# I suck at writing music...help?



## Clueless_Collin (May 27, 2010)

Im gonna try and make this short and too the point.

I've been playing guitar for almost 4 years and I can't seem to figure out how to write my own music.

I go around and I see guitarist that can easily just come up with stuff and then add on to it, but I can't seem to do it.

Every once in a while I come up with a nice riff that I like but I just don't know where to go from there.

I feel like along the way of me learning to play guitar I missed something that could have helped me understand how music is pieced together, but I have no clue what it could be.

So basically my question is, what are some things that are essential to writing music on guitar, and also, what are some of the writing processes that you all go through when you are writing.

(I play mostly death metal and progressive metal, and I have next to no music theory at all.)

Any help at all is appreciated.


----------



## Opeth666 (May 27, 2010)

+1 im the same way...actually I used to be able to write some good stuff about 2or 3 years ago but its left me for some reason. 

hope someone can give you a bump in creativity man, im sure you got it in you


----------



## Clueless_Collin (May 27, 2010)

Preciate it man.

I have so many badass sounding things going on in my head and a lot of ideas but I just can't figure out how to make it all come together on guitar.


----------



## Opeth666 (May 27, 2010)

hmm I guess try to hum it out with your guitar in hand and try to mimic on the guitar what you are humming, thats how I usually do it when/if anything ever comes to mind.


----------



## Clueless_Collin (May 27, 2010)

Yea I do that sometimes but I just tend to stray away from what I was going for.

That's kinda the hard way of doing it, and I would just love to actually understand the meaning behind what I'm doing for once ya know?


----------



## right_to_rage (May 27, 2010)

A big part of it is ear training with chords and scales. Practice scales and remember both the shapes and how they sound, so when you hear the idea in your head you will be able to find it more quickly on the guitar.


----------



## Mr. Big Noodles (May 27, 2010)

You can get a lot out of some basic music theory. I find that I think about the function of a tone within a chord or scale when I write riffs, which is a big difference from what I was doing before I started learning how to write. Simple stuff, like knowing the sound and resolution of a leading tone. Don't be afraid to delve into some theory - voice leading is a beautiful art.

Like others have said, ear-training is good, but you need the theory to go along with it in order to really gain anything.


----------



## AliceAxe (May 27, 2010)

those little riffs you come up with are the building blocks for your song. make sure you have a way of recording them for reference so you preserve your ideas. sometimes its best just to let them hang out until the right moment when you come up with the next bit to go with it. sort of relying on divine inspiration to direct your writing. Sometimes if you just let it float around in the fermament soemthing will come to you that will fit perfectly. 
to help it along take one of these riffs and just play around with it. alter it a little and see what happens. it may spark an idea for another part for it to lead into. decide what you would like for your chorus, verse etc. 

theory helps I agree, to know what will sound good with what , it makes it easier to find the sound you want to achieve.

Also just listening to song structure of music you like. What is tonality? how is it changed or used throughout the song? there are also a lot of books and resources out there on songwriting that might give you some ideas.

ultimately when you are writing a song your are trying to convey a message. As you write, think about what sort of emotion or imagery you are trying to evoke, what story you would like to tell and what type of sounds would express that, you can use visualisation , picture your concept as a short film you are writing the soundtrack to. then let your ears and spirit be your guide.


----------



## Sang-Drax (May 27, 2010)

SchecterWhore said:


> You can get a lot out of some basic music theory. I find that I think about the function of a tone within a chord or scale when I write riffs, which is a big difference from what I was doing before I started learning how to write. Simple stuff, like knowing the sound and resolution of a leading tone. Don't be afraid to delve into some theory - voice leading is a beautiful art.
> 
> Like others have said, ear-training is good, but you need the theory to go along with it in order to really gain anything.



This. It did help me a lot - although I often try some different, off-scale chords in a try-and-error basis, at least I know what's their function afterwards 

Now, if you can create riffs, that's a huge step. Building a song out of it is the laborous part, but not the hardest. Do you use guitar pro or stuff like that? Adding other instruments helps building the bigger picture in your head


----------



## Clueless_Collin (May 27, 2010)

All of this is helping a lot guys. Thanks and please keep it coming 

I do have Guitar Pro, but I don't know how to really use it for writing purposes. I always screw up a time signature or something like that and have no clue how to fix it.

I guess the main thing I need to do is not try to force my writing as much. Just like when I write lyrics, I don't force it I just let it happen based on the emotions im feeling at the moment.


----------



## Mr. Big Noodles (May 28, 2010)

AliceAxe said:


> those little riffs you come up with are the building blocks for your song. make sure you have a way of recording them for reference so you preserve your ideas. sometimes its best just to let them hang out until the right moment when you come up with the next bit to go with it. sort of relying on divine inspiration to direct your writing. Sometimes if you just let it float around in the fermament soemthing will come to you that will fit perfectly.
> to help it along take one of these riffs and just play around with it. alter it a little and see what happens. it may spark an idea for another part for it to lead into. decide what you would like for your chorus, verse etc.



This is good advice. Let me tell you how it works for me: I create an idea that I want to use in something that I'm doing, then that tune doesn't go anywhere. Then, after a while, I think, "Hey, I'll give another crack at that. What's that riff I wrote last time?"

I've had motifs and phrases floating around for years, and I ultimately don't use most of them. However, I've found that more and more of them are coming back into my writing.


----------



## Sang-Drax (May 28, 2010)

^ Taking a break to let the idea breathe and then try a different approach is essential. It works the same way for mixing... when you're into it for too much time you lose your reference.



Clueless_Collin said:


> I guess the main thing I need to do is not try to force my writing as much. Just like when I write lyrics, I don't force it I just let it happen based on the emotions im feeling at the moment.



It depends. I used to think that way and wasn't writing much for more than a year (a time frame when I was also bandless). Then a friend of mine invited me to write the soundtrack for an iphone game with a deadline... I worked my ass off and wrote some nice stuff, much better than I thought I could originally do. I'm currently doing another one now, and wrote a celtic piece and an orchestrated one - two of which I had never done before.

So, well... I produce more under pressure, I suppose. Many notorious composers suggest you write stuff every freaking day; maybe something good will come out. I'd do that to, but I currently lack the time 


Oh, one last advice. Carry a voice recorder with you all the time (I use my cellphone) and try to create melodies even when you're not with your instrument. If something goes nice, hum it and record it. It might be useful for something in the future


----------



## Andii (May 28, 2010)

AliceAxe said:


> those little riffs you come up with are the building blocks for your song. make sure you have a way of recording them for reference so you preserve your ideas.


That is it. Those little things that you may dismiss while you're playing around could have been building blocks for a song and could have been more significant than you thought.

I produced a song recently and the guitarist was simply writing on the spot. The dude is my cousin. He is was convinced that he had permanent writer's block and would never be able to write his own music. I decided he should try to record a song right then. He would play a bunch of things and would move on from something and I would tell him to go back because that was it. We would just tracked the ideas and assembled them into something very coherent. He went beyond what he thought his capabilities for writing were.

If you are getting frustrated and nothing is happening take a break and listen to some music that is really inspiring. It can be in either the genre you are trying to write in, or anything else that fires your brain up nicely.


----------



## Mr. Big Noodles (May 28, 2010)

Sang-Drax said:


> Oh, one last advice. Carry a voice recorder with you all the time (I use my cellphone) and try to create melodies even when you're not with your instrument. If something goes nice, hum it and record it. It might be useful for something in the future



What I do is figure out how to notate what I'm thinking while I'm driving, etc. I usually don't have ideas at times when I can just pull out a voice recorder, and I already have enough to carry around as it is, so thinking about what I'm singing intervallically not only helps my ear, but commits the idea to memory. Theory at work.


----------



## Cityscape (May 28, 2010)

Why not experiment with chord formations? Then worry about theory later. When I write it's usually based off of some chord or some shape I make.


----------



## Rev2010 (May 28, 2010)

Here are my suggestions, because I had many bouts of writers block around mid point in my music writing life:

1. KNOW WHAT YOU ARE INTENDING TO WRITE FIRST! Sorry for the all caps but I can't stress this enough. Of course, not everyone needs to do this, but in my personal experience the best songs come when you know what the fuck it is you are writing about first! Just throwing together a dozen "cool" riffs doesn't cut it for me and in most guitar driven music I can tell when a band has done that. If you sit down and hash out what the song is going to be about and plot it out in your head first it can work wonders. I now sit and figure out what a new song is going to be about. Then I think of my feelings toward said topic. Then I figure out (again all in my head) how it's going to start and where it's going to go from there. This way your music will match what you're expressing. Not just, "Well I was sitting down waiting for a download and came up with this cool riff so now I'm gonna throw it together with a bunch of other spontaneously written cool riffs and make a song about XXX". See where I'm going with this?

2. Don't be so damned hard on yourself. I need to take my own advice here lol. I push myself too hard and get depressed when I waste a whole day with nothing solid written. Then suddenly the next day something unexpectedly awesome comes out. Take a breather when you can and relax about the whole process.

3. Experiment. Maybe you should try adding other shit to your music like Keyboards, effects, loops, etc. Sometimes just plain 'ol guitar can get a little tiring. There's never anything wrong with adding other sounds to your stuff. Don't limit yourself cause doing so is lame and causes stagnation.

4. As others have mentioned already, getting some music theory knowledge helps a ton as well. While songs can vary dramatically and limitlessly in sound and arrangement fact is most songs (well the successful one's anyway) have some form of structure that is commonly recognized. You may have some great riffs that reflect a songs purpose but you'll have to have some basic knowledge on how to best arrange them.

Anyhow, those are my opinions with #1 being the absolute most important - for me it was at least. Best of luck!


Rev.


----------



## 7deadlysins666 (May 28, 2010)

Clueless_Collin said:


> All of this is helping a lot guys. Thanks and please keep it coming
> 
> I do have Guitar Pro, but I don't know how to really use it for writing purposes. I always screw up a time signature or something like that and have no clue how to fix it.
> 
> I guess the main thing I need to do is not try to force my writing as much. Just like when I write lyrics, I don't force it I just let it happen based on the emotions im feeling at the moment.



Work with guitar pro, once you get used to it, it is a Powerful tool for writing and documenting. I have every song i've ever written, previous and current band as a guitar pro file. Once you understand how to make guitar pro work, it will help out a LOT with time and time signatures, and it helps to write especially for "What if"s...... what I mean by that is, "What if I had a 6 part guitar harmony", "What if I want to add a hammond organ to that", "I don't like the bass part, what if it didn't follow the guitar accept for the root notes", etc. It is a great program and I don't know what I would do without it.

As far as writing, for me it just happens. Sometimes I pick up my guitar with the intent of writing a new riff and sometimes that works, but most of the time its while im practicing. I aim to practice 1 hour - 2 hours a day, and I give myself a little time just to jam and mess around so I don't get tired of metronome workouts and most of the time it just comes while I am jamming. A lot of times i'll come up with riffs at different times, and then eventually think "wait a minute, lets put these together".


----------



## budda (May 28, 2010)

HOLY FUCK!

17 posts and I haven't seen "get a teacher" yet.

Get a professional guitar instructor


----------



## Clueless_Collin (May 29, 2010)

Well I certainly have a long way to go, which I expected.

Thanks for all of the help and the ideas!


----------



## chucknorrishred (May 29, 2010)

ill just toss something simple into the mix

practice scales, then practice the same scales with powerchords instead of just single notes

use a metronome and play with ur eyes closed while humming, i did this when i knew nothing about theory and only power chords and wrote songs like nothing.

also dont be TOO picky when writing your first couple of songs, even setting a simple goal like " i'll write one song today" will keep u motivated


----------

