I spent some time earlier trying to come up with some new ideas for stuff today but found it really hard. Basically I had nothing to say, nothing I wanted to convey, music or words wise. Anybody got any tips for finding what you want to write about? Seems hard to come up with stuff you can feel strongly about if you're starting from such a mind blank
Feedback from my last stuff was very indifferent and my family simply said it sounded depressed, which I think was for two reasons - 1) that's what my voice sounds like and 2) because that's all I have to write about. I just want to write stuff I can like and believe in but I'm finding it too hard, I don't mind stuff being difficult but as I have no other outlet it's very frustrating.
I find it easier to pretend what I'm trying to put across in classical as that's all about just imitating what everybody else does, but finding it too difficult and disheartening with guitar based stuff
Thanks
Comments
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
I have a notebook to try and write things in when I hear something that sounds poetic or sticks in my head. Not easy to do
I’ve been Patreon-ing Mike Doughty and he seems to work with patterns of sound and then finds words to fit, seems to work for him.
Edit - that’s on the lyric / melody side of course. Though to be honest I do similar for musical phrases. I record everything now on a zoom if I have a musical idea or riff then review from time to time to see if I can stitch anything together.
But don't write a song about a bloody umbrella, ella, ella as you'll sound retarded.
Come up with a phrase and work it into a good hook before writing the rest of the song around it, as mentioned above.
Use a film or news story as inspiration. I wrote a song that went down great with audiences a few years ago based Loosely on the film Almost Famous. I took Penny’s story and tried to tell it through the song.
Or. The most expensive element of songwriting. Is buying a guitar and playing it. I’m a firm
believer that different guitars have different stories. Not in the sense that I’m some kind of guitar whisper but in the sense that they can inspire you to play in different ways!
The Elvis Costello song, Coal Train Robberies, was prompted by a television documentary about South Wales families struggling financially after the 1984-5 Miners' Strike. Some of the lyric narrative exactly matched the television programme content.
Perhaps I asked the wrong question, perhaps instead I should ask how to learn to pretend other people's views/reactions/feelings in guitar music, the same way I can in classical! However sadly I know the answer to that and how many hours it took that simply don't exist any more.
Not to worry
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
and
b) if the story doesn’t come, walk away and write it another day.
I often find I can’t write when I feel I aught to or want to. Equally when it flows I find I’m laughing at the lyrics because they flow too easily and fit a niche I’m not expecting or trying to hit.
The big thing with writing is being willing (and able) to re-draft and to bin the chaff. Do this and eventually you’ll have lines you’re happy with -just be prepared for it to take time.
I also struggle with the notion that almost everything I write could end up sounding contrived, which is a big part of why I've sort of gone off lyrical stuff (both my own and others) in general.
If the melody is catchy enough you can sing oohs , ahhs and na na na's and it won't matter one bit
Who cares if it's "depressing"? So much great music is, so I don't know why that kind of feedback would make you do anything different. People who know you well, especially non-creatives, can't separate the personality they know from the art to look at things objectively.
All you can do is write about things that inspire you. If you're not inspired, don't write, Or, just noodle around and maybe you'll hit on something that surprises you.
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
A lot of rock/ pop songwriting is a melody improvised over music and then words found to fit. The famous illustration of this being The Beatles’ Scrambled Eggs.
The function of a lyric isn't to read well it's to sing well within the context of it's song. Wether that's Led Zep or Rhianna or ( something 21st century) people aren't interested in or simply won't get literal meanings. It's not musical theatre ( dahling).
The OP feels he has nothing to say and lots of songs can be great but say very little ( I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm horny) - it feels like he is getting stuck on something that wouldn't necessarily prevent him writing, just prevents him writing a certain kind of song. Or: free your mind and your ass will follow.
As Matt is ( and I don't think I'm exaggerating here ) a big Jack White fan I read a couple of things online about Jack and songwriting. He was non specific regarding process but he seems to split into a slightly more cerebral process of writing songs with others and for others and had a very time limited, spur of the moment type approach with The White Stripes. He talked about the need for constraints and being spontaneous within set times ( if that's not an oxymoron). I don't think he would worry about it he'd just do it.
I think my favourite person talking about songwriting is Lionel Ritchie who simply hears a completed song on God's radio and it's his job is to transcribe it. I wasn't sure that was going to help much here though.
I'd love to write good lyrics, whether depressing or not, but that's not the aim as such as I'm no wordsmith by any stretch (though used to be better with practice, as with everything really). But it's not about that as such, it's about writing as a whole to reach something I can believe enough in to give a better performance when I record it. That goes for the music as much as (if not more than) the words.
I think maybe as ever the problem is with me not believing in anything enough, or not being passionate about anything enough to believe in what I'm performing. Hence why my classical piano playing is basically imitation of what I like by other people.
I did want to go off grid and doing instrumental based stuff that nobody else would ever hear, but the problem with that is that I'm not technically apt enough to be able to play stuff like that and make it interesting. My strength is in piano, not guitar or singing but I've no interest in writing classical at this stage in life, I can do that when I'm old!
I guess nobody can really give me the shove except myself. Just want to give myself a chance of writing stuff I could be proud of
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Let go of your trained pianist mindset. Instead, break the musical content of your song ideas down into rhythm (drum patterns), chord changes and melody.
With respect, this is a self-confidence issue.
Perhaps, you would benefit from collaborating with another composer/musician? Hopefully, that other contributor will spot potential in your initial sketchy ideas where you might reject them out of hand.
The obvious analogy here is comedy writing partnerships. If both contributors laugh at a gag, it stays in the script.