MrBiffo
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UGH... SONGS ARE HARD
🕑 Added 2020-07-20 09:52:51 +0000 UTCMan... writing songs is hard. I mean, I knew that, otherwise everyone would be doing it. But still. Here's the current progress of where I'm at with that sketch I uploaded last week. I've been tinkering with it on and off all weekend, while also trying to learn the keys, some basic chords, and song structure.
I managed to grab some midi files of songs I'm familiar with, and I've been studying those too, to try and understand them.
Here, I tidied up the melody, and tried putting some chords underneath the first half, but I kind of hate it. I had a version that I swamped with effects and different instruments, and it sounded much better... but that was kind of cheating. I want it to work without all the bells and whistles.
Utter amateur that I am, I know I'm missing something, so any advice from you musicians would be hugely appreciated.
Stubborn sod that I am, I'm determined to get this sounding at least half decent. I learned how to edit video and audio by doing it... so that's kind of my process here. Theory and advice is all well and good, but if you don't actually attempt something you're never going to learn it. I've even ordered a midi keyboard this week, so I can learn on that; currently, I'm just using my laptop keyboard, which isn't ideal...!
I'm going to keep uploading these sketches. It's a bit like wanting to lose weight, and posting up an embarrassing 'before' picture as motivation to keep going...!
Comments
Hedders
There's an old musician proverb: imitate, assimilate, innovate. In other words, you start learning by copying what other people do, then you start to understand what they're doing, then you do your own thing. You've clearly got the talent for it, but there's a level of skill required too, which you just have to acquire. I'd suggest picking up an instrument - something that's easy to get a decent basic sound out of, like a piano or a guitar.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
I'm the same; love a song that tells a story, I love atmosphere and ambient music, and grooves... but to do it well I think I need to understand songwriting before I can really start breaking the rules in the way that prog does. It's one thing to put something together from loops and samples, but what I really want is to know how those loops and samples are written!
Dave Graves
As a fan of music that tells a story (prog, divine comedy, Muse...various Norse inspired bands etc, various folk) I always find the music that gets me going the most is that which lets you guess the punchline, and then goes further. Essentially, your brain has a rough idea of melody, harmony, time signature etc and expects the song to flow in a certain manner. You almost anticipate the bridge or solo you know is round the corner. Then when that hits you, it just does so much more... Examples, The second guitar solo in Comfortably numb (Pink FLoyd) obvs. The final third of Sing for Absolution (MUSE) The final third of Le Perv (Carpenter Brut) The song leads you into what to expect, and then builds an emotional release that is initially unexpected. Theoretically, how to achieve this...I don't know...I just picture the Bill Hicks routine where he ends up screaming at the audience "Play from your f**king heart!!!!" when addressing the mediocrity of manufactured pop. I'm imagining magic mushrooms are probably one heck of an inspiration though!
