nvrmnd

[BenWLT]

Oh yeah, different guitar tunings -- that really helps. And swapping instruments. I agree with Ariston: change things up. One thing that worked for me in the past was side-projects. I'd create fictitious artists, give them a little bio and a genre each. Anything to break those old habits.

[slashcobain4]

I'm with you on starting with chords, harmony seems to give me the best blueprint for my brain
I typically go in chunks and write two different progressions and see which one sounds more like a hook or makes me hum something
I then add drums and bass to flesh it out
Then try and add effects
Very rough outline but good to think about and read others process!

[BONES]

I guess everybody have his own way to do it, but it's interesting to hear how kvrists start a composition,i try to find my way of composing,not the 'best' or 'right' way,just what satisfying or at least is interesting enough.
My first steps always are :
1.Basic chord progression and melody (on guitar,then may be translated to synth).
2.Drums and bass section (preliminary,later will be changed for sure)
3.Critical listening and improving of tempo,chords,sounds so on.
4.What more can be done?
Please give some ideas or advise how you make your things,sharing ideas and opinion help all included people to grow up communicating.Thanks

Being a non-guitar person, chords never enter into anything I do. Most of my songs start out with a bass pattern, normally derived from just mucking about with my hardware, to which I will add 4/4 kick, then decide whether that will be the verse or the chorus. I then look to fill out the arrangement as necessary - another synth rhythm or maybe a pad playing over or under the bassline. If it's a verse, then I'll need a lead line for the chorus, which I might transpose a few semitones up or down from the verse, depending on the key. If it's a chorus, then I'll strip something out of it for the verse or simplify the bass pattern or something.

Once I have a verse and a chorus, I will lay out an arrangement. From there I start looking for the right instruments/patches for each part, fill out the percussion and maybe look for some voice samples for it. If I think it needs more, I'll add another part or two. I usually get to this point after a few hours, although sometimes it can take longer. After I get to this point, I will then spend at least 6 months fine-tuning it before deciding if it's good enough to play live or release on an album or not.

At some point I'll write some lyrics, which may dictate changes to the arrangement and could inform the choice of voice samples, although as often as not the samples inform the lyrics. Very rarely I will have the lyrics from early in the process and I can mould the arrangement around them from the get-go. I try not to record vocals until we've played a song live a few times, although we are yet to perform any of the songs from the album we just finished so I had to get in and do the best job I could. We always record all the vocals for an album in one go, never as a song is finished.

[GRUMP]

Going at it from a creativity POV:
the day before yesterday, I played some guitar while my son played the drums (8 years old, starting out). While we were jamming, he improvised a shit ton of lyrics to a simple but nice melody that he had come up with. The following day, we decided to "compose" the track fully, picking up the leftover ideas from the day before. I got a piece of paper and a pencil ready and fired up the ol' DAW. And then it happened: he froze. He felt that he had to come up with something "worthwhile", now that things had become "serious", and it killed his creativity. Gone was his timing, gone were the lyrics, gone was the playfulness. And it reminded me of something I had observed over time: whenever I TRY to come up with something, it's usually garbage. Whenever I goof off and mess around and just generally have fun, I usually strike gold. So before I even consider chords or melodies or whatever, before I even pick up an instrument, I try to enter that "fun zone" where I'm just goofing off. That can mean anything from banging a rhythm on the table, or taking a shower and doing a Pavarotti or a Robert Plant, or trying to make Acid Wookie Jazz.

tl;dr: Creativity happens when you're being playful. Creativity dies when you try to force it. Try being a conduit rather than a creator.

In other Words: Creativity can´t stand hard Work. My whole Workflow in Sound Design is aligned to this golden Rule today. I always have several Topics I work on and don´t focus on anything anymore. I frequently save everything as ToDo and come back to it later. And instead of improving a single Sound I take every Chance to improve my Methods, the Workflow and Knowledge about my Tools. The Rest just happens. I have just clicked "export".

[Martin Simon]

Since I have less time to noodle around these days (kids, work...etc) I usually start out writing most parts out on paper. Chords, rythm, feel, duration of melodies. This helps me getting very focused right from the start.
Setting up a lot of boundries helps me getting creative within those boundries

[MMaarrkk]

Being a non-guitar person, chords never enter into anything I do.

I feel that chords come into play if you're more keen on keeping things somewhat traditional or you're a guitar or mainly a piano player. Other than that, just playing around and getting a melody down has to be one of the more fun and dynamic ways of working.

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

Being a non-guitar person, chords never enter into anything I do.

I feel that chords come into play if you're more keen on keeping things somewhat traditional or you're a guitar or mainly a piano player. Other than that, just playing around and getting a melody down has to be one of the more fun and dynamic ways of working.

Being a guitar person would say it's way more fun to play riffs or phrases on the guitar than chords ,but when have to demonstrate pads or plucks in a soundset a need chords
Modern digital composing i guess is more about developing ideas and sound within a style,some styles r based on loop like drum &base,some on a single preset sound like dubstep was on that wob wob sound and everything else is just fantasy over that,so you can make total mish mash with everything as some hybrid of music styles,but i am bit traditional and prefer good old chords and melody to be structure defining :)Cheers

[Tricky-Loops]

I always played around with layered tricky loops, funny vocal samples and drum machines to get new ideas because I thought music theory with scales, modes and chord progressions is kind of a jailhouse and is trying to tie you up.

But being older now, I envy those who played piano straight at the age of 5 and I'm trying to get deeper into music theory. Music theory should rather be a tool box, not a jailhouse...

So I hope I'll become a better keyboard player in the future...

[Junolab]

I did music-production (for fun) for about 10 years before I spend 10 years at independent and major labels (mostly marketing) for also about 10 years. This kinda changed my perspective on the idea of songwriting. It of cause depends on the style of music but the melody and vocal is 80% of a track so it's kinda crazy it's often the last part to do. For me it's now extremely basic arrangement, then vocal/melody and from there any proper structure can be pulled in all directions (metal, country, pop, electronica). But this is a "whatever-works" game. Just make sure to finish stuff. It's better to make 50 bad full songs than 50 great sounding verses (and then nothing else)

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

It's better to make 50 bad full songs than 50 great sounding verses (and then nothing else)
[/quote]
Man u just describe with one sentence my first 10 years as guitar player and composer enthusiast hihihihi - it seems i am one of these guys who always chase something better...but for sure if you spend insane amount of time and effort to become better writer,composer,designer,player in the end you will create something more than you could imagine in the beginning:)
It's always most difficult right before to become easy