listen to the radio and hear the lowest common denominator
Fixed that for ya whiteaxxe
But yes, melody is everything... at least if we're talking about conveying a musical feel and idea to non-musicians. Chords, scales, modes and time sigs will all trigger different subconscious responses in a listener. A good melody... that's pushing the emotional buttons.
Write the suckers early on, preferably as soon as the chords start to take shape, but certainly before you've listened to the riff (or whatever) so many times that this has become the melody associated with the song in your head, and you just can't think of it any other way. I once knew a duo whose vocal lines just followed the root notes of the chords exactly. They did not prosper.
Don't get hung up on lyrics. Sing the vowel sounds that seem fitting, and then write the words to accomodate those sounds. Make the words serve the music, and not vice versa.
If you're really stuck for inspiration, put a movie on in the other room, and wait for the score to start clashing with your song in interesting and unexpected ways.
If you are a guitarist, record random notes from a keyboard. Snap to the scale. Better still, don't snap to the scale. Steal the best bits.
If you are a keyboard player, buy a trumpet or something.
If you're still stuck, collaborate. Fresh ears are best for fresh ideas.
But really, to create great vocal lines, you must relax, switch off your ego, and let your subconcious take over and your spirit soar.
And that's what magic is.
Last edited by Fex; 12-21-2014 at 01:54 AM.
Reason: yes.
It is about as much magic as many other human skills, like playing guitar, arranging a song, detecting bullshit, and doing science. That is, it requires a big foundation of work and education and practice, and then, when there is magic, you can say it is just magical!
It is about as much magic as many other human skills, like playing guitar, arranging a song, detecting bullshit, and doing science. That is, it requires a big foundation of work and education and practice, and then, when there is magic, you can say it is just magical!
Thats the long and short of it
__________________
it aint worth a bop,if it dont got that pop
For me the magic is when the lyrics and the instrumentation make sense together. This happens so rarely for me.
My biggest problem is that the lyrics are usually written with a melody instantly given to them, which never leaves my head. For this I should be fortunate. Except that, when I jam stuff on guitar and create guitar songs, no lyrics ever come to go over top and it never works to try to shove existing lyrics onto it.
I have a dual-personality in songwriting, my lyrics-first songs don't sound anything like my guitar-first songs. Marrying the two has been really hard.
I have a dual-personality in songwriting, my lyrics-first songs don't sound anything like my guitar-first songs. Marrying the two has been really hard.
I hear that, and can relate to that. I wonder if part of the solution is to rely more on YOUR own style and judgment, and not relying on what other expect, or what the genre prescribes. Let your music and words be your music and words.
I have a dual-personality in songwriting, my lyrics-first songs don't sound anything like my guitar-first songs. Marrying the two has been really hard.
May I ask a question about the above? Is your guitar stuff riff oriented? If so, that might be part of the problem. Not that you'll care but even great riffs have underlying chords. I only offer that because if this is the case, you can fix that problem by coming up with chords/melodies then finding riffs for those or the opposite, find the underlying chords for the riff, ditch the riff while you work on melody/lyric than add the riff back. I've always found it incredibly difficult to write a riff/melody/lyric. Much better to find a chord/melody combo and riff it out later. YMMV
__________________ Music is what feelings sound like.
singer of goo goo dolls talking about writing his biggest hit song iris stating in this interview that people were saying to him do it again, write another one like this but he states simply "i don't know how to do it again", he's really honest
We take it for granted that big artists will come up with a hit one after the other. If they did it once, they will probably will do it again, but is this always the case? not sure.
We take it for granted that big artists will come up with a hit one after the other. If they did it once, they will probably will do it again, but is this always the case? not sure.
There have been many, many one-hit wonders, big stars for fifteen minutes.
One of the more popular of my tunes (not my favourite, but one of the best, I guess) I wrote by trying to play something I couldn't play, then by writing it into the sort of chord progression that I wouldn't write, using the chords that I would use, but in a way that I wouldn't use them....
Well, I don't see how I can ever do that again.
I have dreamt other good tunes. I have little control over that sort of thing.