For composing: could a crap sounding guitar be preferable to a good onr?

marxski

I can give input regarding my experience of working on tunes this past year after years of getting nothing really done. This was using an electric and Logic and a bunch of other kit.

i bought a half decent Eastman small bodied guitar and got used to that. I stepped away from the computer completely to write solely on the acoustic. I recorded songs as voice notes on my phone and sometimes got Mrs Marx to video the fretting hand of ideas in case I forgot the chord shapes. I found it easier to be self critical as hearing yourself back as a recording helps listen to the song  objectively - an iPhone is what it is and will tell you if it’s any good or not.

i also discovered a new tuning and more than half of the 20 or so ideas are in this tuning. Also I started using a capo. 

After this I started rehearsing with an experienced drummer using electric and tracked around 7 of the best ideas last autumn. Around 6 of so more will be tracked in April. A couple are remaining as acoustic. I binned some of the songs before recording as I didn’t think they were good enough and one that  was recorded I decided didn’t fit in with the others.

So to answer your question I wouldn’t get a cheaper guitar (but I know where you are coming from) just record your ideas rough and ready as voice notes and listen back. 

Worked for me anyway.

Rocker

I write the lyrics first and then try to come up with a melody that works.  This usually entails months of editing the lyrics and chord experiments (guitar and keyboard).  I nearly always have a 'work in progress' song somewhere.  

Musical_Mystery_Tour

Rocker said:

I write the lyrics first and then try to come up with a melody that works.  This usually entails months of editing the lyrics and chord experiments (guitar and keyboard).  I nearly always have a 'work in progress' song somewhere.  

Apparently that's what Sting does: He comes up with a decent title, often a familiar phrase, thinks what relates to that and then works from that starting point. The example he often quotes for that is 'Message in a bottle', where he thought of that as a title, then his thought process was: Who sends a message in a bottle? What for? Why? From where? etc. You can see that is often the case when you read his lyrics. Most people call that method 'working backwards'.

Smellyfingers

Thanks again for the very helpful comments.

I am not sure  if there are any people reading this thread who are actually able to make some living out of songwriting, but the conclusion/gist I seem to be getting: is that there is no set standard or ‘best’ way to compose or even find inspiration for a song on the guitar or elsewhere.  So quite unlike say plumbing in a boiler or even cooking a piece is steak. But please correct me if I’m wrong.

I think I will stick with my Yamaha solid wood for the time being for composition. its tone is quite neutral if not sterile compared with say an equivalent Furch or Martin.  But I guess basic standard notation sound is what Yamaha is known for.

 But I can now see a reason for buying a variety of other guitars -  just to check wether the chord arrangements work on them too - in fact this expedition sounds absolutely essential.