Writing Songs vs. Everything Else... your thoughts?

[JuanSOLO]

I know cats that spend more time and focus on making a patch than they do to write the song

I've been doing this for 2 years, as well as trying to build a seemless Live Set. However this is going to change before this month is over. I almost got it!

[starving student]

I know cats that spend more time and focus on making a patch than they do to write the song

I've been doing this for 2 years, as well as trying to build a seemless Live Set. However this is going to change before this month is over. I almost got it!

why did you go and do that now I have to admit that I've been doing it with simple drum sample layering wtf........ Your right it's high time we put a stop to these shenanigans !!! I'm starting to understand why some people like to do all of their composing on a piano and then just transfer the parts to their respective instrumentation when their done. so they can clear out all obstacles that get in the way of the writing process.shit I'm going to start trying that as well.

[UncleAge]

I don't see much difference in jamming to a loop and sitting down at a piano to write. Even at a piano a composer will often times loop whatever is leading up to the current changes in their head, if not playing it out with their hands. A lot of people write this way. A computer just gives us a different tool to leverage.

One down side to this, for me, is that I get easily distracted. So I've found that I am more likely to finish a song if I step away from the computer and try to write down on paper what it is I'm attempting to do. The scribble wouldn't make sense to most people but it's a sort of short hand that I have developed for myself over the years.

Another downside (for me) of loop jamming is that sometimes it will reinforce the mental block that I run into from time to time. What that leads to often times is a bit of same-ness (is that a word?) in my music. So what I have learned to do is stop the writing process, no matter what that process entails, as soon as I see that situation coming. I'll purposely listen to other genre's of music for some time to put my head in a different place. Or I'll stop all together. When I come back to it I generally find that I hear it in a much different fashion and I'll also hear more directions it can branch out in.

All of that to say that no matter what the process it can improve with a bit of self-discipline. It's the outcome that's important. And since we are all different in our thought processes we may all find different paths to a given outcome. I do think it's important for any artist of any medium to question themselves. If you're a musician/composer/producer can you step back from your own stuff and critique it? Can you see where your weak points may be?

For me it was harmonies. And once I started to understand a bit more how voices move and lead into each other my melodies had a better base to sit on. This in turn caused me to look into how I dealt with things rhythmically. Not just beats and such but the rhythm of the notes/scales/chords being played that added and released the tension in the music. That's where I find myself nowadays. Pushing myself to hear different things in a piece that may have started off as a 8 or 12 bar loop. And that is why I don't spend most of my time jamming to loops. It doesn't help me get to where I want to be. I do it. But I do it in moderation.

[deanc2000]

I don't think a song that only involved 1-2 measure repeating loop would work with the mainstream audience. This audience is used to some structure in songs, like verse/chorus/bridge kind of thing. If it's just a repeating loop, well it would probably work in a trance club (and personally I don't like trance music, or any music that repeats the same thing over and over again), but not on the radio.

D.

[JuanSOLO]

The structure that the "mainstream" is into, i.e Lil Wayne, Katy Perry, movies like Twilight??? That structure makes me wanna vomit.

[Nick the Zombie]

It's liberating to escape the ego of, "every song I slave over needs to be heard." Some songs are better off as stepping stones to new directions or solid material, or even examples of what not to do.

Well said. Not everything can be a masterpiece, nor does it need to be.