Hi All,
Having just handed in my Masters degree assignments for this year, I have a little extra time (all I have to do now is work, look after a 3 year old and learn about photography!). I have a load of half written lyrics lying around and want to write some songs with just my acoustic guitar and me - I don't have enough time for a full production!
So, how do I write decent acoustic songs that are not too dull? I can sometimes come up with chord progressions, but I'm not great at singing anything interesting over the top of them. How can I pep up my chord progressions and sing interesting melodies? Are there any tried and trusted methods? I'm a big KT Tunstall fan, so her stuff provides inspiration but I have no idea how to translate that to my songs. Any tips, links, resources, words of encouragement
Cheers
Clare
PS. I DO NOT want to write Ed Sheeran type songs
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Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
welcome back Clare_Bear ...
Try a chord progression you found somewhere else, and like, but tweak it. Elongate or shorten the number of beats on one chord and do the opposite on another. Substitute chords. Muck about with key changes.
Hopefully if you read your lyrics out loud they will suggest some kind of rhythm. Match the phrasing of your harmonic movements to the phrasing of your lyrical statements. Find notes for the syllables of your lyrical statements which mainly come from the chords you're playing, experiment with suspensions & passing notes.
congrats on finishing the Masters
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
Something else that may help is to get a small audio recorder. Get a really simple one that just records audio. I use a a Tascam. When either a vocal or guitar idea comes into your head, record it so you don't forget it. Later, go back over recorded ideas and see if anything can be used as a springboard to develop a song.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
Start here .. ;-)
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
In doing this, don't try to create a song, just twiddle about and see what happens. Then you can listen back and pick and choose things you like the sound of. I used to find this would inspire many more songs and ideas.
Lastly, it'll probably lead you to not writing songs with a boring strummy rhythm like many people end up doing, which is better also in my book!
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Don't think about it too much, try to empathise with the emotional content of the lyric. Just try to trance out a little and 'feel' the chords and listen, see if any melodies pop out of them. It's amazing how different the same chord can sound when projecting an emotion on to it through the lyric.
Don't get too precious about it and 'write for the bin' Most of the best songs were written really quickly.
Also, three-year-olds love 'em!