How do you make music?

[Wolfram]

I usually get somebody else to write my music - I just like to sing and take credit for other peoples work however as I said, I do pay them for it.....

Regards,

Brittany Spears.



Ohhh god what have I done............

[dragsternj]

Britney Spears

[7 Dying Trees]

I usually tend to write riffs, or come up with them in a rehearsal room, take them home, record them, and then start jamming off them and build up banks of stuff, then suddenly, i'll find that two different bits work, then run with that, and slowly build it up, adjust for vocals, adjust for other parts, drop things in and out, try some key changes.

Only problem is that I am relatively slow sometimes!

[robertkoa]

Well - If you're trying to write commercial songs- you need HOOKS.

So best to start with the hook line FIRST ( keep a BOOK ) THEN when you have a good HOOK you can write the verses around it.

Then you listen to tracks or play guitar chords and sing ( even in falsetto if you're not a singer ) or "fake" sing to get a melody -THEN when something clicks record it so you don't forget it and keep working on the rest of the basic chords for the verses, bridges etc.

The rhythm of the hook will usually suggest the overall groove and you build from there.

Sometime JUST hearing tracks can inspire HOOKS ( choruses- the main theme of the tune ) BUT usually best to at least have one thing stable when you try to create.

If you are an insrumentalist - same thing as above .

Start with a cool track or set of chords and play something to it till you come up with something ( record everything ).

OR- record the cool melody you came up with and come up with backing tracks and grooves etc. to go with the melody.

Meaning - "I'm going to write melody/lyrics to this track or chords"

OR " I'm going to write A TRACK or chord sequence FOR these lyrics .

[ReflectingSurfaces]

I rarely write music in the actual sense of the term, which means that I almost never get any ideas that I consider solid gold/100% keepers while rehearsing/jamming with others. I mean I am able to create music with other players but those are improvisational ideas. To me they only last for a moment which makes them kind of "unstable" and 98% of the time I don't feel strongly about them.

Since I work best alone I rely on those rare moments of inspiration while just noodling around. This usually results in guitar riffs, melodies, chord progressions, tapping parts etc. After that initial impulse I tab the idea in Guitar Pro and work out the drum beat/bassline/harmony whatever. Then I look into my pile of ideas and search for parts that have similar tempos and try to see if they make any sense when put together. Sometimes I have to move stuff up or down the fretboard or change keys to make the transitions sound cool. Usually three or four parts together form a basis for a song but it might still be far from finished because I'm a perfectionist.

If I have some missing or uncertain parts in a song and I don't find anything suitable from my pile of ideas then I usually just let it be and wait when inspiration hits me again. The last thing I want to do is to start pushing it 'cause the outcome tends to be crappy.

Then I rehearse the almost complete instrumental version of the tune with the rest of the band to work out the repetitions and vocals. Some minor changes might still occur after the vocals are carved out because instruments/layers are interrelated.

Mostly I use my ideas however this is not always the case. I do use other people's material but only if I feel it's something I wish I had invented myself. The conclusion of my approach is that every part has to be special and even stand on it's own. Quality -> quantity.

[LowYaw]

Originally Posted by Drew

Badly.

I usually write (um, I write instrumental guitar tunes) alone, and while recording. I'll come up with a cool riff or two, or a melody line, and then fire up my computer. Usually I have a riff first, so I'll either turn on Sonar's metronome, or quickly sequence a quick drum track. I'll then double-track a minute or two's worth of rhythm guitar as sort of a "songwriting sketch," where I have all the fundamental parts (verse, chorus, bridge if I have one) represented, but not in a full song arrangement. If I have a melody, I'll then go back and record that - if not, I'll jam along with it for a while until I "find" something, and record it when I do. If I don't come up with something, I'll leave it for a few days or a few weeks until I do (sometime,s I just don't). I'll then record the melody line(s), record a bass track, and then flesh out the drums a little more and do a quick mix.

I'll listen back to it a few days later, maybe play it for someone else for a bit of feedback, and if my little "proof of concept" song sketch still holds together then I'll record a full arrangement. sometimes this will involve a seperate solo section, sometimes it'll just involve taking a solo over the verse changes or something, it varies. If I dig it enough, I'll put the finished demo up on my MySpace or something, and ten move on to write another song.

That's as far as I've gotten for now - when everything's said and done and I have an album's worth of demo material I'm happy with, I'm going to get together with my drummer buddy, and lay down some live drums, then record everything from the ground up over his drum tracks. That I'll eventually master and print up as an indie release.

I never know what to call anything, either.

^ this

[lespauled]

I learned years ago, as soon as you have a riff that you think you can work with, RECORD IT IMMEDIATELY. When playing at home, I play through my GNX into my PC. While just playing around, if something comes up that I think I can use, I open up Sonar and record it. Most of the time, I find that it's junk when I listen back a few days later, but sometimes there are things that I actually like.

[elcid]

I have my studio set up for ideas Im going to work on, but I bought an Alesis Palmtrack for when I'm just messing around and an idea hits me. That was probably one of the best recording investments I ever made.

[SkunkTree]

Originally Posted by elcid

I have my studio set up for ideas Im going to work on, but I bought an Alesis Palmtrack for when I'm just messing around and an idea hits me. That was probably one of the best recording investments I ever made.

see thats how i work...i use my H4n or a little Olympus voice recorder to capture my noodling...i turn it on when im just sittin plucking away and thinking bought "crap" nothing musical at all...next thing i know something stands out...so i play it back...maybe jam with it....if it seems to work i fire up my DAW next thing i know ive got real music....

[Hurricane Kid]

I usually start with a drum loop to start me off when writing to give me a tempo and groove as inspiration for the music. I find that I create a lot more decent stuff this way rather than just noodling around on my axe without a particular direction. The drums sort of give me a direction.

[noairplayguitar]

Hi there,

I write mostly guitar instrumental music, and as an independant artist, I tend to work alone.
I always start with a series of good riffs that fit well together and I start structuring the song from there. Most of the time my songs come from rythmic ideas first and the melody is added on top in the end.
I just love good kick ass riffs interspersed with great guitar solos.

[sallyg]

Songwriting is like making clay pots. You might come up with a great clay pot every now and then, but after you've made a couple hundred clay pots, just about every one is good. It's all about finishing the song then going on to the next. Don't try to make your song the greatest song ever written. You'll never finish it. Just finish it then write another. It's very hard to FINISH. That's the key. That would also apply to the recording process. Get the song done and don another one. You'll find you improve each time. The method changes each time with the song writing. Some times a lyric might come first, some times a melody. Just roll with it, finish the song and keep moving forward. Every now and then you'll get a great song, but you'll find your songs getting better more consistently as you write more and more.

[Wishx]

Jam until it speaks to me, sometimes i might think of an Idea in terms of scoring or rythm before i begin to play it or move it around, but almost never gets recorded as i thought it would sound , usually better. Try listen to it the next day ,do the same process to built next bar ,etc.

[Loudguitars.com]

For me what ever works usually record idea's into what ever is around, Iphone dictaphone..... then when it is time record, I'll do a whole guitar track first into Pro Tools "with a click" and tuned. Then I usually go right to trying the track with drums so I will sit and record different drum idea's, then bass and build the other tracks from there.

I love recording with Musicians but it is so hard to get that pocket, chemistry and express your idea's all at once, it is a rare beautiful thing that I cherish when it happens.

[jay ratkowski]

For me, the process has remained very constant over the years. I go one of two routes:

1) I am pretty good at making songs in my head. I can come up with every instrument, how I'd arrange it, etc. But often I can't reproduce this in the physical world. Either I get distracted fighting with equipment and lose the moment or I'm just not talented enough to play exactly what's in my head. When I make this work, it's usually the stuff I'm happiest with.

2) I just sit down, pick up a guitar, keyboard, whatever, and play. Basically force myself to record something no matter how bad it is. That's the majority of my music and even though the results are not something I'd really boast about, it keeps me making music. And I've used this to come up with some good parts of future songs.