NZGuitars.com

writing songs, well the lyrics anyway. I've been struggling with one for a few months that I kept leaving on the back burner. I upped the tempo from very slow to very fast on Friday night and it all fell into place in about 20 mins - its the best song I've ever written, I was so pleased with it I thought it was a gift from dog.

Then the missus wrote the lyrics for one this morning, not on the back of a napkin but it could have been, in about 5 mins and its almost as good (if not better ). Bastard!

I'll go back to struggling on my own, don't want to have to pay her royalties

I've hit a creative flurry the last month or so. Since January started I've managed to write four songs that have all eventuated at practise into near completion. That's a big deal for me me because we've only had three practises since Xmas.

I found going back to basics and writing just simple 4/4 rhythms (an the odd 6/4) in major chords works wonders. Adding in a capo for me changed it up and it always astounds me how very much can come from a song that's essentially three to five chords.

I don't work well with lyrics - at least not for this band. Mine either sound contrived, or trite. I end up humming a vocal melody instead and relay it to our singer, she's a better bed on the lyrical front.

Me too. I have started a few songs, but never finished one. I have lots of ideas, but never have the time to put them together. An absence of any understanding of drums is a bit of a hurdle too.

BG - Read the title of the thread then saw who started it and figured this'll be good...... knew it would have something to do with the missus.

Scarecrow - I'm the same. It's always good to have another person to write songs with. Not always to write the parts I can't or to say "that's shit" but an outside perspective can help immeasurably.

The Scarecrow wrote:I end up humming a vocal melody instead and relay it to our singer, she's a better bed on the lyrical front.

That's a bit freudian. I thought you had a policy towards female band members. Think of her as a protractor.

Ash - We don't need to understand drums. We just need to find ways to communicate with drummers.

Capt. Black wrote:Think of her as a protractor.

eh?

Capt. Black wrote: Ash - We don't need to understand drums. We just need to find ways to communicate with drummers.

Thats where a healthy collection of loops and midi drum tracks come in very handy

I hate writing lyrics. I always feel really naked and self-conscious and that. I always wonder how people can actually write love songs. I don't think I'd ever have the courage to do that. Not if I meant it, anyway.

Fortunately, the whole post-rock thing means I don't have to have a singer and I don't have to have lyrics.

Yeah, I wonder about that too. There are a few songs around that I know the secret meaning of. Very brave on the part of the writers in my opinion. I would hate to think that my secret matters were out in the public domain to be deciphered by acquaintances.

Capt. Black wrote:BG - Read the title of the thread then saw who started it and figured this'll be good...... knew it would have something to do with the missus.

Scarecrow - I'm the same. It's always good to have another person to write songs with. Not always to write the parts I can't or to say "that's shit" but an outside perspective can help immeasurably.

The Scarecrow wrote:I end up humming a vocal melody instead and relay it to our singer, she's a better bed on the lyrical front.

That's a bit freudian. I thought you had a policy towards female band members. Think of her as a protractor.

Ash - We don't need to understand drums. We just need to find ways to communicate with drummers.

Cursed d's in the places of t's.

Ha... Kristie was a protractor. I see Rita more like this.

The moment anyone pays attention to lyrics they'll either take them at face value or try to decipher hidden meanings from them whether one exists or not.

Depends entirely on the listener and how clever or not they (think they) are.

You can't really fight it in the same way you can't choose your audience. So I reckon have fun with it.

I've written songs where I've had one cool line I liked (actually it was bollocks but it sounded deep) and I simply plugged it into a google search and gathered up a bunch of phrases from a page or two of the resulting summaries.
Put together to fit the flow of the song and they sound like the deepest angst filled metaphors since the twentieth century. In fact after a few runs through the song you can imagine some actual meanings coming through.

The Scarecrow wrote: Ha... Kristie was a protractor. I see Rita more like this.

Ahhh yes that's right! Kristie couldn't be a stapler because then she'd have Staples in her. That would just be wrong!

ash wrote:Yeah, I wonder about that too. There are a few songs around that I know the secret meaning of. Very brave on the part of the writers in my opinion. I would hate to think that my secret matters were out in the public domain to be deciphered by acquaintances.

The acquantances wouldn't be as bad as total stranger, smart-arse music journalists that decide that you are a completely immature twat (or worse) on the basis of a rhyme. That'd be worse because they can publish their opinions.

Or say you wrote yourself a hit about some chick who you either got and broke up with, or who did something completely tasteless like going off with your best mate. And there you are, ten years later, trying to drum up enthusiasm onstage every night for this lyric about a moment you'd much rather forget.

I don't think I'm thick-skinned enough to be a lyricist.

I hope you do not mean the NME, Vince.

New Order do not publish lyrics because they not only wish the audience to have their own meaning, but their own lyrics.
the misheard line etc

when I was a kid I thought Bowie was singing the add for Old Spice. ("Young Americans").

as stated by the Cap'n it's out of the writers hands...writing love songs may be about the moment, also a recording of a song is a photograph of that day but I remember it differently.For me if I write a love song it needs to balanced with the other tunes that will make up that disc. An album of love songs seems ridiculous to me and I imagine painful for any listener.

but good for you for getting a tune finished, it's therapeutic.

bluesgeek wrote: I thought it was a gift from dog.

dyslexic

Yep lyrics are the hardest part, but the most rewarding and best thing when you get them right. Imagine Steve whathisname from the Sex Pistols without some of those classic lyrics from John Lydon.
Hey BG is this a blues song, I thought they were all just about the toaster stopped workin etc?