Basic Songwriting Tutorial

A short primer on one (my) method of songwriting.

Obviously there are other methods. This is basically how I figured it out way back when.

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posted by Doleful Creature (4 comments total)

This is great. I really like the conversational style and explanation of things you've got going on here.
posted by dubold at 4:52 AM on January 31

This is a really interesting and original idea. My own method is nothing like yours but really not that complicated, even if it tends to take place over a couple of weeks. It would be an interesting exercise to put it down like this.

Also, you TOTALLY don't sound like I imagined when speaking!
posted by unSane at 8:34 PM on January 31

Very neat! I do a reasonable amount of instrumental composition (if you can even call it that), and this is pretty much how I approach quick-turnaround "in-the-style-of" pieces. Sit down with the guitar or piano, bang on somebody else's tune for a little while, subvert it until it's something new. If I'm successful, it'll wind up as a new piece with the bones of one or more of the "source" pieces.

Of course, a lot of what makes it is arrangement, but that's another story entirely.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:02 AM on February 1

Thanks, I'm glad y'all enjoyed it! And unSane, I'm battling some wicked bad respiratory/cold/flu crud so my voice is much deeper than normal, which probably explains some of your dissonance there.

Oh and I should clarify, this is really only one method I use, and I probably don't use at as often as I used to. I do a lot with sheet music writing on my computer which is a completely different way of thinking about and writing music for me, the visual feedback of seeing the chords and the counterpoint lending to a more considered...design I suppose.

And then there's the other standby method of goofing around till I find a nice groove/beat/lick to jam on and then just keep building on that. There's a whole wealth of creative tools that I use, but this one (in the recording) was just simple enough and basic enough that I thought I would share it with the world.
posted by Doleful Creature at 8:14 AM on February 1