I am a long-time lyricist who is jsut now trying to learn guitar, and who tends to make up tunes to my songs -- but I'm not neccesarily able to write them down properly.
So basically, I have two questions which sound really basic, but which are giving me trouble.
1. Is notation software for PC all that helpful in getting a song down? And if so, what would be a good package to get at a reasonable price?
2. Is there a good way to tell without immediate access to a guitar which chrods would work with a certain melody line? And is there a good way to figure out what to do with interludes when I'm not singing?
There is another question that goes along with this -- if I'm only using one guitar for accompaniment, is there a way to notate things like solos, segues and background progressions? Most of the people I deal with use very simple guitar prcedures, which is probably all I will have the skill to do for some time, but eventually I will want to write songs that combine the vocal and intrumental sections more smoothly than I can currently.
I guess your first priority should be to find a way to remember your songs. Find a way to record your ideas, with a tape recorder for instance. I use a cheap microphone, my computer and a sequencer (apples Garage Band is a sequencer). These recordings could you use when you communicate your ideas with other people.
I also think you should learn to write down chords. It's an easy and fast way to capture your ideas. Chords also have the advantage to give the musicians a lot of freedom while still following your ideas. This is an example of a lyric with chords written above the lines: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/b/byrds/there_must_be_someone_crd.htm
David Hodge have written a lot about chords on this site. I liked his lessons a lot, and I've understood that they are really popular.
If you want to write down individual notes, you'll have to use either tabs or learn to write music. I use a program called Sibelius to write and play music, but it's not so cheap. It depends on what kind of music you play, but usually I think it's overkill to write down individual notes. I would prefer to communicate my ideas with help of recordings and chord tables - mainly because this gives the musician more freedom. But then again, I've written one song where I wanted to have more controll, and then I wrote it down in Sibelius.
Did this help? What do you others say who read this? I'm still a beginner, so you may find these advices incompetent, but they work for me. And I think it's a very common way to work with music: via chords and quick and dirty recordings.
Hiya,
Sibelius is very good, but it's primarily written as a wordprocessor with a music font.
I think your money would be better spent on an inexpensive tape recorder, and something like Sonar - which runs on PC's and can drive MIDI keyboards and the like.
Best,
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
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