First Post-Creative approach ideas / rambling

Hi all. Glad to have found a forum to share whats on my mind with my music and maybe share and learn.

Just am wondering and pondering about how I am going to pretty much start over with a new approach writing songs on my own. I have so many good lyrics written and theres just a huge stack with me looking at them :w00t: pretty intimidated but very very excited. Some good lyrics. I went through some very rough up and down times and so I had alot to write about and always kept a journal. I am just starting to feel maybe "normal" again and got to get started and quit procrastinating this project that I am stoked about. I have all the equipment I need home studio wise, except for the fact I have to tap out the beats on the Zoom123 and program it but it is a good machine. My main goal is to ultimately start or join a band and find people to co-write with after writing/re-recording/working some of my stuff.

I have played guitar and bass in prior bands and am accomplished. One of my past problems though was I would write too inctricate of riffs on the guitar and the vocalists wouldn't know what to do on orignals and the vocalists didn't have the talent level or motivation to "work" with me. So I was left with the daunting task of writing everything knowing nothing about singing. So everyone was looking at me and yeah the music was very good but the singer wasn't.

So it didn't work, I decided about 3 years ago I was gonna start learning to sing and have become quite better through research and practice. I've found out that alot of singing is having a unique voice and having the guts to sing without any inhibition. Something that I am just beating being a shy person. Personality and confidence can be more important than talent.

This might be a rudimentary question but just wanted to know how the first step successful songs are created. The approach. I know there is no one successful formula and sometimes songs come from a guitar riff or a vocalist melody. The key making songs/harmonies/melodies that sticks in the human mind and makes them want to hear it again.

This being said, I want to move more towards my songs being based on vocal melodies than great guitar playing/music but don't want to sacrifice some of the articulate guitar playing so it is a push-pull thing as I love killer guitar. Satriani, Vai etc.. But thats not what I want this to be.

Lately I have just found that taking my lyrics and matching/creating them with melodies on the keyboard has worked well. Then find a drumbeat/tempo and adding guitar last. So, I find the chorus without the guitar and then I can write some more articualte guitar for the verse, prechorus or bridge but I don't want to get caught in some sort of rut like that even though so far I am impressed with the formula.

So if anybody can relate to what I just said with taking lyrics from scratch and making them into a song and the approach I would love to hear any new ideas that might spark some more creativity. I know that each song will be created differently but I want to find some winning formulas as I know I am capable of.

btw my style is maybe like :Tom Petty, Alice in Chains, Metallica and everything inbetween since I live in Seattle I like alot of the Seattle bands. I pretty much don't know how to categorize my style maybe Chevelle, Trapped. idk. Hard Rock/Little Metal/Few slower SAP type songs

MYSELF:D

So the approach with lyrics already written? Of course willing to re-word lyrics.

Thanks and good songwriting

Hmmmm not sure you'll find a stack of Metallica fans here (but I might be wrong).... Anyhow, when I'm writing pop/rock music, my approach is usually to come up with a few different chord-sequences or riffs, and then attempt to write some sort of melody over the top. Can't write lyrics to save my life though. The other way to go about it would be to sing a melody first, and then try to fit some chords to it. From there, I try to work on the structure of the song so it has some sort of coherence. And then write a bassline, think about a drum-beat, and maybe a couple of other instruments. Hope that helps.

Originally posted by Finrod

not sure you'll find a stack of Metallica fans here (but I might be wrong)

I'm a Metallica fan... and I'm from Seattle.

Anyway, if you have the lyrics already, the easiest way to write a rock song would be singing the lyrics and the melody and then finding the chords that fit well with them. Once you have the harmony of the lyrical sections you can start working on the instrumental sections; i.e. transitions and bridges. These sections would be a good place to show off your awesome guitar playing.

Another way to include good guitar is to exchange vocals and guitar.

Something like this:

Voice: All alone in the night,

Guitar: Da-do-do-doodledo-do-do-da-na

Voice: We have waited to fight,

Guitar: Juh-nuh---Juh-nuh---Juh-nuh---Juh-nuh-NA

Or something like that.:whistling:

I go overboard with my thoughts but am lucky to have alot of good deep lyrics to work with. Just do it. Fermion you answered the question well, thanks. Unfortunately alot of my best stuff comes to me from 2:00AM-5:30AM when I'm supposed to be sleeping. So I always have a notepad by my bed.

So for me this will be a new adventure. Writing the lyrics/vocals/melodies first then adding/combining the music/beats when this whole time I've been writing all the music then co-write lyrics with the singer in my band that didn't work. So now I realize that this will be much more productive to writing. Righteous. Being a solo artist has its advantages.

And yeah there are alot of young and mid-aged people that still like Metallica. I don't mean I put there CD in every week but they influenced and motivated me. Respect.

They opened avenues and expanded music even if you don't like it, those are the type of bands I respect, like Kurt did in the early to mid 90's and it still is pretty popular. Beatles etc. Break on through.:thumbsup:

Originally Posted by Jordan9

Unfortunately alot of my best stuff comes to me from 2:00AM-5:30AM

True that! :laugh:

OK, I've been ramblin about this new approach but now run in too just a minor delay.

I am using a cheap casio and all the sounds suck (but it is a good length-49 key) so it is a turn off for matching my voice and just isn't compatible with my recordings I have so far. I do have a solution though. I have a Microkorg that I am going to sync via midi and use a sound off the microkorg or program one this morning. Controlling the Korg with the cheap Casio.

So, just simply wanted to know if anybody had any advice on the sort of sound I should try to dial in (Keyboard/matching vocals) as the Microkorg you can pretty much get any sound. I'm thinking clean as possible and not real in your face. Maybe a bit of strings with a quick response (with no harmonies or special effects). My music is about 35% clean channel and the rest either full on distortion or a crunch channel.

Thanks for anybody that answers this awkward question, I know it is partly a matter of taste but someone has had to go through this situation. The casio is too cheesy. lol