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Scott
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7/10/2018 4:46:38 AM
I'd like to hear details about everyone's creative process.
how you write songs, how you record them, everything you can tell me.
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bp deignan
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7/10/2018 7:42:29 AM
Depends on which idea I come up with first - lyrics or music.
A lyrical idea will dictate the chords and tempo I choose.
Musical ideas come from noodling around on guitar and hearing something I like. I find these more difficult to complete as lyrical ideas don't readily spring to mind.
I record these with a basic drum track and guitar.
I add other instrumentation and experiment with what sounds best as I go along. Vocal tracks are always recorded last.
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Stoneman
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7/11/2018 2:36:28 AM
I think I have mentioned this on other poists before but I will mention it again. My cretaive process revolves around a little hand held record tht I keep with me at all times. You see I get ideas at odd time and in wierd places. So, when that happens I whip out my little recorder and I hum the ideas that come to me. Most times when I get Ideas I I hear the entire music score in my head. But if I hum just a samll part of it and record that, when i listen to it again, all the parts come right back into my head. Then, I start creating the parts in my recording suite (Logic Pro X) and before I know it, I have a full song finished. Another thing I like to do is create music stems, label the key and then store them on my computer. Then, later onn when i am working on a song I will go into my stem files, find a stem that fits and go from there. A lot of my songs are simply stems that Pieced together and made whole. But it all starts with the little hand held recorder. Sometimes I get vocal hooks in my head and build a song from that. I record the vocal hooks and then play music around them. But my favorite method is to just sit down at the keys or guitar and pull a song out of the air while playing various things I come up with. Ideas come while I play and I record those ideas (you guessed it) on my hand held recorder. That thing has become the most important pat of my set up.
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TVAC
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7/14/2018 8:56:31 PM
Back when I first started writing songs, I would turn on a tape recorder and start singing and playing random chords into a recorder, hoping I land on something good. As I evolved, my best songs started with a lyrical phrase which easily adhered to some hook. I'd also write full sets of lyrics and see if they turned into a tune in my head by the time I'd finished the words.
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SILVERWOODSTUDIO
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7/15/2018 6:18:29 PM
Songs and lyrics as two distinct parts----often the first lyrics are just used to keep the timing right (syllables as beats)
Hopefully built around a riff or hook that may include passing chords that are unusual in that key. Later the lyric will follow a theme, event, or a storyline.
I try to eliminate cliches----but often use repitition in a chorus eg Say Something.
At the moment the well has run dry ---and I am in a covers band doing Americana---music I love !
Rob
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Bryon Tosoff
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7/15/2018 6:37:57 PM
not a songcrafter, instrumentalist. walk in the room sit down, paly something, always have my Zoom on both vid Q3 and Zoom H2. hit record, sometimes a whole song is done right there and then probably 50 - 60 %% of my piano tunes are like that. some i score out for the piano ,like some jazz works, classical is more involved although that too I have sat done and recorded them in one take, so it is more inspirational and spontaneous, that is how I am. Now when I do other more involved things with bedtracks and all, well of course that is more methodical and takes of course as you all know, way more time.
so me, for the majority it is off the cuff especially the ambient, some classical and a few jazz songs.
cheers to our creativeness and gifts we have been given
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Paul groover
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7/17/2018 5:56:53 PM
To me it is not about the creative process it is about deciding when a song is finished. When is a song finished is it ever finished?. Sometimes the creative process can do the opposite of it's intended purpose
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Stoneman
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7/17/2018 11:36:13 PM
Very true Paul. I feel you on that. However, the creative process should be such that it leads to completions. Otherwise, the process needs to be changed. Yet, there is no doubt that some songs will never be complete to the writer. I have loads of them like that. Because of this, they have never been heard by anyone but me. Basically, that means that if I publish a song, in my mind, it is complete.
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Larree
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7/18/2018 7:56:34 AM
It's just a natural bodily function. I eat; I crap, I write.
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Bryon Tosoff
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7/18/2018 10:09:38 AM
Haha Larree
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Chandra Moon
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7/18/2018 2:43:28 PM
For me loads of my songs start with a rhythm, a beat, then a theme, a lyric, a hook, a verse, maybe a chorus then I pick up the guitar or occasionally the piano and try and find the tune - pick it out and then I play around with it for days. Change it, mess with it, put the capo on, take the capo off, slow it down, speed it up till suddenly - there's a song. Then I record a rough version and hope to record it properly one day. Phew. When I get the tune first I find it extremely difficult to fit a song to a tune - 90% of the time I get the rhythm and lyrics first. When it's the other way round it can take me months if not years to find words to fit. I find it a zillion times easier to fit a tune to the lyrics than the other way round. Sometimes a song will come in a real rush, once in only five minutes other times it takes several days or more. Recently I'm dry - I haven't written a whole new song in ages and I hope that changes soon.
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Bryon Tosoff
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7/18/2018 3:02:07 PM
Chandra, you write wonderful songs with a depth of insight and understanding, always wonderful messages and lovely presentations. We as musicians go through spells of a drought or such, i been there, when things happen, like sickness, deaths, of which there have been many in the extended family this past year it really throws a kibosh in to ones creative space.It has affected me to some extent, and my time teaching and promoting this year has put a bit of a scrunch of time for my own releases and song writing. anyways i rely a lot on inspiration and spontaneity in the moment thing. i am not a lyricist although I know i write outstanding instrumentals, tht is my calling, you and many others have the advantage of doing both music and lyrics, that is a special gift, good luck.
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Sterling30
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7/18/2018 6:46:50 PM
I start with a 5th of Jack Daniels and then begin the process of interrogating my guitar. When the bottle is about 1/2 empty and the guitar has had enough torture, it will usually start talking. Then I add the lamest lyrics I can possibly dream up and like magic, a new song is born.
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Bryon Tosoff
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7/18/2018 7:17:10 PM
Sterling, that is how my brothers group the bluevoodoo wrote most of their songs, plus other influences, its the most effective way to get a song going ,brilliant idea, i going to try it right now!!! lol
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Stoneman
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7/19/2018 12:19:43 AM
Rather than a 5th of Jack Daniels I'd rather have some really good Blue Dream or Sour Diesle to Vape. That usually gets my creative juices flowing.
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Sterling30
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7/23/2018 2:28:26 PM
---- Updated 7/23/2018 2:31:32 PM
Truth is I don't drink or smoke but the interrogating the guitar bit is true. I recall my sound engineer asking how all the harder rocking songs worked so well and he actually stated most people he knew would kill to be able to write them. So that was a nice compliment I guess but we're dealing with 3-4 chords here, that's not rocket science. So that's what I told him, if you torture that guitar long enough eventually it's gonna talk. And it usually does if you listen closely to mistakes especially, they will often reveal a decent song that's hiding among the frets. They all already written, you just gotta figure them out.
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Sterling30
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7/23/2018 2:46:16 PM
Exhibit A:
http://indiemusicpeople.com/songs.aspx?SongID=114894&ArtistID=166887
You can't get much lamer than this..
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Sterling30
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7/23/2018 2:57:19 PM
Actually you can, this is my masterpiece. Has absolutely zero intellectual content and contributes nothing of any measurable social value. I'm very proud of it.
http://indiemusicpeople.com/iac_test2_dev/index3.html?ID=A166887&SongID=114895&Source=Artist_166887_Single
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