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  #46  
Old 03-01-2021, 09:58 AM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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I think most players go through this.

Learning to write songs is a good experience. And some people are actually capable of writing good stuff. The trouble is, most people, including most guitar players, don't want to hear new stuff. They want to hear what they already know.

So if a player wants to play music that other people care about, most of the time it's going to be covers. However, if a songwriter is really good, sometimes a player can appeal to people in a much bigger way with original music. But the percentages for any kind of success with original music are very low.

If a person is going to try to make a living out of making music, which would involve making and selling recordings, then original music is almost required. In my experience it costs too much money to pay mechanical rights to other writers when putting together an album. I have done my share of writing original music and putting together albums in the past. And I was moderately successful. But in the end making a living that way is a tough road and because I had a much better way to make a living available to me (being an engineer), that's where I eventually put my efforts.

Writing good songs is hard work, and when there is such a limited audience for it, for me, it's no longer worth the effort. But I want to keep my hand in music, so I do covers these days, mostly. Still, I understand there are plenty of players who want to express themselves by writing original music, just as I did once.

People should do what makes them feel good when making music.

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  #47  
Old 03-01-2021, 10:10 AM
mawmow mawmow is offline
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Well, the first guitar forum I participated used to launch friendly contests a few times a year.
I did write kind of a Blues as I was learning pentatonic scales.
I also wrote lyrics for a few songs others members would put music on and perform these.
I also wrote my own basic fingerstyle arrangements of songs found in fakebooks.
As I play for me and relatives, I also feel free to adapt songs to my own tastes.
I find music to be rewarding as long as you can do what you want out of it.

Sometimes, a lightning hits you with a strong basis for a song or an entire song:
Some famous songs have been written on a napkin on a table corner in a few minutes !
Sometimes, you have to dig in the huge drawer of old unfinished ideas to try to make something happens.

I was blessed that an experienced songwriter wrote a pocket book on the subject (in French):
It gives you ways to stuff an idea, add meat to the bone.
For example, place, manner, time, colors, perfumes, feelings may all add something special to the lyrics of a song.

That is where music becomes really fun to me.
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Last edited by mawmow; 03-01-2021 at 10:28 AM.
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  #48  
Old 03-01-2021, 11:16 AM
Laughingboy68 Laughingboy68 is offline
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I do both. I've written about two dozen songs that I'm not embarrassed to play in a set. Then I have a repertoire of about 550 (it's always growing) of my arrangements of other people's songs.

I try to always have an original in the pipeline as well as some new covers to learn as well. Unfortunately, it takes me a lot longer to write 'em than learn 'em.

I've also on a couple of occasions written extra verses to songs by other artists. I have a recurring nightmare where Tom Waits walks into a bar where I'm playing one of my extra verses to New Coat of Paint. His version only has one verse/chorus and piano solos, so I added a couple more verses in his style (I'm sure he'd hate it).
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  #49  
Old 03-01-2021, 12:09 PM
Ed66 Ed66 is offline
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My time with a guitar is fairly limited compared to most here; likewise my skillset. That aside, I learned to play guitar so I could play some of the songs I love most. There are still a ton of those out there - and they are, to a large degree, excellent songs. Since I haven't exhibited ANY song writing skills to date, I'm going to stick with learning how to play the good stuff. Things could change, but I happy with proceeding this way for now
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  #50  
Old 03-01-2021, 01:07 PM
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hubcapsc hubcapsc is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by s2y View Post
Hard to imagine getting song ideas without listening to outside artists. I'm not particularly interested in covering them, but learning riffs and the theory behind them is obviously very valuable.
My BIL is a talented guitar player with years of experience playing
in bands. A lot of the time he sounds just like Eric Clapton and
John Mayall...

-Mike
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  #51  
Old 03-01-2021, 01:40 PM
computo99 computo99 is offline
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I always wanted to write my own material from the time I started playing guitar and I continue writing my own material to this day. I do covers as well and probably play about 40% original material at live gigs. I respect musicians a little more who create their own art, but I do admire those who can accurately reproduce a cover that is very close to the record, or who do interesting interpretations of a cover song. It’s all good!
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  #52  
Old 03-01-2021, 04:21 PM
smic28 smic28 is offline
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I mostly play fingerstyle instrumentals. I get a lot of satisfaction out of both learning other's songs and writing my own. But they are completely different processes. Almost every song I have written was inspired in some small way by something I had already learned. I think you learn a lot by learning other people's material.
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  #53  
Old 03-01-2021, 04:32 PM
Br1ck Br1ck is offline
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I have never understood learning Fire and Rain or Blackbird note for note. I learned the intro for Fire and Rain to see how JT used his A fingering. After that, I never played it again. How many have seen a bar band where the guitar player idolized Eric Clapton, and 50 years later is spewing the same Clapton licks, very well mind you, but what's the point? Great players do cover tunes and make them their own. For better or worse, I sound like me.
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  #54  
Old 03-01-2021, 05:47 PM
Pdubs76 Pdubs76 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smic28 View Post
I mostly play fingerstyle instrumentals. I get a lot of satisfaction out of both learning other's songs and writing my own. But they are completely different processes. Almost every song I have written was inspired in some small way by something I had already learned. I think you learn a lot by learning other people's material.
I agree, but I think that it helps to learn to play music from multiple artists so that when you do create your own, you can take a little technique from each one and come up with something a little different.
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  #55  
Old 03-01-2021, 06:15 PM
Pdubs76 Pdubs76 is offline
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Originally Posted by raysd View Post
I think I feel much the same way the OP does. I'm spending more time creating my own fingerstyle songs. Most might more accurately be called "noodles", perhaps, but that's just it - I'm making more effort to convert the noodles to what can be called songs. Because I enjoy it. I'm not a professional, and have no ambition other than my own satisfaction. I get a lot of satisfaction from the creative process. Playing guitar is a flow activity for me; I derive a lot of "flow" when creating my own noodles and working to expand them into songs.
That’s where I’m at now, basically just noodling and coming to a dead end. Need to learn more music theory, so that I can put together a complete song.
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  #56  
Old 03-01-2021, 07:02 PM
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hubcapsc hubcapsc is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Br1ck View Post
I have never understood learning Fire and Rain or Blackbird note for note. I learned the intro for Fire and Rain to see how JT used his A fingering. After that, I never played it again. How many have seen a bar band where the guitar player idolized Eric Clapton, and 50 years later is spewing the same Clapton licks, very well mind you, but what's the point? Great players do cover tunes and make them their own. For better or worse, I sound like me.
I don't know about note for note, but Blackbird is fun to play! A long time
ago my wife and I learned to play and sing Shower The People, it
was fun!

-Mike "its fun..."
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  #57  
Old 03-01-2021, 08:07 PM
BillyMays BillyMays is offline
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I exclusively only play my own music, with exception to The Star Spangled Banner. It drives my instructor nuts, lol.
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  #58  
Old 03-01-2021, 09:55 PM
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Mark Stone Mark Stone is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pdubs76 View Post
You feel like you should stop spending all your time learning songs that other people wrote and start creating your own? I can spend hours and hours trying to learn a difficult song and I sometimes ask myself, why am I doing this? Wouldn’t it be so much more rewarding to come up with my own arrangements? How about you guys? Do you write your own music? If so, did you start right away or did you explore and learn the music of many artists before creating your own brand?
I started out by writing songs . In 1971 this guy gave me a guitar (it was a Gibson B-25 - but that's a different story) and taught me Em and D, and within 48 hours I had written two or three songs. All three really blew, and I don't remember them. When I started playing in clubs/coffeehouses/restaurants etc. I needed to learn songs, and especially learn one four five relative minor in all 12 half-steps. (That's so if some drunk guy starts singing a song on his own, you can find the key and you probably know the chords -- and then, because you were able to play along with him, you can squeeze a tip out of his pocket -- but that's also a different story). To be successful, ya gotta know a lot of songs, or know how to figure them out under pressure - but writing your own stuff is a lot of fun, and adds a huge dimension to musicianship. Sorry 'bout rambling -
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