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  #16  
Old 09-07-2018, 02:50 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Originally Posted by Johnny K View Post
I bought a CD from a band, Karma To Burn, that does metal instrumentals and they dont name their songs.
I'm with Silly Moustache here. If it's instrumental it's not a "song". A song is something you "sing".

Obviously, you can take a song and play it as an instrumental. And you could (maybe) take an instrumental and sing its melodic line (assuming it has one). But unless - or until - someone is singing it, it's not a "song".

Yeah, pedants rule, OK!
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  #17  
Old 09-07-2018, 02:52 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Originally Posted by mr. beaumont View Post
For instrumentals, I really like to think about where I was, what I was feeling, what was going on around me as I composed...
Yes. One of mine was called "Six Minutes in June", because that's exactly how long it took, and when. (It was "composed" on the spot.)
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  #18  
Old 09-07-2018, 08:29 AM
Brent Hahn Brent Hahn is offline
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Yes. One of mine was called "Six Minutes in June", because that's exactly how long it took, and when. (It was "composed" on the spot.)
By that criterion, I should've named my kid "Fifteen Seconds."
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  #19  
Old 09-07-2018, 09:09 AM
philjs philjs is offline
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For instrumentals, which is all I do, it can be hard to come up with a name, other times it's dead easy...a lot of mine are named by current events at the time of writing (e.g. Hillary Got Trumped or Moncton) or the feeling/invoked image (e.g. My Father's Hands or Elfin Flight) or circumstances (Counting Sheep was written during prolonged bout with insomnia, Deep in the Night after coming home late one night and just being mesmerized while playing my baritone).

And while a song has lyrics (so I must write tunes or pieces, perhaps sonatas or a little nachtmusik?), I sometimes find that a melody can suggest words even if you don't sing. One called Party Girl has a catchy bit where I want to sing (but be glad I don't) "no matter what, she's a party girl." Another sounds to me like "something something world peace" but it's such a trite piece that I called it Whirled Peas

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  #20  
Old 09-07-2018, 10:14 AM
Chipotle Chipotle is offline
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Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
Yes. One of mine was called "Six Minutes in June", because that's exactly how long it took, and when. (It was "composed" on the spot.)
Similar story... was working on a new song, we had a gig in two days but the lyrics weren't quite finished and it didn't have a title. So I used that as inspiration, added a line that included the words "Two Days" and that also became the title.
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  #21  
Old 09-07-2018, 11:31 AM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
I'm with Silly Moustache here. If it's instrumental it's not a "song". A song is something you "sing".

Obviously, you can take a song and play it as an instrumental. And you could (maybe) take an instrumental and sing its melodic line (assuming it has one). But unless - or until - someone is singing it, it's not a "song".

Yeah, pedants rule, OK!
Hi, just to say that they might be considered "old fashioned" but there have been recognised musical terms for instrumentals for a few hundred years - etudes, sonatas, Partitas, Impromptus, etc.
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  #22  
Old 09-07-2018, 11:41 AM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is offline
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Default But back to the OP's question...

... I've been thinking about pieces that I've composed over the years and I think that circumstances or non musical thoughts have given me most of my ideas, and so have become the titles.

This came about after reading a chapter in a Robert James Waller book - maybe it was Border Music, or Last Waltz in Cedar Bend.



This one was when I was thinking about Isa , a lovely Mexican American wife of a very good Texan pal of mine after she had phoned me to tell me of his death.



and this one is a version (impromtu?) of a David Grisman piece:

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  #23  
Old 09-07-2018, 01:00 PM
jaymarsch jaymarsch is offline
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For me, even if it is an instrumental, it has it’s beginnings in something emotional that I want to express through the melody and groove so the title usually comes from that.

Best,
Jayne
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  #24  
Old 09-07-2018, 08:19 PM
DupleMeter DupleMeter is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman View Post
Random words picked out of a hat? Your mood at the time of completion? Initial inspiration? Family member suggestions?

What's your method?
Sometimes it's a great phrase that strikes me as being able to tell a story, and it can come from something I read or something someone said to just something that pops into my head.

Sometimes I pull it after the fact from already written lyrics.

A long time ago, my dad bought me a 4-track for Christmas. I was in high school at the time. my friend & I were intent on recording songs...so we wrote & recorded a song each day of the Christmas break. Because we didn't even know what we wanted to write I took to opening magazines and reading the first few words of paragraphs to see if anything struck me as a title that we could develop into a song. That produced song titles like:

Almost From The Start
Would You Like To Give It All Away
Everyone Come Out And Play
Come Morning
One Day

I look back at that & realize what a great writing exercise that was. Taking a title that you feel tells a story & filling in all the details of that story.

Another true story: my college roommate & I were sitting in our room. I jumped up & headed out the door. He said "hey! where are you going". I replied "Sometimes I have to go to the bathroom!". By the time I had come back I had already set that title to music and knew we had to write that. Mostly because thought it would be funny. In any event, we wrote "Sometimes I Have To Go To The Bathroom". And since we were at a prestigious music school, we put the chorus in 5/4 in a feeble attempt to legitimize such a ridiculous title

Most of the time, these days I choose a word or phrase that encapsulates what I'm saying & can be used to push the story. I can hear my lyric writing teacher from college saying "the title should embody the most important lyric & idea of your song".

HTH
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  #25  
Old 09-07-2018, 08:22 PM
DupleMeter DupleMeter is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Silly Moustache View Post
Hi, just to say that they might be considered "old fashioned" but there have been recognised musical terms for instrumentals for a few hundred years - etudes, sonatas, Partitas, Impromptus, etc.
Or you can just call them "pieces". But, yes, "songs" are sung & have lyrics.
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  #26  
Old 09-07-2018, 09:41 PM
DCCougar DCCougar is offline
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Probably been used before, but Leaving L.A. is a pretty frenetic instrumental. It's like, "I'm gettin' out!" Through crazy traffic, of course.

But then there's Sweet Sixteen, a much, well, sweeter instrumental....

But yeah, songs often pick a couple key words or a phrase out of the lyrics.
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  #27  
Old 09-07-2018, 09:45 PM
DCCougar DCCougar is offline
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I'm old fashioned, I guess, especially with language, but I decidedly dislike the trend of using cellphone text-type abbreviations, like "4 u." Ick. Spell it out!
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  #28  
Old 09-09-2018, 10:33 PM
PHJim PHJim is offline
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I often wonder how some fiddle tunes got their names. (and some of these I don't want to know.) These are all real tunes.

I Won't Be A Nun
The Burnt Old Man
Madam, I'd Like To Be Tossing Your Hay
Good Morning to Your Nightcap
The Cow That Ate the Blanket
I Buried My Wife and Danced On Her Grave
Fasten The Leg In Her
Touch Me If You Dare
Banshee’s Wail Over the Mangle Pit
The Seanamhac Tube Station
Lost in the Loop
Wallop Away the Wattle, O!
Shove The Pig’s Foot A Little Closer To The Fire
**** Up Your Beaver, Johnny
When She Cam Ben She Bobbit
Come Under My Dimity
Kitty Got A Clinking Coming To The Fair
You Married My Daughter, Yet You Didn't
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  #29  
Old 09-09-2018, 11:40 PM
stanron stanron is offline
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Hi PHJim. Check my favourite method in post #6. I have no doubts about 'Good Morning To Your Nightcap'.
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  #30  
Old 09-10-2018, 08:44 PM
PHJim PHJim is offline
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Hi Stanron,

Your post reminded me of a song by Ian Bell of the Friends Of Fiddlers' Green called Rachel Rae. It uses many titles of fiddle tunes as lyrics,

Rachel Rae and Davey Taylor,
Miss McCleod and John McNeil,
You must have cut a fancy figure
Somebody made you a d*** fine reel.


And we never met but I know your name
And I call it out across the floor
Whenever we come to scrape the strings
And turn the old tunes loose once more.


After each verse, one of the fiddle tunes mentioned in the song is played.

He wonders if some time down the road from a faded page in a dusty book some musicians will Play a song that someone made for me.
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