Have you written your own song on the guitar before?

[LeDave]

Have you written your own song on the guitar before?

[TBman]

Instrumentals. I've written a bunch of instrumentals.

Here's one I wrote for one of my grandsons.

Liam's Day:

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[McCawber]

I haven't, but my brother has written a few and submitted them to music producers. I thought some of them were pretty good. He has the first reject letter framed in a toilet seat hanging on the wall in his music room.

[Rev Roy]

Yep. I don’t sing so everything I’ve composed is instrumental.

[rick-slo]

No songs but a bunch of tunes.

[PHJim]

One song (worth keeping) and a bunch of tunes.

[The Bard Rocks]

I don't write many each year - but there have been a lot of years and the count is probably around 70 plus at least as many instrumentals. Most of them I don't write down with notation, but the songs I do. I do not regard myself as a songwriter, but do plan on a CD later this year of my favorite originals. Most are fairly simple and straight-forward, definitely melodic as that attracts me more strongly than a beat.

[Shepsdad]

Yes. Out of the 50 something songs I’ve recorded, only two were cover songs. I sing, play guitar, bass, and occasionally drums. I do quite a few cover songs, but don’t really get into recording those. Never been into instrumentals.

[PapaC]

I recorded a CD in 2008. It has 10 songs on it of which 7 are original.

On edit: I have written songs since then but I usually move on and forget them.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

I have dozens of unfinished masterpieces.

[RodB]

No songs, but many tunes. Most didn’t pass the test of time, shall we say, and were gone ...

[Wade Hampton]

With the exception of five string banjo, which I play but have never written any original songs on, I have come up with songs on guitar, baritone guitar, mountain dulcimer, mandolin, and entirely in my mind, usually while out hiking or driving. Most of the time the songs start when I don’t have an instrument in my hands, but once I’ve got that spark and the beginnings of a song I’ll take out my instruments and see which one brings out more ideas for it, and the instrument that does seem to fit ends up being the instrument that the song gets composed on.

On a few rare occasions I’ve awakened from a dream with a melody that seems to already have a structure, and in those circumstances I’ll pick up my mandolin so I can write it down. Mandolin is the only instrument that I can kinda sorta read music on, so if I’ve got a definite melody to start with I can chart its course on mandolin and write down what I find in standard music notation.

But that’s quite rare. Usually the songs take more shaping than that.


Wade Hampton Miller

[pegleghowell]

I`ve written many instrumentals.I was once in the habit of trying to come up
with a new one every week or so.Many disposable,some passable.I just cannot write a decent lyric to save my life.I sing but it`s other people`s songs.

[Acousticado]

Yes, I’ve written quite a few songs over the years, music and lyrics. Although I have set music to lyrics, mostly the music comes first. Now in my 60s, in recent times, not as many new ones are coming to me, but I have a number that I’ve never finished, so I dabble with completing those. I don’t force the songwriting process, I work on it when I have the muse and go with it.

[MikeBmusic]

First one was within a month of me getting my first guitar in 1971. Since then, several hundred more. A few I even like now!