IMPORTANT: HOW TO BE A DECENT "SONG SMITH"

I generally write alone, but have co-written with my band. I dont go 'looking for' songs either. I find that when I do write, I'm usually just messing around on my guitar, playing a few chords an' that. I've written loads of stuff that's just music and it'll take a phrase or something that I heard somewhere or humming a melody to myself to start writing lyrics. I've also written stuff that is just lyrics, without any music. This usually happens when I dont have my guitar at hand, some times I can put music to this easily, other times I find it quite hard to do. Tbh, I havent written anything in some 5-6mths.

hi GDP

there are lots of different ways that i write;

sometimes i just make myself a project, i make up say 19 titles [enough to fill a CD] then write the songs around the titles. i have not done this for about 2 years, and i'm in the middle of a project now called park, get to that later.

other times i may just get a fraze in my head eg when i wake in the morning, so i just write it down [it's handy to keep pen and paper by the bed] then come back to it when i have time.

i may be practising guitar or keyboard and a nice riff or chord progression may come to me, and that will spark off a song.

right my park project... it started with one song that had nothing to do with anything, "birds fly away" [on myspace] from that came a second song, because i liked a character called benchman in the first song! then more songs came to me with one theme linking them all...a park! you know play ground, lots of grass [the green stuff not what you smoke!!!lol] a cafe, duck pond etc, i'm still writing and recording it, and because i'm a bit picky, i'm not satisfied with some of the recordings and i'm redoing them.

then theres the songs you write about people you know or love, these songs you just put down on paper what you think of them, what you like/hate about them what they look like when they are sleeping etc...

i may also be inspired by what i see on this site, i dont steal anything but what someone else writes can sometimes inspire me to write on a similar theme.

hope this has been helpful [and not too boring]

phill

doc its hard to say,somtimes i write lyrics and they sit around for months or chart out some chords from a practice session and they also sit  the last two songs i posted one "signs of the end" the words i wrote 8 yrs ago the chords last week or so the most recent "church across the way"was composed 10 yrs ago and recently rediscovered in a old manuscript book in my closet i didn't have the digital recording gear back then i had a 4 track teac reel to reel and its a good thing i wrote the arrangment down because the teac went on the fritz and it was to costly to fix so im rediscovering songs and updating them on my BR-8 I have composed songs on the spot just jammin and singing words off the top of my head that didn't make any sense but if i liked the chord structure(progression and feel) i grab a sheet of lined music paper and chart out the chords and notes to the melodie just to jog my memory when i pick it up later then i get serious and really put the time into the crafting of the words as well as refineing the syncopation of the rhythem of the chords the rest is easy RECORDING IT!

i usually get a mental idea first... i write down all the different perspectives,ideas,pharses ,and i also like to do some research on the main theme of my song...i will write at least 4 rough drafts..then i add either piano or guitar depending on the feel of the song to me.