• From: Paisley, Scotland
  • Registered: 2006-07-09
  • Posts: 337

Topic: Writing Motivation

Evening all,

So I've been thinking about songwriting motivation. This really stems from thinking about playing gigs, hopefully in the future (soon) when I can work up the nerve.....

However, I worry that my own songs are all a bit gloomy and would maybe set a bit of a depressing theme. Now, to qualify this, I'd consider myself quite an upbeat fellow, cheery, some might say. However it just so happens that when I sit down to write a song, more often than not I end up writing about something close to my heart. as it is, I've not been fortunate enough to have kids etc yet so the major events in my life to date are alas, fairly sombre moments, usually involving some form of loss.

I'd be happy to sit and write a foot stomping cheery tune but as it goes, I find my songs work better when they're from the heart, and it seems whilst I'm pretty chipper, my old ticker may be a bit of a morbid fellow and the songs tend to be more ballad-y tunes.

Anyone got any advice for how to get away from this? How do you guys write, is it always from the heart and if not, how do you manage to keep your direction when writing a purely fictional tune??

Cheers,
Mark

All I got, is a red guitar, three chords and the truth

bud_wiser's Website

2 Reply by selso (edited by selso 2009-07-29 02:18:54)

  • selso
  • selso
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  • From: El Paso, TX
  • Registered: 2007-07-18
  • Posts: 994

Re: Writing Motivation

bud_wiser wrote:

Evening all,

So I've been thinking about songwriting motivation. This really stems from thinking about playing gigs, hopefully in the future (soon) when I can work up the nerve.....

However, I worry that my own songs are all a bit gloomy and would maybe set a bit of a depressing theme. Now, to qualify this, I'd consider myself quite an upbeat fellow, cheery, some might say. However it just so happens that when I sit down to write a song, more often than not I end up writing about something close to my heart. as it is, I've not been fortunate enough to have kids etc yet so the major events in my life to date are alas, fairly sombre moments, usually involving some form of loss.

I'd be happy to sit and write a foot stomping cheery tune but as it goes, I find my songs work better when they're from the heart, and it seems whilst I'm pretty chipper, my old ticker may be a bit of a morbid fellow and the songs tend to be more ballad-y tunes.

Anyone got any advice for how to get away from this? How do you guys write, is it always from the heart and if not, how do you manage to keep your direction when writing a purely fictional tune??

Cheers,
Mark

same thing happens to me. I find it helps if you can take something thats serious and try to make light of it, in a lyrical way, with something a little up beat. Take something you know and speed it up.Think good times and not bad

Everything is bad including me
But being bad is good policy
Reverend Horton Heat
  • KajiMa
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  • From: Glastonbury
  • Registered: 2009-03-24
  • Posts: 608

Re: Writing Motivation

Hey bud_wiser!

Nice reply Selso! (Didn't find out what happened after you got canned; hope all going excellent, mate. Checked your site, some good strong songs!)

When writing do you begin with words and put chords to it? If so try reversing this; find some chords in a key you like singing in and string them together by experiment. If they sound sombre, change them or their order - it might be easier putting words into a known rhythmic pattern.

If you usually begin with music try working with lyric. Think of something that's both close to your heart that makes you happy/laugh and work with that. When working this way it helps to know if you want to do 4/4 or waltz, whichever, but you can make the rhythm work on the edit.

A song doesn't have to appear in 7 minutes to a couple of hours in one sitting to be heartfelt. Something that's close to my heart I wrote a song about in 1992 but was never happy with it so kept thinking of it as a work in progress. Last year the missing pieces fell into place and I think it works now.

If you feel deeply about your subject matter, it doesn't matter how you get there in turning your feelings/ideas into a song as long as you stay true to how you feel about the subject matter.

Then again you can turn all the above on it's head and work opposite to yourself and all you know and see what happens!

It's a learning process, experiment and enjoy! cool

<-----<< On an even field, only talent prevails! >>----->
   Gans Gwarak da yn dorn yu lel, gwyr lowen an golon!
        >>-----> [color=#FF0000]Rudhes[/color] hag [color=yellow]Owres[/color], Kajima <-----<<
  • From: Belfast
  • Registered: 2009-03-31
  • Posts: 330

Re: Writing Motivation

My songs tend to be serious. They also tend to come lyric first. The ones with a little lift seem to come chords first with the emphasis on an interesting rythm.

I find that the way the ideas come is so unpredictable that sitting down to write in a particular way does produce interesting songs, but rarely in the direction I intended. The one time it did work was trying to write a lullaby!

I tend to start with a single line, or an idea with a twist. I have loads of pieces of paper torn off  envelopes or magazines with lines scrawled across them. Still, everyone's different.

"Don't play what's there, play what's not there." Miles Davis

StranSongs's Website

  • From: Western Oregon,US
  • Registered: 2008-07-22
  • Posts: 2,498

Re: Writing Motivation

Hi Mark,

  To be straight, I haven't written anything worth a tinkers dam in a very long time.... but I do remember that the best stuff was gleaned from personal experiences and feelings.  It is part of the fault of the times we live in that what you are coming up with seems a bit "gloomy and depressing".  This is not a very upbeat and happy time in many people's lives, all you have to do is read a few newspapers to get in that place mentally.  There is an up-side though... we are all bailing the same leaky boat so to speak, and your audience will be able to identify with what you have to say in your lyrics.  Sounds like a recipe for a Grammy winning album in my mind!

  Just keep doing what you're doing, it'll all be fine in the end.

Take Care;
Doug

"what is this quintessence of dust?"  - Shakespeare
  • selso
  • selso
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  • From: El Paso, TX
  • Registered: 2007-07-18
  • Posts: 994

Re: Writing Motivation

KajiMa wrote:

Hey bud_wiser!

Nice reply Selso! (Didn't find out what happened after you got canned; hope all going excellent, mate. Checked your site, some good strong songs!)

Hey Kajima,
Thanks for taking a listen. I deiced to get into my local university full time and do little side jobs here and there. Hope alls well with you and yours
Selso

Everything is bad including me
But being bad is good policy
Reverend Horton Heat
  • Registered: 2007-03-24
  • Posts: 1,108

Re: Writing Motivation

Just the opposite problem here. Everything I write is ridiculous and perverse. Closest I've come to a love song is a song about my Dog.Yes, I have 2 boys and a wife!!

I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.
Elvis Costello
  • KajiMa
  • Senior Member
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  • From: Glastonbury
  • Registered: 2009-03-24
  • Posts: 608

Re: Writing Motivation

There's an idea for a song:

A guy who can't wait for his wife and kids to go out so he can indulge his guilty secret which is only revealed in the last verse that said secret is taking the dog for a walk.

All the elements are there to set the final sting/twist up: alone together; time shared; mutual enjoyment; breathlessness; "my wife calls her a bitch, but I love her;" etc

The B52s have an established technique that explains their eclectic style: the whole band writes lines and phrases that are cut out, stuck on the wall and shifted around until they have a song/collection of words that resembles a song.

Think of a song you like and rewrite it/put a different slant on it/put the opposite position/

A woman going dancing, fed up being stuck with screaming kids, fed up with her husband's insecurity/jealousy - Roxanne.

A gentle equine forced against it's will to race, the increasingly excessive cruelty used to get it moving, the RSPCA confiscating the winnings and prosecuting the culprits - Delaney's Donkey.

What's this one:

My son's done wrong, I've got to give him to the authorities, his fate is the result of his actions, will he accept I had no choice? does he know I love him?

The first correct answer will win a meal out for two















...pounds! big_smile

<-----<< On an even field, only talent prevails! >>----->
   Gans Gwarak da yn dorn yu lel, gwyr lowen an golon!
        >>-----> [color=#FF0000]Rudhes[/color] hag [color=yellow]Owres[/color], Kajima <-----<<

9 Reply by Phill Williams (edited by Phill Williams 2009-07-30 11:28:23)

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: Writing Motivation

hi bud_wiser,

when i write, i wont force a song just cos i haven't done one in a while...let it come naturally.

they say that minor chords make a song bluesy or ballardy, not necessarily...

so, a good story teller can look around him and make a story from what he sees, eg: my son has been having a lot of problems with his girlfriend, which he wont dump! but i've got 4 or 5 songs from it!

a friend had problems with a woman he had strong feelings for, she was unhappily married, another song.

i once saw graffiti on a wall saying "tracy loves paul" yep you guessed it, but i binned the song it was rubbish! so dont expect everything you write to be the new "bohemian rhapsody" you've got to write crap to know when you've got a good one.

as for performing, if your going to do your own songs, which are [in your words] "gloomy" do a couple of up-tempo/up-beat covers. break the night up.

hope i've helped

phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • Zurf
  • Zurf
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  • From: Virginia, USA
  • Registered: 2007-06-27
  • Posts: 7,522

Re: Writing Motivation

Pick a topic that is trivial, look at it sideways or top-down or from perspective that is a bit unusual, pull out a thesaurus and rhyming dictionary to give yourself a challenge, and then write a song.

I have written two songs, one was about cleaning pee out of carpet and the other is about my buddy Herschel burning himself lighting a campfire while others sat by and drank beer.  These are not heartfelt songs.  Johnny Cash's first big hit, Cry, Cry, Cry was based on him being done with a gal who had mistreated him (which is serious) but his next big hit was about a shoe shine boy (Get Rhythm) which definitely is not.  Tom T Hall had a good song based on the premise of him liking beer (I Like Beer). 

While shoe shine boys aren't trivial, as no person is, getting a shoe shine surely is.  And an adult having a beer (unless one is an alcoholic) is trivial. 

The one thing I haven't been able to do is capture any meaning about my father-in-law in a song using his last words "I'll Be Fine", which is a testimony to his faith.  Too close to my heart.  So, I guess it goes both ways. 

My hypothesis is that you should write what intrigues you, but also challenge yourself with stretch goals to do things outside your comfort zone.  The stretch songs may not wind up being any good, but you will never improve unless you stretch yourself.  So I would challenge you to stretch yourself with a sideways perspective trivial song. 

Here are some possible topics:
Ill tempered mooses
Mowing the lawn
Apple pie (a la mode if you want to it to be more heartfelt)
Wiping your shoes off at the door
24 hour conveniece stores with locks on the doors
Overhead bins on aircraft that cannot hold regulation size carry-on luggage
Amateurs doing whatever you do well
Being an amateur doing what others do very well
Going to your boss's birthday party
Taking a walk (James Taylor turned this topic into Country Road, which is one of his biggest hits, not to pressure you or anything)
Lifting the lid/remembering to put the lid down
Blowing out the candles on a birthday cake (Jimmy Buffett had a hit with this topic on "Trip Around the Sun")

- Zurf

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude