Your Biggest Songwriting Problem - Discuss

logic_user99 · Post by **logic_user99** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:01 pm

So, this is something that has been bugging me for forever-and-a-day. What do other people find is the biggest isse when they're writing their music? This has been spurred on by a thread on the Reaktor forum about "Do we have too much choice?".

For me, my song writing is really quite old-fashioned, which I can only ever see as a downfall. I'm trying to get into the whole dub-step/drum'n'bass arena, and the way that I write right now just isn't making the grade. There is too much melodic content in the way that I work. That might sound a spot daft, but think about it for a second. Listening to Boxcutter, or Burial, or Photek, or Logistics... do you ever hear massive of chord patterns, key changes etc etc? No, you don't! It's always one or two really good (or not so good) licks that are used in appropriate places to great effect.

For some reason, when writing, I just can't get this into my head... there's always a channel with some big EP chords (two or three progression changes at the least) and suitable bass-lines to complement.

This for me is the biggest problem on my musical plate at the moment.

How about you? What are your stumbling blocks, bugbears or niggles?

TITBAG · Post by **TITBAG** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:02 pm

IM A FUCKING RETARD

logic_user99 · Post by **logic_user99** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:02 pm

TITBAG wrote:IM A FUCKING RETARD

Objective as alway, TB!

furrybum · Post by **furrybum** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:18 pm

My main problem is lack of musical talant. I have ideas but no way to realise them. Should have learned an instrument. I'll sit at the computer with melodies, basslines and rhythms in my head but as soon as I look at the screen they disappear.......I also seem to get most of my inspiration whilst sitting in traffic!!! need to build live into my windscreen on some sort of HUD i think

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:41 pm

I have the same problem as you. I'm a total epic pad whore. Whenever I try to write something minimal it sounds too minimal to me and by that I mean the production isn't quite there. When writing in a minimal style (compared to epic emotional story telling) the production is key and the sounds breathe a lot more. You really have to focus on each individual sound and if you listen to a lot of the dance tracks in this style there isn't a whole lot going on other than slight variances, editing, and subtle effects changes. When I add elements and effects it's usually anything but subtle.

There's also the issue of being too close to your own music. I can often listen to my stuff and cringe while other people don't or aren't as critical as I am. I don't think I've ever released anything that I've gone "oh, that's perfect!"

Lastly, there's the problem of spending too much time on a song and the more you work on it the worse it becomes. Even with helpful advice one fix can lead to a bunch of other problems. Tighten up one sound and it starts punching holes in others.

I try to remind myself that it is extremely rare that a song is worked on by just 1 person through the whole process and yet that is what a lot of us are trying to do.

Other than those things I am completely thrilled with my music.

continuum · Post by **continuum** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:49 pm

Time.

Fitting in a full time job, looking after a gobby little kid and eating proper meals reduces my writing time to about 20mins a week.

It's very dispiriting when i have the ideas and the motivation.

poor me.

furrybum · Post by **furrybum** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:51 pm

also, this forum!!!

JDSampo · Post by **JDSampo** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:52 pm

This happens to me all the time: I tend to get a good bit going; verse, chorus, theme, something and then find myself sitting there thinking, "Well, that's a great 8-bar loop, now what?" It often seems like anything I come up with to follow it on sounds contrived or "not as good". I find I end up throwing these little snippets in the done pile and moving on to something else. Seems like I write 2 songs a year and about 300 8-bar loops...

And, as Continuum said, fitting music time around a full time job, family, etc. Perhaps I would get farther than the first 8 bar loop if I had time to write a second one.

--JD

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:56 pm

Finishing something.

blank · Post by **blank** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:07 pm

Simply to start

after the hardest part is to listen only to myself and not the 25 full bags of influences I have.

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:08 pm

The Dirty Dancing soundtrack has already been written. What else is there to write?

Overload....

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:18 pm

Finishing the track before I lose the inspirational feeling that started it. I can bust out a ton of work on a track in the first day or two, but might spend another month finishing it out cuz I get stuck in trying out different ideas cuz I lost the juice.

On my next project I'm going to try to separate the writing and mixing processes as much as possible. This way I can squeeze as much writing out, then do the more analytical work of mixing later. Of course, I'll have to do some basic EQ and compression to get it sounding decent enough, but I think this will help me out.

I also find it helpful to be working on more than one track at once. If I'm just not feeling one track, I can go work on another which usually spurs inspiration for the first track.

As for melody in electronic music, I like the idea that timbre and rhythm are the concentrated elements in electronic music. Meaning, you could have a synthesizer line playing just one note over and over, but the filter/FX manipulation makes a "melody" out of just one note. Apply ideas of melody/phrasing to the way a sound changes over time.

d*cease · Post by **d*cease** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:39 pm

i can safely say all of the above, at one point or another.

beats me wrote: there's the problem of spending too much time on a song and the more you work on it the worse it becomes. Even with helpful advice one fix can lead to a bunch of other problems. Tighten up one sound and it starts punching holes in others.

I try to remind myself that it is extremely rare that a song is worked on by just 1 person through the whole process and yet that is what a lot of us are trying to do.

Other than those things I am completely thrilled with my music.

and at this point, this comes into play just as much

hoffman2k wrote:...has already been written. What else is there to write?

so i don't feel like trying to release a song, or get anyone's opinion on my tunes. might do wonders for me, and i might actually be able to say i finished a track if i just asked for help. but that would require me to ask, and then let someone hear my tunes, which i have convinced myself no one wants to hear, or would like if they did hear it. my lyrical content would not agree with most people's tastes, so i don't even know where to begin.

so i just have fun with live, and learn as i go, maybe one day i could open a small studio, and record wanna be rappers for enuff money to support myself, and my gear jones. but i'd really like to be in a rockin band, making my own little diddy's in my free time

"hey, e'rybody gotta have a dream, right?"

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:39 pm

spending way to much time here.

stallos · Post by **stallos** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:44 pm

ma bird