Did they know

I was just wondering when all the great songwriters knew they were really good at it. Im pretty young but i really wanna be able to write songs but i dont know if ill ever be a great songwriter ( lennon etc ) i suppose you would just know and you would always be realy good at it. Or would you have to work at it ?

I write kids songs, and sometimes, I come up with a song that I know is gonna be a hit...
I have several songs that seem that they have been handed to me from something beyond. People call that inspiration, some the muse, I like to think it's god's gift...

hands up, i'm a lousy songwriter, but we all have to work at most things - everything from sex to fishing> Practice and fool about with a song, learn as much theory as you can stomach so then you can either forget the theory or use it- knowledge is a tool.

Or you can just pinch bits like The Beach Boys nicked Chuck Berry riffs (and so did the Beatles,Ac/Dc ,etc).

I'd start by copying some Chuck Berry licks :D

Try to believe in what you are doing, and if anyone says you ain't doin it right (even if you say that to yourself) don't beleive it.

Cheers.

I'm not really good at song writing, my biggest flaw is not able to join riffs together.

One thing I know is when I got a good riff. I can feel that it's good. Most of the time it gets my heart beating faster. Than sometimes, when i'm lucky, a melody comes to me when listening to the riff.

If I could write good lyrics then I could put it on the melody. I know I would have a great song, at least in my opinion. I'm too heavy for commercial stuff so I wouldn't get very far with it but hey, at least I'm having fun.

I think if you have a good rhytmn and you can hear a melody, then you probably have a potential song. It's all about mixing music with words for me.

Work, work work! Even the best poets woulkd spend hours rewriting and changing the structure of their poems. The more you try the better you will get. Also, read, read, read!

Originally posted by Benoit

I'm not really good at song writing, my biggest flaw is not able to join riffs together.

I hav efound it quite usefull to learn abit about theory.
No matter what type of music u make, it is always good to have some basics in music theory.

Then it is VERY usefull to have a second dude (preferably guitarist or keyboarder) with whom u sit together and improvise over a certain riff of yours - you´ll quickly find new riffs to go on in the song.

And: do not overdo it. I know alot of bands who never realy finished a song for they changed their songs every five minutes. You must have the balls at a certain point to say "now thatz it - next song". Especially in a band! You cannot make a song where everyone in the band likes every single note of it - but you need a person in the band that says "this is it - end of discussion" - and the others have to accept it.

I always wanted a band where everyone takes part in songwriting.. but the truth is that this does not work in most cases unless everyone knows how far he can go without ruining the song. And findig 4 or 5 dudes who have that ability is NOT easy.

-=[Azrael]=-

I just write whatever i feel like.
i dont care if it's good and/or other people like it.
but whenever i find a way to rewrite or change part of my song i do it.
thats evolusion man! survival of the fittest! :)

Yeah.. but there are some perfectionists (i´´m one of them) who never realy are satiffied with what they did.. thatz not bad, but it becomes a problem when u cannot stop to rewrite yer songs. I´ve been in a band where we worked 2 years on only 4 songs! and the result was, that the songs sounded like crap afterwards. ... then the band broke up, but thatz a different storry *L*

-=[Azrael]=-

WHAT?!
on the first half a year we already had bout 10 songs!
we dont get much time to practice them and record them so i have time to change them but we already have 15 finished (i sometimes change them a bit) and tens of not finished ones! :)
but then again i would prefer more practice with my buddies