Tips for creating original guitar instrumentals

[DrGoldsmack]

Hello all!
Just like the title says I am looking for advise with creating original instrumentals on guitar. Now that school is out I have been focusing on my own music more and although I have alot of ideas I am stuggeling to make my music sound smooth and flow. I play mostly in standard tuning and use a flatpick. Do you guys start with the rythem and build from there or create a melody and design the chords and bassline around it? Any feedback is appreciated!
Cheers,
Jasper

[HHP]

Probably different for everybody but I would always start with the key signature. From there I might have an interesting chord progression that suggests a melody or I may have some melodic ideas I layer the chords over.

I think the best way to start is to work up variations on existing tunes.

Best advice I ever saw was the foreword to a John Fahey book. He basically said if you play guitar 5-6 hours a day, you'll come up with stuff just out of boredom.

[Mr. Jelly]

I'm no expert but I have been playing around doing this type of thing awhile. Two main things to start is that if you keep trying to create tunes like this you will find there is no one way to do it. So start with anything, in any way and go from there. Second most tunes will take time to unfold. You work at a tune and work at a tune and there is only one way in which you will feel it is right. Allot of people can write a tune in minutes. But there are more crappy tunes than good ones by far.
I like to start with something that has taken my interest. Some chordal sound or lick that is a type of signature part of the tune. If I can't expand it I will connect it to a second and maybe a third signature lick. The more memorable parts the better (almost). Then put in a bridge. It has to do with tension and release so try to balance between in your face parts and parts that let the listener to relax a bit. That way when you get to the memorable in your face part the listener will identify it and be brought in a little more. You keep trying and the tunes get better. The point is to have a listener hear a tune for the first time and be attracted to it, feel like they know it before it's finished and wanting more. Compare it to a good meal at a fine restaurant.

[rick-slo]

Go to the Play section of the forum and read through the prior threads on this topic.

[DrGoldsmack]

Go to the Play section of the forum and read through the prior threads on this topic.

Ahh now I see that section. Sorry for posting in the wrong area.

[mr. beaumont]

The most interesting stuff I write always starts with melody.

[Irish Pennant]

I play all original music, a lot of it is instrumental. I have no formula. One thing I do though is when I'm onto a piece that has possibilities to become a song, I'll record it, write down notes on how I'm playing it, play it for awhile, record the improved version, make more notations and then leave it for a few hours or days. When I come back to it I'll play the recording, if I still think it has possibilities, I'll name it, read my notes on how I played it and then start to practice it, add to it and see where it goes. Only once did I sit down with a goal writing a song, it was for a celebration of a friend's new baby. It was for me the toughest endeavor into songwriting to date, not an instrumental piece though.

I like my music, my wife likes my music, audiences seem to like some of it and are not sure about most of it, I think it's because it's not familiar to what they're use to hearing.

[drumstrummer]

A looper is a powerful tool. Just by looping a chord progression and noodling over it, I often stumble on something I like. Then I work to develop the theme a little more to see where it takes me. It's mesmerizing. Next thing you know, hours have passed.

[westman]

listen to people talking - animatedly - note the pitch, meter and punctuation = rhythm.
there's lots of tunes (maybe most) in that, it's also a good indicator of the person's generosity.
Me - I try to convey a feeling in pitch and meter - creating phrasing / melody.
It's hard to put the act / process into words - I don't think it's on a 'conscious' level.

[TBman]

Melody 100%. Saying this is easier than doing it though. It's so easy to fall into the "guitar centric" rabbit hole. Of course we would like it, but the general public would yawn. It should be "hummable", lol.

[posternutbag]

I guess I am different from most people here. I am a big fan of Dawg Music and the four Tony Rice Unit Instrumental records. The music I love is the intersection of bluegrass and jazz.

I occasionally come up with something interesting by noodling around, or sometimes I play a really neat break that I think, "Hey, that could be the basis for a tune."

But mostly, I actually sit down with staff paper and compose. I work at composition they way I work at anything else. Sometimes what I write sounds good, but the vast majority of the time it is not.

My best stuff usually starts with lyrics, often nonsensical, word salad lyrics. But those lyrics suggest a melody. Once I have a good grasp of the lyrics/melody, I find those pitches and their duration on my guitar, and I write it down. That is the melody. I then figure out a chord progression that fits the melody.

After that, it is just a matter of playing the tune over and over to refine it. I find I am forever refining tunes. There are pieces I wrote in high school that I am still tinkering with almost two decades later.

[TBman]

This makes me wonder if a really good instrumental piece should be first written as a song with lyrics, then played as a instrumental. Hmm.

[posternutbag]

Originally Posted by TBman

This makes me wonder if a really good instrumental piece should be first written as a song with lyrics, then played as a instrumental. Hmm.

That is precisely the process I was trying to describe in the post above. Write a song, then throw away the lyrics.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by posternutbag

That is precisely the process I was trying to describe in the post above. Write a song, then throw away the lyrics.

That's a cool idea.

[Fairlight]

As a starting point, I almost never begin with a melody. The chording, color and rhythm vibe is where things start for me. Forming a framework of space and atmosphere for the melody to live and breathe is more critical. And full songs hardly ever come all at once. I have probably 30-40 short videos of sketch ideas that I've got currently stored on my phone--shot in places where bits of creativity have hit me. Most don't have any formal melody yet. Sometimes they are from noodling around, other times from some cool lick I'll steal from TV or radio. Coming back to them later when I'm in the right frame of mind, I'll re-evaluate and maybe start to develop something new out of them.

Another method is to try and work in an alternate or made up tuning. It takes away the intellectual part of composing and lets the ear (or muse) fully take over.

For me, listening is 100% what the process of writing is all about and what will ultimately make your tune unique. If you're attempting to follow or force some kind of formula aside from that, it most likely will be a frustrating and unsatisfying effort.