Writing A Song Homepage

Question: Songwriters of r&p: how often do you write a song that you're happy with?

(Posted by: American Guitarist on 2010-03-08 00:14:22)

On occasion, I try to write songs. Normally, I'm just not happy with them...well, not the words at least. Sometimes I will get a few short lines that I come up with that I do like, but I never usually seem to write a complete song that I'm ever happy with (excluding a few instrumentals I've written). Whenever I wrote songs with lyrics, they just don't seem to come out right. Anyway, how many songs do you write that just seem to not be good (in your eyes at least)? How often to you write a song that you do think of as being a well- written song? BQ: How many songs, in total (including any with vocals and any instrumentals, in case you have some of both), have you written? BQ2: Who is your favorite songwriter?

Posted by: Smile [personality crisis] on 2010-03-08, 00:48:33

Very rarely. I get the words to a point where I think they're alright (or at least I've deluded myself that they're alright; same thing, really), but I have issues arranging the vocals. Usually I can mess around on my keyboard (the musical kind, because I'm guitarless right now...), and come up with something so there's an instrument to it, but it rarely seems just right. And then the vocals..I have issues with that. I'm no good at the whole thing on my own; I usually work with a friend of mine and it sounds better. BA: Two on my own, five with a friend. BA2: Ray Davies (The Kinks) or, as much as I hate to be cliched and all that, Bob Dylan.Or Sylvain Sylvain. Or Andy Partridge. It just depends what I'm in the mood for..

Posted by: Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man on 2010-03-08, 00:20:24

The instrumentation is easy, what's difficult is finding out how to piece vocals into it. That's why I gave up on it. BQ: Like, 4. And none of them are any good (well...one of them is pretty alright, but nothing special). They're all just generally rip-offs of Emerson Lake and Palmer and avant-garde nonsense, with, like, 4 time signature changes a minute. It's more pretentious than...I don't know. It's just pretentious. To me, it is. BQ2: And, coincidentally, my favorite songwriter is Peter Gabriel.

Posted by: Your Uncle Dodge! on 2010-03-08, 00:47:20

MA: I tend to only keep 4 a year, and I have a bin full of the ones that are partially done but unsatisfactory. BA: 59 finished, with 86 in hold awaiting rework. BA2: I have several favorites. David Baerwald really makes me crazy when he's got good stuff. There are many others I cannot leave out including Tom Kimmel. Bob Seger, Billy Squier, Jon Butcher, Jim Vallance, Billy Preston, Michael Johnson/ Hugh Prestwood, Earl Thomas Conley, Nile Rodgers and all the brothers Gibb.

Posted by: sashunya on 2010-03-08, 00:58:53

I write songs for my band and if I am constantly unhappy with my songwriting, we're not really gonna get anywhere, so I just make myself accept most songs I write. BA: Probably like 10 full songs. I've only just begun song-writing. BA2: Roky Erickson maybe.

Posted by: Wire & String on 2010-03-08, 07:02:03

I generally don't get that hung up on the lyrics. if i write some good ones its a bonus. sometimes i feel like i am too tight with my lyrics, that i stick to a rhyme and syllable pattern too strictly and it just comes out a little boring in that regard. one of my tricks is i will usually write a couple extra verses and then i will cut it down to just my favorites/ the ones i think translate well to singing. in some ways i think its good to kinda know that writing lyrics is different than writing poetry. it doesnt have to all make sense, and most of it doesnt have to be particularly good, you can have just a couple stand out couplets in an otherwise forgettable song and people will latch on to those. BQ: hmmm, i oughta count. i think i am around 30 songs at this point. not sure. BQ2: at the moment, alan toussaint