Band creating songs

IF you are main singer of the band and you wanna write a song, u dont want to totally control the song writing process and stuff because maybe you need help or you dont wanna be a writing hog. How would you go about it writing with the other band members. Also what if one or all of them is not good at song writing and they have bad songs and ideas... do you have to have everyone in the band to be good at writing songs in order to have great songs or can one person make a whole difference. PLease help me on this issue!

we usually do it like this: we have a person who writes lyrics in the band (no - in our case its not the singer). So we have a bunch of lyrics to choose from.
we enter the rehersal room and someone is like "look i got this and that". then we jam along to it. usually after 1-2 hours we got at least 3 parts/riffs and then we start to construct a song from it.
our singer goes through the lyrics and is like "hmm.. yea - this text will fit". then he starts to come up with vocal lines and we try to come up with a structure for the song which is not too difficult if you have a few riffs and the lyrics. so basically we have an output of at least one song per rehersal.

Originally Posted by: Azraelwe usually do it like this: we have a person who writes lyrics in the band (no - in our case its not the singer). So we have a bunch of lyrics to choose from.
we enter the rehersal room and someone is like "look i got this and that". then we jam along to it. usually after 1-2 hours we got at least 3 parts/riffs and then we start to construct a song from it.
our singer goes through the lyrics and is like "hmm.. yea - this text will fit". then he starts to come up with vocal lines and we try to come up with a structure for the song which is not too difficult if you have a few riffs and the lyrics. so basically we have an output of at least one song per rehersal.

so how many songs do you have already? 500?
Don´t you spend more time on one song to make it even better, except for the solo parts?

500? no - we reherse every 2 weeks only since i have to drive 600 km (there and back again) for a rehersal.
its not good to spend weeks on one song alwasy changing this and that for that way you´ll end up having 4 songs after 3 years of weekly reherals and the band breaks up for everyone gets bored (happened to me twice).
one rehersal is enough to make a song work and maybe a second rehersal for some fine-tuning. thats it.

Originally Posted by: Azrael500? no - we reherse every 2 weeks only since i have to drive 600 km (there and back again) for a rehersal.
its not good to spend weeks on one song alwasy changing this and that for that way you´ll end up having 4 songs after 3 years of weekly reherals and the band breaks up for everyone gets bored (happened to me twice).
one rehersal is enough to make a song work and maybe a second rehersal for some fine-tuning. thats it.

:rolleyes: ...always the pragmatist...

Originally Posted by: Azrael500? no - we reherse every 2 weeks only since i have to drive 600 km (there and back again) for a rehersal.
its not good to spend weeks on one song alwasy changing this and that for that way you´ll end up having 4 songs after 3 years of weekly reherals and the band breaks up for everyone gets bored (happened to me twice).
one rehersal is enough to make a song work and maybe a second rehersal for some fine-tuning. thats it.

Where do you rehearse that you have to drive 600 km? Shows how important music can be for people.
How do you manage the solos. Do you also write them in a few hours or do you spend more time with them?

well - i live in Krems in Lower Austria and the band is in Traunstein Germany. 300 km apart :)

and the thing with the solos - i improvise them. When we create a song we play it over and over again. so i got more than enough chances to create a good solo. i improvise it every time and keep the parts that i like. Plus i dont play a solo in every song because not every song needs a solo. the music is more important than the individual urge to show off. :D

And if Azrael wanted to, he could do alot of showing off. Now there's musical maturity.

~Incidents

Originally Posted by: MadGuitarestIF you are main singer of the band and you wanna write a song, u dont want to totally control the song writing process and stuff because maybe you need help or you dont wanna be a writing hog. How would you go about it writing with the other band members. Also what if one or all of them is not good at song writing and they have bad songs and ideas... do you have to have everyone in the band to be good at writing songs in order to have great songs or can one person make a whole difference. PLease help me on this issue!

I am getting more and more convinced that it is more the collective process that is important for things to be going right in the band. Its more of getting used to the people and having them used to you. What we did in my last band is we start to jam and gradually things get into shape by themselves. After several months of playing once in week or two, we became so good in that that we basically could come up with ideas realy easily. And things feel much more natural than saying to other people in the bands:"ok guys here is that song I did. you play this, you that...etc". Even if one of the members is not that good as the others, as long as he is open minded, the others may adapt towads him, if they are more flexible. And besides, how good are you, is purely subjective cathegory, well with the exception if the style of the band is some elaborate speed metal thing, where technique is, it seems to me, the most important thing.
So I would advise you to be open minded to towards the people in your band who are slower and reqire from them the same(to be more open minded). And of course, depends on yor values, if the person's technical abilities are nowhere near what the situation requires, you should get rid of them. When a person clearly doesn't fit in you will feel it.
hope this input helps a bit

When I was in a band, everyone would have a couple of ideas for a song before we even got in the same room together. Then we would toss out our ideas to everyone else until we found something we all agreed was worth working on. Once we had a single idea, everyone else would put there own thing to it. Usually we would jam out on the idea and somebody would do something cool and then we would work off that. Like the drummer changes the beat. Well then we would write something to what the drummer did. Or the other guitarist will think up something like, "hey, after we play through this we'll go to this". Alot of brainstorming and tossing ideas until we find something that works, and then we continued on. Quickly it becomes a snowball effect and we get through a song rather quickly. Building alot of the times from a single 10 second idea. I think it's more important to have a good group of people willing to throw out ideas than 1 songwritter. Songwritting in a band is a collective persuit.

Its better to play a bad song then to piss off an asset to the band. If one person likes the song surely someone else does. Mabey you think its a bad idea because its not your style; or mabey the arrangment isn't the best for lyrics. I would write the lyrics for each section, record the song and then collaborate with the writter of the music and the band on how to arrange the song for the best structure for the lyrics all parts considered. As long as you don't discredit his ideas he will probabily stay open to yours. If music were looked at in percentages, 50% of the song is the music and 50% of the song is Lyrical. Anyways, after you get that sorted out get a new recording of the song and show it to as many people as you can, and see what they think. I think record companies expect you to sell 100,000 units or something like that nation wide. So if you find one other person other then the writter who likes it, then there you go.

i dont know how record companies view instrumentals

When my band writes songs, either me or the other guitarist will start playing some riff we came up with, then the drummer will start to come in with something, and the whole time the bass player will stare at us for a while trying to figure out what we're play, make an attempt, stop, stare some more, then we'll stop and show him what to play...lol. Or, the drummer will just start banging away, and we'll just pull something out of our ares's and hope for the best. Usually our singer already has a bunch of lyrics she's wrote and sh goes through them 'till she finds one that fits. Then we work at structuring the song. Then we record the song and work out any details that need attention. BAM! we've got a new song :D