songwriting is hard

[dungeonsound615]

So im supposed to meet with this bass player tommorrow to try and start up a band. so i thought this week i would try and write some new songs. I came up with one song that i like and everything else is just chord progressions with no lyrics. I cant think of any topics to write about and now im starting to not even like the chord progressions and rythems im coming up with in the last two days.

Im sure its just that im feeling a little pressure to write something good and i know you cant force a good song. but damn i cant think of a topic at all to write about. The music is pop punk like greenday(damn there new stuff is good) screeching weasel, ramones. Real simple stuff although im just drawing a blank with chords progressions and lyrics.

mike

[SKEETER]

If you need things to write about, just start considering everything that goes through your mind as potential song material. For example, you see some atrocity on TV that gripes you? Write a song about it. I write Christian oriented lyrics, but they are not about things that many Christians approve, for example, I have a song called "Preacher Politician" that is about preachers that use Gods time and money to promote their pet political bitches. That is a pet peeve of mine, so I wrote a song about it.
Song matierial is all around you, it is just realizing that some of the most seemingly mundane and every day happenings are potential material.
Another thing, get yourself a Rhyming dictionary, and a thesaurus if you don't have them, they are invaluable time savers, and can increase the quality of your work.
Get a John Hiatt CD from the library and read the lyrics, or find some of his lyrics online, he is an expert at taking very mundane and everday life things and writing songs around them. I am not a fan of his music, but his lyrics are an excellent study.

[Cappy*tan]

I just wouldn't sweat it, man. Which is easy for me to say, I suppose. But really, the harder you try at it the harder something's gonna be to write. Just grab your guitar and kick back for a few hours and don't consciously try to come up with something. I mean, if you do, great. If not, you've spent a few hours messing around, you know. I understand trying to write for a band and wanting to have something immediately, believe me. But that never really worked for me, actually trying to write something.
The lyrics, I wouldn't worry about the lyrics until you've got the music. But that's me. For me the music always seemed to determine what kind of lyrics it got. And who knows, the bass player may really be a good lyricist.
One thing I learned that's come in handy is to not be afraid to let someone else finish a song for you. And even if they don't finish it the way you'd imagined, what they do may lead you to the very thing you wanted, or maybe something even better....if that makes any sense. Or it may lead you to writing another song....so you'd have two instead of one.
Probably the best thing to do is just relax a bit. It's just music, after all. Have some fun with it.

[misterock]

It can be, but it is also fun and rewarding.

Cappy* Tan hit on the head for writing the riffs and changes. Get a cheap radio shack recorder, or whatever your budget will allow (PTHD3?), hit record and jam out for a while, use a click, loop, or whatever, or not. Whatever you do, play, don't try, just play. You will find a hook.

Sing or hum melodies out loud or play solos in lyrical style over your new changes (no wicked gilbert or coltrane blazes for base melody (head))

Topics in no specific order:

Tsunami
Wal-mart
Iraq
Oil
Your relationship with any specific person: God, friend, enemy, lover, brother, sister, father, mother, dog, cat, boss, alien, friend's wife...
Life of crime
Psycholgy
Drugs
How you've been screwed
How someone saved the day
Peace Love & Happiness
Hate, Pain & Suffering
Pornography and lust
White Supremacy
Black Power
Law & Order
Anarchy
Incurable Disease
Afterlife

You get the idea...

[ubertar]

If you don't have anything to say, don't write songs. Please.

[bellulah]

write a love song about ubertar's crazy dog avatar.

[Ivon]

Cappy*tan and Skeeter are right. Good advice there. Nothing to expound on, really.

Draw from any source for influence...don't wait for inspiration, if you want to write prolifically. Draw from every portion of you mind. You don't have to rely on calamity to write a heart-wrenching and thoughtful song.

And like anything, the more you WORK at it, the better you will become. But, don't take it personally if someone says your song sucks. Differentiate yourself. You are not music...music is something you do and love. And shit...you can always rewrite the song if you want to.

And, to echo what was said before - Have fun with it!

[dsw]

Boy is it ever!!
Especially good songwriting. Its pretty easy to regurgitate the cliches.
But there is technique to it. What I have found is that the songs I have written that I like the best came rushing out real fast and I just kind of wrote it down as it poured out. I have written probably 300-400 songs. I have only kept maybe 30 or 40. Of those I only REALLY like 3 or 4. And those 3 or 4 just poured out in a rush. Practically wrote themselves.
Writing is a muscle you have to excersize. It IS hard, but the more you keep after it the more chances you have of a good one popping out.
Don't give up.
Another way you can try to get inspiration is to listen to a style of music that you are new to or maybe even thought you didn't like. Or tune your guitar weird. Or try to play a song backwards. (That's how John Lennon wrote "Because" . Yoko was playing the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven and he said "can you play that backwards?" She did and the sound of it inspired the song.)
The song I wrote that I really like the best came after literally ALL day trying to write a song. Three pots of coffee. Four packs of cigarettes. Piles of paper everywhere with one or two horiible lines....F*** it I decided to take a nap. I lay my sorry ass down and no sooner did my head hit the pillow but the first line of a song popped into my head. I got up, wrote it down and in 15 or twenty minutes the song was done. Ruined a perfectly good nap, of course.
You are dead right, songwriting is hard. But its fun too.

[ubertar]

OK, I'll actually try to be helpful now, or overtly helpful anyway, because I think my previous advice was sound.

As far as stale chord progressions: try some new chords. Are you just using triads? Add some 7s and min7s and maj7s and min7b5s. If you've already got those, try something you haven't. How about some augmented stuff? Whole tone scale? If you don't know what this stuff is, take some lessons, or buy a book. Add some more tools to your arsenal, and finding ways to use them will force you to be more creative. Try some odd time signatures, or a polyrhythm. Again, if you're not familiar with that stuff, look into it. There's plenty of info on the web. Listen to your influences' influences. And their influences. And so on. Branch out. Widen your taste, and your influences can then collide in ways not dreamt of yet.

Lyrics:

IMO, lyrics should never be written consciously. Trust your unconscious mind to work for you. Treat your unconscious like your bitch. You tell it what to do, and it will do it. Ok, ok, be nice to it, and ask. Trust me (and yourself), it works. It will just come to you, and you'll be like, "holy shit, I like that". Then give your unconscious a biscuit.

[Ivon]

Treat your unconscious like your bitch.

Word...and LOL. You have a way of putting things that's humorous, yet true. It's amazing what your subconcious mind is capable of. Instead of agonizing over that chord change or that line, sometimes it's just better to let the subconcious take care of it. Not that songwriting does not require effort.

[Rigsby]

IMO, lyrics should never be written consciously. Trust your unconscious mind to work for you. Treat your unconscious like your bitch. You tell it what to do, and it will do it. Ok, ok, be nice to it, and ask. Trust me (and yourself), it works. It will just come to you, and you'll be like, "holy shit, I like that". Then give your unconscious a biscuit.

Yes, when i used to write songs (as apposed to the instrumental stuff i do these days) i found that the best way to write a song is just to start playing and singing and follow that to it's logical conclusion. I'd record everything and go back and listen to myself improvising and then recreate the ones i thought were worthwhile. I often found that the bulk of the lyrics wrote themselves, then i'd alter the ones i wasn't happy with. Forcing it rarely worked for me, i've been insituations where i'd have studio time booked or wanted to have new stuff for a group and i'd agonise over it for ages but little would come up. This happened once in fact, and i was off to the studio with two songs to record when i'd wanted three, and the third wrote itself in the walk to the studio. the subconcious will do wonders for you if you let it.

Also, don't worry about the theme of the song, just let it go where it goes and you can figure out what it's all about afterwards. In my opinion, subconcious writing is probably the closest thing to you can get to your own personal art, and that's a goal as far as i'm concerned, producing things that have come from oneself, not the long list of influences and their replication. Kick back, have fun, and good luck.

[jamoo]

IMO, songwriting is easy. Recording is the monster. I think the trick to songwriting is you can't force it. It happens when it does. Recording is always a monster.

[gog]

Somebody once asked Keith Richards what the secret was to writing a good song. 'There's no secret', he replied. 'You don't write 'em. They're already written and the angels have got them. You just reach up and pull one down. The trick is knowing where to look.'

[fedexnman]

let it flow dont force a song out. i bought a book songwriting on acoustic guitar by rick (rigsby) or something?? got alot of chord progressions for songs, and alot of quotes and ideas, great book for inspiration, but dont formulate , dont follow formulas!!! also dab in some covers, it will inspire you. i love an acoustic version of shout by tears for fears or here comes the rain by eurthymics, p.m. the chords an add9s stuff mix it up make it ur own... it gives u inspiration using different chord progressions from your influences, play em backward, play it in a different rythm styles, look to your surroundings n feelings, dont force it, and dont copy other peoples stuff , let it flow , let the music come 1st or write with a drum machine instead of guitar or start with the lyrics 1st mix it up an be diverse, have fun ( important fun) dont make it suck by forcing it.!!! later..
also write in a different enviroment other than your home or recording room. outta here/.............

[fedexnman]

i also 2nd rigsby, thats the way my stuff comes out .. good words rigsby...