Am i just not creative!?

[bjarkedk]

Hi all,

ive just borght a hole lot of stuff so that i can record and compose my own music. i am using Reason with a midi kebard. and i play guitar.
i have good ears, and have bin marked as talented of all my teachers.
but i have out of 1000 trys, i made 1 song, and it was made becours i was forced to do it school, that was a long time ago.

i am a big fan of "radiohead" and "the knife" and i am always lisning to one of them before i begin composing. my plan with my new homestudie is to make songs that my singer friend can sing to. but i everytime i start out im to foced on that it needs to sound amazing. im proppeply afraid of making something bad, and i have bin stuck there for years. every time i try to make something good its allways ends up as a small loop that i am not happy about, or a loop that i think is funny.

i was hoping that someone could give me a tip, or a strukture i could follow to create songs, or a way to plug your head in to a world where you can hear whats good or bad. i have uploaded 2 "songs". One of the songs is not serius. the other was when i tryed to force my selvf to compose what ever that came up and then accept it, and when i do that its always classic music...
how do you compose music?

its really a big problem for me, and so is my spelling

[sparqee]

Letting yourself write "bad songs" is a skill that every great song writer has learned. You will find that some "bad songs" are good enough to deserve a re-write and perhaps they will become better, or perhaps even "good". Some bad songs will just get thrown away and forgotten about. That's ok. The main thing is to *finish* the songs. Don't just start but actually finish each song.

Asking for tips on "how to compose" is a bit like asking for tips on "how to be a good lover". People can tell you things but it all comes down to what's right in the moment. Getting in touch with how you feel and expressing that through music. If you're looking for a good exercise try something that's called "scaffolding". Take a song that you like, write new lyrics to the melody, put it away for a while (days or weeks) then take those lyrics and write new music to fit them. You might even use another song to scaffold the structure or chords after. You're basically creating a Frankenstein song. DO this a couple of times and you may find that there's more of *you* in the song than the original copied song. It's just an exercise, you probably won't get great/original material out of it but it does get you writing and that's the important thing.

[bjarkedk]

thanks! thats a great ideer, ill deffently do both. i think i will make a lot of bad songs on purpes now. maybe after many i will get better.

[sparqee]

I remember the first song that I forced myself to finish. It was a bit rambling and I named it "silly song 153" in homage to the idea that I would allow myself to write ephemeral, silly songs. I actually got a lot of compliments on it. It was definitely a break through for me in not being overly critical of work in progress.

[bjarkedk]

hehe, nice name silly song 153 alot like my names. as soon as my mixer and so comes ill make a bad song for the lyrics i just wrote useing scaffolding on "radiohead - a wolf at the door" cant wait

[lcjones]

Originally Posted by sparqee

Letting yourself write "bad songs" is a skill that every great song writer has learned. You will find that some "bad songs" are good enough to deserve a re-write and perhaps they will become better, or perhaps even "good". Some bad songs will just get thrown away and forgotten about. That's ok. The main thing is to *finish* the songs. Don't just start but actually finish each song.

Sage advice. The vast, vast majority of songwriters and composers do not hit their stride until years have past. It really does require wading through the bad to find the good. Consider the Beatles. If the had never gone to Hamburg to play in the strip clubs, hammering out eight hour gig's everyday, there would not be a Beatles catalog today. The Beatles spent thousands of hours honing their skills by playing in the bars and night clubs "BEFORE" they came close to writing a hit song.

Yep. Every once in a while some joker writes a one hit wonder. But they can't do it again. What the Beatles learned was how to be consistent. Tom Petty is another consistent writer, though not on the scope of the Beatles. Fleetwood Mac. It took Fleetwood Mac 10 years to develop into the power house they became.

Anyway, the question shouldn't be "Am I just not creative?", rather, the question should be "How can I learn to be more creative?"

**
Chap

[crooked09]

I'm not terribly experienced, as I've only finished 3 songs so far... but before I realized this I never finished any: Just grind it out.

For the longest time I would get a riff or part I really like but then I would stop liking it and just give up and try to do a new thing. But eventually I realized that I probably will never make a riff that I won't doubt after putting enough time into it to finish a song. Its at this point you've gotta just grind it out, and trust your initial impressions, otherwise you will never ever finish a song. Trust that once you come back to listen to the finished product after you distance yourself from it again, you'll like it. And trust that other people will share your first impression of it, because it their first impression hearing it as well.

I wouldn't say exactly just make bad songs, like don't follow an idea that you just don't like. But finish ideas that you initially think are good, even if you change your mind as you go about it.

[bradzoot]

LOL
Who the fuck is this/ these/guys/gal/gals?

[sparqee]

Originally Posted by crooked09

I wouldn't say exactly just make bad songs, like don't follow an idea that you just don't like. But finish ideas that you initially think are good, even if you change your mind as you go about it.

I'm not saying to intentionally make bad songs. Nor am I saying that if you have a backlog of great ideas to spend time on a "bad song" but I am actually saying that if you're having problems ever completing a song to go ahead and finish songs even if you think they are "bad". There is a kind of liberation that comes with completing something. The more things you actually finish the easier it is to start (and complete) more projects. And that aside, if you finish 100 songs you're likely to have *something* which is better than a pile of 100 unfinished songs.

Oh, and by the way, my definition of "a good song" is one that *you* like. From a writer's point of view it shouldn't matter what other people think, or whether you can monetize it. If it excites you, if it sparks that amazing feeling of "wow this is cool" then it's a good song.

[brandondrury]

I'm not saying to intentionally make bad songs.

I would! When I'm brainstorming (for songwriting, ideas for RecordingReview.com, places I want to take a vacation, or possible names for my dog) ALL ideas are good ideas. If nothing comes to mind, write down something ridiculous even if you know it has no chance of being "good".

If "grape jelly" isn't in your list of possible dog names, you've not really opened your mind!

I don't believe in this "creative people" thing. If I said "I'll give you $1,000,000 if you can draw 5 circles on this piece of paper in the next 3 seconds" you would do it. Who wouldn't? There. You've created something. Some people will make circles that are closer to a perfect circle. Other people will have circles that look more like frown faces and maybe some people find it pleasing to look at the frown faces. Maybe some people like looking at the more precise circles.

That's the extent of it. That's "art" if you want to call it that.

Slap something down and then read this.

Songwriting: Writer's Block

Brandon