Apr 17, 2008 07:15 am man i have been like that for a while now, ican write good riffs and even half a song but am getting writers blocks i think, even with the lyrics.
gotta push thru it though.
brick wall
Posted on Apr 17, 2008 07:09 am
JDOD
Brother Number One
Member Since: Jan 22, 2008
Since the first (and last) song I posted on here I've been stumped.
Does anyone else end up with really good introductions to songs and then just get totally stuck? I really want to get this one finished and post it up cos I like the intro but I'm stuck
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Apr 17, 2008 07:15 am man i have been like that for a while now, ican write good riffs and even half a song but am getting writers blocks i think, even with the lyrics.
gotta push thru it though.
Apr 17, 2008 07:37 am Yeah I know. Before I got the TonePort and recording gear and was constandly coming up with riffs thinking to myself, "wow, thats wicked, I'll record that"
Got my gear, came up with one song and, then that was it. Where did all the riffs go that I was coming up with before hand? Gggrrrr, frustrating.
Apr 17, 2008 08:31 am I have about 200 awesome riffs and about 10 actual songs...it sucks...
Apr 17, 2008 11:55 am I tend to have the opposite problem. I have a fairly steady output of chord progressions and lyrics and melodies, but I get stuck with arrangements and intros and bridges, etc. once I've finished writing a song. I used to rely on my bandmates for arrangement ideas, but they're not too interested in my songs lately (understandably so).
Apr 17, 2008 12:19 pm I have that problem often. I just move on to the next one.
Recently, the one I moved on to actually fit perfectly with the intro\riff I was stuck on.
So now, two broken riffs made a song.
p.s. I thought this post was gonna be about limiting :)
Apr 17, 2008 01:09 pm This is the great thing about being in a writing team like myself. Our guitarist will come up with riffs/ideas etc and I'll usually push them into a different direction of sorts and build on it. It really helps to have someone to bounce ideas off of when creating.... at least for us it seems to work.
Apr 17, 2008 01:11 pm I know what you mean. I used to just jack it in and start something else. I've done that a lot in the past but its kind of wasteful no? I'll think of something. I think part of the problem is that I haven't got the time I did a month or so ago.
Apr 17, 2008 09:04 pm JDOD, that is one thing that hits me as well. I'm like dB. I have thousands of riffs and little bits and pieces recorded and never got around to finishing them or arranging them to make a few decent tunes out of the stuff.
I do however find that turning away from the piece and going for a drive and listening to something completely un-related to the music I was writing helps at times to finish a piece that I get stuck on.
Apr 18, 2008 09:02 am try writing lyrics and putting them to the music,melody etc.
once you learn that it should go on from there.
especaily if you can record the vox with the music, after you heard it a few times it will become easier to think about what wil fit next.
having lotsa riffs is good but its what ties em in that makes the song, key changes, tempo whatever.
i dont write songs around spunout riffs anymore, i feel it can sometimes back you into a corner.
write the song like a compositon, forget anyone thing in particular and vizualize where you want it to go and feel.
clever key changes with the right tempo or beat change in the right spot is the way i look at things, i make sure i milk the previous progression just enough before pickin the right key change or beat change.
for me i always write with the vox in mind, then it doesnt sound like just whole bunch of guitar bits played with singing over it.
and last but not least, use tie ins as much as pos. with key changes instead of just abrubtly changing from one riff to another, make the whole thing a composition dynamicly start to end, if you dont gotta have cool riffs to do it dont force em in there, use each individual instrument as a cog in your machine to get the point across intead of just guitar.
geez with all that why arent i spaceship superstar? Ha Ha Ha.
what the hell is he goin on about i hear you say?
I dunno really. i dont think i anylized it as much as just now.
Apr 18, 2008 02:20 pm Stick a capo on. Somewher eon the second, fourth, or even sixth fret. Noodle.
Amazing how a little change of key can get the creative juices flowing. You can pull the capo off and transpose once you get the riffage together. Works 90% of the time for me.
Another trick I use is to take a riff/chord progression and record it. Then play something over it. Repeat. Then take all the parts you like from the three parts and then play them all on just one part. It not only pushes you creatively, but also it helps with chops.
Good luck.
Apr 21, 2008 08:35 am This is exactly why I started writing shorter tunes daily...
I was struggling, post-band, to finish anything... when I did get tunes up I spent weeks mixing and fine-tuning...
all that wasted time just sapped my passion for it...
long story short, read a book about the creative part of your brain and it said that it goes dormant when you're not actively using it...
when you do start to use it, it takes a while to wake up - so nothing comes out... you stop trying... 3 days later in the middle of the night - idea!
to combat this crap cycle i made myself start writing everyday... but only short pieces... not riffs... not sections... but mini songs...
this way I could start and finish in a short amount of time... I can expand them out when necessary.
to keep it varied I always take a different entry point into the creative process... melody one day, progression the next, rhythm pattern the next, style the next, tempo variation the next, timbre the next, concept the next, form the next... and so on...
this variation brought about heaps of new ideas i never knew i had in me... and it changed how i thought about the different elements in a tune...
and for the record, it has really flourished as time went on... the pieces now are so much more advanced than they were at the beginning... starting to learn tricks for utilizing the short time-span...
A lot of people have since been telling me of other players that make creating something short each day part of their routine...
If you start now, in a month ideas will be free-flowing... guarantee it.
dailymelodies.com
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