moving to a finished product.

I've just finished writing this.
http://www.kvraudio.com/wiki/?id=Song+Form