I'm looking for tips for a beginning songwriter. What are the things that work for you creatively? What do you do to spur the creative juices? Do you set aside specific times to write? How about functionally (i.e., manually and electronically recording your work)? How do you document what you create if you don't write or read music?

I've tried keeping a notebook handy for jotting down lyric and song ideas, but it usually falls by the wayside fairly quickly. Anyway, I'm just looking for some ideas on what might work. The first thing I'm going to try to do is start focusing more on the craft and a little less on the tools.

Well, I write songs, but mostly 3 chord, pop type stuff. I don't read or write music notation, but it's easy to jot down a few words and chords. Then I record the parts to remember the musical elements or melodies.

I usually come up with a musical passage and then build the song from there with words coming last.

Here's a few samples of my stuff:

http://www.rockerbob.com/Keithmp3.html

What do you record with, Rockerbob? I'm leaning minidisk right now. It seems like it would be highly portable and I've heard about people getting good results with them and a stereo mic. I don't really need multitrack right now. I just need a reliable electronic scratchpad.

These days, and for a few years, I've been recording to the HD of a Macintosh computer. Most recently using Digital Performer 3. This is way overkill for just a songwriting scratchpad, but I have it all setup and ready to go in my office/music room. I have, in the past, used a variety of recorders but I'm really hooked on the flexability of computer based recording.

I'm set up to record to my computer using Guitar Tracks, but it's not really convenient for me to leave the mixer and mics setup full time with a 2 year old kid running wild in the house! I think I'm going to look into mini disc more as a potential digital scratchpad. Thanks for the input Rockerbob.

Allen,

Creatively, reading poetry, shakespeare especially, gets the old noodle working for me. Also buy a book of proverbs and sayings. great colloquial phrases in there to get you going.
In my book you can't beat great songcraft - which is SO much more than "it's 5 o'clock somewhere" and "she thinks my tractor's sexy". Glam-nashville is KILLING country and "americana". Rascall-Flatts? can you say "pre-packed-media-created-sensation"? they might as well be Boyz II Men, O Town, Backstreet Boyz.
I stay with the home crowd - Guy Clark, Townes, Lyle, Robert earl keen and other favorites include: XTC, John Prine, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and Tom Waits.

Tools:
I use several things to record. I mostly use my PC. Gigastudio, Sonar, Aardvark 24/96 box, through a MAckie board and a simple Rode NT1 mic.

Rockerbob,

Just listened to your tunes - nice stuff! I especially liked "Am Latin". Man, you get some great lead sounds out of that Collings! Very cool.

David

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Originally posted by dberch:
Rockerbob,

Just listened to your tunes - nice stuff! I especially liked "Am Latin". Man, you get some great lead sounds out of that Collings! Very cool.

David

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Thanks much! I do love the Collings!

The process is, more or less, that there is no process. At least for me. Sometimes an idea starts as a lyric, or maybe a melody line, or maybe a group of chords. Then it's a matter of trying to figure out what that idea is trying to be, then fill in the blanks as support for the main theme. I get the best results when it starts with lyrics. That's the most human element and the rest is support for the message in the lyrics. But at the same time, music can be lyrical and contain its own form and message. It's how some people are able to tell a story with only an instrumental track. Not everyone does this well, but some are very good at it and they do so by creating lyrical melodies with supportive accompaniment.

I guess there could be a specific, consistant method for creating tunes, but inspiration tends to come in unpredictable ways so it becomes your job to navigate the rest of the song to help support that inspiration. The songs without soul and without life are the ones that were forced to become what they are just to get them finished. You've heard hundreds if not thousands of these, but probably only once. Your favorite songs were likely created by someone who has a very good understanding of the contribution of each element of songwriting, arrangement, and production and knows how to use each to tell the story.

When you get an idea, record it or it will get away from you. I have a simple recorder in my phone that sounds terrible, but it's good enough to capture the idea and it's always in my pocket. It's as good as it needs to be. Some songwriters have more elaborate systems for capturing ideas, but most, and even the greatest songwriters - some of which aren't able to read or write music - will sing their ideas into a pocket recorder.

As far as summoning the artist inside you -- that's not easy to advise. There are a lot of good books for songwriting. I'd do a search at Amazon.com for the most popular. Otherwise, what works best for me is to try to clear my head and let the music start to formulate itself in my mind. I often have to write for other people which means I have to steer the song into a certain direction, and that isn't always easy. That's the "forcing" that makes songwriting difficult. Eventually you'll start to hear the song take shape in your head. Much of the time it's not great, but there are times when you get really excited about something you hear and that's when you need to get the idea into a recorder. Then play that back and try to hear other parts of the song as the tape plays. It works.

One other book you may want to get is called "The Artist's Way". It's not specifically for songwriting, but for helping your creativity come to the surface, no matter what you're trying to create. A great book.

Most importantly, have fun. I think attitude is half the battle. Although, if you're in a Goth band, a "fun" attitude may not get you the best results.