where do songs come from?

i'm not sure about the rest of you but songs just seem to come to me, but my friends say that they just can't get any ideas, does any body else (like me) just seem able to write riffs off the top of their head???

:)

Yeah, I'm that way so it can't be too rare. I'm more creative than skillful at guitar, which I'm not sure if it's a bad thing or a good thing.

What helps the most is having a good ear. Singing helps this.

where else would they come from?

getting a song started is the hard part, you just have to hear that one badass riff in your head, but once you have that down jamming the riff with a drummer for a while will usually produce other parts of the song

thats how I do it

or play the riff in your mind untill the next part naturaly works itself out

Me too. If I have mastered anything as a musician, it's the ability to think up something off the top of my head. Music is always playing in my head, and I can create any type of music in my head at will. Like if I want to write something thats sound scary and evil, something always pops up in my head. Samething if I would want to write a beautiful sounding ballad. I talked to alot of people about it, some people say they have similar experiences and some don't. The skillful part of it is being able to pull it out of your head and into the physical world.

So my problem with songwritting is not being able to create ideas, but having too many come out at once. I can sit down and write out 40 different ideas, but choosing which one and not getting bored with it is the only challenge. I'm also the kind of person that always says it can be better, and I'll work on something for days until it's the best I think it can possibaly be.

that also happens to me but generally only when im playing! i think its cos ive never bothered reall learnin other bands songs so ive had to come up with my own thing. it couls also be due to the excessively large amount i spend just messin bout on guitar. also inspiration can come from just the sound of one chord. fo my most melodic and beatuiful song, well i think it is anyway i saw this chord, an it inspired everythin for the song
-----
-----
--1--
--4--
--2--
--0--
if you pick that out it sounds really nice kinda like the rain song by zeppelin which is one probly the most beautiful thin to come out of a guitar an melotrone!

Originally posted by aiwass
ANYTHING you can come up with has been written before.

I used to believe that too at one point, but it's only true depending on how close you look at something. All the intervals and chords have been done of course. However the infinite possible order and progression of intervals and chords has hardly been completely covered. There is still much room for originality in the smallest musical structure, a phrase. History teaches us this lesson, after the end of the 19th century. Alot of people thought that everything possible in music had been done, but then came Jazz. Then Blues, Rock, and so on. Music will continue to evolve as long as we keep trying to come up with something new.

Depends for me. If I'm learning more and more as I keep playing then things just sort of come to me, but if I stop playing (not that I actually do) or stop learning then things start to slow down. That reminds me, I need to do some more reading. Starting to feel repetative again.

Yeah, I definitely fall into this category. I'll have a song buzzing around in my head all day...I can hardly wait to get home and try it out. The riffs are the easy part...my biggest problem is coming up with interesting lyrics that aren't cheezy and forced. Anyone else run into this problem or is it just me?

I've never had any problems writing lyrics. The trouble is getting other people to understand my lyrics or, if they understand them, getting them to not think I'm crazy.

I do crazy stuff like write about god by mixing in the feelings from an incident when I woke up after an unimaginably painful surgery (let's just say it couldn't happen to a girl) and was staring at the bright lights on the ceiling unable to move and how sound distorts in wierd ways when you're in that much pain along with elements of a very vivid dream I had of a dad shoving his kid off the sidewalk into a busy highway because the kid wouldn't shut up. And that was one hell of a run-on sentance.

That's actually about the easiest song of mine to make sense of/interpret when you know the stories, besides one I don't think would be a good idea to describe here. I'm not exactly a christian artist, as you've probably noticed.

Tough question....and great answers have already been given. My 2 pennies are that it's obviously different for everyone where a song comes from. For me, I was writing songs before I ever learned how to play a single not on the guitar. I wrote poetry (still do), since I was 7 years old, so when I learned how to play I simply looked through the tons of material I had, changed a bit here and there and created songs. It just takes one thought to spark a novel, poem, song, or whatever creative experience you are trying to achieve. It's hard to give advice on how to be able to write a song....most people just do it the best they can. The key is never trust the first draft....always revisit and rewrite. The gist at first is to just get your idea on paper the best you can...don't worry about language or diction, that comes later. Let the piece stew with time for a bit....then revisit it and change stuff around. The great songs aren't products of one spontaneous songwriting orgasm, it's a process of constant revision.

Well, when a mommy song and a daddy song love each other VERY much...

You know, that could explain why pop music has such a sexual focus :)

You know what's scary? Twins. Compare the chorus to 'Alone I Break' by Korn with parts in 'My Own Prison' by Creed. I personally can't tell any practical difference between the vocal parts.

Originally posted by Jolly McJollyson
Well, when a mommy song and a daddy song love each other VERY much...

You have nooo idea how hard it was for me to avoid saying something just like that...


!!!

Some people practice making tunes as much as an other practices soloing. I'm the later - my tunes are developed by taking some chunk of a solo riff and putting song structure to it. Basically I solo all day and at some point whatever's new may or not become the basis for a new tune. .. When I say some people practice making tunes I'm thinking it's usually in drop D or complicated chord or power riffs designed specifically for a song. Finger picking maybe or chord voicings etc.

Originally posted by iamthe_eggman

Originally posted by Jolly McJollyson
Well, when a mommy song and a daddy song love each other VERY much...

You have nooo idea how hard it was for me to avoid saying something just like that...


!!!

I know exactly how hard it was, the urge just overpowered me. I couldn't stop myself (though, now that I think about it, I didn't try very hard...)

this sounds wierd but lyrics to me are like dreams, they come to me for no reason and sometimes(not all the time) I dont understand them. Sometimes i write a song and days later I will look back on it and say" Wow! did that really come from me?" Then I analzye them a bit and realize what they mean, is like your unconcious mind on paper. Its kind of cool, some kind of weird therepy I guess. Thats just me though.

I've had music literally come to me in dreams. There have been several times I've woken up and had music playing in my head.

Not that it helps me any, since it's all either vocal work (in the style of the Queen of the Night selection from the opera 'The Magic Flute') or I can't remember any of it after being awake more than 5 minutes.

Originally posted by Hammurabi
I've never had any problems writing lyrics. The trouble is getting other people to understand my lyrics or, if they understand them, getting them to not think I'm crazy.

I do crazy stuff like write about god by mixing in the feelings from an incident when I woke up after an unimaginably painful surgery (let's just say it couldn't happen to a girl) and was staring at the bright lights on the ceiling unable to move and how sound distorts in wierd ways when you're in that much pain along with elements of a very vivid dream I had of a dad shoving his kid off the sidewalk into a busy highway because the kid wouldn't shut up. And that was one hell of a run-on sentance.

thats really messed up dude

have you ever heard the twisted sister song "under the knife" its about waking up during surgery... not cool

anyway, lyrics and music isn't that hard to write for me, especially the bluesy stuff, its just the melodies I take for ever to figure out

I hate when words just folow the music not for note, but sometimes its really hard to figure out the melody over a weird riff or chord

I'm writing a love song now. :) It should be interesting when it's finished.

When I write songs, I don't really know how it happens. I'm never by my guitar, it just pops into my head. If I am writing lyrics, I usually have wrote the whole song out in my head, and then sing random stuff that pops into my head, and go off of that.

The same thing happens when I write music for bands (like orchestra band, not rock band). I come up with one theme in my head. and before you know it I have harmonies and dramatic movements and such.