So, I was wondering, since we have so many musicians on the thread, how do you go about writing material? Are you the kind that sort of jams until you hear something you enjoy... do you plan chords and jot down random things in hope that they'll be useful someday...? I'm curious as to everyone's creative processes. This mostly because me and my roommates kind of randomly ended up jamming on our respective instruments (drum, guitar, and in my case, viola AND guitar) and pulled something together. So I was just curious.
I like to plan out what I'm going to play before I play it and then tweak what I'm playing as I'm playing it to add a little variation. I'm nowhere near good enough to just play something and remember it. I usually start off simple though.
A mixture really. My band get together to jam atleast once a week and if we like what we've come up with we try and make it into a song. But somtimes if someone has an idea we try and plan it out with a more structured style...even though it takes forever
And you're pretty damn good at that Well...I write songs...as U might know from writers cove...although my lyrics still need improving they are on what I would call the 'demo-song-basis'...And yah...My band and I we sorrta half plan half jam it
i seriously have no problem coming up with instrumentals .. i just play with my keyboard or guitar and build from there.. but lyrics is a bitch for me.. thats why my songs are lyrically empty =X
I can't write lyrics for shit, haha. But when it comes to an instrumental part, I'm really spontaneous. I can't just sit down with a guitar wanting to come up with something and have anything awesome come out. It's usually something I randomly hear in my head, which I think a lot of times is just my mind trying to recall a song by somebody else that I don't particularly remember very well, so what my brain comes up with sounds all different. I write everything on guitar first though, haven't been able to really start anything as a bass or keyboard part.
It really depends for me. With most bands myself and/or the other writers in the band get ideas from jamming and then working it out on our own, sharing the ideas and sometimes we can add to the song bit by bit. There was one project where we wrote three great originals by merely jamming for a few nights (and of the three members two of them are going to the same jazz program as I so that will be resurrected soon!). For most of my stuff though, especially my solo stuff, I usually just start playing my keyboard (sometimes guitar or bass) and then eventually an idea or chord progression will come and I'll try to tkae that as far as I can go. Most of my best writing is also past midnight hehe. But people do things differently, there's no "right way" to do it as you know.
For the most part with me, its all about jamming until something inspires me. Most of the time when I'm working on silly songs, I'll invite some friends over to help inspire me with some kind of crazy idea, then put that to music. As far as stuff with the band that I'm sort of in right now (a dub reggae kind of thing with an oboe player/guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer, along with myself on a second bass at rare moments and organs/pianos/synths), we just jam for a really long amount of time. Generally we'll just get together, start talking, and the drummer will start some kind of drum beat, and whenever we feel like coming in, we do. As far as my more serious solo work, lately I've been doing a lot of with just a simple drum machine, and jamming to that until I find an idea, then go back and record live drums and rerecord the best parts of the jam from listening to the original drum machine demo.
I like to get a drum beat going and just starting playing guitar until something strikes me. I'm not planning person, I think it ruins the creative process.
I do a lot of things to come up with stuff. Usually, I'll spend a couple of hours thinking something up when it comes to writing music down. I come up with a beat, simple or complex, and try it out on my drumset and see if it works. To start up with the actual music, I pick up a guitar, or a bass guitar, sit there for a while, playing random things until something sounds good. Then I edit it so that it goes with the beat. Since I have no recording material, I have to keep it all in my head as I go along. I get all the parts going, and then I get to the lyrics. I usally spend only a few minutes writing the lyrics up, and then I go through the scrapping process where I read it over, and if I don't like it, scrap it up, write it again with better usage but same concept, and keep doing so until I like it. I do use other methods. Sometimes I'll go the opposite way around, from lyrics to beat. Both are pretty simple methods, although I usually go about the lyrics to beat method. It seems to be easier for me. I love writing music, and I usually write something as often as I can. When it comes to the point where I get writer's block, though, I usually write instrumentals. But I can never get them recorded, which is the downfall to my efforts. But, hopefully, I'll get some equipment soon and get this stuff recorded, and get it out to the world.
I usually just jam my ass off until something good comes of it, and then I do a math-metal like solo for it.
I'm really a mixture of both. What I love to do is write lyrics. I probably have about 500 songs written in entirety(with music to them, as well), and I just select the ones that I like best. Lyrics are what I enjoy the most about the music. I love to share thoughts through the writing, even if most people who read my writing don't know exactly what I'm talking about.
The best songs are made up when you're doing everyday things. And then when you go to write them down, I always forget.