Recently I've written a few songs (i'd record them and post them if I had a mic) which i feel are pretty good but I cannot, for some strange reason, write vocals and lyrics... and when i do the lyrics are bad and always the same, same with the vocal melodies. I'm not much of a singer either, which may pose a problem as well. Are there any tips anybody can give me to help me improve this problem?
Steve-0
Perhaps a writing partner Steve? I go to my bass player for song help. I'll lay down the basic idea I have then toss it to him, he'll come back with lyrics, we tussle a bit back and forth on them hammer it all out then present it to the band for final polishing
Immature? Of course I'm immature Einstein, I'm 50 and in a Rock and ROll band.
New Band site http://www.myspace.com/guidedbymonkeys
Lyrics are a lot harder than most people realize.
It's not quite prose, and it's not quite poetry, and the best have large elements of both.
Lyrics tend to come to me in phases. I usually have a dozen or so one verse ideas laying around at any one time.
It take a lot of work for me to expand those snippets into something larger and more complete. And then it takes even more work to polish them into something I consider usable.
There are some good books out there that give ideas on how to approach lyric writting that provide some tools to use for generating ideas and what-not, but ultimately it's really just a lot of hard work.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
My limited experience is, it's harder to write lyrics when I think about it to much. I find it a little easier when I don't think about it. Some times it flows out of me, sometimes I feel like I have to bang my head against the wall.
Usual the songs or melodies I come up with when I think too hard on…… are the ones I end up discarding because they sound ‘forced' or ‘generic'.
Then again, if it was easy, I wouldn't be trying to do it.
Join Sunday Songwriters group! 8)
Do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life...
Carry a note pad and pen with you, so when you have an inspired thought you can write it down. You'd be amazed at how many great songs where written on napkins or scraps of paper. If you have a note pad and pen with you all the time you'll be prepared. Don't try to write about something you think will make a cool song. Write about things that mean something to you. I think the best songs are written about personal life experiences.
Tim Madsen
Nobody cares how much you know,
until they know how much you care.
"What you keep to yourself you lose, what you give away you keep forever." -Axel Munthe
Perhaps a writing partner Steve? I go to my bass player for song help. I'll lay down the basic idea I have then toss it to him, he'll come back with lyrics, we tussle a bit back and forth on them hammer it all out then present it to the band for final polishing
As I've said before, Lennon, and McCartney are an obvious example. They were decent apart (post-Beatles), but together, they wrote some of the greatest rock songs in the world.. 8)
And hey, you could be the next lennon, and your bass player could be the next McCartney... :)
Stairway to Freebird!
Thanks for all the tips guys! Actually another writing partner would be great for a couple reasons: the most obvious being that we could probably write good music, but also i've been really bored lately (especially after quitting my previous band) and i think i should join another one or form a band of my own so I guess this gives me more initiative to do that.
Oh, and I think i'll be more active in the Sunday Songwriters group, cause it sounds like the only way i'll get better at writing is by practicing.
Steve-0
most cellphones now have a build in recorder, you can always record ideas on the spot if you've got 1 of those
Minus Human
And all the things you said to me
I need your arms to welcome me
But a cold stone's all I see
Let my heart go
