hey everyone.
well lately iv been writing lyrics when ever i can, sometimes its once a week, sometimes its 3 times a day. anyway, i am stuck in a verse, chorus, verse, outro loop and when ever i write something i can never make it sound good, im in a band with my friends and we are a pink floyd sounding band. i am pretty bad with melodies.
heres one of my songs:
THE REFLECTIONS OF MISTAKES
Mirrors flashing light as they blur your sight.
Watching you with your soul and senses.
Don't stumble into gardens of lucid figures,
Where the wild affects of your mind commences.
Make this count,
Stand up and shout
Why you need to get out.
Burn the madness
And rip away your mount.
Turn around, you'll see yourself, but isn't you anymore.
Out of corners of vision you see the evil warps of insight,
Pouncing at your psychedelic see-saw.
Make this count,
Stand up and shout
Why you need to get out.
Free your mind
And get rid of what was behind.
thats only one of them and i can't get any ideas for melodies, iv tried writing music first, but that hasn't helped much. if anyone can help or give me tips on melodies, it will much appreciated by myself and my band.
peace
"If you give a man a Les Paul guitar, he doesn't become Eric Clapton. If you give a man an amp and a synthesizer, he doesn't become whoever. He doesn't become us." - Roger Waters, Pink Floyd
When you say "melodies" what do you mean; timing, rythm, strumming pattern, chord progressions? I'll try to cover some stuff here for you anyway;
One thing that I find helps me figure out a chord progresion is singing the song out loud. Get your band together, or at least one other person (one who plays guitar), sing the song, and find the key/chord that fits what you are singing, line for line.
After a few lines you'll start to get some kind of chord structure for your song, and if you can't get it to fit, try changing the chord and/or note you are singing.
Its all about trial and error, I doubt many people sit down and come up with lyrics, chords and melodies all in one go. It takes time and patience.
Also, you gotta bear in mind that not everything your write/compose will get used. I have countless solo's, strumming patterns, picking instrumentals and lyrics that just don't work well enough to be used in a song.
Kepp trying, as with everyhting, practice and you'll get better! :)
Pete
Try leaving the words alone, and just work for a while on melodies on your guitar, solo without accompaniment. When you are sitting around, pick up the guitar and just play around on the scales. Not the show-off riffs, but the slower melody-type work. David Gilmore is one of the best to learn from when you want to learn how to "phrase" a melody. Others you can learn a world of information from include Duane Allman (possibly the best at this). Listen to Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, too. Then after some weeks of this go back and apply what you've come up with.
I find having lyrics first is good for tying it all together, but when I'm on to writing the melody it's easier for me to work with syllables and get the melody and phrasing right with just that - it stops me limiting my phrasing to the way the line would be phrased if it was spoken. I count out the syllables in each line and sing one 'da' for each, just experimenting. Sometimes I have to fit an extra syllable in, or take one out and tweak the lyrics to fit, but it's all for the good and usually you can just put a few notes into one syllable :)
I was thinking the johnnywhiteshoes quandry was addressed to the general concept of discovering a melody, so my suggested exercise really steps away from the idea of writing any particular song, and just focus on working with phrasing notes into a melody in the abstract, without chords or words or any preconceptions to tie him down.
When it comes to writing a particular song, I agree that it can help to have the words already there, at least to give some feeling of the meter (or syllables)... kind of skeleton to hand the meter on. But it can work any which way. Most of my songs start out with a few lyrics simultaneous with a meldoy. Recently I tried the words first, with no chord or melody in mind yet, and was pleased with the outcome.
But if the words come first, I think it's important to consider them as still emerging and unfinished, and not think any words are too good to trim or cut or move. It would be a shame to sacrifice a good song for the sake of saving a great line. You can take more liberties with the language than you might think, and still get the point across. Like recently, when I trimmed this line:
"I dreamed I held a white bird in my hand" down to
"I dreamed a white bird in my hand"
Same thing but less clumsy.
I've run into this same problem and what I do is either set the lyrics aside (and revisit them later), or start by phrasing to a rhythm which fits the groove. A few melodies will soon emerge. At least that's how it works for me.
By the way, I like the lyrics you've written here - you should be able to massage them into something really nice (if not great).
Chris
