how do you write songs?

[frankenstein]

just curious as to peoples' methods of songwriting...
generally, do you craft your tunes over a period of days/weeks/months...are you motivated to write by stress, anger, love, happiness, sadness, current events, individual people, the simple things in life, all/none of the above?
do you sit down with an idea of what kind of song you want to write, or do you just take it as it comes?
is there a particular 'lube' for your song writing, be it the time of day, a particular place, a particular intoxicant, an emotional stimulus, the sound of your guitar?
can you just write a song whenever you feel like it?
ok, i think that's everything...
personally, i have no control over writing songs, lyrically speaking...i have all sorts of chord progressions and little ditties that i've come up with, but have not found lyrics for...generally, i write a song in one violent burst, and tune it up over time...but usually not much from the initial excretion...
...i wish i could write songs about simple things, like i could look at a car driving by and take it from there, but it doesn't seem to work that way with me...but i try to keep an open mind and observe the world around me, and i suppose my process from observation to song is not as fast or frequent as i wish it was...a bottle of wine usually helps :-)
anyway, how about everyone else?

[steverok]

I usually have a few riffs lying around. Often, some fit together to form a good song. I usually develop high-voltage rock riffs on high-voltage rock guitars, and folky jangly riffs on folky jangly guitars. When it's time to write lyrics, I wait for the right moment of inspiration, and just write them down, usually without any further editing or refinement. They are usually inspired by some sort of feeling or conflict I am going through. I am a drummer, so my songs already have a beat and a dynamic in mind, from the very beginning. When I go to record them, the rhythm section and song structure is secure and locked down. They end up sounding tight, thought-out, and well-arranged. It works for me, although I don't know if and when I'll be able to do it again. Sometimes, I feel like I just got lucky, or that I was helped by forces beyond my control. I often listen to some of my songs, and think to myself "how did I do that" ?

[rmyAddison]

I write songs by "noodling", everytime I play my guitar I practice some, play my songs some, then fool around with chords and progressions. IF I like something new I tape it so it doesn't "disappear" from my old brain and work it into verses, chorus, intro, maybe a bridge, then if I still like it work on the words.

Taping/recording is critical to me, I have lost many ideas over the years assuming I will remember something from the night before and it's gone.
Good luck, there are probably a million different ways to get "inspiration".

[Guyute]

I've recently been working on a new method (since my old method of sitting around waiting for bolts from the blue wasn't very productive ). I read an interview with Billy Bragg several months back in AG magazine and he suggested using other songs as templates to write lyrics, then changing the chord progression and melody later on.

So, I've been trying this method and I've found that it works pretty well, actually. You just have to be sure to change the tune pretty significantly. After 8 years without any originals, I've written a couple in the last week and while they're not ready for their debut by any stretch of the imagination, they're definitely songs and that's better than what I had been doing previously!

[jaeger29]

I have a notebook. Into this notebook, I jot a topic at the top of each page when it hits me. This is good for brain-dumping (often while driving home or during lunch). Then, when I have time, I go back and start to flesh out the topic with some lines, ideas, and key concepts around what the song will be. Next, I start writing from those ideas (sometimes right away, sometimes days later). That's when I'll start singing melodies around the songs and tweak as necessary. Once I have a melody, I'll piece some chords together -- sometimes using riffs/structures I've come up with (and recorded/written down) when noodling. BAM! Song! Obviously, some topics "write themselves" faster than others, so I have lots of mostly blank pages. The good thing though, is that I have it all in one place, so if an idea doesn't go too far, I can usually build off it and turn it into a different topic/idea.

I also do what Guyute mentioned above... Take a song and "rewrite it". I'll even take a song I like and boil it down to a one line topic for my notebook, then see what angle I can take.

[FutureFolkie]

I used to write tons of crappy songs when i was into Pop Punk. i threw them all away.

now that im into real music, I have done the "base the song on another song". i like that one. I also just keep a notebook by my bed, since most of my ideas come to me at night. I like to write songs about things i know. specifically songs to share a feeling rather than a story.

i just wrote one about day dreaming (my biggest hobby) and i will post it on here to get some critique later today.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by rmyAddison

I write songs by "noodling", everytime I play my guitar I practice some, play my songs some, then fool around with chords and progressions. IF I like something new I tape it so it doesn't "disappear" from my old brain and work it into verses, chorus, intro, maybe a bridge, then if I still like it work on the words.

Taping/recording is critical to me, I have lost many ideas over the years assuming I will remember something from the night before and it's gone.
Good luck, there are probably a million different ways to get "inspiration".

Exactly the same deal with me, but I call it "doodling." Also sometimes I'll take a short chord change that is giving me a problem and turn it into a song.

[sharkydude50]

I just wrote and finished a song for a girl I met a month ago. She was my muse- she inspired me to write about her & how I felt. I wrote all the lyrics before I had a melody in mind. I find it really challenging to put music to words or vis versa almost all the time. It usually takes something pretty inspiring for me to work the two (lyrics & melody) together, but it has always been worth the effort. I wound up using a melody I had already worked out and then matched the new lyrics to it. Came out well and she really liked the song- her song!

Here's the lyrics-

Run Run Roni

Let’s take it slow
Not move too fast
Creating a friendship
One that lasts
There’s enough time
To live and laugh
All sweet things
Within our grasp

Chorus

Please don't you run run Roni
From the possibilities
Why not just run run Roni
Straight into me?

You’re a little scared girl
Well, I’m scared too
That happens easily
With someone new
To share yourself
To expose your heart
To take a risk
But ya gotta start…

Chorus

Simplistic beauty
The touch of your hand
Brings out the best
In this lonely man
Emotional chaos
I can’t quite understand
Are you able to tell me
The way or the plan?

Chorus

Thoughts of you
Keep filling my mind
Ever present
All of the time
The places we’ll go and
The things that we’ll do
Adventures abounding
For me and for you

There’s no need to run run Roni
From the possibilities
You’ll find peace and contentment
Right where you should be

All those pretenders
Who trespassed in your life
Never knew what to do
How to treat you right Roni
But I’m not like them oh no baby
I’m the chivalrous type
You’ll have the freedom Roni
To stretch your wings and take flight

[Chicago Sandy]

Originally Posted by frankenstein

do you craft your tunes over a period of days/weeks/months...are you motivated to write by stress, anger, love, happiness, sadness, current events, individual people, the simple things in life, all/none of the above?
do you sit down with an idea of what kind of song you want to write, or do you just take it as it comes?
is there a particular 'lube' for your song writing, be it the time of day, a particular place, a particular intoxicant, an emotional stimulus, the sound of your guitar?
can you just write a song whenever you feel like it?

Yes.

To elaborate, any and all of the above. Sometimes songs take years to write, others pop into my head from a turn of phrase I've just heard--the phrase dictates the rhythm and melody and within minutes I've got the whole chorus; it's a little tougher to consciously write "about" something, though songwriting class assignments helped with the discipline of writing under pressure on a deadline. I usually write in my head first and work out the chords later, but sometimes noodling a guitar riff suggests words that might go with it. Usually, the guitar intro is the last thing to get written.

[Chicago Sandy]

Originally Posted by jaeger29

I also do what Guyute mentioned above... Take a song and "rewrite it". I'll even take a song I like and boil it down to a one line topic for my notebook, then see what angle I can take.

"Ink and Pen" started out as the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" ("I bought a pen today, oh, boy" morphed into "I bought a brand-new pen today" and acquired a different melody, chord progression, tempo and genre).

[fitness1]

when I saw the title of the thread, I couldn't help myself. I saw Larry Gatlin asked that question once and in his typical arrogant way he quickly responded "pretty da*n good!"


my best songs have always come out of highs or lows in my emotional state. Some come in a flash and some take a long time as noted above. One time a few years back, I sat up in bed at about 3:45 am and had a song come to me in a very short time.....it was written for my Dad just in time for father's day. Another time I was inspired at a tennis match by the grace of one of the players (a local girl who had made it to the quarters at Wimbledon a few years before) I guess the key is to be open to the inspiration...you never know when it will hit, and you also need to be prepared to get some of it down, because if you wait, I can almost guarantee it will go away as quick as it came.....

[LindaW]

I am a bit of a 'bolt from the blue' girl. One song came to me after a friend told me about going down to his pool to turn off some heaters after a Sabbath service and seeing one floating candle still lit. He had been thinking about how much his (deceased) father would have liked the service and said he just knew the candle was a sign that his father was there. That song literally wrote itself. It's short, sweet and meaningful. The latest song is about my husband and our difficulties. Boy it's true that it's easier to write about heartache then happiness! I wrote the bridge and chorus first and was really stuck on the verses. Inspiration hit about about 1:30 in the AM and by 1:45 they were written. By 2:30 AM they had music to them and the first run was recorded so I didn't forget.

What helps sometimes though is to keep a little notebook in my purse to write down lines I like and digital tape recorder to hum tunes into. Inspiration seems to hit for me in the car of all places -- have you ever tried to write or record into a digital tape player and drive a Hummer? Thank Goodness for stoplights and parking lots! Of course my playing is very simple right now, strumming, no real fingerpicking (I'm learning -- almost have Break Me by Jewel down pat) but progress is progress, right? I don't let simplicity stop me. Jewel wrote "Who Will Save Your Soul" on a street corner, playing the only four chords she knew repeatedly, making up verses based on what she saw. She's always said she didn't let her poor skills get in the way of her creativity and let them grow together. Sounds good to me!

[frankenstein]

interesting to read everyone's replies...thanks...
i wrote two half-songs last night and will reapproach them in the next day or two to hopefully finish them up...going back with fresh eyes does seem to help when i don't get a whole song out in one session...hope i can still read my chicken scratch lyrics once i go back...

[Chicago Sandy]

OK, going off on a tangent here: how many of you co-write, and if so, how regularly? Any advice on how to do this productively (as opposed to co-staring)? I have exactly ONE co-written song, and I'd love to do more.

[bobc]

Originally Posted by Chicago Sandy

OK, going off on a tangent here: how many of you co-write, and if so, how regularly? Any advice on how to do this productively (as opposed to co-staring)? I have exactly ONE co-written song, and I'd love to do more.

By co-write, do you mean someone writing the words, and someone else writing the guiutar parts for example?... or do you mean... more than one person writing the words?