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What conditions suit you best when it comes to songwriting?

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(@kevin72790)
Prominent Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 837
Topic starter  

I'm not talking about "ahh...when an idea randomly puts into my mind during the day." I mean, when you just sit down and say, "I'm gonna write something."

For me, it's at nighttime. Right now, at 11:20 PM at night. When I'm tired, on the verge of passing out due to fatigue. And while I have some music on too. It just comes so much easier to me at this time. Maybe because it's a sort of high, I guess.

What about you?


   
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(@embrace_the_darkness)
Honorable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 539
 

For me, the writing comes best when I'm having an event happen in my life (dating someone new, a birth / death, ending a relationship, or just a really really bad day :lol:) It's not so much about when, although I do find I can't write unless I am in my own space - anywhere else (other rooms in my house, lectures at uni, the library etc) and I can't even get a rhyme going.

If I do ever sit down with the pure intention of writing something, I do best late at night (2 or 3am) after a drink or two :)

Pete

ETD - Formerly "10141748 - Reincarnate"


   
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(@vic-lewis-vl)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 10264
 

If I do ever sit down with the pure intention of writing something, I do best late at night (2 or 3am) after a drink or two :)

Pete

works for me......

seroiously, I've written up-beat songs when I've been down, and I've written blues when I've been on top of the world - it's good to write a blues when you've been feeling so low the gutter looks like up, and it's good to write a love song after - well, I won't draw any pictures .....

But me, I'm more the random line guy - I get a phrase or a riff in my head, can't settle till I've worked it out....doesn't matter what mood I'm in, the song tends to follow the way I want to feel - or the position I, as narrator, am speaking from....

A word, a phrase....if it appeals to you, take it, keep on it, work on it, play with it......you never, EVER know where the next song is coming from!

:D :D :D

Vic

"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)


   
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(@kevin72790)
Prominent Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 837
Topic starter  

and I've written blues when I've been on top of the world
Jimi Hendrix was once asked how he can write the blues when he's as famous as he was(on top of the world). And he said something like, "well that's todays blues. everyone is looking at you and you have a lot of expectations. that's blues. it's easier to right blues when you are like this. this is the modern blues."

I agree with him, and I see exactly what you're saying Vic. Sometimes it's easy to right sad songs when you are happy. And vice versa.

ATleast I think that's what you're saying. :shock:


   
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(@surly)
Trusted Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 60
 

good thread,

Inspiration is a slippery wench. I find if i finally have a whole afternoon with nothing to do that i set aside to write i wont come up with anything decent until 30 seconds before I need to put the guitar down to do something else...

does anyone else find they often come up with their best ideas literally as they are putting the guitar back in the case?


   
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(@anonymous)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 8184
 

there are always words to write, it just depends on which ones you're looking for.
drunk, stoned, and room barely willing to stay still works.
just playing the guitar and making up words works.
heartbreak works.
listening to music and writing works.


   
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(@jus_another_sin)
Eminent Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 15
 

This might sound weird but a lot of my songs have been written while traveling.
I travel some 2-2.5 hrs going to and coming back from work. Most of my songs have taken shape while driving. The downside is, since i cant write them down while driving generally i loose a few lines.
Sometimes as vic said, i get a phrase in my head and can't get it out till i make something of it. Right now the phrase doing rounds in my head is "Burning up the neighborhood" and i haven't done anything about it yet :p

there's a lot of difference between an open mind and a hole in the head !


   
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(@gram99)
Estimable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 62
 

mornings for me. words and phrases come in droves until the critic wakes up and tells me that what i've written is crap. I tell him to fuck off, grab my cleanest dirty shirt and walk out to meet the day :-) Thank you Mr Kristofferson.

those who are losing lyrics. buy a panasonic something 302 i believe. a little digital recorder small enough to wear around your neck. and best of all it comes with a speech to text translation package that works so you can just plug into your pc and dump it off as text.
gram 99

"Nothing happens until something moves."

Albert Einstein


   
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(@citizennoir)
Noble Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 1247
 

Well, I can't ever write anything that's "on assignment" - That is, I can't just sit down and say
"I'm gonna write a song" and then pick an arbitrary topic.
It helps to have something that you feel passionate about at that time, in your subconscience so to speak.
Whatever I write has to be personal.
And I find the best time that things come out for me is when a "Zen"- like state of mind is allowed to occur:
When I'm in the shower; Just after I wake up; Or when I'm engaged in some awfully boring, mindnumbing
work routine. (Like painting cars, working in a factory, etc...)
I don't believe in pushing things. At least, that method doesn't work well with me.
Rough things out and then let them sit. Usually my mind works on things when I'm not aware of it.
Then again - I am a Scorpio. (%

Peace Kurt Vonnegut, and Thankx.
I hope you found that "Everything was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt"

"The man who has begun to live more seriously within
begins to live more simply without"
-Ernest Hemingway

"A genuine individual is an outright nuisance in a factory"
-Orson Welles


   
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(@ghost)
Prominent Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 815
 

It helps to have something that you feel passionate about at that time, in your subconscience so to speak.

Usually when I have something in mind to write about I put it down before I forget it. Which can mean wakening out of a dream to write something down at 4am. Any time suits me. I'll also dwell on a song idea or leave it rest until I'm ready to get back to it. Right now I have a song that I haven't touched since last summer and will post the lyrics eventually.

"If I had a time machine, I'd go back and tell me to practise that bloody guitar!" -Vic Lewis

Everything is 42..... again.


   
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