#1
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Tools?
What tools do you use for writing? Different guitars/instrument? Notebook?
Video of what you're doing? Where do you get your inspiration? Do you immediately recognize it? Where does the melody come from? I'm not that experienced at writing, though I have written a few songs- when I got back into playin at playin guitar I also started writing again- I use a wide spaced note book- I use different guitars depending on what sound I'm shooting for- my aim ain't always accurate, btw- when I get an idea I write it down almost immediately, or, at least asap- I found a long time ago if I wait I'll likely forget it- the songs I wrote, a long time ago, I just happen to remember them- I have a good long term memory, short term not so much |
#2
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Writing is so different for different people. I'm not a regular writer, nor aspiring to be. So my process is simple, and non-stimulated. I usually get ideas or inspiration while I'm practicing something unrelated, so I grab my small recorder (Zoom H1n) and capture the idea, then go back to practicing. It works well whether it's just an idea for lyrics, or a chord progression, melody, other… I harvest the ideas later and put them in a folder on my computer. |
#3
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I write -- a lot! (music and words)
How much is a lot? Around three-quarter million words, over 500 musical pieces in the past five years. Some might think you'll run out of ideas or good quality ones if you do that. I haven't found that to be true. Indulging those things for five years has lead to a bit of burn-out in the past few months for me, but it took that long and that much composing/writing to do that. Is every one a gem? Nope. The old joke about needing to kiss a lot of frogs comes to mind. In terms of musical composition I'll use a couple of gimmicks sometimes to work into ideas and then pieces: Deliberately try to work with a chord progression, rhythmic feel, or timbral area you've not used. Pick at random if you get lost in possible choices. Take a well known chord progression or song, and deliberately try to change one chord in a way that shakes it up. Listening to how that works may help you develop your own harmonic differences when composing from scratch. Compose an interesting melody over one chord. How can you give the impression of there being a chord progression with only your melody notes making the new harmonic colors. Here's a last one that is well worn with guitarists: try an alternate tuning. Many of your stale tricks won't work, and you'll need to explore or follow the tuning's new suggestions. Or here's one for lyric writing. Take a line or two from a song that pulls you in. Now, don't use the line or even some close approximation. "Transpose it" into something completely other, and use that as a seed for your lyric. What do you keep/use from the line? Well, the original line pulled you in, try to figure out what that element was there that attracted you and use it elsewise.
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----------------------------------- Creator of The Parlando Project Guitars: 20th Century Seagull S6-12, S6 Folk, Seagull M6; '00 Guild JF30-12, '01 Martin 00-15, '16 Martin 000-17, '07 Parkwood PW510, Epiphone Biscuit resonator, Merlin Dulcimer, and various electric guitars, basses.... |
#4
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I use GuitarPro.
Melody is tough. I all too often write "guitar-centric" stuff that tends to be overly repetitive. I usually start with a sequence of intervals, or single notes kind of "hook" and that inspires me, but I may try just creating single melody lines.
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Barry Sad Moments {Marianne Vedral cover}: My SoundCloud page Some steel strings, some nylon. |
#5
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I used to always write lyrics in a notebook. The past few years I stopped writing and started typing on my laptop. Much quicker and easier to rearrange. I also use my laptop internal mic to record the basic guitar rhythm with my vocals so that when I write I can refer to the basic track. Simple. Easy. Gets the job done.
Sometimes the idea might sit for a month but it's there when I want it, both audio and lyrically and it only takes seconds to do a quick and dirty recording. |
#6
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#7
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Inspiration: miracles appear in the strangest of places, fancy meeting you here-
2 songs I'm working on now is from a phrase I used on another message- it came to me while having coffee and cigarettes on my patio- which is where the inspiration for coffee and cigarettes came to me- The first link is a later effort than the second version, which is the original explaining the inspiration- An issue I have is staying with the latest effort- I have a saying, so many songs, so little time- I am constantly running across a song I want to learn so I dig into it until I've memorized it so I can ad lib when and where I want to- The 2 I've recently written are coming along pretty good- but, I get distracted wanting to play vs working at something- I appreciate the in put! |
#8
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Noodling on other guitars seems to help me come up with new stuff sometimes. As for the lyrics, I think stressful situations seem to trigger songwriting for me.
Back when I worked oilfield, any time I was stuck in a work camp for a prolonged time (almost a whole winter of 21 days on and 3 off at one point) I ended up writing songs like crazy. Right as Covid was getting ramped up I ended up working night shifts and there was no way I could even half learn the songs I was coming up with them so fast. Eventually a guy ends up looking at a setlist of 20 very negative songs and feels that maybe you're in a whole different sort of rut. |
#9
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I find that the best pieces/tunes/melodies come when I'm not thinking about writing anything at all. They mostly just manifest themselves while playing or experimenting in different tunings, keys or on different guitars. Some come fully formed but others I have to work at to find the rest of the tune. Rarely, some can take months, or even years, to resolve but usually the initial melody leads to the other parts pretty quickly. Phil
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Solo Fingerstyle CDs: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (2021) One Size Does Not Fit All (2018) I play Crosby, Emerald, Larrivée, Lowden, Rainsong & Tacoma guitars. Check out my Guitar Website. See guitar photos & info at my Guitars page. |
#10
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Looking back at the OP, I think it may have been aimed more at physical or software tools than my original answer about practical tricks or inspirations.
Two things I use: Little Plastic Keyboard. The one sitting next to me as I type this is an AKAI LPK25, but I've used others. It's about the size of a melodica, and costs $60 new when on sale. Now I compose parts for non-guitar and for non-string instruments, and while I use guitar midi interfaces too, for many things even the cheapest keyboard midi controller is a good thing to have handy. I'm not a real two-handed keyboard player anyway. The OP talked about, and this sub-forum is about, writing and creating parts. I think the guitar is undervalued for composing, but but but, when you're stuck in a rut or looking for a new idea switching over to the "alien" keyboard may bring out something. I should probably note, this is just a controller, you need to hook it to something to make sounds however. I also use an app on my Windows 10 computer called Guitarist Reference. If you explore altered tunings* it allows you to quickly click on what you're plucking and get a read out of the notes and often a guess at what chord names might be used for it. Yes, I know that some have conceptualized the fretboard or have developed their pitch sense so that this isn't necessary for standard tuning and probably for many common, slightly-altered tunings. I'm not that good, and when I start to work empirically with an odd tuning and need to talk to a keyboardist it's a lot slicker to have some sense of what "hey, that sounds neat" chord or cluster you've just found consists of. *It comes with 37 tunings pre-defined and custom tunings can be accommodated.
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----------------------------------- Creator of The Parlando Project Guitars: 20th Century Seagull S6-12, S6 Folk, Seagull M6; '00 Guild JF30-12, '01 Martin 00-15, '16 Martin 000-17, '07 Parkwood PW510, Epiphone Biscuit resonator, Merlin Dulcimer, and various electric guitars, basses.... |
#11
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Online rhyming dictionary and thesaurus. I used to use ones made out of dead trees back in the day, but online is even easier with search and link functionality.
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#12
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Yes, to the rhyming dictionary.
I am putting out a CD of my favorite original material, yet I do not think of myself as a songwriter. But when I noodle, sometimes music finds itself coming out of the soundhole. Some of these get honed and played enough that I write them down. Most of those acquire words at some point. When i come to wanting words, first I try to decide what kind of song this sounds like. Often that is all it takes to provide the inspiration and the words then almost write themselves. (And then they get re-written - extensively.) If I get stuck, I may just give up and start singing whatever comes out of my mouth. More than once this has led to the "right" subject and a start on the lyrics. When all is done and I don't find myself changing it further, I then put the words and music into the computer on my songbook. From there, it ends up on the iPad for potential performance.
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The Bard Rocks Fay OM Sinker Redwood/Tiger Myrtle Sexauer L00 Adk/Magnolia For Sale Hatcher Jumbo Bearclaw/"Bacon" Padauk Goodall Jumbo POC/flamed Mahogany Appollonio 12 POC/Myrtle MJ Franks Resonator, all Australian Blackwood Goodman J45 Lutz/fiddleback Mahogany Blackbird "Lucky 13" - carbon fiber '31 National Duolian + many other stringed instruments. |
#13
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Smartphone.
I only started using a smartphone a couple of years ago, but basic functionality can be a big plus for capturing song or tune ideas. I use the speech to text feature all the time when texting, so it's super easy to simply text myself with a lyric that I might think of. There's also a voice recorder memo feature, so if there's a melody to capture I simply sing or hum it and send it to myself as a text message. Once you get home and have some time it's easy to sit down with a small recorder and notebook to flush out your ideas further. |
#14
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Good idea! |
#15
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As far as process tools—I’m trying to reboot my songwriting after many years of near-dormancy, and I’ve been looking at a lot of books and websites. One book that I’ve really liked is Songwriting in Practice by Mark Simos. There’s nothing (or very little) in the book about artistic content — nothing about how to construct a melody or a lyric. It’s all about the practical, logistical side of things — how to organize your work so that it’s easy to be productive, keep track of what you’re doing, and access ideas quickly. I doubt that I’ll adopt his methods outright, but reading about them will help me find a system of my own.
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Martin HD-28 Eastman E10OM Guild D50 Martin D12X1AE LaPatrie CW Concert |